WASHINGTON — Actor Stephen Baldwin, a.k.a. the conservative Baldwin brother, just dropped by a fund-raiser/meet-and-greet for South Florida Republican congressional hopeful Allen West at the Conservative Political Action Conference here.

West’s improved money-raising has drawn the notice of the national GOP as he tries to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein. West should raise his profile even more on Saturday afternoon, when he has a featured speaking slot shortly before conservative multi-media star Glenn Beck speaks.

This morning, West got several standing ovations when he was part of a panel discussion called “Jihad: The Political Third Rail,” in which he said America needs to confront the ideology behind Islamic terrorism.

“There’s no such thing as a war on terror….A nation goes to war against an ideology, and that’s what we’ve been talking about today.

“We’ve been talking about the fact that here is something that is a totalitarian, theocratic, political ideology and it is called Islam. This is not about Muslims. It is just the same as in Nazi Germany. Not every German was a Nazi. It’s just the same as when I was in Iraq in 2003. Not every Iraqi was a member of the Baath Party,” said West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel.