Lindsey Graham calls out Glenn Beck

[rich_t]

Bush forgot he was Pres in late 2006 he went into cruise - most likely to prevent more of his staff from going to jail needlessly.

McCain would have been far worse then Obama.

Bush had lost most of his clout with the party.  His endorsement of McCain was pretty much worthless IMO.

[rich_t]

Well maybe someday you'll grow up and really know what you're talkin about.

Go easy Ree.  He appears to be trying.

He will hopefully learn more about conservatism with a few more years under his belt.

[Mustang]

McCain would have been far worse then Obama.

I don't think so. McCain would have at least had a strong foreign policy.
We look weak and our positions in central Asia are weak.
And by the way, in case nobody has noticed, the Europeans are turning on Mr. Charisma dear leader.

[Ree]

Go easy Ree.  He appears to be trying.

He will hopefully learn more about conservatism with a few more years under his belt.

I wouldn't bet on it....

[rich_t]

I wouldn't bet on it....

Only time will tell.  I was moderately liberal when I was a lot younger.

I out grew it.

[ColonialMarine0431]

Where's The Fred when you need him.



I just wish he had actually run a campaign. 

[Ree]

Only time will tell.  I was moderately liberal when I was a lot younger.

I out grew it.

The GOP will not get Conservative until people quit votin  for the "lesser of 2 evils" I refuse to do that anymore...

[rich_t]

Where's The Fred when you need him.



I just wish he had actually run a campaign. 

You and me both.  I was so disappointed in his lack luster efforts.

[rich_t]

The GOP will not get Conservative until people quit votin  for the "lesser of 2 evils" I refuse to do that anymore...

I hear ya. 

Sooner or later they will stop running lib-lites and start running some real conservatives again.  Either that or they will die the death they deserve.

[RightCoast]

I don't think so. McCain would have at least had a strong foreign policy.
We look weak and our positions in central Asia are weak.
And by the way, in case nobody has noticed, the Europeans are turning on Mr. Charisma dear leader.

Define strong forgien policy as you see it under a mythical McCain administration.

[debk]

Where's The Fred when you need him.



I just wish he had actually run a campaign. 

Me too.

I was hoping for him to be the GOP candidate....

[Mustang]

If the republicans want to start winning elections again, they need to stop pandering to the damn left.

PERIOD.

When Republicans run on true conservative principles they usually win.

I agree 110%. Bi-partisanship should come when we clean the clock of the democrats to the point where they no choice but to bend to our will.
Total victory for the right, then we can talk about "bi-partisanship".

Define strong forgien policy as you see it under a mythical McCain administration.

At least we would have been bolstering troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because of Obama, troops in Afghanistan died needlessly when they could have been supported BEFORE the spring and summer offensive of the taliban.

[rich_t]

I agree 110%. Bi-partisanship should come when we clean the clock of the democrats to the point where they no choice but to bend to our will.
Total victory for the right, then we can talk about "bi-partisanship".

Far too many elected republicans no longer even know what bi-partisanship even means these days.  They've been sucking up the the left for so long that they think laying on their back and spreading their legs is being bi-partisan.

[Rebel]

I'll side with someone who still believes the Republican party is still alive, against someone who can't tell the difference between the two parties.

I guess Rush and Levin are wrong too? Or is Glenn Beck greater than Rush and Levin?
At this point, I take Glenn Beck as seriously as I do with Ron Paul.

I give a **** about the Republican party. They want my vote? It is THEY who should work for it. They should NOT expect it just because I'm a conservative.

Demint? Conservative. Graham? No f'n way.

[USA4ME]

I'm a conservative first and a Republican a very distant second.

What I gathered Beck to mean when he said that MacCain would have been worse that Dear Leader is if McCain had been prez that conservatives in the R party would have felt compelled to go along with him and compromise because he's an R.  Now with Dear Leader, we can openly oppose him on the issues.

McCain was too left-wing for my taste.  All issues being the same, we might agree 80% on the time.  But all issues are not the same, some are more important than others.  Of the 20% of which we disagree, that portion compromises about 80% of what I believe is really important.  I voted for him in 2008 mainly as a vote against Dear Leader, but if he or Graham or some other candidate I consider to be a RINO is nominated again, I just won't get excited about wanting to support them.

And it really has nothing to do with demanding party purity, it's just that I see no reason to continue to compromise my conservative values.  To me, it's like being told I've got to jump out of a plane without a parachute, and I get to choose between jumping from 10,000 feet (McCain) or 10,001 feet (Dear Leader).  Either way, things aren't looking to turn out so great.

.

[Rebel]

BTW, dipshit Obama IS better than McCain. Why? People are waking the hell up and the American people are no longer the frogs in incrementally-raised water. Thank GOD! they're waking up. It would have never happened with McCain. Maybe we NOW are in a time when we can take back our country from the Damn politicians.

[Schadenfreude]

You and me both.  I was so disappointed in his lack luster efforts.

Fred blew it. So many this last cycle put their own self-interests before their country, he is no exception. 

[Mustang]

BTW, dipshit Obama IS better than McCain. Why? People are waking the hell up and the American people are no longer the frogs in incrementally-raised water. Thank GOD! they're waking up. It would have never happened with McCain. Maybe we NOW are in a time when we can take back our country from the damn politicians.

I see your point but is it worth 4 years of Obama? God help us if its 8 years. I don't think I can handle it.

[Schadenfreude]

I'm a conservative first and a Republican a very distant second.

What I gathered Beck to mean when he said that MacCain would have been worse that Dear Leader is if McCain had been prez that conservatives in the R party would have felt compelled to go along with him and compromise because he's an R.  Now with Dear Leader, we can openly oppose him on the issues.

McCain was too left-wing for my taste.  All issues being the same, we might agree 80% on the time.  But all issues are not the same, some are more important than others.  Of the 20% of which we disagree, that portion compromises about 80% of what I believe is really important.  I voted for him in 2008 mainly as a vote against Dear Leader, but if he or Graham or some other candidate I consider to be a RINO is nominated again, I just won't get excited about wanting to support them.

And it really has nothing to do with demanding party purity, it's just that I see no reason to continue to compromise my conservative values.  To me, it's like being told I've got to jump out of a plane without a parachute, and I get to choose between jumping from 10,000 feet (McCain) or 10,001 feet (Dear Leader).  Either way, things aren't looking to turn out so great.

.

Right, I think a McCain win would have been interpreted as a mandate for a centrist GOP. We would have been forced to have a third party for conservatives. This way, the conservatives have a chance of taking back the GOP and let the Dem-Lites create their own stupid little party.

[rich_t]

I see your point but is it worth 4 years of Obama? God help us if its 8 years. I don't think I can handle it.

Is it worth 4 years of Obama if it wakes up the country concerning creeping incremental socialism?

Hell yes it is.

Obama is going full steam ahead and folks are now, after far too many years of apathetic complacency, starting to pay attention.

[rich_t]

Fred blew it. So many this last cycle put their own self-interests before their country, he is no exception. 

Sad but true, my dear Schade.

[BEG]

BTW, dipshit Obama IS better than McCain. Why? People are waking the hell up and the American people are no longer the frogs in incrementally-raised water. Thank GOD! they're waking up. It would have never happened with McCain. Maybe we NOW are in a time when we can take back our country from the Damn politicians.

That is exactly what Beck meant when he said it.  I agree with who ever said that Beck is a Conservative who leans Libertarian who I heard him say that he is becoming more Libertarian every day.

'Republicans' coming after Glenn

   Audio Available:             
October 2, 2009 - 12:51 ET

 

GLENN: There's several things that we want to talk to you about, but I want to start here. I want to start with the reason why the Republican Party has 28% approval rating. There is this new approach. David Brooks in the New York Times has an article called The Wizard of Beck. It's not about me. In fact, I'm not even mentioned in it until, like, 3/4 of the way down. Let's take a trip back into history. Not ancient history. Recent history. It's the winter 2007. Primaries are approaching. The talk jocks like Limbaugh, Beck, Sean Hannity, the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson. I don't remember being over the moon about Fred Thompson.

STU: You don't remember the just hours and hours we dedicated to the possibility and happiness of Fred Thompson.

GLENN: I said I like him, he is the kind of guy, he seems to have common sense, but he didn't have any fire in the belly at all. They were weak in the knees at the thought of Mitt Romney. Meanwhile they were hurling torrents of abuse at the unreliable deviationists John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Yep, both progressives. Yet somehow despite the fervor of the great microphone giants, Thompson campaign flops like a fish. Despite a schoolgirl delight from the radio studios, the Romney campaign underperforms. Meanwhile Huckabee surges, Limbaugh attacks him, but social conservatives flock. I'm sorry, it's I'm tired. Along comes New Hampshire and McCain wins. Republican voters have not heeded their masters in the media. As I read this, I just want you to keep in mind one thing for me. Remember the talk radio industry is so powerful that the government must silence us. We are whipping people up into a frenzy and you will kill people because we tell you to. Remember that. You will kill people because we tell you to. South Carolina looms as a crucial point of the race. The contest is effectively between Romney and McCain. The talk jocks now are spittle flecked furor, day after day whole programs dedicated to hurling abuse to McCain and everybody ever associated with him. The jocks are threatening to unleash their angry millions.

I think if John McCain I'm not going to go there 6789 yet the imaginary armies do not materialize. McCain wins the South Carolina primary and goes on to win the nomination. The talk jocks can't even deliver the conservative voters who show up at the Republican primaries. They can't even deliver South Carolina.

So what is the theme of our history lesson? This is again the New York Times. It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness. Remember, if we tell you don't just vote for somebody. Kill somebody. We are so powerful that we just skip over the part where you'll go and vote for somebody we tell you to, that you'll go right to kill someone we tell you to and not even tell you, just kind of hint apparently at it without even hinting.

STU: Very subtly.

GLENN: So subtly.

STU: And subconsciously that we don't it's so subtle we don't say it.

GLENN: It's a story that's as old as the Wizard of Oz. The grand illusions and small men behind the curtain. But, of course, we shouldn't be surprised by this story. Over the past few years the talk jocks have demonstrated their real world weakness time and again. Back in 2006 they threatened to build a new majority of antiimmigration fervor.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What is the approval rating of the Republican Party?

STU: Oh, God, it's got to be north of 25% at this point. What was that example you just stated there in 2006?

GLENN: I don't remember, something antiimmigration.

STU: So you're saying that because I remember when they passed that huge immigration reform bill, remember that when that went through the house and the Senate and was signed by the president?

GLENN: No.

STU: No, no. Oh, wait a minute.

GLENN: In 2008 after McCain had won the nomination, Limbaugh turned his attention to the Democratic race. He commanded his followers commanded his followers to vote in the Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton because we need Barack Obama bloodied up politically. Todd Donovan of western Washington University looked at the data from 38 states and could find no strong evidence that significant numbers of people actually did what Limbaugh commanded. Remember, kill those we don't talk about. Rush blared the trumpets but few dittoheads advanced. Over the years I have asked many politicians what happens when Limbaugh and his colleagues attack. The story's always the same. Hundreds of calls come in. The receptionists are miserable but the numbers back home do not move. There is no effect on the favorability rating or the reelection prospects. The media world, he is a giant. But in the real world he is not. But this is not merely a story of weakness. It is a story of resilience. For no matter how long or how often their hollowness is exposed, the jocks still reweave the myth of their own power.

I just, I just want to point out here I believe this is the New York Times pointing out that they think someone is too self important.

STU: Who was doing that?

GLENN: That would be the New York Times.

STU: Hmmm. Hmmm.

GLENN: But they still ride the airwaves claiming to speak for millions. They confuse listeners with voters, and they are aided in this endeavor by their enablers. They are enabled by cynical Democrats.

Remember this. They are enabled by cynical Democrats, who love to claim that Rush Limbaugh controls the G.O.P. They are enabled by lazy pundits who find it easy to argue with showmen rather than people whose opinions are based on knowledge. So now Rush Limbaugh doesn't have opinions based in knowledge.

STU: Sounds like David Brooks is having a tough time booking TV gigs.

GLENN: They are enabled by the slightly educated snobs who believe that Glenn Beck really is the voice of middle America. So if you are if you are Rush Limbaugh, you have who just listen to your opinions even though your opinions are not based in knowledge. And if you are enabling me, otherwise known as listening to me, you are only a slightly educated snob that thinks that my voice is the voice of middle America.

STU: And I love how you're claiming to speak for millions. I didn't check the New York Times best seller list but I'm sure, pretty sure David Brooks isn't at the top of two of the categories. I'm mildly sure that David Brooks isn't there. But he's speaking for he's the one with the knowledge.

GLENN: I'm not speaking for millions.

STU: No, you are speaking for you.

GLENN: Yeah, anytime everybody who's ever gone to any of my shows or anything else, people will say, you know, Glenn, thanks for your voice, thanks for speaking out for us. I'm not speaking out for you. I am speaking out as a dad. I am speaking for me, period.

Now, you can go ahead and make that into something selfish. See, he is selfish. No, that's our job. We all speak for ourselves. That is our job as citizens of this republic. We speak out for ourselves.

STU: And that's what the tea parties were.

GLENN: Man.

STU: Tens and tens and thousands of people all around the country in different spots speaking out for themselves, not following you like a zombie, speaking for themselves and their families.

GLENN: So the myth returns. Just months after the election and humiliation, everyone is convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the satis we have no power! We have no power, none! I could be on the air, and believe me, I was warning people. I met one person last night who said, Glenn, thank you for saving my 401(k). I listened to you a year and a half ago; thank you for saving my 401(k). One.

STU: I work for you and my 401(k) is destroyed.

GLENN: Yes. I couldn't change anybody's mind. Nobody would do it. If people don't if they're not already feeling it in their own selves, I can say anything and they are not going to do it. If I happen to say things that ring true to them, then it moves. Trust me, as a guy who nobody everybody was saying I was crazy. I have absolutely no power. If the Van Jones thing didn't make sense to you, you wouldn't have risen up. You wouldn't have done anything. But I throw out this crazy theory. Remember, that was the first thing: Oh, this is a crazy theory. Oh, now he's going off and hunting for remember how crazy it was at first? But then it started to take traction. Why? Because it's crazy? Or because you knew it to be true? None of the other answers made any sense. And their silence spoke volumes. So now what happened? Van Jones is out. ACORN is under investigation. The NEA still hasn't been cleaned up, but I believe they fired two people, haven't they? But the trail leads back to Valerie Jarrett. But the problem is, the problem is Americans have a long way to go. I spend hours and hours and hours on this stuff. I still don't understand you've got a life. How long's it going to take before the average American really understands what's going on, especially with clowns like David Brooks who is just trying to save the party? Forget the party, David. Read some George Washington. I'm sorry. Is that a slightly educated snobbish thing to say? Or is that just something that somebody says when they base everything on anything but knowledge? The parties are what's destroying us. And yet, this, it almost seems coordinated. It almost seems coordinated.

Listen to this. These people pay more attention to Rush Limbaugh's imaginary millions than to the real voters down on the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it is more interested in pleasing Rush's ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because no one has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a raid no entertainer's niche building strategy.

STU: Didn't you just say that John McCain won the nomination? Wasn't that part of your same column here, David, where you just discussed how the moderate guy, the wishy washy guy John McCain was the nominee just lost? Wasn't that you in the same column pointing that out?

GLENN: These guys are so intellectually Swiss cheese that it is unbelievable that they have held a job for this long.

STU: That is all

GLENN: This is the capitalist system at work. These guys held a job because they had a good idea back, I don't know when, turn of the century, last century, and they rode on that good idea for a very long time and now it doesn't work anymore. And everybody's looking at you like, what, are you joking? What, are you this stupid? And yet Lindsey Graham comes out and Lindsey Graham gives a talk yesterday to, I guess this is a bunch of Republicans he's speaking to? There are a lot of things I'll wear as a badge of honor. Lindsey Graham hating my guts is probably the highest honor I've ever received. Judge me by my friends and judge me by my enemies. Thank you, Lindsey Graham.

Listen quickly what Lindsey Graham said. And tie it to the same kind of thinking here as the New York Times and David Brooks.


Related Video: Sen. Graham comments

GRAHAM: Think of Glenn Beck. Only in America can you make that much money crying.

STU: (Laughing). Oh, Lindsey.

GRAHAM: I mean, you know what I think of Rush Limbaugh? Well, I think he makes hundreds of millions of dollars being able to talk on the radio for three hours a day. Well, it is what it is, but here's what I worry about. How many people in my business are going to be controlled by what's said on the radio or in TV commercials?

GLENN: Gee, this sounds like David Brooks.

GRAHAM: Base politics is what we're talking about. Getting out of your comfort zone and modern American politics comes at a great risk because there are so many people always trying to reel you in. Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party as far as I can tell.

GLENN: Thank you.

GRAHAM: He's aligned with cynicism.

GLENN: Excuse me?

STU: What word was that?

GRAHAM: And there's always been a word for cynicism. We became a great nation not because we're a nation of cynics. We game a great nation because we're a nation of believers that on the other side of the mountain is worth going to look at.

GLENN: Yes.

GRAY: We've become a

STU: It's amazing. Isn't this the guy, how much time how many times have you cried on the air in the last year? Two?

GLENN: I don't know. Doesn't matter. Listen to me. He says that I'm a cynic. I'm an optimist. I just happen to believe in the people. I happen to believe I'm not an optimist because of our compromise. Lindsey Graham is a guy who compromises on every single value we have. Every single, every single principle we've ever had, he'll compromise away. Well, you know what that gets you? That doesn't get you across the mountain. That gets you killed. A giant avalanche comes because you're like, what, what? I just compromised. What? We can cross the mountains in January. Sure, we started, we wanted to do knit August, but I compromised. That's when everything comes crashing down on your head. Thank you, Lindsey Graham. Thank you. And David Brooks, you guys are going to lead us to a very bright future of bankruptcy.

[Ree]

Is it worth 4 years of Obama if it wakes up the country concerning creeping incremental socialism?

Hell yes it is.

Obama is going full steam ahead and folks are now, after far too many years of apathetic complacency, starting to pay attention.

[bkg]

Beck is spot on, IMHO. Republicans are no longer conservative. 40% increase in gov't growth under Bush? Spending like drunken sailors? Proponents of global warming, TARP, many supporting socialized healthcare, Patriot Act?

The Republicans are no longer a conservative party. Holding allegience to a party rather than ideals is a very dangerous position to be in, and one of the reasons we are exactly where we are.

[rich_t]

Beck is spot on, IMHO. Republicans are no longer conservative. 40% increase in gov't growth under Bush? Spending like drunken sailors? Proponents of global warming, TARP, many supporting socialized healthcare, Patriot Act?

The Republicans are no longer a conservative party. Holding allegience to a party rather than ideals is a very dangerous position to be in, and one of the reasons we are exactly where we are.

Well said and welcome aboard.