I had stopped following the antics of Glenn Beck on a day-to-day basis, only noting those that seeped into the consciousness of the mainstream media. After all, every day it is the same: "How do I hate Obama? Let me count the ways..."
After hearing everything from "Obama wants to enslave everyone," to "Obama is the reincarnation of Hitler," (paraphrasing), Beck had lost his power to surprise me.
Any possible scenario one could fabricate I would not put past Glenn Beck. But some things he said on his radio show yesterday have demonstrated that Glenn Beck still has the power to surprise me.
Sarah Palin has been a staunch fan of Glenn Beck. She even includes him in the list of Fox "News" employees she thanks in Going Rogue, as one of those media personalities she loves who makes the "idiots heads spin."
[I have to agree with Palin on this one; Beck certainly does make the heads of the idiots who watch his show spin--at least I think it's Beck; alternatively, the spinning heads might result from demonic possession.]
Recently, the shills at Fox have been asking Sarah if she is considering having Glenn Beck as her running mate in 2012. After feigning a cute girlish laugh, she told Gretchen Carlson, "We'll see, we'll see."
What does Glenn Beck think about being on a Palin ticket? One might expect him to be flattered; after all, he's expressed so much admiration for Sarah Palin and recent outrage at Newsweek's "sexist" cover of her in pigtails and shorts (a photo Grandma Palin willingly posed for, albeit for another magazine).
It was, therefore, surprising to read this partial transcript from Beck's November 25 radio show at Think Progress (I deleted some pointless banter--of course, it's all pretty pointless):
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Chances you’ll run on a ticket with Fox’s own Glenn Beck, as was reported earlier this week?
PALIN: [giggle-hahahaha] I saw that, I saw that. I got a kick out of it, and he probably thought that was just a hoot, too, to hear such a thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Okay, stop stop stop. I don’t think things are hoots. I don’t. I don’t think it’s a hoot. I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word "hoot." (LAUGHTER)
BECK: I mean it’s a laugh, its funny, it’s ridiculous...please stop using the word hoot. Stop. I am starting to get a complex that I'm just a hoot. I mean, ridiculous, I own ridiculous.
(REPLAYS VIDEO CLIP, ending with Palin's remark)
PALIN: I saw that, I saw that. I got a kick out of it, and he probably thought that was just a hoot too to hear such a thing. Um, I don’t know. We’ll see, we’ll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Let me just put this rumor to rest...she obviously hasn't ruled it out...She clearly hasn't ruled it out, so while she's considering it, I just want to make it very--[Crosstalk]--I'm sure she finds this a hoot (imitating Palin)--I want her to know, I'm ruling it out.
A Palin-Beck ticket I'm absolutely ruling out. Beck-Palin, I'll consider, but Palin-Beck? Can you imagine? Can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She’d be yapping or something, and I’d say, "I’m sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I’m not in the kitchen."
CO-HOST: You’d you have to live up to evil conservative stereotypes, you’d have no choice but to do so.
BECK: I’d have to. Look, I talked to the woman about it, and I don't even know what she was saying--
Then, from Mediaite, we learn that Beck also said this on the subject:
BECK: First of all, let me rule that out. Uh, Palin-Beck? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
Co-Host: She's far too smart for that.
BECK: No, I was just thinking, "What, I'm gonna take backseat to a chick?" I mean, hello?
CO-HOST: You gotta be the stereotypical male here, of course it's Beck-Palin.
BECK: And while you're at it, go shoot a bear, make some stew, I'm hungry in here."
Notice how the co-host keeps trying to provide Beck with cover by suggesting Beck is merely pretending to be the stereotypical conservative man? Beck breezes right past those remarks in his effort to channel that conservative poo-bah, Rush Limbaugh. If he's ever accused of being sexist for these comments, however, he'll surely latch onto them: "I was only demonstrating what I thought liberals would think my response would be."
So, why isn't Glenn Beck flattered that this conservative heroine has suggested he might be a worthy VP choice for her 2012 run? Why does he resort to the sexist "women belong in the kitchen" garbage?
It is because Beck is a megalomaniac and Sarah Palin is out there stealing some of his limelight, getting attention wherever she goes. He does what every man obsessed with power and importance does when he feels threatened by a woman: tries to marginalize her for being a woman. Beck has done this time and time again, with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and even Anita Dunn.
Beck cannot stand the notion that a woman might have power equal to or greater than his own. In fact, get ready for Beck to start being even more outrageous on his show if the media spotlight continues to stay focused on Palin. This may even explain his recent "100-Year Plan," scheduled to be announced around the same time that someone named Palin might announce her intention to run for the presidency.
Sarah Palin recently said she may start her own party--a true conservative party somewhere right of the Republican party--if the Republican party does not straighten up (Translation: If it doesn't give her the nomination, she'll pull a Lieberman.)
How will Beck feel about that? He is, after all, determined to be the leader of this (Tea) party and lead the conservatives out of Obama's "enslavement" and into the future, just as Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. Only yesterday, he hinted that he was Martin Luther King, the guy who "turned the Government upside down."
Now, here comes Joan of Arc threatening to do it first.
A bonus Beck, just for fun:
On his radio show yesterday, Beck argued that he was not anti-government; he was only anti-corrupt government, which he said was why he was "anti-government in Iran, you're damn right I am...and I'm anti government in, in, in--with Saddam Hussein, you're damn right I am."
He could not remember which country's government Saddam Hussein had led.
It seems he has a lot in common with his new nemesis, who the other day couldn't remember which country's government Ahmadinejad led, placing him in Iraq.
A Palin-Beck or a Beck-Palin ticket will present liberals with quite a quandry. Which one is Dumb and which one is Dumber for the bumper stickers?