Glenn Beck just listened to his own crazy rantings.
This is just too delicious. The
GOP civil war over the shutdown fiasco is still ramping up. Right after the government opened back up, it felt like it was only the "establishment" Republicans that were declaring war on the TEA party and those other young rapscallions like Ted Cruz(Note: in GOP terms, he is pretty young).
The Tea Party has now fired back with their biggest Cannon: Glenn Beck. And he has taken aim at the most established of all established Republicans: Grover Norquist.
In case you don't immediately recognize the name, his most infamous quote is "Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub". Also Here's a little Wikipedia link about just how Republican and just how establishment he is.
Grover Norquist, who often keeps a low profile, spoke to the Washington Post about how Ted Cruz and the Tea Party messed everything up. Here's some choice quotes:
Ted Cruz, from left field, said we have to defund Obamacare permanently in this CR. If they offered the Keystone pipeline and the privatization of Fannie and Freddie you couldn’t take that. We only want this, and we only want it on Tuesday -- Wednesday is no good. The debt ceiling is no good. So that got locked in as a principle. And people went out on talk radio and said if you’re not for this you’re a coward, you’re a RINO.
[snip]
Unlike some other institutions in this town, I work to give some reasonable advice to members of Congress and shape public opinion.
Glenn Beck has taken issue with this. He responded on "TheBlaze (not-on-tv) TV".
Beck began by playing recent clips of Norquist calling out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his efforts to derail Obamacare, noting that while he used to joke about the left’s portrayal of Norquist as a “big power player,” he’s since revised his dismissive opinion in light of the warnings that you “don’t ever take this guy on unless you’re prepared.”
The shudder you felt down your spine was realizing you and Glenn Beck might agree on something.
So, how does Glenn Beck attack Grover Norquist? Does he criticize Norquist's tactics? Does he question his assessment? Does he question even some of his free-market, anti-tax ideology? Hell No! Glenn Beck goes full on crazy, check this out from his own website summarizing his show:
Beck’s show Monday primarily concentrated on Norquist’s alleged connections to Islamists. He invited Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, and Daniel Greenfield of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, to weigh in.
“[Norquist] is the guy responsible for a lot of the Muslim Brotherhood stuff that goes on in the White House, isn’t he?” Beck asked the two.
I'm going to go grab a drink while you try to process that...
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[insert generic elevator music]
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Ready to keep reading? Probably not, but I'll continue.
His "experts" kept the crazy going:
When asked why he would have such connections, Greenfield weighed in: “Well the Muslim Brotherhood, like the communists and the Nazis before them, are experts at setting up front groups with innocuous names and finding people who would be useful to them. Norquist was useful to them, and in some ways, they were useful to him.”
Setting up front groups with innocuous sounding names? Isn't that what conservatives have been doing since the 70s? "Americans for tax reform", "Christian Coalition", "Americans for Prosperity", etc...
Glenn Concludes his craziness thusly:
Beck concluded by saying this is a “complex issue,” but that it is time that somebody takes on the “establishment Republicans” and tell you “exactly who’s who.”
Oh Glenn, please, after having your experts compare your political foes to Nazis, tell me who it is that I need to hate!
I know the link is to "The Blaze!"(imagine that being said in a deep voice), but if you want to witness crazy without any self-awareness you should read the whole thing. I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I love the idea of a lot of faux "free market" conservatives are going to war with the neo-John Birch Society crowd.
