Is there a backlash brewing against Glenn Beck by other conservatives? Steve Benen documents the details:
On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blasted Beck, and argued that the Fox News personality may be fomenting violence. “You cannot preach hatred,” Scarborough said. “You cannot say the president is racist. You cannot say things that have very deadly consequences.” He added, in an apparent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing, “I was in Congress in 1995. I know where this can end.” Scarborough also called on Republican leaders to “call out” Becks’ “hatred.”
Right-wing radio host Mark Levin called Beck “pathetic.” Rush Limbaugh referred to Beck’s role in promoting conservative protests as “cheap and disingenuous.” Peter Wehner said Beck’s “interest in conspiracy theories is disquieting” and his daily attacks are “not good for the country.” Wehner called Beck a “roiling mix of fear, resentment, and anger.” Conservative columnists Kathleen Parker and David Brooks told Chris Matthews that Beck is “baiting” and “empowering” racists.
Today, Levin said of Beck:
“If you’re not going to be politically sensible and have a strategy and have an end-game, you’ll keep winding up on weekly magazines, you’ll keep making a lot of money, but in the end you won’t make a difference.”
Limbaugh is calling Beck disingenuous? LOL! I think the criticism is probably of mixture of genuine concern to professional jealousy. For about a month I’ve been wondering if we could still call Rush Limbaugh the leader of the Republican party, even rhetorically. For the last couple of months it has seemed like Beck has been dominating the discourse on the right and had started creeping into the mainstream.
Perhaps it’s stuff like this that has gotten the Republicans concerned: