GOP Surrenders to Beck’s Mob Rule

[babylonsister]

http://www.newmajority.com/gop-surrenders-to-becks-mob-rule

GOP Surrenders to Beck’s Mob Rule
September 11th, 2009 at 11:59 am
David Frum


When Glenn Beck made his Fox debut, some shrewd conservatives responded with a wink. Maybe the show was paranoid and hysterical. Maybe Beck was none too scrupulous about facts and truth. But why be squeamish? The other side did as bad, or nearly. And see how usefully he mobilized the base!

Those shrewd conservatives assumed Beck was working for them. Big mistake. Beck is working for himself – and he chooses his targets according to his own scheme of priorities.

snip//

Glenn Beck is not the first to make a pleasant living for himself by reckless defamation. We have seen his kind before in American journalism and American politics, and the good news is that their careers never last long. But the bad news is that while their careers do last, such people do terrible damage.

Republican senators know the truth about Cass Sunstein – that’s why only 33 Republican senators voted “no” on the cloture vote on his nomination, the vote that mattered. Yet unfortunately they also fear the wild disinformation broadcast by Fox News and credulously believed by millions of Fox viewers. So the final vote on the nomination of this best friend conservatives are likely ever to have inside the administration was 57-40, with only a handful of Republicans voting in favor.

The Senate’s most left-wing member, Bernie Sanders, intelligently voted “nay.” There’s one person at least who did not allow himself to be hustled out of his principles by a television loudmouth.

With only two exceptions, however, all the Senate’s Democrats present voted aye. That’s perhaps the final irony of this strange episode: I wonder whether so many liberals would have voted in favor of Sunstein if Beck had not denounced him.

The ultimate happy ending of the story should not however close the page on this appalling episode of broadcast recklessness and political cowardice. We conservatives are submitting our movement to some of the most unscrupulous people in American life. This submission disgraces conservatism, discredits Republicans, and damages the country. It’s beyond time for conservatives who know better to join us at NewMajority in emancipating ourselves from leadership by the most stupid, the most cynical, and the most truthless.

[izquierdista]

1. How can one "disgrace" conservatism?

They have only two principles, win at all costs, deny everything if you are caught, and cut taxes -- three principles.

[babylonsister]

2. Well, the conservative who wrote this feels it's disgraceful. Hard

for me to believe Frum is the voice of sanity, but there it is.

[Doctor_J]

3. He's too optimistic

We have seen his kind before in American journalism and American politics, and the good news is that their careers never last long.

Really? Liddy, Limpballs, Hannity, Weiner, and a few dozen more have been around for years, speaking the hate. And Frum shouldn't be bitching - the hate speech is working