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DYSFUNCTIONAL
GOVERNMENT 2009
Sept. 22,
2009: This web page has been replaced by
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DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT 2 web page.
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20, 2009 Op-Ed Columnist Even Glenn Beck Is Right Twice a Day
New York Times ...Many of those Americans may hate Obama, but they don’t love the Republican establishment
either. Michael Steele, who was declared persona non grata at one of the mad “tea parties” in April, was
not invited to that right-wing 9/12 March on Time put Beck on its cover this week.
Man of the Year may not be far behind. Beck is not, as many liberals assume,
merely the latest incarnation of Rush Limbaugh. He is something different.
That’s why he is gaining on his antecedents — and gaining traction in the
country’s angrier precincts. Though Beck’s daily Fox News show is in
the sleepy slot of 5 p.m., his ratings are increasingly neck and neck with
the prime-time tag team of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity,
and he has beaten
them
in the prized 25-to-54 demographic. It’s not just because he is younger (45).
This self-described “rodeo clown,” who
wells up with tears for dramatic effect, doesn’t come across as cranky or
pompous, like Limbaugh and O’Reilly. A fervent
Mormon convert and proselytizer, he is untainted by association with the
old Dobson-Robertson-Reed religious right. Unlike Limbaugh, he bonds with his
fallible listeners by openly and repeatedly owning up to his own mistakes,
including his history of drug and alcohol abuse. Unlike Hannity,
he is not a Republican apparatchik. Beck has notoriously defamed
Obama as a “racist,” but the race card is just
one in his deck. His ideology, if it can be called that, mixes idolatrous Ayn Rand libertarianism with bumper-sticker slogans
about “freedom,” self-help homilies and lunatic conspiracy theories. (He fanned Internet rumors
that FEMA was establishing concentration camps before tardily beating a
retreat.) It’s the same crazy-quilt cosmology that could be found in last
weekend’s http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
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Thomas’ column in the Orlando Sentinel
today illustrates that, when it comes to healthcare reform,
Suzanne Kosmas has no position and no knowledge. She’s just there, and no one really knows why.
By contrast, Alan Grayson is a loud partisan ideologue who fervently champions a government healthcare plan that survey after survey has demonstrated is unpopular with the kinds of folks he represents – middle-class families and seniors.
From Thomas’ column:
ON REP. KOSMAS: “Last month I watched U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas duck and dodge her way through an hour discussion of health care with our editorial board, woefully uninformed, deathly afraid of taking a position…”
ON REP. GRAYSON: “…now comes Rep. Alan Grayson…embracing the public option…and dismissing Republicans as goofy obstructionists not to be taken seriously…The major weakness I see in Grayson's presentation is cost…I don't think you could tax Bill Gates and Warren Buffett enough to pay for this plan…”
------ Andy Seré Regional Press Secretary National Republican Congressional Committee
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