The Washington Monthly
Beck had a fairly predictable tantrum -- he's apparently upset about France, bowing, Guantanamo, Cuba, etc. -- before concluding that we might "lose the Republic." To drive his point home, Beck took a gasoline container, and pretended to pour gas over Fox News' Bill Schulz.
[snip]
But that's not really the interesting part. Alex Koppelman added, "Unfortunately, not captured in the video is what happened next, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry came on and Beck asked, 'Governor, you're regretting being on this program at this point, are you not, sir?' Perry responded, 'Not at all, Glenn Beck. I'm proud to be with you.'"
And that, in a nutshell, helps explain what's gone terribly wrong with conservative Republicans of late. Beck appears to be in desperate need of medication, and the chief executive of one of the nation's largest states is "proud" to appear on the show, just moments after Beck pretended to set a colleague on fire.
Credible, serious public officials would ordinarily want to avoid making eye contact with a deranged figure, but Gov. Perry was delighted to chat with the Fox News lunatic. Maybe it's because Perry actually finds Beck's madness compelling; maybe it's because Perry has a big Republican primary coming up and wants to curry favor with Beck's followers.
Either way, it's a problem for the party and the conservative movement....
If the GOP wants to pick itself up off the mat, this would be a good place to start.
Does Perry think this is what it will take to defeat Kay Bailey in the primaries? Does he think he can then run away form this record in the general election? He is counting on running unopposed or against a token Democratic candidate? Who knows what Good Hair has in mind. All I know tonight is that he is a bigger embarrassment than usual for Texas.
