Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Neurasthenic geek decides Glenn Beck is 'harmful to the conservative movement'

Clearly frustrated because Moe Lane is still laughing at that dull-as-dishwater "Path to Republican Renewal" article he co-authored with Michael Gerson, Peter Wehner scapegoats Glenn Beck:
[T]he role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now-and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn't the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism.
I suppose the "face" and "disposition" Wehner wants is somebody more like him. You know, the "Mama Wouldn't Let Me Play Football" type who resents real ability and real success, because he's never had any.

If you want to know what's wrong with the conservative movement, take a look at Peter Wehner's biography:
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Wehner was executive director for policy for Empower America, a conservative public-policy organization. Mr. Wehner also served as a special assistant to the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and, before that, as a speech writer for then-Secretary of Education Bill Bennett.
In other words, the David Kuo type. They spend years as second-teamers in the GOP policy hive, writing other people's speeches, going from job to job, hired on the basis of being a Republican with good recommendations. Sooner or later, they become envious of people who are actually out there doing something. It is this envy that informs their elitist disdain of the conservative grassroots and of anyone who is genuinely popular with the grassroots, like Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh.

Lords of all they survey -- so long as what they survey is a Beltway think-tank policy shop -- the ambitious policy geeks look at somebody like Glenn Beck and say, "Hey, why is this bozo on TV? He's never attended any Heritage briefings and I never see him at the Wednesday morning meetings at Grover's!"

The GOP establishment in Washington has a surfeit of such parasitical careerists, who think that the Republican Party is about them, and not about all those millions of grassroots people who are, in fact, the conservative movement.

Wehner's attack on Beck is framed as if the problem is political or ideological, but in fact the problem is Wehner's own envy and ambition, which poisons his soul. And we know where that kind of attitude leads.

"Herewith, a brief primer," indeed!

Update: (Smitty)
SI VIS PACEM: "Glenn Beck and the Frog Pot"

18 comments:

  1. Great post Stacy!
    Wehner is the same douche that commented in the NY Times that if Sarah is face of GOP, the GOP will be a minority party for years to come: http://is.gd/3x8sc
    He knows how the GOP can continue being losers for years to come.

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  2. Glenn Beck is batshit crazy, but that doesn't mean he isn't right.

    Many crazy people exhibit traits that we all do, they just go off on a tangent. Could Glenn be somewhat manic or bi-polar? I have listened to him for years. That may be the case. I love the man.

    If we want to look at other crazies, look at Keith Olberman. That guy has some issues. And who would you rather work for? Olberman is a dick. Glenn Beck would take you into his family if you worked for him. I just know it from the years of listening.

    And what about politicians? They are all batshit crazy too. Our President has a Messiah complex. "We are the ones we have been waiting for!". At first I didn't think he could actually swallow the shit he was selling but now I tend to think he actually believes in his own healing powers. That is more alarming than anything Beck has in his arsenal.

    I am apocalytic just like Beck. Maybe I am crazy too. I subscribe to the old maxim "Things that can't go on forever, don't."

    I think the whole system is going to break down because government is too big. My biggest fear is bigger and bigger government. I think big government creates a crisis, and then they try to solve it by getting even bigger. I can't see that ending well.

    Long live King Glenn! I love the man. And I think he is crazy. And so is every member of Congress if they actually think we can sustain this level of debt. At some point we are going to hit the wall. I guess we will find out then who is really crazy.

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  3. You know, this shtick was a lot more tolerable when you attacked young conservative punks rather than serious conservative thinkers who fought tooth and nail to win in Iraq.

    Why don't you attack Mark Levin?
    See HotAir

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  4. Sadly, this guy sounds like just the kind of guy the Republicans have groomed for big things lately. He sounds like the kind of guy who can "reach across the aisle", so Democrats can smack his hand and call him a racist anyway. The disposition of modern conservatism is that conservatives are tired of Republicans who compromise on values to win political favor. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin aren't afraid to offend Democrats. Which is why the Republicans will probably nominate Peter Wehner to run for President

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  5. And Glenn has emphasized that he is NOT A REPUBLICAN. I kinda get that now, finally.

    He is more and more libertarian and states that he is an independent. So Squish Wehner can relax.

    MR

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  6. Wehner reminds me of that third-string GWB "speechwriter" named Latimer who just came out with damning details about comments GWB made when Latimer was in earshot.

    Back in the day, I was on the national staff of a Repub POTUS candidate & there were dozens of sillyboys like Wehner & that GWB WH spokesboy whose name & face are forgettable, but who does resemble Gibbs.

    Lots of guys who are Repubs, but not lawyers or business types who met a payroll. Just straphangers and nerdy slackers looking for their main chance. Jeff Beck is a great spokesperson for conservatives because, like Rush, he is straight to the point and not a salesman for his own shirts, books, paraphrenalia, like you know who.

    And because, as Oscar Wilde said of bad poets, he's sincere. You may dislike him for style points, but he's not impolite, boorish, and apodictic like you know who.

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  7. Hey, it isn’t just Mad Chuck, it is increasingly a large portion of the Neocon clique as we see in their attack on Glenn Beck. First it was David Frum, then Pete Wehner at Commentary Inc., and now Allapundit and Levin. Beck it seems is too conservative for the taste of our Neocon elites. Beck says, if you are gonna fight a war, fight it to win or get out. We’ve heard that before, not only from Doug MacArthur, but also from Reagan’s defense department, which laid out the tests for US military involvement, including the use of overwhelming force instead of fighting unending (i.e., “no win”) wars like Iraq, Afghanistan (and Korea and Vietnam).

    It is of course dishonest for Neocons like Pete Wehner and Commentary Inc., to invoke Reagan, considering how opposed Norman Pod was to Reagan’s second term foreign policy (and even his first term policy, e.g., withdrawal from Lebanon).

    Allahpundit attacks the alleged Perot and Ron Paul lite aspects to Beck, and throws around the term “cultists” but as a die hard Neocon, who supported the export of democracy to Iraq (what a joke that was/is) any real conservative shouldn’t drink the Neocon kool-aid.

    It looks like many Neocons are going to do their own version of Mad Chuck, attacking conservatives while they double down on their own failed non-conservative ideology.

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  8. Ah. So the guy is a Drug Warrior. No wonder he hates Beck. Beck say legalize everything.

    I have a former police officer who did an informal survey in Washington at the 9/12 Tea Party of attitudes towards the drug war. Tea Parties And The Drug War. The short version? The Tea Party folks mostly don't like the Drug War.

    More confirmation that Wehner is a loser.

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  9. Wehner, Charles Johnson and Moe Lane are all wackos in my opinion. But I love Beck

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  10. Jeff Beck is a great spokesperson for conservatives because....

    He plays great guitar.

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  11. You neglected to mention that Wehner begins his critique with a positive assessment of Time magazine. Yep, that's a conservative we can all get behind.

    On the train platform.


    ThomasD

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  12. Well, Pete Wehner does have Dan Riehl in his corner. That's something.

    http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2009/09/simple-beck-is-not-a-conservative.html

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  13. "Wehner is the same douche that commented in the NY Times that if Sarah is face of GOP, the GOP will be a minority party for years to come"

    douche, n. 1. relator of obvious truths to those discomfited by same

    Hmmph. Hadn't ever heard it used that way before.

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  14. You'd think that these elitist eggheads would get their facts straight - Beck has said, numerous times, that he is a libertarian. And David Frum, Wehner, etc, want Republicans to run moderates. Like McCain. We saw how well that worked.

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  15. So is Mark Levin a "neocon elitist" now, too? Man, it would be easier to list who ISN'T one at this point.

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  16. Wehner's problem is that beck himself doesn't describe himself as a conservative, so it's a pretty silly argument to be making.

    Levin's critique of Beck was much different. Levin criticized a specific point that Beck made, namely that we'd be worse off than McCain. It might be an arguable point, but I think Levin was right. And if we're going to call Levin a neocon, then the term truly is irrelevant.

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  17. What makes me laugh, is the uptight pundits who get nervous with a little bit of crazy -- hell, crazy times call for crazy people. Character is what made America, bigger than life characters -- not small, anal-retentive hall monitors. Like the old saying goes -- you couldn't drive a ten penny nail up their asses with a sledgehammer.

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  18. RS,

    It's just simpler to say that Peter Wehner, like Frum before him, has Flunked Flank and ran with Mucus.

    However, you sir, have not. What is it in the waters of the Potomac? For us t9o win, these people have to stop flunking flank!

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