Glenn Beck To Get Key To City; Protesters Say "Change The Locks!"

The mayor of tinfoil-hat icon Glenn Beck's home town says he wants to give the Fox News carnival attraction the key to the city.

A number of anti-Beck protestors outside city hall in Mount Vernon, Wash., this week have been carrying signs reading "Change the Locks!"

In what may be one of the most politically tone-deaf moves this year, Bud Norris, mayor of the small farming community just north of Seattle, says he'll hand over the hardware to Beck on Sept. 26. Members of the local Young Democrats will be there to protest and welcome the Beckster back to Earth from Planet Fox News.

Western Washington is solidly Democratic, and Seattle's King County nearby voted for Obama last fall by a whopping 4-to-1 margin. Even in Mount Vernon's rural Skagit County, it was Obama by a solid 53-to-43 percent margin.

Norris said he knew Beck when Glenn was just 12 years old. He said he remembers the future right-wing crackpot as a tyke carrying a sandwich board saying "Vote for Norris for county commissioner." No word on whether pre-teen Beck labeled Norris' opponent as a racist.

Beck's popularity and alleged success "is built off a lot of ridiculous and hateful and divisive language. We feel that as a non-partisan position, the mayor should not be endorsing that at all," local Young Democrat President Marc Oommen told Seattle's KING-TV.

Norris' response is classic. He says his decision to recognize locally spawned loonie Beck isn't partisan at all, given that Beck has never formally declared his party affiliation.

"It's probably a judgment call and that's my prerogative. In general, I agree with Glenn Beck's delivery and everything, I enjoy watching him," said Norris. (No word on whether or not Norris was also a fan of the late Gov. George Wallace's speaking style.)

Norris says Beck, who reminds one of late L.A. televangelist/showman/paranoiac Dr. Gene Scott, will give a short speech, and that's it's the first city key he's awarded in six years. It could be the last.

It wouldn't be a total surprise if more than a few people locally and from Seattle showed up to give Beck a warm, town hall-type "greeting" by "presenting" him with their own remembrances -- locally grown, overripe tomatoes.

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Follow Bill Mann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/newsmann

Comments

[Pem3]

Passing of a "key" to the city should be their decision and not mocked by anyone outside that city.

[Rude Pena]

To reward Glenn Beck is to reward a hired biggot. It's sad what's said on the news, if you can even call it that. It's more like gossip forced down your throat, choking out the remaining hope of the genuine American citizens. Because a genuine American wants to create a better society for all other people within it's borders. We will only reach a greater America, whe the wrong are punished and the just rewarded. Not freaking Glenn Beck!

[Pem3]

Who do you think as "the Wrong and the Rewarded" should be.

[DevonTexas]

Funny thing about locks. They lock people out and they lock people in.

Let's hope Glenn gets the key then proceeds to lock himself in. Rather like Otis in Mayberry. They can share a cot together and sleep off their drunken stupor.

[plsps]

Beck is so far out and making very bad not just bad but some of the worst remarks about Pres. Obama and other government agencies, most intelligent people should not even listen to him. I just read the web site that was sited below. He is worse than the man in history that had to live out in the sea on a sip the rest of his life because of the bad things he said about America.

[PopOff]

MV will not only be honoring Beck it will be slighting another area native son, Ed Murrow!
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/09/save.php

(Great comparison of their most famous sayings)

[youknowyouwantsome]

The protest you quote included 3 people. Noticed you didn't quote any of Beck's lies. Hmmm... to hard to find?

[Cowboylove]

Trying to find a Glenn Beck lie is like trying to find a grain of sand on the beach. Trying to catch him actually telling the truth could take months.

[fedupinfla]

You can start here if you have the nuts....

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909040030

[ittybittykitty]

I live close enough to go to Mt. Vernon and protest. Any suggestions on what I should write on my sign?

[LibraLady]

Keep President Obama & Family Safe.

[WindSweptLeaf]

I'm one of the idiot, should work!

[CoronaDischarge]

To think I used to think Limbaugh was about as bad as it got for ignorant commentary.

Beck is just talk radio pornography - gratuitous and boring. His finding symbols of communism in depression era building art merely confirms he is not of this planet. Maybe the people from his planet should be giving him a key instead?

[AllShookUp]

Not a finer argument for the pull-out method.

[tsobserver]

Celebrity culture bites when the celebrity holds views you disagree with, I guess. On the other hand, I can understand the kerfluffle. I'd probably be upset about our little town mayor giving the keys to Arriana Huffington because I disagree with her views in general, but if she were from the same little town where I'm from, I'd be damn proud of the fact that she has become so successful in spite of the fact that I dislike her views, so I doubt I'd turn out to protest, but I'd probably not attend the ceremony.

Is it too hard for the Mount Vernon, WA, residents to follow in the vein of the late Teddy Kennedy and learn the hardest lesson he taught his son, to like Republicans and conservatives without necessarily agreeing with their views? Must we hate and shout down and denigrate one another in order to disagree with one another's political views?

[Cowboylove]

I do not have a problem with journalists who hold different opinions. I admire Peggy Noonan and George Will and the late William F. Buckley, though I often disagree with them. I think it is great to have your opinions and values challenged intelligently and honestly by some one who differs form you. Glenn Beck does not hold a different opinion as much as he holds or maintains an alternate reality, where he has his own facts and history. You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts. Truth is not variable, it is absolute. Whether George W Bush was a great President is an opinion. Whether the country was better or worse off after his 8 years in office is not debatable.

[tsobserver]

Who said Beck was a journalist? And since when do real journalists always have their facts straight? And since when did journalists or commentators ever let the facts get in their way, left or right, conservative or liberal?

And what does the quality of the Bush administration have to do with the question of honoring Beck's achievements? Nevermind that. I'll grant you the point about opinion regarding the Bush administration, but how in world can you use terms like better or worse off, inherently qualitative adjectives, to describe something that you avow as undebatable? And how do you make the connection to Bush and then back to Beck?

I've listened to Beck from time to time over the past few years and heard him regularly criticize Bush policies and Republican spend and borrow policies, the exact same policies that the Obama administration are persuing with even greater velocity than Bush did.

But again, what does Bush and whether we're better off or not now than before have anything to do with Beck? And even if you disagree with Beck and feel that he plays loose with the facts, what does that have to do with whether a small town honors one of their own who seems to have made it to the "big time"?

Beck has the third most popular radio talk show in the country and his own show on the most watched cable news network. Kudos to anybody that can do the same regardless of their political leanings!

[leftylou]

it would be nice if everyone ignored beck.

the young democrats could have their own town hall discussing the harm that fox news has done to america at the same time beck is getting his key. invite someone who has really done some good for our country.

[Wulverinex]

Ever noticed that the peopleofwalmart.com and the tea baggers look a very simlar...must be a conspiracy!

[Cye]

It would have been better if no protesters turned up.

That would have been the ultimate burn for somebody as narcissitic and attention-seeking as Beck.

[mayflyover]

Is the irony that George Wallace was a life-long Democrat lost on Mr. Mann? Likely it was. If you're tired of people who insist on politicizing every issue, try not to do it yourself. If the voters don't like it they'll let their views be known. I found a lot of invective and snarkiness in your piece but nothing remotely akin to facts but maybe that's not your forte.

[uberliberal]

Ohhhh....burn!

[KellyKay]

I am sure it is not lost on him. He is an educated man who I am sure studied history. Just like Abe Lincoln was a Republican, who helped end slavery. The southern white men (read KKK as time goes on) for a very long time did not like republicans. So most southern racist were indeed Democrats. Gov Wallace at first was endorsed by the NAACP but lost. When he realized that speaking against Blacks would get him further, he became a anti-segre­gationist. Like most things in time, things changed, and the big one was republicans became the anti-choice group. The Southern Baptist loved that and became Republicans. But that is about all the party stands for now and why the Republicans are becoming concentrated in a very small region. Because they also promised balance budget, but were never able to deliver.

[mayflyover]

It's true that the GOP blew it when they were in the majority and had the White House and turned their backs on their own base and what they (supposedly) believed. While we wait for a viable third party alternative the majority has become Independent. The Libertarian Party has also gained numbers but they're likely to remain a fringe party. It's hard to see how vilifying hundreds of thousands of honest protestors no matter how much you disagree with them or how outspoken they are sometimes will help the Democratic Party. For now I choose neither party. Your history lesson is mostly correct but what drove the South and religious fundamentalists to the GOP wasn't some hidden racism but the fact they claimed to be conservative. Right now those people aren't represented in the government as both parties race to ignore the 10th amendment and expand federal control.

[Classof89]

"Norris said he knew Beck when Glenn was just 12 years old."

Cronyism-like? I highly doubt that he's being given a key to the city for his "excellence in journalism", nor for being a "great humanitarian". Good to know that the meaning of rewarding someone deserving can be turned into celebrating dim*wittedness.

I have a feeling someone won't be re-elected mayor the next go-round.

[ittybittykitty]

It's Mt. Vernon. He'll be re-elected.