I wrote a newspaper column this week noting the rank hypocrisy in political and media circles when it comes to their supposed concerns about the deficit. I noted that Tea Party protesters are among the biggest hypocrites -- and chief among them is political terrorist Glenn Beck, because, as you'll see, the truth is the bailout is the Beck Bailout.
As Frank Rich notes, Beck has been promoting himself not only as a racist culture warrior, but as an economic populist who rails on government giveaways to Wall Street. In that sense, he's sort of trying to be a neo-Buchananite... except, there's just one problem with his economic argument: Glenn Beck championed the Wall Street bailout he claims to be leading the fight against. In fact, when progressives were fighting tooth and nail against the bailout (and taking significant criticism for doing so) Beck was promoting it, offering criticism only for it not being bigger:
"I think the bailout is the right thing do. The "REAL STORY" is the $700 billion that you're hearing about now is not only, I believe, necessary, it is also not nearly enough, and all of the weasels in Washington know it." - Glenn Beck, 9/22/08
That's right -- this is the Beck Bank Bailout. So the next time you hear Glenn Beck railing on government spending and corporate giveaways and the failure to crack down on Wall Street largesse, remember -- Glenn Beck is railing on the very largesse that Glenn Beck intensely promoted and supported on the national Glenn Beck television show.
(huge h/t to Jenkins Ear and ThinkProgress)
NOTE: Beck sometimes calls the stimulus bill a "bailout" - but let's be clear: As you can see from the transcript, he's referring not to the stimulus bill, but to the TARP bailout that he now rails on.
UPDATE: Time magazine, and its reporter David Von Drehle, just published a cover story puff piece on Beck. The fact that the magazine devoted substantial resources to such a piece -- and didn't bother to even mention this central hypocrisy of Beck -- is not only an absolute embarrassment, it shows exactly why journalism is in a severe crisis