Sen. Graham [Rep.] Calls Beck 'A Cynic' And Birthers 'Crazy'

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:08 pm

Love the part about writing the Constitution today with Bill O'Reily commenting....

Quote:

Sen. Graham Calls Beck 'A Cynic' And Birthers 'Crazy'

Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.) offered unusually blunt assessments of the fringe elements of his party and conservative media on Thursday, calling the popular and bombastic Fox News host Glenn Beck a "cynic" whose show was antithetical to American values.

"Only in America can you make that much money crying," Graham said of Beck. "Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party. He is aligned with cynicism and there has always been a market for cynics. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers."

Appearing before a crowd of Washington's elite power players and opinion-makers, Graham spoke largely without filter, offering acidic takes on subject well beyond Beck. The Senator called the birther community that questions the president's U.S. citizenship "crazy" and implored them to "knock this **** off" so the country could get on to more important matters.

"I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was not born in Hawaii are crazy," said Graham, who went on to dispel another myth: that Obama is a closet Muslim.

Speaking before The Atlantic's First Draft of History conference, Graham also ventured to call "crazy" a recent article on Newsmax, laying out how a military coup could overtake the Obama administration.

But he insisted that the demagoguery and wild emotions were prevalent to the fringes of both political parties. "There are people out there saying crazy things on our side of the aisle," he said, "there were people saying crazy things about President Bush. That's just the way it is. "

And he insisted that the opposition to Obama was (largely) not based in racial politics.

"How can you go from [the election]," he asked, "and then have a race problem a few moths later? There are people in this party who are having a tough time reconciling having a black president.... But most of these people carrying around crazy signs would applaud Alan Keyes. They are very passionate about their politics and if Alan Keyes spoke at their conference they go through the roof."

Reflecting comments made earlier in the day by his colleague and close friend, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Graham said he was deeply worried about "the passions of cable TV" whipping up the emotions of the public. "If you get rewarded for being a jerk you are going to keep doing it," he said, before labeling "Talk radio, MoveOn.org, and the 24-hour news cycle" as the main culprits in polarizing the nation.

"Can you imagine doing D-Day with cable television?" he asked. "Can you imagine writing the Constitution -- you know, O'Reilly says Ben Franklin's giving in on something. Can you imagine having to do that in this environment?"

Mama Bear

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:10 pm

BIRTHERS?

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:12 pm

Birthers are those who believe that Obama wasn't born in the US.

Atali

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:18 pm

I agree. I think that those who insist on trying to prove that Obama wasn't born in the US are making the rest of us who don't like Obama look like idiots.

gryp

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:49 pm

It would be nice if we all could separate issue by issue instead of all anti-'s being lumped together and labeled as one group.
Seriously, I think that every conservative talk show host out there is trying too hard to hate Obama. (With the exception of Savage.) It's pretty silly, and they sound just like the Bush-haters of just a few years ago. There are plenty of reasons to not like Obama's policies, and they're easy. No need to overwork themselves thinking up new ideas each day, outdoing each other in being the biggest Obama-hater.

mimivan

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 2:58 pm

lately I've davka made it a point to speak well of Obama because I am embarrassed by the extreme right-wing rhetoric..I didn't vote for him (although I agree with most of his economic policies but none of his social agenda vis a vis gay "rights" and abortion and could not vote for someone who is willing to sit down and talk to Ahmadinejad) but I hate the hate....

PinkFridge

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 3:21 pm

Taka...

Today I heard Mike Gallagher say that he hopes Obama fails with the Olympics thing because he wants him repudiated. Huh??? It's one thing to say you hope ill-founded plans fail, but this is seen as a coup for the country.

(I know, the above isn't an example of Republicans eating their young as much as putting their feet in their mouths.)

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:32 pm

It does sort of scare me that the Right has so totally lost their way. Once they have become an amalgam of "wing-nuts" competing to see who can shout the loudest and the normal, social conservatives sit back and do nothing, we've essentially become a one party country. Or two separate countries. I don't think either one is healthy.

Atali

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:35 pm

chavamom wrote:

And the left-wing nuts don't concern you?

stem

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:45 pm

Glenn Beck does not consider himself a republican. He is a libertarian, and even right wingers should take everything he says with a grain of salt. He doesn't agree with most politicians out there, right or left. He's bashed bush almost as much as he's bashing obama now. He said on an interview on CBS that he'd have rathered to vote for Hillary Clinton than John McCain and that McCain would've been worse for the country than Obama is now. So you see, he seems to hate everyone, and I really don't even understand why he has such a following.

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:48 pm

Atali wrote:

chavamom wrote:

And the left-wing nuts don't concern you?

I didn't say that. I don't think the "wing-nuts" have taken over the party and that's the difference.

Atali

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:52 pm

chavamom wrote:

Atali wrote:

chavamom wrote:

And the left-wing nuts don't concern you?

I didn't say that. I don't think the "wing-nuts" have taken over the party and that's the difference.

I don't think that the Republican party has a higher percentage of nuts than the Democrats do. I think the Democrats have more nuts than you think they do.

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 7:55 pm

I don't know about numbers. However, the only ones we are hearing from (LOUDLY) these days are "wing-nuts". And I count Sarah Palin in with that crowd. I'd love to see a moderate, rational voice emerge for the Republican party.

Atali

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 8:19 pm

chavamom wrote:

I don't think that the only two choices are "moderate" and "nut".

Being strongly republican in economic, social, and foreign policy does not make one a nut any more than being strongly democrat does.

The "nutty" things are continually insisting that Obama was born in Kenya (even if he was, he was elected already and should be judged on his merits) or that congress is planning on setting up death panels.

I see no reason why the Republican party needs to be "moderate". In fact, I think it would be better for the republican party to have leaders who truly believe in Republican principles and are noticeably different than Democrats (unlike certain "moderates" who seem to be almost Democrats).

I think that if the Republican party had a non-nutty but strongly Conservative leader it would stop the nuts. Having moderate leaders just makes the conservatives feel like they don't have any leaders and latch onto the nuts.

chavamom

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 8:43 pm

Atali - you seem to be hellbent on twisting what I say. We agree for the most part, ok?

Atali

Thu, Oct 01 2009, 8:44 pm

chavamom wrote:

Atali - you seem to be hellbent on twisting what I say. We agree for the most part, ok?

Okay, if you say so.

chavamom

Fri, Oct 02 2009, 12:53 am

Well, when I said "moderate", I meant it in the sense of "temperate". As opposed to "wing-nut". I didn't mean that conservatives have to be "wishy-washy, middle of the road". Does that make more sense?