Kristol Criticized Beck For “Rant[ing] About The Caliphate Taking Over The Middle East”

Kristol: Beck Is “Marginalizing Himself” Through His “Hysteria.” Fox News contributor Bill Kristol wrote of Beck's reaction to the Egyptian protests:

Now, people are more than entitled to their own opinions of how best to accomplish that democratic end. And it's a sign of health that a political and intellectual movement does not respond to a complicated set of developments with one voice.

But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He's marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s. [The Weekly Standard, 2/14/11]

Beck Lashes Out At Kristol

Beck: “I'm Going To Show You The Face Of Evil Today, And Let Bill Kristol's Words Fall Where They May.” From Beck's radio show:

BECK: Apparently -- apparently Republicans are just trying to appropriate Ronald Reagan, who, we're not even really sure if he was a conservative anymore, apparently at this point.

Bill Kristol has said, me and anybody else that says, “You know, maybe we should hold off on the Muslim Brotherhood thing,” is just a John Bircher. Really the Egyptian revolt is 1776, according to William Kristol.

I'm going to show you the face of evil today, and let Bill Kristol's words fall where they may. You decide: good versus evil. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]

Beck: “I'm Going To Have To Dumb It Down For Bill Kristol.” From Beck's radio show:

BECK: Many have a hard time understanding where the political left in Europe and the United States have common ground with this theo-political Islamicist movement. Socialist ideology promotes the oppression - and I'm going to have to dumb it down for Bill Kristol, who is so stuck in 1983, you think -- no probably, '78.

GRAY: Yeah, probably before the Iranian revolution

BECK: Yeah. Hey Bill -- no, seriously, you've done a swell, swell job on keeping conservatives together and steering our country in the right direction -

GRAY: Hasn't he?

BECK: No, he has.

GRAY: No. Seriously.

BECK: No, seriously. All the right elite, you have done such a fabulous job.

GRAY: Tremendous job.

BECK: You know, I think all of the meat off of Barry Goldwater has been gone now since about the time that you showed up. And so, but you've done a great thing with his bones for a while, holding them up and going, hey we should be like Barry Goldwater. And you're like, that's just Barry Goldwater's bones. I don't even know if you even understand what conservatives are anymore, Billy. But I'll try to slow down for you. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]

Beck: “That's The Kind Of Thinking That Bill Kristol Has Been Engaged In That Got Us Into This Impossible Situation” In Egypt. Beck also said:

BECK: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now, if you would like to live in the world for conservatives created by Bill Kristol, you go ahead and do that. I'm not interested.

GRAY: Well Bill seems to draw a parallel here between what's going on in Egypt and what happened with the United States and the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

BECK: Oh yeah. No, it's -

GRAY: That document, he says, let's not forget, proclaims that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends - life, liberty and pursuit of happiness - it's the right of people to alter or to abolish it.

BECK: I'm sure Bill Kristol has written many, many, many, many, many papers saying that we should get out of bed and stop spending money in Egypt.

GRAY: Oh, the anti-Hosni Mubarak rhetoric -

BECK: Hosni Mubarak rhetoric from Bill Kristol has been -

GRAY: It's gotta be extensive, he's probably got a whole library filled -

BECK: - either, either that or that's the kind of thinking that Bill Kristol has been engaged in that got us into this impossible situation, because people like Bill Kristol, I don't think they actually stand for anything anymore. All they stand for is power, and they'll do anything to keep their little fiefdom together, and they'll do anything they have to to keep the Republican power entrenched. I'm sorry: the system doesn't work. And, Bill, honestly, I don't even know you, and I just disagree with you. I'm sure you're a delightful person, and I do thank you for the time that you have spent in Washington trying to keep conservative principles alive. But I think you've confused conservative principles now with conservative progressive principles. And really, times have changed, Bill. Times have changed.

It's time to see the world as it really is, and to see how these big government solutions, and getting into bed with dictators is really something the left does and not something that the right should do. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]

Beck Asks Kristol: “Have You Done A Minute of Research, Bill?” From Beck's radio show:

Tonight on television, I would invite you - we're going to show you the beginning of this group. We're gonna show you also the shadow parliament, the beginning of our research on this. And this shows, instead of people like William Kristol - and I apologize, you know, I just - I get really testy, and I shouldn't, and it's a flaw of mine. And I get really testy when I hear people who should get it come after me. It's like, really? Have you done a minute of research, Bill? Have you done it? 'Cause if you did, a minute of research - I can show you - I'll point you to all the credible - I'll point you to their own words.

You know, in fact, Bill, I'm sorry. Just watch the show. Just watch the show in the next week. We are going to show you not only the Muslim Brotherhood, and their connections to the left in Egypt, and how this socialist - can you play the socialist we have in - from England that is talking about, this is in 2008, where he was talking about how well-coordinated and trained they've been. We'll show you who's been training them.

We'll be showing - we'll show you what they want, and what they want is revolution. Some of them want a caliphate. That is not a crazy idea. The Ayatollah Khamenei talked about it just last week. It's not a crazy idea, it's not a conspiracy. And joining with the left? Well, here is an Egyptian socialist talking about revolution in Egypt. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]

Beck Lays Out The “Forces Of Evil”

Beck: “The Forces Of Evil Have Linked Arms.” Beck claimed that he “can define evil for you”:

Now we're willing to get into bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. Because well, we've got to - no you don't. Do we have no values? Yes we do. And if we don't discover them soon, we're in trouble. Because I can define evil for you. I can define it. I can show it to you. I can show it to you linking arm in arm, all the way across the water, all the way here. This isn't - this isn't conjecture. This is fact.

[...]

But I will tell you that the forces of evil have linked arms, because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you look at the entire world, China. Is China a force for good or for evil? I'm not talking about prosperity. I'm not talking about our money, I'm not talking about our products, I'm talking about a force of good or evil. A country that will drown its own people in their rice paddies. They will take the second child and kill them, shoot them, in the house. Is that a force for good or evil? Clearly, evil.

Russia, a force for good or evil? Clearly, evil. Ahmadinejad. Pakistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. North Korea. A force for good or evil? Saudi Arabia, Egypt. Then you get into the slippery ones. France. Is France a good or evil? Well I can't say that they're a force for good. For righteousness? France? Germany. For righteousness? England. The United States of America. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]

Beck: “I Truly Believe That We Are Fighting The Forces Of Evil On This Planet.” From Beck's radio show:

I truly believe that we are fighting the forces of evil on this planet. And if anybody wants to make fun of that, that's fine. Anybody wants to dismiss that as crackpot, that's fine. I'm totally fine with that. There is evil. And you can either recognize it or not.

But the same kind of socialist ideas, the same kind of fascist ideas, were embraced in Germany and in Italy. And those two reached out to the Islamic extremists of their day as well. And the Islamic extremists joined the socialists. It is the same coalition. It is the same ideas, it is the same damn people. The same tree is bearing this evil fruit again, except this time, the west has been so incredibly ravaged and lulled into sleep that there's nobody even ringing the bell at this point. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 2/07/11]