WASHINGTON POST USELESS IDIOT DU JOUR: GLENN BECK

Maybe it's just a coincidence but Glenn Beck has a readymade theme song that everyone in America knows and everyone who has seen even 10 minutes of his act, knows was just made for him. He's a stain on what's left of the reputation of CNN.

Today the "Style" section of the Washington Post has a publicity feature on television's stupidest-- yes, it's close, but he is dumber than Hannity-- hate talk imbecile. (How do I know? When he went searching for a religion after years of drunken, drug-induced stupor he found just the right fit: Mormonism.) The hook: he's honest about the fact he's a self-loathing alcoholic and that he suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. "While most sermonizing conservatives wait for a public debacle to expose their failings-- think of William Bennett and his slot-machine addiction, or Rush Limbaugh and his pill problem-- Beck and his many inner demons are on a first-name basis, and he's constantly introducing them to viewers. His alcoholism is just part of it." Fact of the matter is, every time Beck opens his mouth his failings are exposed. His essential being is failure. CNN is simply trying to exploit the ridiculousness of the "C-list pundit" to make a few dollars.

The Post points to Beck's moronic-- and now notorious-- assertion that Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) needed to prove to him that he isn't "working with our enemies," as his worst moment. They must have a short memory-- or a lame research staff. He did manage to get some attention-- which, of course, is what he was looking for-- from Jon Stewart ("Finally, a guy who says what people who aren't thinking are thinking") and from a newsweekly in Buffalo called The Beast ("Even the leather-winged shouting heads at Fox News look like intellectual giants next to this bleating, benighted Cassandra. It's like someone found a manic, doom-prophesying hobo in a sandwich board, shaved him, shot him full of Zoloft and gave him a show.")

Beck revels in the attention, like a spoiled child throwing serial tantrums, an analogy that describes almost all far right hate talk hosts. And when no one is paying attention and exposing his lack of talent/lack of intellect/lack of a good writing staff... he does it himself, telling his audience-- people who don't own channel changers?-- that he's an uneducated "rodeo clown, a "despicable human being," a recovering drug addict... "By the time I was in my mid-20s, I was making $300,000. C'mon, scumbag alcoholic with money and modicum of fame?" And the Good Morning America, CNN and the Post are inflicting this on us because...

Maybe an attention-deficit host is exactly what an attention-deficit public wants. Listen to a few of Beck's shows and what strikes you most is the enormous ratio of words to substance-- how Beck can monologue for minutes at a time and leave behind almost nothing except the impression of great vehemence... [Take his] interview with conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza, who has come to discuss his new book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11. "Dinesh, I have to tell you, I'm disappointed in this book," he says, by way of an opener. Then, casually, Beck makes a rather startling admission: He hasn't read D'Souza's book.

The Style section... well, at least it's not on the front page.


UPDATE: BECK STILL SUCKS

The General did a cool pic of Beck he just sent: