The Anti-Trump Conspiracy Outgrows 3-Ring Circus Status

Most normal people don't know who Mark Levin is, But in some ways he's even more of a GOP propaganda tool these days than Limbaugh is, especially as one moves closer to the fringes. He has the 4th most-listened to Hate Talk Radio show in the country-- tied with Glenn Beck. Levin has some credibility with Republicans because he was chief of staff for Edwin Meese, Reagan's Attorney General and is editor of the Conservative Review and president of the far right Landmark Legal Foundation, although he has a tendency to call anyone who isn't a neo-fascist a "moron" or a "puke." He hasn't referred to Trump as a puke yet but that's going to be coming any day now.

A few days ago Levin, who has endorsed Cruz, was calling the #NeverTrump cult "asinine frauds" and cursed them out. He reacted badly to Roger Stone calling him a sell-out and he refers to Stone as a "thug" and a "sleaze-ball," apt descriptions, and made sure his audience knows that Stone is a "hatchet-man" for Trump. In the video above Levin also gratuitously throws in that Coulter is a pathetic sleaze-ball as well. He also went on to say that "As a result of what the Trump supporters have attempted here [pointing out that he's an establishment sell-out], particularly Roger Stone, I am not voting for Donald Trump period!" And he means not ever, not even if Trump is the nominee against Bernie or the establishment Democrat. He predicted that Stone's "bully, dirty tricks, Nixonian tactics" would backfire, "Count me as #NeverTrump... I will not be voting for Donald Trump and he can thank Roger Stone. And if they piss me off one more time, I'm going to urge millions and millions of you, should he get the nomination, not to vote for him either. I'm very serious about this; very serious about this." Does this sound like some kind of right-wing parlor game? Does anyone doubt where this year's Republican fringe candidates got their ideas about what appropriate campaign behavior is?

So what got Levin so worked up and hysterical? Apparently this Roger Stone post at the Daily Caller web site:

The next time you hear Mark Levin on the radio, or watch Glenn Beck on TV, or read Erick Erickson, RedState.com on the Internet, you might just ask yourself who is paying for the message?  And why is it so stridently anti-Trump?

Don’t fool yourself. They’re doing it for the money.

As the spearhead of the “Dump Trump” movement, the same GOP establishment big-dollar donors and PACS that are pushing House Speaker Paul Ryan as a dark-horse presidential candidate, despite the big-government omnibus-budget deals Ryan reached last year with President Obama, are funding Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, and Glenn Beck, to promote Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Conservative Tree House blog exposed the financial nexus supporting prominent “conservative” pundits to promote in their media outlets Ted Cruz as the last, best hope to block Trump in Wisconsin, a state considered by the Washington-based GOP establishment as perhaps the last establishment firewall to block Trump from the GOP presidential nomination.

“These financial/media relationships have largely and historically, remained hidden,” a blogger identified simply as “sundance” noted in an article posted on TheConservativeTreeHouse.com on Wednesday. “They have sure never been publicly, clearly, and regularly stated so the consuming audience would know the presentation was fraught with financial conflict.”

“The Senate Conservatives Fund (PAC) purchasing massive quantities ($400,000) of Mark Levin’s books in exchange for favorable candidacy political opinion. Conveniently hidden by the radio host who avoids mentioning the financial conflict created,” the blog pointed out.

On Jan. 13, Ben Jacobs in an article published by the Daily Beast headlined “Pay to Play?” noted that Politico, in an article that now appears to have been scrubbed from Politico’s website, reported on how the GOP establishment seeks to buy Levin.

The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a “conservative” fund founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina that backed Cruz in his Senate fight against Obamacare, spent $427,000 to buy copies of radio talk show host Mark Levin’s four-year-old book Liberty or Tyranny” to distribute to donors-- a purchase that should have earned Levin approximately $1 million in royalties.

Despite his many diatribes against Trump broadcast to his national radio audience, Levin hid the fact the son of his fiancé is a full-time staffer for Cruz.

GOP establishment political operative David Barton not only runs “Keep the Promise” one of the most prominent pro-Cruz Super-PACs, he also serves as the chairman of Glen Beck’s “Mercury One” charity.

So, the next time you see Glenn Beck on his knees proclaiming that Ted Cruz is the “anointed one,” deemed by God to be president of the United States, you might ask yourself if God also deemed Barton to put at Beck’s disposal the millions in Super-PAC money he can funnel to Beck, so long as Beck continues to sing Ted Cruz’s tune.

Yet even these political whores do not top “conservative” Erick Erickson, founder of RedState.com, who funds his media venture The Resurgent with Super-PAC money from the Ricketts family of Wisconsin, big backers of Gov. Scott Walker (who incidentally endorsed Cruz).

ConservativeTreeHouse.com documented that the Ricketts family funded Our Principles PAC to the tune of $3 million in February alone. We should not be surprised when FEC filings show money from Our Principles PAC flowing to Resurgent Media, with the box “Oppose Trump” checked off as the Erickson media group’s purpose.

“In addition to all of those in the Salem Media Communications network, along with Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, Erick Erickson and anyone who is hosted upon the various media enterprises they front for…. all paid shrills dependent upon political graft,” the ConservativeTreeHouse.com article concludes.

“Interesting indeed how the intersection of financial dependency drives the political ideology of these modern “conservative voices”. However, this does increasingly explain how those same voices will stand and cheer for Mr. No-Budget/Omnibus, House Speaker Paul Ryan.

” What’s the point, the ConservatieTreeHouse.com asks? Smaller government? Yeah, sure.