Republican National Committee Communications Director Doug Heye apparently missed all this coverage, telling the Washington Post, “I don’t know about any Glenn Beck event:”
“In general, people coming to Washington, being organized and active is a good thing,” said Doug Heye, a spokesman for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele. “But I gotta be honest with you – I don’t know about any Glenn Beck event.”
For someone whose job it is to monitor political news coverage, Heye’s ignorance seems dubious, but it is apparently not unique.
“Operatives at virtually every Republican committee in Washington claimed little or no knowledge of the event,” the Post reported.
“They might well have cause to be squeamish,” the Post continued, noting the irony of Beck — who called President Obama a “racist” with “a deep-seated hatred of white people” — holding an event on the anniversary of, and in the same location as, Martin Luther King’s bridge-building “I Have A Dream” speech.
h/t ThinkProgress
UPDATE:
"HuffPost editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Thursday night to dissect Fox host Glenn Beck's stunning D.C.-rally promotional video, in which Beck compares the event to the moon landing, the civil rights movement and the rise of Abraham Lincoln.
While guest host Cenk Uygur hammered Beck's shilling for the gold-selling company Goldline, Sekoff picked up on Beck's pitch to "restore America's honor."
"My question is, when did America lose that honor?" Sekoff asked. "Did we lose that honor when we invaded Iraq for nonexistent WMD? Did we lose the honor when we opened Guantanamo, when we allowed extraordinary rendition? Did we lose the honor when we said waterboarding wasn't torture? Or maybe did we lose our honor when Glenn Beck said the President of the United States had a deep-seated hatred for white people?
"Because if it was those things," Sekoff added, "he's a little late to the game."
h/t HuffPost
UPDATE from Yahoo! News:
"(Some Tea Party groups have distributed a conservative-friendly guide to Washington D.C, warning people to avoid the Green and Yellow subway lines, which cover what the guide's authors suggest are sketchy parts of the city. Alas, says Mike Madden at the Washington City Paper, activists who follow this tip would miss the chance to visit the National Archives, where their "beloved Constitution now resides.")
Are people angry about Beck's choice of date and place?
Civil rights groups have expressed outrage. Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, told CBS News it was "insulting" to King's legacy. Rev. Al Sharpton has also organized a Saturday march through Washington, D.C., to commemorate King's speech, an event supported by the NAACP, the National Urban League, and Martin Luther King III. Sharpton says he began planning his event in April, and that it is "not a countermarch to Beck."
How does Beck explain the choice of date?
He's shrugged it off as a coincidence, telling Bill O'Reilly that civil-rights critics have nothing to complain about: "Do white people own the legacy of Abraham Lincoln? I don't think they do, and I don't think black people own the legacy of Martin Luther King." Beck has said "divine providence" led him to select the date.
What do pundits make of it?
If this is "divine providence," says Alexander Zaitchik at AlterNet, then clearly God has a "very dark sense of humor." Beck is "the media's boldest manipulator of white racial anxieties, fears and prejudice." Were King alive today, Beck would likely excoriate him for being a "progressive cockroach." But the Fox News firebrand is right that black people don't own MLK's legacy, says Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Dr. King "belongs to America" — and the Bill of Rights he so passionately believed in guarantees Beck the right to his rally, no matter how "odious" civil rights groups think it is. "
The absurdity of Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Dr. King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech is this: Beck is the darling of and supported by the same group of people, CONSERVATIVES, who OPPOSED Dr. King's objectives in that very speech.
What on earth is wrong with people in not seeing through this charlatan's hijacking--to promote and enrich himself--of the ideals Dr. King defended and that CONSERVATIVES fought against. It is stomach-turning hypocrisy on Beck's and his followers' part to desecrate Dr. King's memory and the progressive dream he spoke of that day.
8 comments:
Perhaps even the GOP is trying to distance themselves from moronic media pundits. NAAHH!!
Boomer,you stole the words right out of my mouth - even "NAAHH!!" These people are really amazingly stupid. Who in hell - besides Palin - do they think they're fooling?
I can’t imagine that anyone who watches TV news or listens to the radio wouldn’t have at least heard about the event. Maybe not know the “details” but know there is something going on.
Hi Pam,
We who immerse ourselves in politics via our blogs sometime forget that a lot of Americans--perhaps a majority--are not as interested in politics as we are.
When the GOP National Committee Communictions Director doesn't know about Beck's self-promotion, then that may prove my point.
[I'll get back to you today, Pam, and let you know what's been going on.]
Shaw.
so glenn beck wants to restore honor to our country by holding a political rally on the anniversary of that famous speech and the political rally will be attended by conservatives who hated Dr. King and what he stood for.
sounds exactly right as something the asshole would come up with and then encourage his like minded and ignoranat wingnuts to celebrate.
ronald reagan, big time conservative hero of these people, once called Dr. King a "near communist" and called the civil rights act an "insult" to the south.
restoring honor? irony is surely dead, along with a lot of other things in this country.
This morning Swampland reported this:
"the group that will financially benefit from the event, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF). All proceeds raised through Glenn Beck's promotion of the event go to SOWF – once costs for the rally itself are covered."
Dear AO,
Don't forget that other conservative who chose the lipsticked pit bull as his running mate, John McCain, opposed the MLK holiday at the state and local level.
Another conservative who did not like Dr. King.
How quickly and easily these people forget how much Dr. King was despised by their "honorable" leaders.
Glenn Beck is trying to rewrite history.
We cannot allow him to do that.
CONSERVATIVES, DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN, HATED DR. KING.
And that is the truth.
How quickly and easily these people forget how much Dr. King was despised by their "honorable" leaders.
Glenn Beck is trying to rewrite history.
We cannot allow him to do that.
CONSERVATIVES, DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN, HATED DR. KING.
They are very good at this. Every time they lose a fight, 20 years later they're claiming they were on the right side all along.
20 years from now when gay marriage is accepted and that fight is over and done with, they'll be claiming that real conservatives supported it all along.
a lot of Americans--perhaps a majority--are not as interested in politics as we are.
This is very true, but you'd think the RNC communications director would be somebody who's interested in politics. Either he's grotesquely incompetent or the party has decided Beck is an embarrassment.
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