Roy Moore Won The AL Senate Primary Despite Trump's Strange Endorsement

It's easy to look at the picture of Roy Moore, above, and just see a man with a big flag, a tiny gun, and a middling hat. But he is a genuinely fascinating creature in that he seems to be entirely the worst of old-fashioned Bible-banging demagoguery. He's virulently anti-gay.  He seems confused about geography, current events, religion, and law, despite once upon a time being a judge.  He's of course anti-choice when it comes to women's reproductive choices, and he's also a creationist who even considers the teaching of evolution incompatible with the Constitution.  He is mostly known as the judge who took on the "Establishment clause" regarding religious speech to the effect of basically offering himself up in service to a graven image, which sort of cluster-fuckedly makes a mockery of both the First Commandment and the First Amendment. He thinks the 9/11 attacks were a punishment from God (which I think would align quite nicely with what Osama Bin Laden thought, too.) And he has nice words for Vladimir Putin. 

He's almost a parody of fringe right-wing whackadoodledom, and was endorsed by Ben Carson, Steve Bannon, Sarah Palin, and not by the actual US President, Donald Trump, who gave a rally for "Big Luther" Strange.

I don't pretend I know what this means. This is Alabama, which is not my neck of the woods at all. But if Moore's genuine unfitness* for anything at all could be adequately articulated, I'm thinking this culture war grudge-vote against the "DC establishment" might have maybe made a Doug Jones win vaguely possible? He's a civil rights lawyer and seems like a real stand-up guy.

*No, I am serious, this guy should not be a Senator.

UPDATE: Trump is purging Tweets about his support for Strange like a sad loser-baby:

UPDATE ALSO, TOO: Roy Moore was also a Birther, just so we can fully take in his up-fuckedness.  But that, at least, he has in common with Trump.

President Trump is a Complete Horror-show

While being broadcast live on camera, President Trump claims media cameras are being turned off https://t.co/cf0mASESyI

— CNN (@CNN) August 23, 2017

Lying about something as basic as whether the cable news organizations are even covering him while they are actually covering him, is pretty much the stellar, stand-out example of how much Donald Trump, actual President of the US, actually holds your (meaning you--a sentient person) intellect in contempt. He is going to lie about things and his lies will be manifestly untrue. He will say there are no protestors (yep, many). He will say there is such a huge crowd (eh!) And then he goes on to insult the intelligence of intelligent people in other ways.

Does he continue to think his response about Charlottesville was genius--yes, he doubles down. Does he threaten to shut down the government to fund his border wall with Mexico? Mmmm-hmm. Both houses of Congress are held by his party and this idea is stupid, but he thinks it is great. He implies he will pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio, birther, self-proclaimed "concentration camp" runner. He praises Jeffrey "Sieg Heil" Lord.

And now,because he's a fuckwit and doesn't understand that words have meanings, there will be more agitation--because he doesn't know how to pour oil on troubled waters. He sets shit on fire and thinks this is his tribute, his sacramental flame.

Nothing about this is okay. Nothing. Nothing at all.

(Also, Ben Carson, Hatch violation--this is a campaign rally, and he had no business being there.)

Well, Alrighty Then!

Dr. Ben Carson does not want to be a part of President-elect Trump's cabinet:

While Carson was floated as a possible appointee to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Education, Williams said he never received a formal offer for either post.

"Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him," Williams told The Hill.

"Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency,” he went on. “The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

Yes, he really was running for president himself just a little while ago. But you know. Life comes at you fast.

Dr. Carson Has Left the 2016 Best of the Worst Contest

                                     

It seemed last night, that one could imagine that Ben Carson was still on stage at the debate last night, and was only sleeping, like the Dormouse shoved into the teapot at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. But alas, the good Doctor (and bad presidential candidate) has realized that even the best fundraising scam  intentioned efforts at becoming the chief executive of a great nation must come to an end when victory in that contest evolves from merely improbable to damn near impossible.

 

What I think was the best part of Carson's campaign was his soft-spoken convictions--he said the most truly peculiar things, but in a voice that almost convinced you that what he said was not nearly as batshit as it was. He was like the living embodiment of a patently untrue Facebook forward your daft cousin insists is 100% true because he knows a guy who knows the guy who made it up.

 

He will always have a place wherever fine cracked pottery is sold.

The Difference a Caucus Makes

You know, the best thing that happened in Iowa was Ted Cruz winning the caucus. First of all, that made Donald Trump a loser, because no one remembers second place (except we will, for the moment, just fondly look on Trump as "Number Two"). But besides that, it's a good story: a lot of people mention that Cruz's campaign simply had a better ground game--true. Donald Trump claimed that he never even heard of a "ground game". (So much to learn! Also about internal polling versus media polling. Also about knowing which things to blow off, which to take seriously.)

But the interesting thing is that part of Cruz's last-minute poll-defying support came at the expense of Ben Carson. Cruz campaign workers spread a message that Carson was likely to drop out, possibly spurring some Carson supporters to throw in with Cruz to avoid throwing their efforts away on a candidate who wasn't in it for the long haul. What's fascinating to me about this is that there was something a little odd about the claim the Carson was going to Florida to get "fresh clothes". (Is one to believe there is no dry cleaning to be had in Iowa?) And that campaign is, well, same as it ever was. But still, that sort of thing is just further evidence (some might suppose) of Ted Cruz's bottomless skullduggery.

The second best thing is that the results finally persuaded Huckabee, Santorum, and Rand Paul to just stop. Huckabee, instead of doing anything to raise his profile during the course of the campaign, really hit some distasteful notes, and Rand Paul certainly has reasons to concentrate on his Senate re-election campaign. Former PA senator Santorum, is typical bumbling fashion, not only dropped out but threw his endorsement to third place finisher Marco Rubio--for reasons he struggled to explain. (Let me help the gentleman from PA--he can't support the libertine Trump, and no one likes Cruz. But the truth of the matter is, the pretend-moderate character Rubio is just as huge a smarmy social conservative as Santorum. Twinsies!)

The third best thing is Rubio may well be getting a bump from a strong third-place showing in Iowa, and while I don't love Rubio, man, he sure does irritate me less than Cruz and Trump!

On the Democratic side, we bid farewell to Martin O'Malley, who for some reason just never took off. There doesn't even seem to be one specific thing about him that was objectionable. He just didn't take off. The finish between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was as good as a tie in my opinion. Meh. Social media is showing me that there are some people with deep "battle for the soul of the Democratic Party" feelings about the two-person contest. I'm not one of those people. I'm sort of a knee-jerk pragmatist: I'll take better over worse.

Ben Carson's Campaign is Shaken Up

Although a shake-up in the campaign had been telegraphed, word that the Carson campaign's campaign manager, communications manager, and about 18 other staffers had resigned sounds like a pretty big deal.

I'm not sure how this will affect the campaign because this is a damn weird campaign. I've pointed out that he isn't a traditional or particularly experienced candidate, and his campaign looks like it mostly exists to fundraise, not to actually get the candidate elected. The campaign has pretty bad media-discipline, which was particularly apparent when an actual story featuring Carson's foreign policy advisors indicated that he did not really know what he was talking about where foreign policy was concerned.

One of those advisors, Maj. Gen Robert Dees, is now Carson's campaign manager. That seems awkward.

But the whole campaign is awkward--take for example the fundraising. Carson raised $23 million this quarter, topping Ted Cruz's quite respectable $20 million. This is despite poll numbers that have collapsed the last two months. And yet the campaign chugs on, while the candidate maintains a book tour and paid speech schedule.

It seems...irregular.

The 2016 GOP Contenders' Debate in Las Vegas

The debate last night was a feast for fact-checkers. As covered in the comments of the last post, Carly Fiorina endeavored to show she was in like Flynn with the military by name-dropping generals who got dropped out of the leadership line-up. This was found to be mostly false. You know, lefties can make the same case about George W. Bush--Shinseki, Zinni, Casey, Abizaid, possibly Kevin Byrne, all kind of got in the way of the Bush Administration's claims that the Iraq War would be a cakewalk and few troops would be needed and they certainly wouldn't be deployed on missions until total exhaustion. Mostly, Bush rewarded Generals like Jerry Bremer. Know what he did? Then you see the problems inherent with politicizing the military in the first damn place, and in the second place, recognize that the reason the military  has a civilian as Commander in Chief is because decisions have to be made sometimes for reasons no military man would accept because of his loyalty, appropriately, to his troops. But which a statesmen might well make knowing that battles are not just about territory, but what is accomplished in "hearts and minds" terms.

Remember those signs about "Do you miss me?"  regarding George W. Bush? I'd have to allow that GWB was better informed and prepared than this lot, and at least has measurable charisma. Trump has charisma, but I'll admit it totally loses me. He didn't know what the nuclear triad is--the land, water, and air delivery systems we have in place for the when and if we ever launch a nuclear strike. Senators Rubio and Cruz know this, but when Cruz makes comments like he'd make the sand glow anywhere, I agree with Hillary Clinton--he sounds over his head--that's a definite last-resort. I think Rubio  might have a better temperament, but I still feel like he hasn't taken being a senator, what with missed votes and hearings, seriously enough to have the well-rounded consciousness I'd like in a president.

Ben Carson is Against Anti-American Stuff

For people who are pretty much just soaking in how much of Donald Trump's appeal is outright fascism, I don't want you to miss how his number two in the polls, Ben Carson, is dead-set against, um, anti-American stuff.

Carson said Saturday that he would support monitoring "a mosque or any church or any organization or any school or any press corps where there was a lot radicalization and things that were anti-American."

Asked Sunday if people might take his use of "anti-American" to mean he supported restricting liberties, Carson said, "I think anybody with normal intellect knows exactly what I'm saying."

Carson has also faced criticism for suggesting that the U.S. should refuse to admit Syrian refugees, to ensure that no Islamic extremists who would do harm slip into the country.

Last week, Carson likened blocking potential terrorists posing as Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. to handling a "rabid dog."

Funny old thing, the public record, he's also said he would use the Department of Education to make sure that professors wouldn't radicalize anybody by using some kind of anti-American stuff. (Because learning American history could make you join ISIS.) This would reinforce a code of speech Carson approves of, which is not either the same thing as "political correctness", which, he would have you know, is how Nazi Germany got started. And if you think, for example, that waterboarding is torture and just should not be done, why, that's more of that "politically correct" foolishness. Take your "normal intellect" and make of that what you will.

So, for the record, "politically correct" is that evil thing that happens when you do not agree with the worldview of Ben Carson. You should probably be monitored for that, and if you keep it the hell up, maybe there's a place for waterboarding in your future. Which isn't a bit like Nazi Germany, at all, at all.

Oh Look. Bobby Jindal Dropped Out.

Damn. I had Santorum next on the 2016 Death Watch, but I guess it really is time that Jindal, who was making no headway at all, hung up the old campaign. In a primary that has really outside figures like Trump and Carson who sort of burn up all the oxygen, getting attention is hard enough, but Jindal never seemed to really find the right red-meat tone. He once took on the "stupid party", but in the end, they took him in, and they took him down.

I don't think his run did him any favors in his state, or made him look any better for a possible 2020 go at things. I'm still for Santorum as a sooner rather than later exit, but Graham's support is probably more vaporous.

Ben Carson's Advisors Talk to a Reporter

 

 

 

I think it is not actually a great sign when a foreign policy adviser to a presidential campaign is featured in a story indicating that said candidate is "struggling" with foreign policy and these words are said:

 

"Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East," Duane R. Clarridge, a former CIA official, told the newspaper. Clarridge added that Carson needs weekly conference calls to brief him on foreign policy, so "we can make him smart."

Are we talking not being an iota short but actually being at the not one iota point? See, I'd like a president who is not iota-deficient.

It's okay, though. His one paid national security designer, retired Maj. General Robert Dees, says that Carson has "the right stuff".

That's reassuring. So, Duane R. Clarridge, it's been awhile since I heard that name. He was in the CIA when the Reagan Administration was running a covert war in Nicaragua. Solid resume. Also Gen. Dees is a fine character. Remember when I posted about Jerry Boykin? Well, he's sort of in the same vein. He wants a sort of militarized missionary squad carrying the Gospel as a part of their arsenal. So, that's not obviously problematic.

So fine. He's struggling, but he's trying. We can't all be like Donald Trump, who can actually feel when terrorism is going to happen. That must be very interesting for him. I have a knee that acts up when it's going to rain.

"We'll See What Happens"

Dr. Ben Carson recently gave an interview on foreign policy where he suggested he'd be fine with the US shooting down a Russian plane. When questioned about the possible aftermath of that decision, he replied:

"If they violate it, we will, in fact, enforce it. We'll see what happens. For us to always be backing down because we're afraid of a conflict, that's not how we became a great nation, Chris," he said.

We'll see what happens.  Yes, two nuclear-armed states potting each others' planes over Syria. We'll see what happens.  That doesn't seem to me to be how responsible people think. But what else did he say?

"My point being that if we get out there and we really lead and it appears that we're making progress, that all of the Arab states and even the non-Arab states who are, I think, beginning to recognize that the jihad movement is global" will join, Carson said.

"Beginning to recognize that the jihad movement is global"? This isn't new to the rest of the world--this is only new to Carson. And the "really lead" stuff: please for the love of anything, Google "US-led coalition" and get back to us.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that Dr. Carson is uniquely unqualified on foreign policy--after all, Senator Marco Rubio is throwing around some "clash of civilizations" crap that is specifically unhelpful (I'd say it makes more sense to consider Daesh "anti-civilization"), and Jeb Bush, whose brother did not keep us safe, seems to think that we should only take in Christian refugees. (Senator Cruz says that, too, but wouldn't he? Really?) And then there's Governor Huckabee, who doesn't seem to know that Iran is at war with Daesh, also.

Yes, guys, let's be idiots and make this about Christians versus Muslims, exactly how the terrorists want us to behave.

These Republican candidates are just awful. Are they so warped by the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator of their base that they can not articulate even one reasonable response? (Yes, that was rhetorical.)

Update:  You know, parse this statement from Sen. Cruz's website:

“Such steps, however, are defensive reactions to an enemy that will continue to try to attack us until they succeed once again. We must immediately recognize that our enemy is not ‘violent extremism.’ It is the radical Islamism that has declared jihad against the west. It will not be appeased by outreach or declarations of tolerance. It will not be deterred by targeted airstrikes with zero tolerance for civilian casualties, when the terrorists have such utter disregard for innocent life. We must make it crystal clear that affiliation with ISIS and related terrorist groups brings with it the undying enmity of America—that it is, in effect, signing your own death warrant.”

 So, because Daesh has indiscriminate disregard for life, we should tolerate civilian casualties just like they do to show that anyone associated with them (like the people they kidnap, capture, oppress, sell) should die? I don't think that helps. I really don't.

See, Then There's This Thing Called A General Election?

When Donald Trump is topped in the polls by another outsider, the attacks get a little ugly, don't they? I'm not going to pretend that Donald Trump was incapable of going full-frontal racist. I'm sorry if any of his backers were surprised, but I don't think they were.

Although on the other side, Dr. Ben Carson has invited us to consider that he was, truthfully, at one time, a sociopath with a personality trait of anger that he needed God to lift from him. I don't know if any of that is true, but I do think it's weird he even now is surrounded by shady folks.

Neither of these guys expected to be the frontrunners of legitimate campaigns. The sorry bastards. And neither one of them even should be frontrunners of semi-serious campaigns.

I want to see their books, and their campaigns, in the remaindered bin. But wow, this country certainly has a vibrant rube class!

Update: Trump isn't worse than you think, in some ways he's actually worse than you can think.  He's not a disciplined candidate, and he'll be a ridiculous figure on the international stage.

None of this should be plausible.

The Wages are Too Damn High

I couldn't blog last night about the debates because they literally took a melon-baller to my cranium. Two GOP debates is a kind of brutality. Things like listening to Chris Christie's baseless assertion that Hillary Clinton was coming for anyone's wallet or just pretending that Ben Carson can make any statement regarding foreign policy that actually makes sense in any world whatsoever are patience-exhausting.

But check the tone right from the top of the main card debate--Trump on the minimum wage. Wages are too high. He would not raise the minimum wage. Just last debate, Carly Fiorina said that she believed that a minimum wage was actually unconstitutional. Donald Trump reiterated his position earlier today regarding wages being too high.

This is bullshit. This is the ugliest and dumbest level of bullshit and anyone who thinks America can be great when we are actually bidding to lower the standard of living for American workers is foolish. We want to compete with third-world nations in providing low-income workers?

Let me restate that--we want our elites to sell our labor to corporations for bottom-dollar prices?

Hey rubes! The Donald wants to lower your salary to make the rich people in America great again, get it?

Ben Carson's Biography

Do people remember violent things? I remember when a knife was held on my mom in a bus on the way to her obstetrician when I was about six years old. Would I know any of the other people on the bus who saw that? Nope. Would they be easy to track down? Nope. This happened over thirty years ago, so I know that while I recall this thing, it would be hard to pin down. I can understand how people inquired about some of what Carson lays down regarding his trying to hit people with bricks, or stabbing a friend with a knife, or hitting his mom with a hammer, wouldn't know anything about that. And yet, I think it's really weird that the standard of ones veracity is verifying the degree to which one was, once, a violent sociopath.

Most candidates for elective office do not rely upon a verification of their being a formerly violent sociopath as proof of their honesty. It's a wild double-bind, no? On one hand--such a liar! On the other, such a violent sociopath! Why is this an argument we're having about a guy who never held office and doesn't seem to have real policies? Why aren't both sides of this question equally disqualifying, all other things considered?

Been Spending Most Our Lives in A GOP Grifters' Paradise

I'm trying to get how a rap radio ad became a thing for the Carson campaign. Part of me wants to believe Austerity Mascot, sorry, Aspiring Mogul, just decided to write a song for Dr. Carson because he likes what the guy has to say as a rare bear among conservatives.
Why can't "Carson" rhyme with "awesome" in a world where struggle rhymes with trouble? Never mind. We'll fill in the lacunae with jazz flute and some Carson riffing. It'll sound like music.

But there's just this part of me feeling like some strategist was wondering what the kids these days liked and someone else said "the rap music" and that that's how we got here.

I'm just saying motivational speaking isn't necessarily enhanced when someone drops a beat behind it.

But after all, the Carson Campaign is so miles more professional than what the Founding Fathers had, and they managed, right?  Which is how we even ended up on the moon.  Because we don't need aliens if we have God. And I don't know how all of that is motivational speech, but maybe they could add a little more cowbell?

Kids love cowbell. It's a fever.

Ben Carson's Pyramid Scheme

He's so amazing--the idea that the pyramids are granaries is basically a medieval concept. The Pyramids are not hollow. You could not store much grain in there at all.

 Also, as to his supposed "Marine Todd" moment with a physicist and the idea that the Big Bang theory isn't compatible with the first law of thermodynamics--sometimes, when a person does not answer you it's because they have decided you are a crazy person or they think you would not understand the answer. Okay--he doesn't get the Heisenberg Theorem. But the point you need to know is--if something blew up in the Big Bang, something had to exist. The organization of the matter that was thrown out by the BB followed along the lines of other laws of thermodynamics. The matter was only transformed by an event--which Einstein already told us could happen.

I'm more of a life sciences gal, but really, this is not good understanding of physics at all. But it's also pretty bad history, sloppy Bible study, and not exactly unlike his understanding of things like the economy or foreign policy. He is Head Professor of Made-up Shit at the Dunning Kruger Institute of Things Anally Extracted. He is a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords.

This man has no pants.

The Soft Bigotry of Lowered RNC Expectations

I think RNC Chair Reince Priebus is making a bit of a tactical error in following the Senator Ted Cruz whinge about the toughness of the questions posed by the CNBC moderators and making this a stand against CNBC's parent company, NBC. For one thing, a good argument could be made that questions were tough, but fair, and not appreciably different than questions at the previous GOP and Democratic debates. And for another--why should you make these primaries a cakewalk for these not-ready-for-prime-time buggers if the general election then proves to be a minefield?

The optics of blaming the moderators solely for the shitshow made of the Republican field is a failure to own up to the reality that it consists of three outsiders, and an assortment of part-time grifting Hackenstein Monsters. They sort of are politicians, when they aren't self-promoting. They are post-government. They have policies stitched together from other pols that have gone on that they mean to charge with their own electricity. But their complaint is--don't ask us hard questions: great. So, if you find the questions hard to stomach, what about when you are dealing with real-life situations?

Whimper because Vladimir Putin's tone is too harsh? Complain because the Ayatollah seems kind of biased against you?

What's Donald Trump going to do when he gets the 3 AM phone call? Ignore it because he has something more important on the other line? What's Ted Cruz going to do under pressure--blame someone else when he's supposed to be the guy in charge?

That's not presidential--it's bush league (yeah, pun intended).

There was a Presidential Debate Tonight!

A presidential debate--yayayayayayay!

A GOP debate. Oh. Well....

So, I could seriously analyze it--but let me start off by saying the format where there's an undercard "kid's table" debate is starting to seem really insulting and like a rotten waste of time. So why aren't these people dropping out of the race so they can stop wasting our time? It's not that they have no right to run--they just have no reasonable expectation to win anything. But even the main event debates seem like maybe they are a little too populous. I don't think Mike Huckabee is really looking to be president. I'm kind of wondering what Chris Christie really thinks his odds are. And again, the outsiders, Carson and Trump, say really odd things that make it questionable whether they have the firmest grasp on policy.

The winner and loser of the debate seem to be above. Rubio was capable of dealing with questions with reasonable political instincts and impressed people watching the debate. Bush didn't do a lot of talking, and frankly wasn't about being there.

General impressions:

Rubio: Polished like a finger nail, and about as deep. But his debate coaching must be immaculate. But gosh he seems young. You know how sometimes a parent is asked if maybe their kid should have another year of kindergarten? Sort of like that. But sheesh--he's so tired of the Senate kindergarten.

Fiorina: She has no regard whatsoever for the facts, and says things that are completely wrong with utter confidence. How has FOX News not picked up on her yet? Also she will simplify the tax code to three pages--and that was when I realized she was about that grift, ladies and gents. She also said all of Obama's policies and all of Clinton's policies are just the worst. FOX News, are you listening?

Ben Carson is Out of the Box and Brand New

So, the above is Ben Carson's ad making the case that he is not, actually, a person "in the box" of people who are political insiders, but is a person "outside of the box" who is going to have new ideas because--look ma! no box. If Ben Carson were a cat, he'd be in a box, because, let the record show, cats love boxes. But he is not a cat, cats can't run for president, and humans who are citizens and over the age of 35 can.

Vote for Ben Carson--he's a guy, and he is not in a box, because if he were more box-proximate, then he'd be a totally unelectable cat, amievennearlycorrectaboutthisthing?

People are starting to wonder if he even knows what he is talking about. (He doesn't.) His policy seems to be made up on the fly and needs details filled in--as if he made up his mind to run for president first and then thought he might come up with schemes of how to do it later. He's raising scads of money, but it's getting plowed right back to fundraising for the most part, like it was a campaign that existed basically to make money, not to strategize.

It sort of looks like he's propped up with a kind of buck-raking scheme. I dunno. I've felt the same kind of way about Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich's campaign structures--they aren't actually solid.

I don't know when the Carson bubble bursts. But I feel like these current polls are definitely a bubble.

Ben Carson's Rise and Epistemic Closure

It is very reasonable to try and look at why soft-spoken political neophyte Dr. Ben Carson has risen above very loud-spoken political neophyte Donald Trump in the Iowa polling. I think his rise in the polling is fascinating particularly because even while he is mild-mannered, he says things that are way weirder than The Donald's output. It turns out that Iowans like Carson because the things he says are ridiculous. They like their candidates fringy. You take some random fringy thing he has said, like Obamacare is worse than slavery, and instead of going "Hey, slavery was not cool, and besides, covering our fellow-American's health care is basically decent", they love him because they were thinking that thing!

I wish this surprised me more, but it's kind of in line with the whole "Obama was responsible for the Katrina response" polling, where people actually agreed with a completely non-factual statement. It's almost impossible to plumb whether the respondents agree with this untrue thing on the basis of sheer ignorance of facts, which should be impossible given how recently it occurred, or whether they have partisan impulses so overwhelming that facts simply do not matter.

In part, and no surprise, I blame FOX Mushroom Farm a lot for this state of affairs by purporting to be a news organization that somehow leaves people entirely less well-informed. I also in part blame Glenn Beck, because Ben Carson sounds like a guy who learned everything he ever knew about public policy from Glenn Beck rallies. Take the Cleon Skousen connection. Where in the world does one find this weirdo Bircher guy that would probably be shunned by the upright Yale or Harvard National Review types of the 1950's?