Since I stayed home with my 7-month old daughter Bernadette a couple of days last week, it afforded me an opportunity to catch a couple of Glenn Beck shows on Fox News.  It’s the first time I’ve really been able to see more than a few minutes of the program since he started, and I was a bit curious.  He’s no longer on the radio here in DC, so it’s really the first time I’ve seen or heard Beck at any great length in some time.  A few thoughts.

- For the first time in my life I thought to myself, “Gee, I could really go for a commercial break right about now.”  I believe the first segment on each show ran for almost 20 minutes uninterrupted.  I often complain that most talks shows – both political and sports – run far too many commercials, but that was just too much unfiltered Beck to take in one sitting.  Maybe MTV, even though I haven’t watched it in about 12 years,  has spoiled the way I look at television.  Whatever it is, there needs to be more breaks in the action just to slow down the pace of the show.  I realize that part of the problem is the idiotic bycott aginst Beck, but man, just throw it back to the studio or something if you can’t find advertisers.

- Beck’s at an 11.  He needs to be at a 7.  I appreciate the emotion, and it makes for an entertaining program.  But the constant drumbeat of “OH MY GOD WE NEED TO GET THESE RASCALS OUT NOW GRRRRRRR!!!!” combined with the hammy over-performance and the “I’m on the verge of tears and/or a nervous breakdown” is again too much to take.

- That said, I do not think he is a threat to the republic.  Yeah, he is a bit of a ham who tends to over-dramatize things, but I’ve seen far worse.  We’ve got bigger issues than whether or not Beck is an over-the-top performer.

But he does make me appreciate the truly good talkers like Rush, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin all the more.  I have mixed emotions about Beck, quite frankly.  I appreciate his fortrightness and his true passion for trying to restore some of our Founding ideals.  But in a lot of ways he reminds me of Hannity – though, to be sure, he’s much better than Hannity.  Neither really offers up any unique insight.  It’s sort of the same old stuff packaged in a different way.  Rush, Laura, and Mark – say what you will about them – have unique takes on any given topic and offer fresh perspectives.  They go a little deeper and really make interesting connections.  Beck is more about throwing out the red meat.  There’s a place for that, but in the end it’s actually just a bit boring.

TIME's Man of the Year?

On Sept. 14 the Senate overwhelmingly voted to cut off all federal funds to ACORN, and the U.S. Census Bureau severed its ties to the organization. This followed Beck’s masterly promotion of a series of videos made by two guerrilla filmmakers who posed as a pimp and prostitute while visiting ACORN offices around the country. ~ TIME Magazine

Now the House has pulled the plug on ACORN.  TIME credits Beck with much of the left’s current heartburn. More here.

(I’ve been hogging the posts here lately and will lay low for a while. My apologies for being so “active” lately.)

I’ve recently posted some comments about Glenn Beck and his increasingly aggressive investigations of corruption tied to the Obama administration and the current Congress. The events over the last few days have been breathtaking, when considered as a whole.

Though a couple of Republicans had earlier attempted to cut off funding to ACORN and expressed concern about the corrupt practices related to voter registration, their efforts were fruitless. Their powerless status in the current Congress, along with their sickening timidity, were mostly laughed at by the likes of ACORN and the hyper-radical left.

They’re not laughing any more. In less than one week, Glenn Beck, in partnership with the much-respected Andrew Breitbart and two 20 something guerilla-warfare videographers by the names of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, have done what the neutered Republicans in Congress have been unable (or unwilling) to do since Obama’s election. Let’s recap what’s happened since last Saturday night, September 6th:

1. Obama czar and self-avowed communist Van Jones, resigns after being hammered relentlessly on Beck’s radio and TV show.
2. Acorn fires 2 workers after Beck breaks and airs the investigative report from James O’Keefe exposing numerous crimes in the Baltimore ACORN office.
3. The Census Bureau severs ties w/ACORN after the video goes viral on the internet, talk radio, and cable news. (ACORN was one of the “volunteer organizations” who were going to be helping with the census in 2010. No word yet as to whether or not they had planned on counting 13 year old prostitutes from El-Salvador).
4.) A second ACORN video is brought to light by Beck with many of the same crimes being committed in the Washington DC ACORN office.
5.) ACORN fires 2 more workers.
6.) Respected WSJ writer Charles Krauthammer gives the story more legs and credibility by writing about it in the WSJ and discussing it on the Hugh Hewitt show. WSJ writer John Fund follows with demands funding be cut off immediately.
7.) Two Republican members of Congress (Bachmann and Boustany) are making new calls for a Congressional investigation and cutting off funds. I suspect that chorus will grow.

That’s one helluva week my friends. Beck, Breitbart, O’Keefe, and Miss Giles deserve our congratulations, support, and prayers. They are doing what real journalists and reporters in America used to do. They are patriots. Thank God for them. Anyone out there still think Beck is “harmless?” I can assure you ACORN, Congress, and the Obama administration don’t think so. I can’t wait to see what next week brings.

(You can follow all this here.)

He says he’s going to name names – BIG names. He says it’s bigger than Watergate. We shall see. More here, here, and here.

He is now promising a news story that will send government officials to jail. I’m betting he’ll be right again. How about you? How many readers will go on record here? Place your bets suckers.