Frum vs. Horowitz on Glenn Beck

David Frum debates David Horowitz and David Swindle over Glenn Beck’s role in the conservative movement.

David Frum, GOP Surrenders to Beck’s Mob Rule

Sept. 11, 2009

Republican senators know the truth about Cass Sunstein – Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Only 33 Republican senators voted “no” on the cloture vote on his nomination, the vote that mattered. Yet unfortunately they also fear the wild disinformation broadcast by Fox News and credulously believed by millions of Fox viewers.

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David Horowitz, The Circular Firing Squad Hits Glenn Beck

September 11, 2009

My real quarrel with Frum is that he denigrates Beck (”mob rule” indeed) and expresses the hope that Beck will soon be gone.  This is more than over the top on Frum’s part. It is a betrayal of the conservative cause (much as his unseemly attack on Limbaugh was, too). Without voices like Beck’s and Limbaugh’s — and Ann Coulter’s for that matter — the conservative cause and the cause of this country would be hugely damaged.

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David Frum, Whose Side is Glenn Beck On?

September 14, 2009

In his attempted rebuttal of my post on Glenn Beck, David Horowitz agrees that Beck’s attack on Cass Sunstein was false. Yet that falsehood does not worry Horowitz. He would still rather have “Glenn Beck out there fighting for our side.” But how do we define “our side”?

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David Horowitz, Glenn Beck is On Our Side

September 14, 2009

[T]he question that David puts at the end of his blog — whose side is Glenn Beck on, is easy. He’s on our side. When I listen to Beck I don’t have any sense that he does not love this country — the actual country we live as opposed to some fantasy of the way it might have been 200 years ago or 200 years hence. In fact I have the sense that he loves this country and will risk his career to defend it — and that’s good enough for me.

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David Swindle, Is Glenn Beck a Disciple of Crackpot Ron Paul?

September 15, 2009

What’s [Glenn] Beck’s crime regarding [Ron] Paul? Being too nice and respectful to him? Actually engaging Paul in intellectual discussion and admitting that he might agree with him on some issues? Maybe it’s just me but perhaps Frum’s attempt to mislead his center-right readership at Frum Forum about Beck’s views in order to banish him from Conservatism is a far greater offense.

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David Frum, Glenn Beck and Ron Paul

September 19, 2009

Debating David Horowitz about Glenn Beck, I made the point that it was very strange that David Horowitz can excoriate Ron Paul and then enthusiastically defend Beck, who is (I wrote) Paul’s “chief TV enthusiast and publicist.” You’d think that reviewing Glenn Beck’s comments would be a matter of some urgency for David Horowitz.