Glenn Beck

Courage, Tears And Fiddler On The Roof At Glenn Beck's Israel Rally

Jillian Rayfield | August 24, 2011, 1:02PM

You probably won't be surprised to hear that Glenn Beck welled-up during his "Restoring Courage" rally in Israel. You might be surprised to hear that there were show tunes.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Enraged At Boehner After Hearing Congress Can't Attend His Israel Rally

Jillian Rayfield | August 19, 2011, 1:01PM

Glenn Beck closes out the "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 2010

Glenn Beck said that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) "should be ashamed" of himself, after he heard that the House Ethics Committee put the kibosh on members of Congress attending Beck's "Restoring Courage" rally in Israel next week.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck To Visit Auschwitz, Broadcast Special From Outside Town

Jillian Rayfield | June 23, 2011, 3:41PM

Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck said Thursday that he will be visiting the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in a visit to Poland, and he'll broadcast a special from a town outside of the camp because this will help him "figure out," he says, "how did this happen?"

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Van Jones

Van Jones Calls End Of Glenn Beck's Fox Show A 'Triumph Of American Capitalism'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 18, 2011, 3:51PM

Van Jones, Fmr. Obama Green Jobs Advisor

MINNEAPOLIS -- Van Jones, the Saturday keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation conference here, has a special relationship with Glenn Beck.

Asked to ponder the end of Beck's Fox News show on June 30, Jones pointed to what regular Beck viewers might see as an unlikely ally: capitalism.

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Alludes To The Holocaust In Defense Of Israel Rally (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | May 17, 2011, 6:20PM

It was almost inevitable that Glenn Beck would bring up the Holocaust when talking about his planned rally in Israel this summer, and it seems that Tuesday was the day.

"This August," Beck said on his Fox News show, "this journey to Israel for me is personal. It's not about celebrity or teaching anybody a lesson or sending a message to any earthly power. It is about sending a message to our maker and letting him hear our message, as individuals. That this time, I will stand and I will be counted. I will not cower as people have in the past. I will not stand by and watch a whole race of people be called vermin."

"Because I've read history," he continued. "I know how it ended last time and I know how it started. First they came for the Jews, and I said nothing. Let me declare to the entire world, and ask who's with me. This time I will stand. This time I will say something. This time I will be a force for good."

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Glenn Beck

Anti-Islam Pastor: Glenn Beck's Jerusalem Rally Is A 'Scam' By A 'Mormon Cult Member'

Jillian Rayfield | May 17, 2011, 11:09AM

Bill Keller, an anti-Islam pastor from Florida, is highly offended that "Mormon cult member" Glenn Beck would organize a rally in Israel, calling it Beck's "latest scam on the Christian community, and an exploitation of Israel that plays on the love Christians have for the Jewish people and the land of Israel."

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck Announces 'Restoring Courage' Rally In Israel This Summer

Jillian Rayfield | May 16, 2011, 11:10AM

On his radio show Monday, Glenn Beck announced that he'll be holding a "Restoring Courage" rally this August in Jerusalem, which he said would be a "life altering event" that the "very gates of hell" would try to prevent.

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Fox News

Glenn Beck vs. Mike Huckabee Goes to Round 3

Benjy Sarlin | April 22, 2011, 2:02PM

Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck

The ongoing feud between Fox hosts Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee shows no signs of slowing down as Beck slammed the former Arkansas governor as unqualified to run for the President on Friday.

To recap the story so far: Earlier this week, Beck called Huckabee a "progressive" for supporting Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign. In response, Huckabee issued a lengthy and hard-hitting condemnation of not only Beck's statement but his entire conspiracy-laden ouevre.

On his radio show this morning, Beck went another round, claiming that Huckabee's reaction to his previous attacks proves he isn't White House material.

"If, sir, you are this thin-skinned about your politics, it might be best for you to stay on the sidelines" and not run, Beck said.

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Glenn Beck

Mike Huckabee Tears Into Glenn Beck For Labeling Him 'Progressive'

Benjy Sarlin | April 21, 2011, 3:34PM

Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck has seriously irked fellow FOX News host Mike Huckabee, whom he labeled a "progressive" on his radio show yesterday over the once-obese governor's support for Michele Obama's campaign to promote children's health. A clearly upset Huckabee fired back at Beck today with a statement that not only addressed the individual incident but broadly condemned the host's trademark fearmongering against the left.

"This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a 'cancer' and a 'Nazi,'" Huckabee said. "What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity -- not of hope -- but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign to address childhood obesity."

While noting that he's "no fan of her husband's policies for sure," Huckabee said Beck misrepresented the First Lady's program "either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another 'boogey man' hiding in the closet that he and only he can see."

Defending Michelle Obama's approach as "about personal responsibility" and not big government, Huckabee repeatedly took dead aim at Beck's notorious penchant for conspiracy theories.

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Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann: Glenn Beck Can Solve Our Financial Problems

Jillian Rayfield | February 22, 2011, 10:21AM

Talk Show Host Glenn Beck and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

In a speech in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Saturday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) offered some solutions to the country's financial woes, saying, "We can't put the so called social issues on the back burner while we are solving our economic challenges because the family is the solution to those challenges."

Bachmann offered that when it comes to entitlement reform, "I think if we give Glenn Beck the numbers, he can solve this."

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Olympia Snowe

Meet Olympia Snowe's New Hard Rocking Tea Party Challenger

Benjy Sarlin | February 11, 2011, 12:02PM

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Maine moderate Olympia Snowe, whose Senate seat has long been considered vulnerable in a Republican primary, has a new Tea Party challenger: Andrew Ian Dodge.

The state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots in Maine, Dodge told TPM he will announce his entrance into the race Friday at a press conference at CPAC. He'll be the second to jump into the GOP primary against Snowe after businessman Scott D'amboise declared his run last year.

You may not recognize Dodge's name, but if you've read news coverage of the Tea Party over the last year you've almost certainly seen him quoted. Dodge's friendly relationship with reporters and off-beat analysis has made him one of the most frequently cited activists in the movement by mainstream reporters.

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John Dingell

John Dingell Runs Through Litany Of Violent Rhetoric On House Floor (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | January 12, 2011, 4:37PM

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

Members of Congress have, by and large, stayed out of the partisan fray over violent rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting spree. But there have been some exceptions. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) took the opportunity to muse that the government may be withholding information about the crime because Jared Loughner is a flag-hating Marxist liberal who might embarrass President Obama.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), by contrast, ran through a litany of now-infamous statements by high-profile politicians, leaving blank the names of people and issues under threat.

"Let me read some statements that I have seen to be pretty awful," he said on Wednesday.

Here they are in order:

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Fox News

How Glenn Beck And Fox News Successfully Painted AZ Shooter As Hitler, Marx Devotee

Brian Beutler | January 11, 2011, 10:45AM

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck

Within hours of the shooting spree in Arizona, conservative blogs lit up with the news that the suspect, Jared Loughner, was an aficionado of Mein Kampf and the Communist Manifesto. A Hitler/Marx devotee, the logic went, is someone too idiosyncratic or crazy to be part of any mainstream political movement. Some went further, and cited the information as proof that Loughner was the sort of big-government liberal they had nightmares about.

As with so many of these fast-propagating conservative memes, this one got its start on Fox News.

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Fox News

Media Matters Calls On Murdoch To Rein In Beck, Palin

Brian Beutler | January 10, 2011, 1:00PM

Fox News host Glenn Beck

In a letter delivered to News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch Monday afternoon, and obtained by TPM, Media Matters founder David Brock says the time has come for Fox News to take responsibility for its programming. Specifically, Brock is calling on Murdoch to make Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck tone down their rhetoric on threat of termination -- or to be complicit in acts of political violence.

"Beck and Palin are two of Fox's most recognizable figures," Brock writes. "Before this heartbreaking tragedy in Arizona, you were either unwilling or unable to rein in their violent rhetoric."

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Barack Obama

Freak Out! Right Wingers Howl Over Obama's India Trip (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 4, 2010, 5:38PM

President Barack Obama, with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck inset.

As you may have heard, President Obama will travel to India on Saturday, part of an overseas diplomatic mission that will put the president face-to-face with the leaders of a key strategic and trade partner, not to mention a regional nuclear power. For Obama, the India visit is a chance to get all presidential after his recent "shellacking." For India, it's a change to further a relationship mutually beneficial to both nations. For the right wing, it's a one-way ticket to Freakoutville.

Here's the right-wing India trip meme: Obama is spending more money -- $200 million per day -- than the nation spends daily on the war in Afghanistan, in order to fly something like one million planes full of his closest friends to a multi-day bacchanal on the steps of the Taj Mahal, all paid for by you, the taxypayer. Or something.

As Eric Lach reported earlier today, the meme is just about 100% garbage, according to the White House. "No basis in reality" was the way Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest described it.

But that hasn't stopped the engines of right-wing panic from spooling up to 11 over what is, basically, a totally normal -- though inarguably incredibly expensive -- part of being President.

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DE-SEN

Conservative On O'Donnell's Claremont Creds: 'It's Helped Me Tremendously' (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | October 8, 2010, 4:39PM

Chuck DeVore and Christine O'Donnell

Conservative Republican Chuck DeVore told TPM today that he agrees with Christine O'Donnell that a week-long think tank program qualifies her for the United States Senate. He completed the Claremont Institute's competitive Lincoln Fellowship program two years after O'Donnell was a fellow, and he said in an interview its rigorous discussion of the Constitution is unrivaled in modern politics.

"It's helped me tremendously in my political life. What it gave me was the practical understanding of what makes the United States unique," DeVore, a member of the California State Assembly, told TPM.

DeVore said that being a Lincoln Fellow gave him "a deeper understanding" of whether laws he is voting for on the floor of the assembly are "really appropriate" or constitutional.

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9/12

The Littlest Tea Party Mega-Rally: TPM's Day At The 9/12 March

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 12, 2010, 7:28PM

9/12 Tea Party Rally

For the most part, the day was gray, wet and overcast. Though the threat was there, serious precipitation never came. That's not how the several thousand tea partiers gathered in DC for the second 9/12 rally today would describe things, though -- according to them, a hard rain fell on President Obama and his socialist cronies.

This was not the 9/12 rally of a year ago. The crowd was miniscule by comparison, with many tea partiers kept away from the nation's capital by competing 9/12 events in Sacramento and St. Louis, and many others not interested in shelling out for a return schlep to the city so soon after they packed the Lincoln Memorial for Glenn Beck's August 28 event.

Some tea partiers were upset at Beck for holding his own late summer tea party DC rally -- more than one told me they wished he hadn't held his overtly apolitical rally two weeks before 9/12, which is all about political organizing and getting set for November.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Partiers Storm DC For Second (And Smaller) 9/12 Rally]

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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann Claims Estimate Of 1.6 Million People At Glenn Beck Rally (AUDIO)

Eric Kleefeld | August 31, 2010, 10:10AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is saying that a lot -- a lot -- of people attended Glenn Beck's rally in Washington over the weekend.

Appearing on Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday, Bachmann said: "The crowds were overwhelming, and if you saw the aerials on the Drudge Report this weekend, there was an aerial photo. Unofficially, off the record, we talked to one of the guys from the National Park Police who told us he thought it was 1.6 million. There had to be over a million people there. People were packed in from the Washington Monument all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. And for anyone who's ever been there, that's a huge area."

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck: Obama's Not A Racist -- It's His Religion That's The Problem (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | August 30, 2010, 10:32AM

Fresh off of his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Glenn Beck said on Fox News Sunday that he regrets saying that President Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people" last July, but chalked it up to a misunderstanding: "I didn't understand really his theology. His viewpoints come from liberation theology. That I think is what at the gut level I was sensing, and I miscast it as racism."

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Attendees Say Tea Party Misunderstood

Ryan J. Reilly | August 29, 2010, 1:52PM

Former "Saturday Night Live" star Victoria Jackson has released a YouTube video that is on the verge of going viral that warns the American public, "There's a communist living in the White House." William Temple (Georgia) appeared as Patrick Henry

Members of the Tea Party are misunderstood, those in attendance for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally yesterday told TPM in interviews.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Showcases Who's Beckistan?]

Willie Wood of Dunbar, N.C. told TPM she and her family -- sprawled out to the left of the stage on lawn chairs -- came to the rally to honor her country and to see Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin because "they stand for freedom." She is hopeful Republicans will take back the House in November. Her biggest issues are jobs, security, taxes and the national debt.

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Participant Demands: 'Protect White Cracker Babies'

Ryan J. Reilly | August 29, 2010, 12:58PM

A participant in Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally wore a T-shirt that read "Protect White Cracker Babies."

A Cleveland man wore a t-shirt to Glenn Beck's rally on Saturday with the slogan "Protect White Cracker Babies."

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Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Brings Out The Red, White And Blue Sequins

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 7:21PM

Thousands of Tea Party activists gathered for a "Restoring America" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday, August 28, 2010.

There weren't many signs. There were, however, shirts, flags and flag-shirts.

Glenn Beck's controversial "Restoring Honor" rally took over the National Mall on Saturday, in the same place as and on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

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'Restoring Honor'

Beck Rally Attendee: 'Homosexuals' and 'Affirmative Action' Keep Me From Moving Up (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 7:09PM

An unidentified man who said he was a federal worker said that "homosexuals" and "affirmative-action" were keeping him from moving up at his job. The man got into an argument with an African-American man at the site of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on Saturday.

"Why you punishing me for something I didn't do?" the man said. "Oh, I'm being punished, I'm being held back. I work for the federal government. I have a job, but I can't move up," he added.

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Glenn Beck

'Restoring Honor' And 'Reclaim The Dream' Attendees Clash Over MLK (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | August 28, 2010, 6:26PM

Protesters at the rallies held on August 28, 2010 clashed on the Mall.

Conservatives attending Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally clashed with demonstrators headed towards the future site of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on Saturday.

One marcher with the "Reclaiming the Dream" rally which was organized by Al Sharpton's National Action Network, the National Urban League and the NAACP was holding a sign that said "Reclaim the dream... stop these racists" with a cartoon of Beck.

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Glenn Beck

TPM's Live Coverage From Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally

Megan Carpentier | August 28, 2010, 10:00AM

Glenn Beck is holding his controversial "Restoring Honor" rally today, and TPM's own Ryan J. Reilly is there. The rally, which Beck scheduled for the anniversary and location of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, is nominally dedicated to raising funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives scholarships to the children of Special Ops soldiers killed in combat and financial assistance to wounded troops. But although the charity isn't political -- and has asked that the rally not be -- the line-up is a who's-who of conservative and tea party stars, including Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and is supported by volunteers from conservative and tea party organizations. Read more about the people, and the controversy, behind the rally here.

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Glenn Beck

Your Guide To Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally: No Signs, More Security

Ryan J. Reilly | August 27, 2010, 5:44PM

Glenn Beck addresses fans.

Glenn Beck -- the guy who once said President Barack Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people" -- is having another rally. And wouldn't you know, the talk show host's "Restoring Honor" rally will just happen to take place on the anniversary of and in the same place as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

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Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | August 27, 2010, 4:41PM

Republican candidate for US Senate in Alaska Joe Miller

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Senate candidate Joe Miller (R-AK), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL).

• Fox News Sunday: Glenn Beck.

• NBC, Meet The Press: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D), Brad Pitt.

Republicans

Pence To Join Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus

Brian Beutler | July 19, 2010, 4:05PM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)

Michele Bachmann's freshly minted Tea Party Caucus has its first member of GOP leadership: Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence.

At a press availability this afternoon, Pence was enthusiastic. "You betcha," Pence said when asked if he'd join.

"I come out of a background -- I was chairman of the Republican Study Committee, I was chairman of...the House Conservative Caucus," he added. My hope is that this Tea Party caucus...will be an avenue for bringing some of the energy and the enthusiasm and the focus that I've seen, from the National March on Washington where I spoke on 9/12, to traveling around Indiana and all around the country, deeper into the well of Congress.

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AZ-SEN

Glenn Beck Declares 'J.D. Hayworth's Campaign Is Over' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | June 23, 2010, 4:43PM

Talk show host Glenn Beck and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), who was hoping to harness Tea Party anger in his Republican primary challenge against Sen. John McCain, has just earned himself the complete ire and contempt of one the Tea Party kings -- Glenn Beck himself. On his radio show today, Beck positively ripped Hayworth for his appearance in a 2007 informercial promoting a company's questionable seminars promoting "free money" in government grants.

"I believe we can announce on this program that J.D. Hayworth's campaign is over," Beck said, in a clip that has been distributed to the press by the McCain campaign. It should be noted that Beck is not even remotely a fan of McCain, either, but he now thoroughly rejects Hayworth as an infomercial pitchman who urged people to seek out money from the government. And to top it off, Beck and his radio show crew did mocking impersonations of Hayworth and various notable infomercial fly-by-nighters.

When contacted by TPMDC, the Hayworth campaign declined to comment. The TPM Poll Average gives McCain a lead in the Republican primary of 51.2%-37.1%. The primary will be held on August 24.

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SC-04

Bob Inglis's Defeat Sends Warning Signal To GOP: Don't Badmouth Glenn Beck

Eric Kleefeld | June 23, 2010, 12:12PM

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC)

The landslide defeat of Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), who lost his Republican primary last night by a whopping 71%-29% margin against Spartanburg County Solicitor Trey Gowdy, could provide a stern warning to Republicans everywhere: If you deviate from the talk-radio and Tea Party line, this could happen to you.

In interviews this morning, two separate Republican sources cited to me two key events in Inglis's political downfall: When he told a town hall meeting last year to turn off Glenn Beck, and when he voted with House Democrats in September 2009 to reprimand Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) for yelling "You lie" at President Obama during a speech to Congress. Other factors that were cited included Inglis's vote for the TARP bailout -- an issue that also helped sink Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) at his state Republican convention in May -- and his work on the issue of climate change.

"It's one thing to be moderate on a couple things. It's another thing to go out of your way to essentially insult your own base," said one GOP source, who also added: "This is why people are forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh if they say something fairly negative about him. You cannot be pro-actively poking your finger in the eye of your base."

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Rand Paul

Rand Paul: A Primer

Zachary Roth | May 21, 2010, 1:51PM

KY-SEN candidate Rand Paul (R)

So we all know that Rand Paul, at least until recently, had some serious concerns about the part of the Civil Rights Act that banned racial discrimination by private businesses. But people may not know much else about the GOP's new Senate nominee from Kentucky.

Here's a quick primer:

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Eric Massa

Massa: 'I Wasn't Forced Out. I Forced Myself Out. I Failed' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 9, 2010, 5:29PM

Former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY)

Appearing on Glenn Beck's TV show, former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) bluntly admitted that his resignation, over allegations of sexual harassment, was his own fault.

"I wasn't forced out. I forced myself out. I failed," said Massa. "I didn't live up to my own codes. I own this. I take full and complete responsibility for my misbehavior. And goodness only knows what allegations they're gonna throw at me. There's even new ones today and we're gonna talk about that."

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Rush Limbaugh

Poll Data: Conservatives Really Do Like Limbaugh -- And Dems Could Be Under-Estimating Glenn Beck

Eric Kleefeld | December 1, 2009, 11:10AM

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh

The recent Vanity Fair/60 Minutes poll finds that Rush Limbaugh is widely seen as the single most influential conservative in America -- but the poll internals, provided to TPM by Vanity Fair and the CBS polling department, also suggests that Democrats could be seriously underestimating the pull of Glenn Beck.

The poll had asked: "Who among the following do you think is currently the most influential conservative voice in America?" The top-line result was Rush Limbaugh 26%, Glenn Beck 11%, Sarah Palin 10%, Dick Cheney 10%, Sean Hannity 8%, and John Boehner (the only current elected official in the poll) at 4%.

My honest expectation, before receiving the internal data, was that Democrats would be overestimating the pull of Limbaugh, while self-identified Republicans and conservatives -- the best people to ask if you want an answer for who is the most influential conservative -- would shy away. But not so at all.

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Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin: Hero Of Talk Radio Listeners -- But Anyone Else?

Eric Kleefeld | November 30, 2009, 12:13PM

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

The new Washington Post poll illustrates the extent to which Sarah Palin's political appeal is a disproportionate one, focused on the harder line of the Republican Party -- which also happens to be where the GOP's energy is these days. The key question we have to really answer in the next few years, then, is how far Palin's disproportionate support among the hard right can really get her, and whether she can expand from there.

Overall, Palin had an 18% plurality when Republicans and GOP-leaners were asked who their choice for president was in 2012. But among Rush Limbaugh listeners it was a whopping 45%, and also a third among Glenn Beck viewers (we can probably assume that these two groups overlap to some extent). When asked who best represents the GOP's core values, Palin attracted 17% support -- with 48% among Limbaugh fans, and 35% among Beck's audience.

Palin certainly has built up a following with these two hosts and their audiences. She's not ruled out a Palin-Beck ticket in 2012 -- though Beck has ruled it out with some very colorful language. Limbaugh has praised Going Rogue as "one of the most substantive policy books I've read." And no less a voice than Bill Kristol, a frequent advocate of Palin's, has said that the GOP's "center of gravity, I suspect, will instead lie with individuals such as Palin and Huckabee and Gingrich, media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh."

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Republicans

Top 10 Wild And Wacky Political Voices -- For Whom We're All Very Thankful

Eric Kleefeld | November 25, 2009, 6:04PM

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rush Limbaugh

Here at TPM, we definitely have an eye for the weird -- and speaking for myself, I particularly enjoy the crazy stuff that right-wingers often say.

The American right often uses the rhetoric of a persecuted minority, even when they're actually in power. So having a Democrat in the White House, let alone a progressive black Democrat from Chicago named Barack Hussein Obama, has driven them to whole new heights (or lows, depending on how you count it) of rhetoric.

So let's take a look at some real stars of our current political rhetorical wars. The list is mostly Republican -- and you betchya that it was an obvious choice for the top spot -- plus one Democratic "Congressman With Guts" who gives the opposition a taste of their own medicine. We've got politicians, talk show hosts, and people who seem to be both at the same time. So sit back, and enjoy the crazy.

I'm certainly thankful to them -- for making my job a lot more interesting. If they weren't around, what would there be for me to write about?

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