Huffingtonpost.com:

 

Glenn Beck exploded at Chris Matthews for his comments denigrating Michele Bachmann and her views on American history.

Matthews called Bachmann a “balloon head” on Tuesday for saying that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly to end slavery.” He noted that, besides the fact that many of the founders owned slaves, and that slavery only ended nearly a hundred years after the founding of America, slavery was also protected in the Constitution via the three-fifths clause, which stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of all other people when it came to determining how many seats in Congress each state was due.

Beck called the attacks on Bachmann “disgraceful” and said they were happening “because she could run for president of the United States and she could win.”

Then he let loose with an epic tirade. After playing the clip of Matthews, Beck took the phrase “balloon head” and ran with it:

“You sir, are a balloon head that was taught by a balloon head and all you did because you’re a balloon head was sit in your stupid balloon head Ivy League classroom and be indoctrinated by a balloon head and never ever used your balloon head to ask an intelligent question of the balloon head in the tweed jacket! You self-sanctimonious, self-important balloon head, America has had enough. Do your own homework.”
Beck then said that the founders had indeed tried to end slavery. His comments hearkened back to ones he made earlier in January, when he said that the three-fifths clause was put in place to end slavery. This overlooks the fact that the clause benefited slaveholding states, since the alternative was not to count slaves in the population of states at all. The clause added considerably to the population of the slaveholding states and thus gained them more seats in Congress and more power in the U.S. as a whole.

No Beck, it is because she made a dumb ass, erroneous statement. Once again, Beck shows he is out of control. Just listen.

Apparently Bachmann doesn’t think that George Mason, Thomas Jefferson or James Madison, George Washington, all slave holders, were founding fathers. Many of the intelligentsia back in those days were very conflicted between how things should be vs the practical end of forging a nation in an agrarian society.

Is it unrealistic to expect those who grope for higher office be accurate?  Is it unrealistic to expect someone beating us over the head with the Constitution to know something about those who were responsible for its existence?

48 Thoughts to “Beck goes bubblehead on Chris Matthews”

  1. Starryflights

    Glen Beck is a silly, effiminate little man. He really thinks Bachman will win the Presidency? Hahahaha! Stop, stop, you’re killing me…!

  2. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Starryflights :
    Glen Beck is a silly, effiminate little man. He really thinks Bachman will win the Presidency? Hahahaha! Stop, stop, you’re killing me…!

    Glen Beck and Michelle Bachman are under your bed at night!

  3. You left out Sarah Palin also,. I can add a lot of others if you would like. right now I want to expose the jerkiest. Oh you meant Starry’s bed.

    I just think they are easy.

  4. Elena

    Why is calling someone a “balloon head” sexist? Let’s just start with the facts without name calling to play Becks game. Bachman was WAY off, but additionally, what the hell did her faux history lesson have to do with anything in her speech? Her thoughts were a mish mosh of non sequitors in my opinion. Founding fathers to the statue of raising the flag at Iwo Jima to other random examples that had no flow or connection of idea.

  5. juturna

    So, no surprise that talk radio station, WOR, dropped Beck for low ratings…..

  6. I just noticed Beck tries to sound like Limbaugh on his radio show. On TV he has toned it down. Perhaps I am not giving Faux News enough credit.

    Full video on Mathews addressing this issue.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhwCDmMzJ7o

    The bottom line is, not only was Bachmann wrong, but Beck is wrong. Additionally, he must have low self esteem of his own education. Mathews does not have an ivy league education, yet he is given all the trappings by Beck. Beck props up his own ‘rightness’ by comparing ratings. He has better ratings than Mathews. Guess that makes it right. NOT.

    Mathews reminds me of O’Reilly on this one. He refuses to accept deflection and gets O’Reillyish about it, for better or worse.

  7. juturna

    Beck’s mother committed suicide when he was about 15. His stepbrother committed suicide. He never completed college, his daughter developed cerebal palsy as an infant. He was an alcoholic and a drug user. He has some issues. He’s overcome a lot of hurdles albeit in a rather negative way. According to Forbes he made $35MILLION last year. He’s inquired into religions and became a Mormon.

    1. @ Juturna,

      He has some issues that include being an ass to the 5th magnitude. Money won’t cure that. Where did he make this $35 million? All from radio and Faux?

  8. The 3/5’s clause was a compromise to reduce the power of the slaveholding states. The alternative was either count all slaves for purpose of representation or not have ratification. It was a compromise that ultimately hurt the slaveholding states.

    Matthews seems to have a problem with powerful women in general. Instead of attacking their statements and policy opinions, he uses personal attacks.

    http://www.thenewagenda.net/2011/01/27/why-does-msnbc-tolerate-chris-matthews-misogyny/

    Other than that, lets just get out the popcorn and watch the mud fly!

  9. Big Dog

    Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution.

    Some of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, expressed concerns
    about slavery, but delegates only approved an article that said the
    issue might be reviewed again – in 1808. Until then, the national government
    could not even stop importation. (Georgia and South Carolina would have refused
    to join if this article was not improved – slaves died so quickly in those states
    that their plantations needed a steady supply of new ones from Africa).

  10. @Cargo, Bachmann’s words illustrated she simply did not know what she was talking about. Any attempts to bail her out amounted to dodging the question.

    As for Mathews, not a big fan but it isn’t over misogynist behavior. Let’s leave out that Bachmann is female. Did he say anything about her that wouldn’t be said about a man who made stupid, incorrect statements? Not that I heard.

    I don’t really want to hear that Matthews belittles when we are talking about Beck. Beck is king of denigrating, personal remarks. Both are guilty of name calling. However, Bachmann is guilty of extreme ignorance and that cannot be ignored.

  11. Pat.Herve

    I guess you would call Chris Mathews a Left Wing Conspiracy?

  12. juturna

    So several of the founding fathers supported slavery (or turned a blind eye), were Deists not Christian, John Adams defended the British involved the Boston Massacre, George Washington was for a strong centralized government and argued about it with Jefferson, who fathered children with a slave, Benjamin Franklin had numerous illegitimate children and Alexander Hamilton was, by many accounts, gay. Monroe the last of the founding fathers, who enjoys a place in history with Reagan with the largest plurality, was opposed to strong central government, intervened in slave rights and a Deist.

    The Puritans were (thankfully) not the founding fathers. We’ve all learned that religious tolerance meant their way was the only way. But they’re back with a vengence in today’s world!

    So let’s not confuse founding fathers with Puritans. The Tea Party may be more Puritan than FF.

  13. juturna

    Not all Fox. He made a bundle with WOR until they released him for low ratings. Chris Matthews is not the only person who has a problem with powerful women. Most men and women do. Accepting women in places of power is still an issue for many. That a women could be in a position of power is pretty much accepted, that a women in a position power could be sucessful is still under debate and when in doubt resort to appearance and wardrobe.

  14. Hillary was ridiculed and vilified by many in jokes and on the news. She was held to a standard that no other candidate was. I never heard her whine.

  15. Big Dog

    Juturna, also good to remember who the Puritans escaped from while
    seeking “religious freedom” — other Christians. And when they went
    from “dissenters” to top dog — they promptly, turned on anyone who
    didn’t agree with their specific brand of faith.

    The FF’s kicked slavery down the road to explode decades later, but
    did face the key issue of religion. The separation of church and state wasn’t
    and isn’t anti-faith, but the FF’s attempt to keep us from killing each other
    in the name of religion. (Suuni-Shia has nothing on Catholic-Protestant
    conflicts in Europe three centuries ago).

  16. juturna

    I like how you put that “Separation of church and state isn’t anti-faith” so many think so. It’s not separation of faith and state just the organization. Faith is not a structure. There is nothing new under the sun – Catholic-Protestant was all State vs State. They had Emperors styled as “Holy Roman Emperors”. Marie Antoinette was, I think, the daughter of the last Holy Roman Emperor. She was really holy.

  17. Bachmann’s dumb because she said that the forebears fought slavery, yet Matthews isn’t because he misquoted her as saying “founders” and then listed non-founders in his example? Its ok for Matthews having to state that a high school history teacher JUST RECENTLY enlightened him that Washington owned slaves, but its Bachmann that’s uniformed…..

    Its ok for Matthews to ridicule Bachamann, but not ok for Beck to ridicule Matthews……

    Ok, then. I thought that the rule was to criticize ALL that are mocking others.

  18. Elena

    what a sad story Beck has. How awful it must have been to have your mom committ suicide. He must have felt very unloved. sad, very sad.

  19. Let them eat cake.

    Darn, I typed CAT at first. what WAS I thinking.

    I am tired of everyone deifying the FFs. They had feet of clay like everyone else. No one had the cajones to write about it though. They would have never survived the internet. Most of them are no different that leaders today except perhaps they stood out above the rank and file more. They were better educated than their neighbors but look who their neighbors were. In those days most people couldn’t read and write.

    At any rate, they weren’t gods. They were thinkers. Glenn Beck would have laughed at their credentials. Sarah Palin would have called them blue bloods. Bachmann would have probably thought former slaves like Frederick Douglas were founding fathers.

  20. Big Dog

    Juturna,

    “The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, roman or an empire.”

    Voltaire

  21. juturna

    And Chris Matthews might have mocked Betsy Ross…..

    BD – I recall that. K-College I spent in Catholic schools and college. Believe me no one is harder on the Catholics in history than Catholics educators!

  22. @Cargosquid

    Who did Matthews name that isn’t a ‘founding father?’ Most historians call anyone who was a leader during that period of time a ‘forefather’ or a ‘founding father.’ Notice the lack of mothers.

  23. Morris Davis

    Juturna – You said: “Accepting women in places of power is still an issue for many.”

    I disagree. I believe most people acknowledge and accept that Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), Indra Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi), Indira Gandhi, Julia Gillard (Prime Minister of Australia), and Margaret Thatcher, among many others, are women who do or have exercise great power and have done so very effectively. What many people won’t accept are idiots regardless of the idiot’s gender.

  24. juturna

    I said that has been accepted. What I said hasn’t been accepted is that these same women can be sucessfull. There’s a difference.

  25. juturna

    Historians define founding fathers as those who attended the Contenential Congress, Constitutional Convention, those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Women had fewer rights than animals until about the industrial revolution. Then they joined the ranks of animals as working mules.

  26. Many ‘founding fathers’ were back on the home front also getting the new Constitution ratified at the state level.

    I would say that Lighthorse Harry Lee, Paul Revere and Jefferson were all founding fathers.

  27. juturna

    Southerners??? There were Southerners that were founding fathers????!!!! 🙂

  28. Absolutely, and I ain’t just whistling Dixie. If Paul Revere is uncomfortable wedged between Lee and Jefferson, we could substitute Jack Juette, a good Albemarle County Revolutionary War boy.

  29. juturna

    Paul Revere spend a great time in the south according to Massachusetts history – he frequently carried messages from Bawston to Philadelphia.

    I will have to research Jack Juette. A relative perhaps? You are a southern blue blood I recall…

  30. juturna

    Moon, did you know that Jack Jouet was referred to as the “Paul Revere” of the South??!! He was famous for his ride to warn Gov. Jefferson and the legislature of the imminient arrival of the British.

    Thanks!!!

  31. @Moon-howler

    So, it was ok for him to be non-specific, but not Bachmann…..Even Jefferson was conflicted about slavery. The whole Matthews thing is just them trying to knock down the credibility of the opposing political side. I wonder why, in every case, women in power opposing the Democrats, INCLUDING Hillary, were personally attacked? I thought the liberals were all about women achieving power.

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/02/01/chris-matthews-accused-sexism-liberal-womens-advocate-attacks-bachman

    Andrew Jackson, about 160. John Tyler, 70. James Polk, 50 to 25. Zachary Taylor, up to 150 slaves.

    Other presidents through those years, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison and Andrew Johnson also owned slaves. So, if you want to get your history from the congresswoman from Minnesota, that’s, of course, an option. Or you can check it out yourself.

  32. Neither Democrats or Republicans can claim the high road when dealing with women. I seem to remember things got so nasty in South Carolina during the primary that several men stooped so low as to say they had slept with Nikki Haley. There was also the nastiness about McCain’s adopted daughter in 2004. All of that was in house.

    Why must everyone who opposes Bachmann be a liberal? I oppose her and I am far from being a liberal. I oppose almost everything she stands for.

    I missed your point about he wasn’t specific. What are you talking about. Bachmann was fairly specific, and wrong.

    You left out U. S. Grant. He was also a slave owner although not when he was president. What is the point?

  33. Actually, I am fairly confused about your post. Why would I want my history from Bachmann. Shudder!!!! (or Beck) Didn’t she graduate from Oral Roberts Law School. Sorry but that is a step below Pat Robertson’s place.

    Being conflicted over slavery intellectually and being conflicted over the efficacy of slavery are 2 different things. Most of them weren’t conflicted enough to free their slaves before their death.

    Can’t we just agree that Bachmann really made a foolish statement? Is that so hard to do?

    I see Matthews and O’Reilly as similar, on different sides of the political trough. Both need to be taken to the woodshed for a friendly reminder about good manners. Both can be rude bullies. But that doesn’t detract from the fact the Bachmann is all wet.

  34. George S. Harris

    @Big Dog
    Big Dog, did Thomas Jefferson express his concern as a part of foreplay when he was screwing Sally Hemmings or later when he left her little place and returned to the big house? Or did his family express their concerns when they sold off his slaves to pay off Jefferson’s debts?

    Yes, Jefferson signed the act that was SUPPOSED to end the importation of slaves from Africa, but he kept his slaves and owned slaves until his death. But what it did do was drive up the price of slaves and cause owners to split up families and sell them off as breeding stock.

    So how conflicted was Jefferson? Apparently not much.

  35. juturna :

    Moon, did you know that Jack Jouet was referred to as the “Paul Revere” of the South??!! He was famous for his ride to warn Gov. Jefferson and the legislature of the imminient arrival of the British.

    Thanks!!!

    Yes, he is the Paul Revere of Virginia. I did a thread on him even, maybe last July 4th. He is sort of a local hero in Charlottesville. All sorts of things are named after him, I guess when they tired of Jefferson this and that and Monticello this and that.

    No, I don’t believe I am related to him and not a blue blood either. Farmers, tavern owners and mill owners. They could all read and write. I believe the patriarch arrived in 1720 something and they settled in Hanover County and had about 7-8 kids. My branch went to Louisa Co and then settled in Albemarle at Rio Mills and Cloverhill. They all ended up fairly broke, like most Southerners, after the Civil War.

  36. Big Dog

    Mr. Harris, the original point was, Bach and Bachman are in error when they
    imply the FF”s ended slavery. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

    My only way of attempting to understand how Jefferson twisted his moral logic
    to support both liberty and slavery at the same time is to read his writings.
    For many, including myself, there is no small amount of hypocrisy in them on
    the subject of slavery.

  37. Big Dog

    “Why is that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers
    of the negroes?”

    Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1775

  38. juturna

    1720 makes you a blue blood. That is great history.

  39. Wolverine

    Yes, indeed, Jack Jouett of the Virginia Militia was the “Paul Revere” of the South. After spotting by chance in Louisa County Col. Banastre Tarleton and his Tory troops heading for Monticello to capture Virginia’s leading patriots — Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, Benjamin Harrison — who had fled Richmond and were meeting there, Jouett jumped on his horse and rode Hell for high water through the woods and fields to sound the alarm. He was cut so badly by the brambles that he carried the facial scars for the rest of his life.

    But Jouett’s ride may have gone for naught without other heroes who gave him the time needed to complete his mission. Those heroes were Dr. Thomas Watson, his wife, and his Black servants who lived at Castle Hill in Charlottesville. When the Tory troops arrived at Castle Hill, they were tired and hungry. They demanded to be fed. The Watsons were very gracious hosts and invited the whole detachment in for drinks and a good country breakfast. While Dr. and Mrs. Watson plied Tarleton’s officers with well spiked mint julips, the servants in the kitchen, following the Doctor’s orders, did everything they could to stretch out and delay the preparation and serving of breakfast. Col. Tarleton eventually got so fed up with the delay that he stomped into the kitchen to demand the reasons for it. The quick-thinking Black cook reportedly replied: “De soldiers dun eat up two breafuses as fast as I kin cook ’em!!!” This made Tarleton so angry that he ordered some of his own men to be flogged for their impurtenance. Between the spiked mint julips, that crafty cook, and the floggings, Jack Jouett had the time needed to get to Monticello and save the day for Virginia.

  40. juturna :

    1720 makes you a blue blood. That is great history.

    I didn’t find any Jefferson dinner invitations in the family archives. However, John Mosby was friends with my GGgrandfather and the Rio and Hydraulic mills shared a boundary with the Carrs who were related in some way to the Jeffersons. That’s about as close as it gets. Of course, the friendship with Mosby was back in his UVA days around the time he shot someone who bullied him.

  41. juturna

    I would imagine in 1720 there were not too many people going out to dinner in central Virginia. Your ancestors must have known lots of founding folks!! Just the Mosby connection is really fascinating to a NE girl with shallow roots in the USA. (1900 or so. 🙂

  42. Juturna, I just found out about Mosby. Our family is fortunate enough to have its own genealogist. He is married to a very distant cousin we didn’t know. He is just excellent and we just found each other about 3 years ago. He found a document Jan 1917 UVA Alumni Bulletin talking about Mosby’s 3 friends in Charlottesville. One of them mentioned was Drury Burnley who was my GGgrandfather.

  43. juturna

    There’s a vineyard around there with that name. Now I do know my third/fourth cousins. They all live in a three state area.

  44. The vineyard is near old family property but….the vineyard owners are not my people.

    Not sure what a 4th cousin is. Is that the children of the third cousins?

    I mainly know the same relations but just on my mother’s side.

  45. Beck really is confused and so is Bachmann. However, Beck would defend her regardless of what she said. I don’t think people ought to make sexist remarks about female politicos. However, stupid and ignorant knows no gender. If she was Michael Bachmann, I believe the same things would be said.

  46. Disgusted

    juturna :
    So, no surprise that talk radio station, WOR, dropped Beck for low ratings…..

    You stole my thunder. I bet his latest poor ratings came out, he went to the bullpen and that tirade was his way to bring ’em back up. To quote Buddy the Elf. “He’s and angry elf.” “He must be a South Pole elf.” Silly Beck.

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