Talk Radio Feud: Mark Levin Blasts Glenn Beck

As Bugs Bunny used to say, “Of course you know, this means war!” But this time it’s verbal war: it’s rising conservative bombastic talker Mark Levin against Glenn Beck.

As we noted in this earlier post, Beck is coming under fire now from some conservatives who feel he’s bad for the conservative movement. Beck is being seen by some to be a bad image for conservatives and Republicans overall.

But could there also be some professional jealousy at work here? Beck seems to have tapped into a big market share of GOPers and is getting lots of media coverage for his ability to mobilize talk radio political culture conservatives. He’s the new kid on the block who many feel may be off his block, but he is tapping into the same kind of anti-government feelings that Ross Perot captured more than 10 years ago.

Now Beck has said that the country would have been worse off if John McCain had been elected. And, Think Progress reports, this elicited an angry response from Levin, a conservative talker closely allied with Limbaugh:

Beck’s opinion elicited a fierce and angry response from right-wing radio host Mark Levin yesterday. “To say [McCain] would be worse is mindless, mindless, incoherent as a matter of fact,” Levin said on his radio show. He then suggested Beck is playing politics: “I don’t know who people are playing to. I don’t know why they’re playing to certain people.”

Levin never mentions Beck by name (he refers to Beck as “the 5 pm’er” because Beck’s show airs at 5 pm on Fox News). He concluded with this final dig at Beck:

“I think there’s enormous confusion and positioning and pandering. It may be entertaining, but from my perspective, it’s not. It’s pathetic.”

Think Progress’ post has some other links about other conservatives upset with Beck — including Joe Scarborough (who is actually so independent from the prevailing conservative talk radio culture that he is probably considered a RINO by many conservatives).

This is a fascinating twist.

Since the ascent of Rush Limbaugh conservative talk has become a kind of rallying point for Republicans. It gathers the GOP faithful (an audience) and sets forth the the popular party polemics (the monologues by the talkers). Yes, the RNC may email or fax talking points but the conservative talkers aren’t given orders by the RNC – they are independent and make their own decisions, according to their own political biases (which generally favor the RNC). Even so, if you want to find out what the RNC feels and what the latest party spin is, just tune into Limbaugh or Sean Hannity — whose show sounds like it is rip ‘n read RNC.

Beck throws a monkey wrench into some of this.

He’s the wild card in the de facto party message emitted by most talkers (Michael Savage does not always repeat the party line). Talkers such as Levin, Limbaugh and Hannity can’t be pleased seeing Beck’s face on Time magazine’s cover or reading pundits write about Beck’s increasing impact on moving his audiences to action and forcing the Obama administration to react to forces set in motion by Beck.

Talk radio became the tail wagging the Republican dog; Beck poses the risk to conservative talkers and mainstream conservatives of becoming the big flea who determines how, when and in what direction the tail that wags the dog wags.

The cartoon by David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star, is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Reproduction is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.

UPDATE: For more details on the conservative backlash to Beck and Scarborough’s comments GO HERE. Here’s one quote from Scarborough:

Scarborough: But when you preach this kind of hatred, and say that an African American president hates all white people — stay with me — hates all white people, you are playing with fire. And bad things can happen. And if they do happen, not only is Glenn Beck responsible, but conservatives who don’t — call — him — out — are responsible.

Scarborough’s comments are significant but it’s really apples and oranges including him in the same category as Levin. Levin is of the Limbaugh/Sean Hannity school. Scarborough clearly marches to his own drummer: he is often both praised and denounced on progressive websites, praised and denounced on conservative websites. That’s because although he’s a Republican, he doesn’t seem to view his show as a way to get certain people elected, but rather as a vehicle to comment through his own ideological and life’s experience prism.

But it’s clear some kind of conservative backlash against Beck has begun on several fronts. The one teeny-weenie factor: it probably won’t make a difference to Beck’s fans who increasingly seem to see him as a singular voice of truth, saying what they are already thinking or have been close to thinking.

One likely impact: if Beck is making headway and garnering huge ratings (boycott shmoycott) by calling on activists to get out there on specific issues and raises (or rather lowers) the bar on how he negatively characterizes Obama, then look for the other talkers to try and match — or surpass him.

Don’t expect Levin, Limbaugh or Hannity to be confused with a CSPAN host any time soon.

UPDATE II: Here’s a good roundup on Beck.