Newsflash: Van Jones was a small fish. And communism no longer threatens the United States.
Source: Bill O'Reilly of Fox News
Check out this segment (below) from the Sept. 8 broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. Bill O'Reilly quizzes colleague Glenn Beck on l'affaire Van Jones. And then tell me in the comments what you think is going on here.
Segment highlights:
O'Reilly asks Beck to explain why Van Jones was an important target.
Beck: This guy, by just being in the White House, think of this, what message does it send to the youth of America that a Marxist, anarchist, self-avowed communist can work in the White House?
O'Reilly: You know what it says to me? Equal opportunity employment!
The two laugh (EEO being anathema to many conservatives), but Beck seems startled to be getting even jocular pushback from O'Reilly.
O'Reilly then starts to slide in the knife, by questioning the merits of the story:
Look I haven't been covering this Van Jones thing - and you have been covering it intensively - because he's a little guy; it doesn't really matter.
Beck, apparently at sea on the details of his vast left-wing green jobs conspiracy without his teleprompter, asks to come back on the show to explain "how it all fits together" and "what Van Jones says about this administration."
But O'Reilly keeps Beck on the hot seat:
Well, you have three minutes to do it now. You don't have to come back, give me the big picture: Why is Van Jones important?
After a bit of wry joshing to the effect that Beck needs a bit of foreplay to warm up to the whole story:
Beck: The big picture here is, Barack Obama continues to surround himself with not just, we're not talking Democrats here, we're talking about radicals. O'Reilly: Do you think Obama even knew the guy worked in the White House?
Beck: The big picture here is, Barack Obama continues to surround himself with not just, we're not talking Democrats here, we're talking about radicals.
O'Reilly: Do you think Obama even knew the guy worked in the White House?
Beck does, strongly. But when O'Reilly presses him, it largely boils down to Beck having read on a "lefty blog" or "in the paper" that "Michelle Obama loved him."
Then O'Reilly drives home the knife, breaking it to Beck (and perhaps as well to their joint viewership) that the Cold War is over. Beck resists with some of his classic push-poll questions (of the "When will President Obama prove to the American people that he's never drowned a kitten?" variety), but it's O'Reilly Victricius all the way:
O'Reilly: Your hypothesis is that ... the president is a closet Marxist? How far are you taking this? Beck: I don't know, Bill. O'Reilly: But you're on the trail. Beck: I think Americans need to ask themselves the question. Bill, you're president of the United States. Would you have a man who's a self-avowed communist -- O'Reilly: No, I wouldn't. Beck: -- who said I'd rather lose the radical pose for the radical ends? O'Reilly: Here's what did it for me. I don't even care about the dopey far-left politics. When he signs that petition about 9/11, that eliminates him from public service. Beck: I don't understand this. [To the camera:] America, when did we stop caring about communism? O'Reilly: Because communism is not a threat to us anymore. Beck: [Face dropping as if someone's stolen his Christmas candy] Are you kidding me?
O'Reilly: Your hypothesis is that ... the president is a closet Marxist? How far are you taking this?
Beck: I don't know, Bill.
O'Reilly: But you're on the trail.
Beck: I think Americans need to ask themselves the question. Bill, you're president of the United States. Would you have a man who's a self-avowed communist --
O'Reilly: No, I wouldn't.
Beck: -- who said I'd rather lose the radical pose for the radical ends?
O'Reilly: Here's what did it for me. I don't even care about the dopey far-left politics. When he signs that petition about 9/11, that eliminates him from public service.
Beck: I don't understand this. [To the camera:] America, when did we stop caring about communism?
O'Reilly: Because communism is not a threat to us anymore.
Beck: [Face dropping as if someone's stolen his Christmas candy] Are you kidding me?
Whoa.
(Hat tip to Melody and The Osterley Times)
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