>>
one in years,
richard wolffe
, msnbc
political analyst
and
ben smith
, national political reporter for "politico." i want you to look at clips, beginning rich, beck, palin. first of all
newt gingrich
, says he doesn't support -- the
united states
shouldn't support
muslim brotherhood
or talking with them, in fact chblgt here is what he told cnn.
>>
secretary clinton said we want to reach out to the
muslim brotherhood
. this is absolutely total misreading of history. the
muslim brotherhood
is a mortal enemy of our civilization. they say so openly. their slogan says so openly. their way is jihad. their method is death. for us to encourage in any way the inclusion of
muslim brotherhood
is fundamentally wrong.
>>
if you look at
newt gingrich
you see a mortal enemy to civilization. here is
glenn beck
on the radio. let's listen to his thoughts.
>>
i want the left to know, i want my flag in this soil. groups from the hard core socialist and
communist left
and extreme islam will work together because they are both a common enemy of israel and the jew. islam wants caliphate. communists want a communist new
world order
. they will work together and they will destabilize because they both want chaos."
>>
he's the same person out there saying the two president bushes and the way they conducted bombing campaigns and two iraq wars were really working with this new
muslim world
order. bill crystal, not conservatives supporting
mubarak
. here is what he said on "
morning joe
" today.
>>
a genuine democratic protest.
>>>
take a look.
sarah palin
a full look, she took a swipe at
president obama
's handling of
egypt
. let's listen to her. min.
>>
it's a difficult situation. thats
3:00 a.m
.
white house
phone call
, same for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the
white house
. it seems that call went right to the answering machine. nobody yet has -- nobody yet has explained to the american public what they know, surely they know more than the rest of us know, who it is who will be taking the place of
mubarak
.
>>
she talks like a
cuckoo clock
. i think when she gets that patented, that's what she said sell,
cuckoo clocks
with her coming out every hour or half hour. her take on how the president handled the crisis in
egypt
. let's listen to senator graham.
>>
quite frankly
president obama
has handled it well.
mubarak
is going to go. he's announced he's not going to seek re-election. i disagree with governor palin over this particular issue.
>>
let me go to
richard wolffe
. richard, if there ever was a time for dealing with
tricky business
it's dealing with this transition of power in
egypt
. it's not easy. we've had an alliance. we also know he's a dictator. we know or learning he may be a clepto, having taken a lot of money out of that country. at the same time we need to make a transition to something not as bad or better. it's not easy. it's interesting to watch the chasm on the right. they are at least consistent, neo-
conservative
, pushing the argument we have to have
democracy in the middle east
ultimately even with risks.
>>
there's a third which senator graham represents here, which is
conservative
opinion, more realistic in saying let's deal with the world as it is out there. less that tension that played out between the conservatives and neo-cons through the bush years. what's remarkable is seeing the conspiracy side of this take ahold.
newt gingrich
, who is a self-styled historian or student of history making some of the same kind of mistakes. you cannot see this region the
rest of the world
purely in terms of post 9/11 american political framework. you cannot project out everything from the bush era. if you are, at least going to study the bush era properly. the experiment of democracy, untraveled democracy inside the
middle east
is most clearly demonstrated by the senior authority with hamas taking power in the
gaza strip
. how does that fit into the
glenn beck
conspiracy of people who are anti-israel and the communists working together. this was helped facilitated by the
bush administration
. if you don't have an orderly transition, you have a disorder for allies. islamists and communists working together it's as if they don't know what
mubarak
or
saddam hussein
ever stood for.
>>
of course baathists secular, closest to the left. i'm not sure but let's talk about this as sort of a competency test.
glenn beck
, would he pass one. if somebody were to come and run for office and say is there a conspiracy -- you can catch him by the way he behaves. here is somebody who says the two wars in iraq were directed in the bombing campaign so as to avoid targeting what he calls ancient babylon which he says to be the seat of
world power
under this new caliphate. what would he think if they were coordinate? is this what's going on with bill crystal,
lindsey graham
and people are finally saying we have to upchuck these people on the right, they are just causing us trouble.
>>
that's exactly what it is. this was an opportunity for crystal above all to say publicly what a lot of that
conservative
elite has quietly said to each other, which is we've got to distance ourselves. he doesn't stand for us. he says crazy things. when you hear him say that, editor of
national review
, jumped on and agreed with him, it was an opportunity for them to distance themselves from somebody who had become an embarrassment.
>>
i'm not a
conservative
, when i was a kid i liked libertarian argument like hillary did, a lot of us did, saw some conflicts in that thought but one thing in the '50s and '60s, bill buckly said you can't be a
conservative
and anti-semite, for example, you cannot be a crazy person.
richard wolffe
on this point, seems to me there is some housecleaning going on here.
>>
there is a positioning that's going on clearly in front of the
2012
primaries here. but i think the real thompsthe real competition is not going to be won by somebody saying you're outside the mainstream or inside the mainstream. looking for more change, anti-establishment, above all gets prizes and points for criticizing obama no matter how outlandish that is. yes, bushes are part of this now because they are seen as a tainted legacy because they promoted government, too much foreign intervention. i don't know the sort of insanity competence electability arguments are going to
hold the line
.
>>
richard, would the average
conservative
say they thought w was targeting our airplanes to avoid hitting a muslim new
world order
site because he didn't want to offend the purposes of this movement? what could it possibly mean?
>>
i'm not saying it makes any sense at all but there's been a
conservative
effort to denigrate
bush presidency
because of his expansion of government. i don't know what the downside is for beck or anyone else to go after any of the bushes.
>>
let's go back to '92. ben, republicans back in '92, a lot of people believe our colleague
pat buchanan
's speech, not him personally, the speech he gave at the convention in houston hurt their chances in '92 about bringing back the streets block by block. it hit people pretty tough, outrageous, ethnic, trouble making. my question, are the republicans afraid they are doing to have to clean up their act or cannot be seen as an credible alternative to obama.
>>
certainly a desire to be seen as a responsible alternative and this is an opportunity for a lot of republicans that probably do agree with him and maybe are being responsible. it's an opportunity to say i agree with the president on this. this is not a hot domestic political issue, although a riveting story and take responsible criticism elsewhere, to position themselves as a responsible critics. that's why you saw
lindsey graham
raising eyebrows to
sarah palin
after not really explaining what she was objecting to.
>>
i'm curious, do you think beck will get to speak at the
republican convention
next time?
>>
i don't think he will. i think if he wants to hold a convention twice the size across the street he can, too. there's certainly an appetite for what he's selling.
>>
your opinion, will he be a crowd pleaser at the convention?
>>
depends who the nominee is. you can't keep the guy out of the
big tent
. he causes so many problems if he's excluded. who knows if we'll get a third party challenge out of this as well. too many ponderables in that one.
>>
your thought is my mud ball thrown at
president obama
, zanny, incompetent or not is applauded by the right?
>>
i think there was a narrative there that is designed to say he's un-american, doesn't share america's values and therefore pretty much anything goes that fits into that. it doesn't matter whether it has reality in basis or fact.
>>
part of that craziness saying he's got a
secret plan
over there, that somehow the president is working with the people in the streets with a
secret plan
to bring in our enemies to hurt us more. thank you
richard wolffe
. thank you
ben smith
. great having you on the
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