The only way to understand Glenn Beck's big 8/28 rally in Washington is as "a 12-step program" straight "out of the Alcoholics Anonymous playbook," says Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. And in fact, understanding Beck's much-mentioned struggle with alcohol addiction is key to understanding him—his drive, his agenda, his "paranoia" and "messianic" grandiosity, and his evangelical fervor. Is Parker right? (Watch Joy Behar discuss Beck's past addictions)
So Beck fans are all alcoholics? Alcohol addiction is serious business, and it's "not meant to be the punch line of an 'I hate Beck and Palin' opinion piece," says William Teach at Right Wing News. But that seems to be the only point of Parker's "disgusting op-ed." How else to explain her bizarre suggestion that the hordes who watched Beck's rally, live or on tape, "are simply the same as alcoholics"?
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