“Doctor” Glenn Beck’s so-called Restoring Honor rally falls into the category of “no harm, no foul.” Playing the role of Martin Luther King in white face, Beck and his featured speaker, Sarah Palin, steered clear of politics Saturday by supporting God, the military, America and mom’s apple pie.

Crowd estimates ranged from 75,000 to half the population of the United States, depending on the politics of the people making the estimate. An airborne crowd count commissioned by CBS News settled on a figure of 87,000. But we all know about the liberal leaning network. After all, its chief anchor, Katie Couric, asked Governor Palin all those slanted questions about the newspapers and magazines she read, and the most important U.S. Supreme Court decisions. What did Ms. Couric think she was doing, judging a beauty queen pageant. Obviously, the CBS estimate was wrong.

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A Washington Post columnist described the turnout as the whitest crowd ever assembled on the mall at the Lincoln Memorial. But again, the damn liberal media will say anything—even going so far as to report facts. Tea Partiers, Beck supporters and my right-wing family members are sure to point out that there were a few black faces at the rally. But in a crowd of 87,000, there were probably a few space aliens. Or at least people who believed they were from different planets, or after a few minutes of conversation about President Obama, judged to be from outer space.

The “few” African Americans attending the rally included a niece of Martin Luther King—a “white sheep” of the King family, perhaps. Having her speak was a blatant attempt to excuse Beck’s despicable decision to hold the event on the date of Martin Luther King’s ”I have a dream” speech 47 years earlier. Beck, a self-proclaimed historian, claims the choice of the date was an accident. But he modestly declares the accident was the work of God. Thus, with the acquiescence of the Lord, “Martin Luther Beck” tried to appropriate the civil rights crusade of Dr. King. For Beck to align himself with King is an insult to the memory and sacrifice of the civil rights leader during a volatile time his American history.  

I have to give credit, though to the former rock and roll disc jockey. He has gigantic cojones. Too bad his brain doesn’t match. He has aptly described himself as a “rodeo clown,” saying in effect that people who believe his rants need to have their heads examined. Hopefully, ambulance chasing psychiatrists took him at his word and passed out business cards during the rally.

Although Glenn Beck pissed off a lot of people simply by being Glenn Beck, he caused no great harm over the weekend. Indeed, he may have inspired a few people to go to church on Sunday. But being Glenn, he couldn’t rest on his laurels. In a Fox “News” interview following the rally, he offered his views on President Obama’s Christianity. He described Obama’s beliefs as “liberation” theology—the oppressor against the victim. I thought the New Testament was about liberation from Old Testament oppressiveness. But what do I know? I’m a Presbyterian.

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Admittedly, I don’t possess the high fallutin background of Glenn Beck, who holds a distinguished honorary Doctorate in Humanities from the late Jerry Falwell’s prestigious Liberty University—one of the nation’s beacons of bigotry. And I have to also keep in mind that “Doctor” Beck is the President of his own university (by the way, I haven’t seen the pre-season football ranking of Beck University’s football team).

However, one aspect of  ”Doctor” Beck’s résumé makes me curious about his mental machinations. As a Mormon, why would he question the Christianity of another believer. I have nothing against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The denomination engages in noble outreach. However, its doctrine has regularly been criticized by mainline religious leaders who question its Christian roots. LDS was founded in 1830 in upstate New York by Joseph Smith, an early abolitionist of slavery, as well as a polygamist. And throughout the church’s history, Mormons have been identified with plural marriage, a practice that was abandoned many years ago. Polygamy is now limited to small Mormon splinter groups. 

The Mother Church, however, has been criticized for its views on civil rights. Until 1978,  blacks were prohibited from entering the priesthood or even participating in LDS ceremonies. More recently, the church was sharply criticized for secret funding the campaign in support of California’s Proposition 8, the controversial measure banning gay marriage. Because of the church’s sensitivity to public perceptions and misconceptions, it seems odd that Beck questions Obama’s faith. But Beck is odd and apparently never read the Biblical verse, Judge not lest ye be judged.

What a waste a time writing about Beck. I need more self-control. Actually, I intended to skip the subject of Beck’s weekend rally entirely. But since the mainstream media tends to forget that he is nothing more than an ex-disc jockey, who struck gold by exploiting the anxieties of people too lazy to do their own thinking, I figured that I—a failed disc jockey and former mediocre talk show host—should at least remind readers of his credentials. Or lack thereof.

And besides, I didn’t want to disappoint right-wing family members. They believe I dislike the mad “doctor,” which is not even close to being true. How could I not love a guy who gives me so much material to fill the blog?

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.

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Three weeks short of the anniversary of the Reverend Jerry Falwell’s death in May, 2007, the preacher’s wing-nut politics continue to influence the 12,000 students on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. College President Jerry Falwell Jr. following in daddy’s footsteps by announcing that Glenn Beck will deliver the commencement speech to this year’s Liberty graduates.  

The Class of 2010 will go forth in the world armed with the knowledge that their university tolerates lunatics. I guess that’s progress for a school founded by the Reverend Falwellin 1971. After all, he was always notorious for intolerance during the 50 years he served as pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church. Indeed, Falwell set a remarkably low standard for intolerance by joining fellow television preacher and spiritual exploiter Pat Robertson in blaming pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians for contributing to the the 9/11 terrorist’s attacks on the World Trade Center, adding a footnote that the attack was “probably well-deserved.” Falwell later apologized for his remarks.

I had only two encounters in my careeer with Falwell—both under duplicitous circumstances. The first occured a few days after televangelist Jim Bakker got caught up in a sex scandal that led to the collapse of a South Carolina-based cable network and religious-themed vacation resort controlled by the diminutive preacher and his late mascara-laden wife, Tammy. In the early stages of the Bakker scandal, a Falwell-hired lawyer met with me at his request in an effort to dig dirt on Jimmy Swaggart, who was suspected of trying to take advantage of Bakker’s fall and gain control of the spiritual domain. That never happened.  

A few months later, Swaggart did himself in and I did my only one-on-one interview with Falwell. Again,  he was slinging mud at Swaggart. Following the disclosure of Brother Jimmy’s New Orleans whore-mongering trips, Falwell made himself available for a satellite interview on some premise that I have long forgotten. Nonetheless, it was apparent that real motive for doing an  interview was to add to Swaggart’s misery.

Although I already considered Falwell a manipulative opportunist, I didn’t realize his capacity to lie for political and personal gain until my mid-1990’s CNN investigations relating to the Whitewater debacle. While channel surfing one night, I happened upon the preacher peddling DVD’s of a “documentary.” In reality, the video was a libelous attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton, and various people linked to the Clintons. I write about Falwell’s promotion of the so-called exposé in Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger. 

The Clinton Chronicles was an idiot’s guide to character assassination featuring a cast of right-wing characters who made the 2004 “Swift Boat” attacks on Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry’s military record seem like a tribute. Vigorously promoted by the late Jerry Falwell, the so-called documentary was a forum for the crackpot fantasies of a former Arkansas segregationist judge, a low-ranking ex-Arkansas state employee, a loopy former congressman, and a hodgepodge of drooling characters unable to discern truth from fiction―as if they cared.

I know it’s customary to say something nice about the dearly departed. But based on pre-Whitewater encounters with the Reverend Jerry Falwell, I have to rely on the cliché, “He didn’t seem to sweat a lot for a fat man.” Watching the jowly TV preacher bear false witness for the benefit of his disbanded Moral Majority and brainwashed Rush Limbaugh malcontents, I wondered what Jesus would do―WWJD? If Jerry arrived at his hoped for Heavenly home, an entry surely requiring generous dispensation, he probably knows what Jesus would not do. WJWND. He would not lend His name to smears by harebrained lunatics in $34.95 DVD’s. 

Despite investing $200,000 in the production of the documentary, Falwell later stated that he could not vouch for the accuracy of allegations in the video. However, I am able to vouch for the inaccuracy of most of the baseless claims—in particular allegations of links between Bill Clinton and international drug smuggler Barry Seal. Years before the Falwell-sponsored documentary was produced, I effectively dispelled rumors that Seal ties to the CIA and/or high-ranking government officials. And in the course of my later reporting in Little Rock and Mena, Arkansas, I documented that the Whitewater investigation was a political witch-hunt based on an accumulation of lies. 

But ever since the days Jerry Falwell entered the nation’s public consciousness  in 1979 as founder of the Moral Majority, he never let truth interfere with his conservative agenda. Therefore, the selection of Glenn Beck as Liberty University’s graduation speaker is not all that surprising.

It is, perhaps, Jerry Jr.’s way of honoring his daddy by perpetuating a legacy of disinformation.

 My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. It is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.