Quote of the Day: Glenn Beck on (being duped by, or rather told the truth by) Eric Massa

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Give Eric Massa some credit. As critical as we may of him -- and I, for one, have been deeply critical -- his truth-telling performance in Glennbeckistan the other night was remarkable. (I won't get into the great details, but, if you missed it, make sure to check out Jon Stewart's hilarious take last night.) Beck wasn't amused, of course, and he signed off by acknowledging to his viewers that he'd wasted their time. On his radio show, he went further:

America, have you ever heard of a 50-year old man having a tickle-fight -- five men tickling each other so hard that they can't breathe? I think we found out who he is, someone who can't be trusted to tell the truth about his life.

Well, that's partly true. (I'll leave aside the first part. Are men not allowed to tickle each other? I suppose not, in Glennbeckistan.) Massa has been deeply dishonest about many things. But, when challenged by Beck, who only wanted Massa to spill and beans and reveal corruption at the heart of the Democratic Party, he wasn't so dishonest. Indeed, it was his honesty, his directness, that put Beck on his heels and seemed, briefly, to suck the spirit out of him. He wasn't forced out, Massa stressed, he forced himself out. Was he guilty of groping? Yes. Etc. Etc. Combine that with his defence of progressivism and, in retrospect, it was, in a way, awesome.

I almost said, "I think we could, but you've wasted enough of my time, get out," I almost threw him out of the studio three times... What a waste of time this man was!

Now that we spent the hour, we don't have to ever pay attention to this man ever again.

Well, perhaps not, and none of this really matters anymore -- not with Massa no longer in Congress and with the story dying down (even if both Stewart and Colbert covered it last night, even if it retain a certain strange, lingering fascination) -- but Beck and all those other conservatives who salivated over Massa have rather a lot of egg on their faces. They brought this upon themselves, after all, with their quest for dirt on the Democrats -- and with their relentless smear campaign against anyone and everyone who opposes them.

Some people, it seems, just can't handle the truth, including when it's told by a liar whom they so desperately wanted to believe was the defector of their dreams.