“But in the long watches of the night, in the solitude of my tent, I conceived a plan of government which, by the grace of God, I hope to be able to give to the American people. ... (H)ateful as is the thought of assuming supreme power, I can see no other way clearly." -- from "Philip Dru: Administrator"

"Philip Dru, Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935" is a novel about a successful rebellion against a hopelessly corrupt U.S. government. Its leader then becomes a benevolent dictator, and restores the rule of law to the Republic. Though he didn’t put his name on the book, author Colonel Edward Mandell House was a Texas political insider who worked assiduously to make Woodrow Wilson president. After the 1912 election, he became Wilson’s closest advisor.

So is it a bad turn-of-the-century novel -- or a Nostradamus-like prediction of America under President Obama?

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Just watch the first couple of minutes of this and watch Beck sit there, dumbstruck, as the disembodied voice of Gingrich rambles about Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," the Wright Brothers, and Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures (which Gingrich incorrectly refers to as his "First Report on Manufacturing" -- such shoddiness from Freddie Mac's historian in residence!).

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09/13/01: Remembering the Day We Forgot the Lessons of the Day We Had Sworn We Would Always Remember

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So if anyone was wondering what happened to Hermann Cain after his disappointing showing at the Ames straw poll, one had only to look toward the Holy City, where he was enjoying center stage with Glenn Beck at the final of three events set in Israel.

Under the aegis of "Courage to Stand," Beck addressed a fairly sparse crowd of 2,000. Also on stage was Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and cantorial music superstar Dudu Fisher, who sang the Fiddler on The Roof's version of a Sabbath psalm.

Outside the venue, in an archeological garden located on the spot where King David, it is claimed, established the city of Jerusalem over 3,000 years ago, Beck intoned, "The world is expecting movement, the world is expecting someone to lead!"

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Brazilian footwear company Melissa  created a giant mural using 300,000 pages of sticky pads to open their flagship store. Bonus: viewers could write little notes of endearment on the Post-its, creating a huge mural composed with a lot of love.

2. Glenn Beck blames racially diverse "Spider-Man" on Michelle Obama

Obviously, Glenn does not understand the difference between the Ultimate and regular Marvel universe, or he'd know that the comic book company has every intention of keeping Peter Parker alive and Caucasian.

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Speaking with Democratic strategist and syndicated columnist Karl Frisch, Keith Olbermann on Tuesday asked what was behind Beck's comment: "Is this ignorance? Is he obtuse? Is he insane?"

Frisch noted that the youth camp -- organized by Norway's ruling Labor party -- where Anders Behring Breivik murdered 68 people actually seemed more reminiscent of the YMCA camps scattered around America.

Olbermann went on to criticize Bill O'Reilly's troubling analysis that Breivik -- a self-identifying Christian -- could not really be a Christian because Christians do not commit acts of terror (the preserve, in some conservative eyes, of Muslims).

"There is no logic. You will never hear the words 'respected theologian' and 'Bill O'Reilly' in any other sentence than the one I just said," Frisch noted.

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On Monday Beck announced that the location would be changed because he feared assassination attempts. As our own Justin Elliott noted when Beck first announced the rally, the event likely "will be filled with ambiguous messianic rhetoric and will oppose any sharing of Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians, both of whom claim the city as their national capital." Thus, the Temple Mount would have been appropriately controversial as perhaps the holiest site in Jerusalem's Old City.

Beck expressed concern about 40,000 Muslims, heading to the area for Ramadan, despite the fact that most devout Muslims devote the Ramadan month to extra prayer, religious study and fasting.

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It's unfair to judge a brand-new daily television show after only a couple days, but "The Five" is boring and lame. And, shocker, the ratings suck. Especially in the youth demo, which Fox was clearly hoping to grab by having an irreverent, fast-paced panel show instead of another "scare your grandparents with spooky stories" hour hosted by some talk radio shouter.

Poor Greg Gutfeld, the former Huffington Post blogger, has been hosting a 3 a.m. talk show on Fox for years now, and Fox refuses to move his show to a time when people would actually watch it. Instead they just stuck him on this "Five" panel, allowing him to make his hack jokes during the daylight hours for a change.

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Alex Pareene has a retrospective on Beck's three-year run on Fox here. And the liberal group Media Matters -- which is literally partying in observance of Beck's departure -- has compiled a useful list of Beck's "top five failed predictions" and 50 worst moments. In my favorite, from January, he predicts the Arab revolts will lead to the implosion of the entire world (watch it at the bottom of this post).

If you're watching and you'd like to participate, use the hashtag #salonbeck.

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Before he went to Fox News, Beck was just a talk radio hack on CNN Headline News with a "funny take" on the news of the day. But on Fox he distinguished himself with unreconstructed full-on John Bircherism, borrowed wholesale from O.G. Bircher Cleon Skousen, modernized with shamelessly racial attacks on contemporary liberal organizations and an obsession with George Soros.

Because his show was so far to the right of the mainstream that it made the rest of Fox's programming look suddenly reserved by comparison, everyone in the lamestream media spent a lot of time putting Beck on the front pages of magazines and helping him to promote his various moneymaking ventures. (The liberal media expounded a great deal of energy on trying to show people just how fringey Beck's entire worldview is, to some success.)

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We're apt to believe Carr (who didn't respond to an email from us) and write the whole thing off as a jokey misfire and desperate Fox campaigning. But we were interested in where that wonderful, vividly demeaning expression -- "dance of the low, sloping foreheads" -- came from.

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Yesterday, Politico reported what an educated listener could've guessed: Right-wing radio pundits are paid by conservative organizations to mention them favorably. FreedomWorks pays Glenn Beck to talk about how great FreedomWorks is, Rush Limbaugh wholeheartedly endorses the Heritage Foundation because the Heritage Foundation pays him, and Mark Levin receives a check for telling you that donating to Americans for Prosperity will help defeat Obama.

Glenn Beck is the most obvious and tacky about it, and he has learned that there is essentially no downside to being obvious and tacky about it. He is a very rich man and still inventing ways of getting richer by bleeding his incredibly devoted followers. He is now asking them to directly send him money in order to watch his show, which was formerly included in the cost of people's cable or satellite subscriptions.

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Beck had Lieberman on his program last night to announce that Lieberman would be joining him at his upcoming political rally in Jerusalem. They are old friends, you know! Lieberman once wrote a recommendation to Yale Divinity School for Beck, back when Beck was a morning-zoo radio host in Connecticut. Here is the whole segment, which begins with Beck telling the story of how he noticed the Israel Day parade was going on while he was walking from church to his office. (How did he forget about Israel Day? Why goes Glenn Beck hate the Jews?)

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Huck struck back with an entertaining, unedited blog post calling Beck a conspiracy theorist looking for "boogey men" that "he and only he can see." "The First Lady's approach is about personal responsibility," Huckabee wrote, "not the government literally taking candy from a baby's mouth."

On the Blaze, Beck's news website, Kevin Balfe, Beck's primary ghostwriter, has responded today by calling Huckabee a liar. Because, he argues, Michelle Obama and Mike Huckabee do want to literally take candy from babies' mouths:

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Huckabee's crime? He supports Michelle Obama's anti-obesity initiative, because modern-day culture-warrior right-wingers do actually think encouraging healthy behavior for children is an infringement on liberty. And because of that suppot, Huckabee is clearly a left-wing Nazi Progressive -- "like John McCain" -- who conspired with McCain to ... sabotage the Romney campaign, in 2008. (???)

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While that video -- a supposed exposé of NPR's fundraising practices -- was produced by a regular Breitbart associate, it was first published and promoted by Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller, for reasons unknown (perhaps because it was shoddier than some of O'Keefe's other work, and the Caller, being more desperate for traffic, had slightly lower standards).

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When Beck's show made its debut on Fox News Channel in January 2009, the nation was in the throes of an economic collapse the likes of which had not been seen since the 1930s. Beck's angry broadcasts about the nation's imminent doom perfectly rode the wave of fear that had washed across the nation, and the relatively unknown entertainer suddenly had 3 million viewers a night...

But as the recession began to ease, Beck's apocalyptic forecasts and ominous conspiracies became less persuasive, and his audience began to drift away. Beck responded with a doubling-down that ultimately brought about his demise on Fox.

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Someone in-house

An obvious solution is to plug in someone currently at Fox. It could be a daytime host, an anchor who wants to turn pundit, a reporter or someone currently wasting away on the unwatched Fox Business channel.

• Mike Huckabee: He'd probably love to have the gig. But would he like a daily talk show more than he would like the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States? I would guess yes, actually. He is barely bothering to pretend to run as is it is.
• John Stossel: Already a "brand," many libertarians seem to think he is a non-embarrassing representative of their political philosophy.
• Andrew Napolitano: One of those guys that isn't "that bad," by Fox standards, so probably stuck on Fox Business.
• Lou Dobbs: I might put some money down on this one.
• Megyn Kelly: She's clearly gunning for a move from the "news" side to the "opinion" block. Has the most animated look of disgust I have ever seen on television and it seems to never leave her face.

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Because Beck and Fox both need to demonstrate that no stupid liberals made them "cave" in any sense, at all, ever, this is presented as the single most mutual and amicable cancellation of a cable news talk show ever. You'd barely notice that the show won't be on anymore:

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production company, are proud to announce that they will work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties. Glenn intends to transition off of his daily program, the third highest rated in all of cable news, later this year.

Fox's senior vice president in charge of managing Beck will join Beck's company now, where he will continue to act as "liaison" between canny grifter Beck and the executives in charge of the television industry.

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