Glenn Beck is surely one of the most bizarre phenomena of the US political scene. He is the television and radio personality who broadcasts paranoid rants for hours each day about the apocalyptic future facing the US. Using a chalkboard, he diagrams elaborate conspiracy theories involving fascism, communism, George Soros, Barak Obama, and former president Woodrow Wilson – who he holds responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor (17 years after his death). Beck is the man who proclaimed that Pres. Barak Obama has a “deep seated hatred of white people”; who broadcasts that the government wants to control the population by putting sterilizing agents into the drinking water; and who announced that FD Roosevelt and golfer Tiger Woods were more evil than Pol Pot (and TV commentator Keith Olbermann more evil than Hitler). A recovering alcoholic / drug addict, Beck is the high school graduate who promotes extremist Mormon theology and rightwing ideology under the guise of educating his viewers. This is the man who cries, sobs, weeps on a nightly basis – about his family, his mother, his problems with alcohol and drugs, his country, and about the evil masterminds who are trying to turn the USA into “Nazi Germany” or “Communist China” or (just about as bad) “France.”

Author Dana Milbank is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post who has written three other books on US politics. His book on Beck shows us the man behind the façade – the self-professed “rodeo clown” who has found a way to enrich himself with hypocritical demagoguery. As it turns out, Beck smears menthol ointment under his eyes so that he can weep fake tears on camera. Through Milbank’s account, we see that the violent talk, the hysterical rants are all for show, for once the camera is off, Beck is back to his collected, smirking self. On camera, Beck presents himself as a regular “schmo”, a “serf” (not a landowner) who “lives in a subdivision,” a regular guy just like his viewers. But Beck has an annual income of 32 million and each night, is driven in his chauffeured limousine to his 5 million dollar mansion located in the wealthiest community in the nation. What's more, he profits directly by urging his followers to prepare for economic collapse by investing in the gold company that pays part of his salary and that sponsors his show. Beck even lies about his own mother for political gain (he sobs on camera that she committed suicide when he was only 13, whereas public records show she died in a boating accident when he was 15).

Milbank’s book is entertaining and lighthearted. He largely lets Beck speak for himself, and shows glimpses behind the scenes of this strange character. As for reasons for Beck's success, Milbank notes that Beck caters to an older, white audience, and they find in Beck someone who gives voice to their fears about the future. Milbank’s book offers as complete an account as his subject deserves. Since its publication, Beck has been dropped from the Fox News network as too extreme even for them. However, short of a final self- destruction, he seems unlikely to disappear from the scene anytime soon. Now that's something to cry about. :-) ( )