Six molasses-coated Lemmon Drops to nibble on while waiting for the TomKat baby buzz to subside:
The interview could have passed as a comedy routine because Mr. White made some truly preposterous statements. Mr. Beck asked "straight" questions, knowing Mr. White would step into the trap. Mr. White's "straight" answers -- such as the Holocaust is a "Jewish lie" -- made the exchange seem like a self-parody of a world-class bigot.
"Way to go, Glenn," I said to myself. "You did a masterful job of making this guy sound like a fool."
Later that morning, before Mr. Beck's three-hour show had even ended, Mr. White, on a Web site that he maintains, posted his version of what had taken place. It was written as a news story, accompanied by the provocative headline "White Destroys Glenn Beck on Air."
The first paragraph:
"Former drug addict and current libertarian-leaning Mormon radio talk show host Glenn Beck was stunned into silence and forced to end an interview with National Socialist Movement spokesman Bill White after White stated, on air, his belief that Adolf Hitler was the living manifestation of God on Earth and that the Third Reich was a fulfillment of prophecy."
Yes, Mr. White thought he scored a slam-dunk.
Just goes to show that there are two sides to every story.
The University of Nebraska's student newspaper described the rally this way:
"About 25 neo-Nazis, some dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb, lined the top of the Capitol steps, waving Nazi and Confederate flags. They shouted their group's rhetoric through a speaker system at a crowd of hundreds, almost all of whom showed up to oppose them."
According to news reports, about 430 people were at the two-hour rally. That works out to more than $100 per person in law-enforcement expenses.