Belling Can't Stand Being Wrong

I enjoy listening to Mark Belling's radio show every now and then, but I do so far less often these days.

While I find Belling highly entertaining at times, I have also found him to be intellectually dishonest and completely incapable of admitting his mistakes. Simply put, Belling's show is more often about Belling and his own ego than it is about debating the issues and educating and entertaining his audience. Belling is at his best when he sits in for Rush Limbaugh because he is forced to temper his mean-spirited attacks and keep his personal prejudices in check.

But when it comes to his own show, anything goes, and if Mark Belling doesn’t like you or you beat his favorite candidate, you’d better look out.

Belling had it in for U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Michels in 2004. This year Belling has his sights set on crushing JB Van Hollen and Mark Green. I have no idea why he dislikes these men so intensely, but I doubt he’d give you an honest answer if you asked him.

What I do know is the more Belling makes his radio show about himself and his own aspirations, the less able he is to stand up for the conservative cause.

I share Belling’s frustrations about RINO’s in the legislature and the direction in which the state is going, but his audience is not served when Belling refuses to respectfully confront issues and candidates head on. Moreover, Belling does the public and the conservative cause a great disservice when he misrepresents someone’s position on the issues as he does with Congressman Mark Green.

I almost wrote an opinion column when Belling got into hot water with the Hispanic community over his racially charged remarks. I thought back then that he should have been fired, not so much for making the remarks, though they were inexcusable, but for behaving like a petulant little kid and refusing to take responsibility for his actions. Given his subsequent behavior, I doubt Belling would have ever apologized if his job hadn’t been on the line.

I have avoided speaking out about Belling because frankly, I’d just as soon be invisible where that man in concerned. He rips the flesh off anyone who disagrees with him and he uses the air waves to do it. But lately his hypocrisy and personal feelings have begun to leave a lasting stench.

For weeks Belling has railed on Mark Green for not being conservative enough on fiscal issues. He points to Green’s support for the ethanol mandate and claims Green didn’t do enough to support passage of the TPA. From my vantage point, Mark Green did all he could to push TPA, once the legislature had a bill to rally around.

And while I agree with Belling that Scott Walker is an extremely talented politician, he’s not pure when it comes it fiscal issues. Yet I don’t remember Belling going off on Walker when he proposed that the state provide 2/3 funding for public schools regardless of how much money that will require and whether the general fund can continue to support that kind of commitment.

Still, Belling is canonizing Scott Walker, who left the Governor’s race to tend to the disastrous county budget, and now he wants to resurrect Tommy Thompson because Mark Green is just not his guy. I love Tommy Thompson too but he’s not known for the kind of deep cuts that will be needed to balance the state budget next year. And Tommy not only supports an ethanol mandate, but he hates the TPA.

Belling needs to get over his resentments and start looking at the facts. He might want to start by talking to Mark Green about his candidacy rather than just spewing his venom about him.

As for Tommy Thompson running again, sorry Mark, but I'd bet anything you got played. I hope you can handle being wrong twice in the same election year.