Glenn Beck told Katie Couric on Monday that he "would have much preferred" Hillary Clinton "as president and may have voted for her against John McCain." Beck also said McCain would have been "worse for the country" than Barack Obama. The video hit the web as an avalanche of attacks on Beck from fellow conservatives was already gaining force. The Right has increasingly come to see Beck as irresponsible and damaging to the cause, and the conservative chorus to oust Beck is nearly universal.

• 'Mindless,' 'Incoherent,' 'Pathetic'  Mark Levin, a giant of conservative radio, was so apoplectic he could not mention Beck by name, referring to him by his statements and time-slot on Fox. Levin called Beck's McCain-bashing "mindless, mindless, incoherent as a matter of fact." Levin continued, "I don't know who people are playing to. I don’t know why they're playing to certain people. [...] I think there's enormous confusion and positioning and pandering. It may be entertaining, but from my perspective, it's not. It's pathetic."

• 'Deadly Consequences'  Joe Scarborough, MSNBC host and former GOP Congressman, warned Republicans against tolerating Beck. "You cannot preach hatred. You cannot say the president is racist. You cannot say things that have very deadly consequences. I was in Congress in 1995. I know where this can end." Scarborough said Beck is "wallow[ing] in conspiracy theories" and "playing with fire." Video is above.

• Beck Could Be Used Against GOP  Allahpundit defended Scarborough's denouncement as part of a longer-term strategy. Scarborough is "anticipating a future media strategy against the GOP’s presidential contenders — i.e. amassing the kookiest or most incendiary stuff that Beck’s said and then putting them on the spot by asking them to denounce it," he wrote, noting "we’re talking politics here, not logic."

• 'Enemy of Reason'  Rick Moran slammed Beck as "the enemy of anyone who believes in reason, in logic, and in rational thought." Moran accused Beck of "simply screaming nonsense into the void, pandering to the basest instincts of conservatives, rejecting rationality in favor of paranoid conspiracy mongering that doesn’t advance the cause one iota but garners him plenty of ratings and money."

• And Much, Much More  As we've noted, other conservative denouncements of Beck have come from David Frum, Peter Wehner, Michael Gerson and Dan Riehl.

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