Glenn Beck deserves some credit today for exposing Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina as a 9/11 Truther.

Medina was known as the “tea party candidate,” which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been following the recent bad craziness at tea party events. It’s not mentioned in this article, but she has also appeared on the Alex Jones conspiracy show, worked for Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, and even placed a banner advertisement on the neo-Nazi Stormfront website.

Radio host Glenn Beck, saying he was responding to e-mails he got from listeners, asked Medina in a national interview this morning whether she believed the U.S. government was involved in the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

“I don’t have all of the evidence there Glenn so I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that,” Medina said. “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard, there are some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.” …

After the interview, Beck, who holds sway with many Republican primary voters, said, “I think I can write her off the list.”

Beck, who has been critical of Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, added, “Let me take another look at Kay Bailey Hutchison if I have to. Rick, I think you and I could French kiss right now.”

At the same time as he exposes Medina (who was running a distant third and had no real chance of winning the governorship), however, Glenn Beck is heavily promoting David Barton and Wallbuilders, one of the most extreme theocratic groups currently operating in the US. Beck touts Barton as an “expert” on the founding of the United States; but in reality Barton is notorious for pushing revisionist history aimed at undermining the separation of church and state. Here’s an LGF search for our posts about David Barton.

More information about Barton’s past activities:

In 1991 Barton addressed the Rocky Mountain Bible Retreat of Pastor Pete Peters’ Scriptures for America, a group that espouses the racist “Christian Identity” theology. Advocates of this bizarre dogma insist that white Anglo-Saxons are the “true” chosen people of the Bible and charge that today’s Jews are usurpers. Aside from being a virulent anti-Semite, Peters has advocated the death penalty for homosexuals. According to the Anti-Defamation League, other speakers at the event included white supremacist leader and 1992 presidential candidate James “Bo” Gritz, a leader of the radical and increasingly violent militia movement, and Malcolm Ross, a Holocaust denier from Canada. In November of that same year, Barton spoke at Kingdom Covenant College in Grants Pass, Oregon, another “Christian Identity” front group with ties to Peters.

Asked to explain these actions, Barton’s reply amounted to a not very creative “I didn’t know they were Nazis” dodge. In a July 1993 letter, Barton assistant Kit Marshall wrote, “At the time we were contacted by Pete Peters, we had absolutely no idea that he was ‘part of the Nazi movement.’ He contacted us for David to speak for Scriptures for America. The title is quite innocuous. In all the conversations that I personally had with Pete Peters, never once was there a hint that they were part of a Nazi movement. I would also like to point out that simply because David Barton gives a presentation to a group of people does not mean that he endorses all their beliefs.” An excuse like that might have washed one time, but it stretches the bounds of credulity to accept that Barton was twice duped by innocuous-sounding extremist organizations.

That’s Glenn Beck’s “historical expert” — a fundamentalist fanatic working to subvert the Establishment Clause, with ties to white supremacists.

Here’s another article on Barton and his theocratic front group, the National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools: Historical Revisionism in the NCBCPS Curriculum.

UPDATE at 2/11/10 11:10:04 am:

Debra Medina says she isn’t a Truther.

I was asked a question on the Glenn Beck show today regarding my thoughts on the so-called 9/11 truth movement. I have never been involved with the 9/11 truth movement, and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11. I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. No one can deny that the events on 9/11 were a tragedy for all Americans and especially those families who lost loved ones.

The question surprised me because it’s not relevant to this race or the issues facing Texans. This campaign has always been about private property rights and state sovereignty. It is focused on the issues facing Texans. It is not a vehicle for the 9-11 truth movement or any other group.