response? >> guest: i did. this is a fair and balanced look. it is not about fox news. there's terrific first-rate journalism at fox news and i have respect for a lot of what they do and they have a problem in glen beck. i approached him. he has probably already seen we are working on this. so he knew where i was coming from. ..

two different times and people have brought that up before. and i think what will happen to back it would have been sued demagogues all the time. you can flame out or you could fade away. i suspect he is too smart and too controlled to flame out. to say something so outrageous even his followers don't even have anything to do with it. i think much more likely what happens is the economy improves, people are not quite as angry at the government as they were before and it loses its residents. and i think that will happen. beck is a brilliant entertainer. i have no doubt he'll be able to reinvent himself for whatever circumstance arises, but it may be less honorable. >> and other question here. >> there are a lot of mormons in this country in the test is not

all catholics are followers of charles conklin, how do the mormons overall, to your knowledge, regard having beck as one of their number. >> that's a good question. and i'm careful here to say when were talking about the white horse prophecy or klingon scout, were not talking about mainstream mormonism, were talking about a subset of it. i have looked into this a good bit and he has caused some discomfort among the latter-day saints because they believe that a lot of people believe it will cause the whole faith to be viewed as a little bit sort of wacky and out there. some people even suggest to me that this is a problem for mitt

romney, who is by all accounts a mainstream character, but they're going to say my goodness, does he believe these crazy things that one back is talking about each night? and of course mitt romney like everybody else is going to be under pressure to get the unofficial beck endorsement. so it didn't get as -- there's some discomfort in that, but also beck has appeared to be huge, i don't know if there reliables, but when he talks about his recovery from alcoholism and his love of the mormon church. so there's two sides of that relationship as well. >> where the question right there. >> said to's rally seemed rather subdued to his television show. was that intentional? is he setting up something on the left insane i'm not that bad, but this rally. >> no, you're correct that it

was very different from his message, but it was for very practical reasons and that was the event was being run by a nonprofit that takes care of the families of wounded or fallen troops. so if he had gone out there and giving his usual message, that charity would have it status in jeopardy. sobek is -- and i think i mean this in a good way is really an opportunist. so here are the constraints he has. what could be due? and he turned it into this very powerful sort of religious moment where people were asking that question a few days after comment is glenn beck the new leader of the religious right? that's not going to happen because mormonism as we discussed, she was able to turn this limitation -- turning this event into that sort of successful public revival meeting i think shows great he

is. >> how about the tea party? with convergence between glenn beck and the tea party? >> well, i think they're one and the same. i mean, he is the unofficial leader of the tea party and you could argue that sarah palin is as important to that movement, but she has more ties to the republican party. interestingly with beck, he's had the sort of movement things going before and in the past they didn't catch on because he wasn't as big, but she'd have masochists with honoring the troops and not sort of things, so there was a minor at the complex. basically he took that model and pushed it ahead. so he very much was encouraging the original tax day protest in 2009 immediately went ahead ahead with his own nine, 12 movement which for my solace which it to the 828 movement and

no doubt is coming in now, proceeding onto the next movement. so i think, you know, i was sort of snotty and the subtitle of this book. you know, i don't actually have a contempt for the tea party. and i don't use the term t. barriers. i'm saying the glenn beck is the one doing the tea bagging of america. i think beck has in many ways been able to use what is a genuine populist revolts to his benefit. >> is there a way to quantify the glenn beck affect on the midterm elections? >> guest: not in any sort of an aggregate sense. think about this. glenn beck is intensively populist leader. it was a week or two before the

election he saw the chamber of commerce was beating up on obama and obama was pushing back. he got nice radio show and said i'm writing a $10,000 check to the u.s. commerce. if you've got a dollar out there what you ought to send them in. and so glenn beck's radio listeners crash the servers at the u.s. chamber of commerce. while nothing says grass-roots populism like u.s. chamber of commerce. [laughter] and that's what they mean by how i think is in some ways misled the well-intentioned people who are justifiably upset i was going on in the country and the economy and the government. and here he is telling people who may only have their last dollar left to send it to the chamber of commerce. it shows the way they react. you know, there've been studies uppity about the the tea party effect, you know, being very much responsible for the house victory and perhaps responsible for the failure of the republicans to take the senate.

but we've seen it in individual ways since beck was very influential in getting senator bennett booted out in utah. the state of maine republican party has rewritten its platform to warn about the encroachment of one world government. this is maine. so, it very much is responding to that. >> host: >> we have time for one last question, sir. >> he talked about how some of the next followers are so extreme and the response is, what you hear from these people? i'm assuming they're not real crazy about it. >> well, beck himself has done me the courtesy of ignoring the book, which i think it's probably smart on his behalf. so that has kept down the amount of animosity out there although i should say in the last 48 hours, the o'reilly has on their made jokes about my being he

headed and suggested i might be turned into hummus. >> but no violent e-mails? >> so i assumed -- this was related to a column i'd written the paper, but i suspect he's doing some of beck's work for him. so yes, there's some anger on the right. but because beck himself has been quiet about it, it has muted anger on the right. the book was written hopefully so that it wasn't so that left-wingers could pick it up and say ha ha, this is why i knew i hated glenn beck and this is why. it's so that the vast majority of americans, the sensible people in the middle would say i know there's this phenomenon of beck and i don't really know what it is. and i basically spent a lot of months reading and listening to and watching beck so those people wouldn't have to.

[laughter] >> dana milbank is a syndicated columnist with the "washington post," where he writes the washington sketch column. he's the author of several books, including humble politicos, the strange and scary tribes that run our government. for more information, visit dana milbank.com. >> next, timothy nenninger presents a summary at charles pelot sumerall, chief of staff from 1926 to 1930 and president of the citadel for 20 years. timothy nenninger discusses his book at the annual dissociation of the u.s. army meeting, held at the washington convention center in washington d.c. the program is about 35 minutes. >> i'd like to speak a little bit about the genesis of the manuscript and then give you a brief overview of general transcendent's review and why he

was -- why i think his memoir is worth reading. summerall wrote this in 1903. he was approaching retirement and a couple years from his citadel. he had wrote it on legal size paper. he had no intent to publish the manuscript. he did it as his grandson said, for diversion and to enlighten his family about his career. and he died within three years of having completed the manuscript at which point his son typed or handwritten manuscripts, created 185 single space, very dense pages. and for many years, his manuscript is in the possession of the archives of the citadel in charleston.

in 1998, the general's grandson, charles b. summerall the third, still living in charleston, donated the rights to the division of runway with intent to manuscript to be published by the museum. john was the director of the museum in 1998 and paul was his successor, supported transcendent's grandson idea to get this manuscript published. they shopped it around looking for someone who could edit it and they would see it through to publication. ausa books in the verse that kentucky's other process to its completion. i was the editor. that make no mistake about this is that my book. this is general summerall spoke. it mostly reads like i suspect his voice would sound.

i basically copy edited the manuscript. i reduced it by about 20%. there was a lot of family history and appeared there were a lot of tangential comments, a lot of settle a general summerall tried to use the memoir as a vehicle for that. i also tried to standardize capitalization, correctness felonies cannot sort of thing. commercial or academic press would've done in 1950 had the book and submitted to one of them. i also did a short biographical rather extensive timeline of his career. but most importantly i think my contribution was to add identifications and imitations relating to people, places and things and events that are mentioned in the text. he often would say something in the text like, the regimental

commander did often fail,, but he wouldn't identify who the regimental commander was, so my tax was to come using a variety of this, figure out who is talking about and provide -- i provided in a know, basic biographical information about the individual. the result was about 30 pages of over 500 different notes and annotations. the army and weiss is no more important? i suspect numbers of people in this room have heard the name of charles pelot sumerall if for no other reason than summerall field is where youth had change of command ceremonies or retirement ceremonies, that summerall field was named after the general because charles pelot sumerall is chief of staff of the army from 1926 to 30.

over the course of his career, which began in 1888 when he went to west point to the time he retired from the army in 1930. the army had evolved considerably from a frontier constabulary to a colonial powers that pacified, protected and covered newly acquired insular possessions to during world war i a fairly modern 20th century fighting force that was in a coalition war in europe. summerall -- transcendent's career therefore paralleled the evolution of the army in the late 19th and early 20th century. he was a poor boy from the rural south born in 1867, went to west point in 1888, as i mentioned,

captain of the corps of cadets and graduated 20 out of 64 in his class. so he had made a mark on the army early on. initially went into the infantry. soon transferred to the field artillery. he was a general speed and mobilization can't in 1898, during the spanish-american war. the next year, 1899, he went overseas to the philippines where we were already engaged in fighting in an insurrection against filipino insurgents. he was under fire for the first time during the insurrection and he was mentioned in orders, cited for his bravery and leaving his field artillery section under fire, providing close support to the infantry attacking interact goes. the next year, he was in china during the chinese relief expedition.

intersection was very instrumental during the action was leaving the seizure peking for his gun section knocked down for live to the inner-city -- the enterprise of the imperial city, allowing allied forces to go in and overturn the boxers who are sustaining the rebellion. after returning from china, he had a succession of troop and post commands in the pacific northwest and then in alaska. he, during this period, also as a work, married the boss' daughter. he that laura mordecai who was the chief of ordnance is

daughter, while visiting some friends out in the northwest. and he courted ms. mordecai over a period of years and married her during this period. he then went on to become an instructor and field artillery organization intact except the u.s. military academy, where he served from night t. know if i can 1811. in the early part of his career he was very much known as an ex-dirt infield artillery matters. following duty at west point, he went to the war department where he served in the militia bureau as the assistant to the chief of the militia bureau. and he was responsible for a national guard field artillery training. and one of the event or one of

the duties that he performed during this period was to go out and find large tracts of land that later became field artillery practice ranges, including the one at tobyhanna, pennsylvania had a couple of photographs onto vienna -- tobyhanna range. in july 1917, after the united states got -- after 21917 after the united states got into the water, summerall was still in the war department, but he was sent overseas with the baker mission that was sent from the war department to consult with officers on purging stuff at ghq. and again, summerall was the fear of artillery expert on this mission, which was supposed to

discuss with the ghq staff organization, doc during and what technical means were necessary to sustain the aes once they got overseas in great numbers. in june 1917 of course the only forces that were there were very small contingent from the first division, which was the initial division overseas. summerall went overseas in 1917, first commending the field artillery but great, which was part of the 42nd division. but in december of that year, he assumed command of the first field artillery brigade, which was part of the first division. and it began an association of summerall with the first minute.

brigade of december 1917 until july 1918. was promoted to major general, but he still commanded the field on the 15th of july he assumed command of the first division. this probably was one of the high points of his professional life. three days after he assumed command of the division, the division participated in this wausau offensive and it was the first time that american troops in great numbers -- there was a coral level attack. it was the first time u.s. troops in great numbers participated offensively in the war on the western front. i think summerall was a unique commander in the aes and he successfully commanded a

brigade, a division and ultimately a court, which he took command of in the middle of october 1918. numbers are, he assumed command of the fifth army corps. he had -- i think one can say during his world war ii experience that his style of command was very aggressive, leading from the front. he expected much of his subordinate commanders and was fairly difficult leaker under whom to serve as a number of his troops would attest. he had successes both with the first division and the fifth corps as a commander, but he also had some black marks on his slate during the war, particularly in the fading days of the war before the 11 november armistice, there was

some not very well drafted field orders that were issued but said the commander-in-chief is purging one of the french obsidian of troops in the field orders were somewhat ambiguous and there were some burdens to the site that boundaries will not be binding. and summerall sent the first division across the front of the corps that was on its last, much to the consternation of people quarter that were on the left. and there was bad feeling that continued well into the postwar era as a result of this. following the armistice, summerall served in a number of core level commands in europe as troops were being demobilized

and sent back to the united states. but in july and august of 1919, he became a diplomatic khaki. he had a position on the american commission to negotiate peace, which was negotiating the peace treaty in paris with the other allies in the central powers. but most importantly he was the u.s. representative on the inner ally commission of inquiry on fumes, which is an area of tree a pen this inter-alia military commission was supposed to settle disputes among a number of warning countries in that area as to have the ultimate right to occupy -- to occupy the city. he returned to the united states with general purging and purging the party on the leviathan and in september of 1919 at this

time again was commanding the first division. and that's during this period, 1919 to 21 when he commanded the first division that summerall spearheaded the creation of the first division association, electing the first division memorial, which is behind the old executive office building on the ellipse and just adjacent to the white house. he also supported the publication of the first division history or in world war i and also a set of compilation of the world were records of the first division. so the fact dignity of summerall in the wake of the war is one of the reasons why the first division museum was interested in publishing it somewhere. in 1921 to 1926, he was commanding the hawaiian department, than the eight core area and then the second core

area. these were all major administrative commands during the army, post-world war i army of that era. in 1926 when he was chief of staff of the army. at the time he was selected as chief, there were a couple of were senior to him in rank, but probably none senior to him in experience as a leader, particularly as a combat commander in the aes. so he became chief of staff of the army in late 1926 and served until late 1930. during his period, when you think about it, this was probably fairly dark days for the army in terms of

understrength unit, skeleton i.c.e. formations, two battalion regiments, to company battalions, that that sort of thing. on top of that, at that point there was no obvious military threat from overseas to the united states, so it was a very difficult time to be a senior leader and a force under pressure from various sword of angles. but he dealt with a couple of issues and i think quite adeptly unrelated to the emerging technology of the time. he was very instrumental in pushing military aviation so long as it did not come at the expense of other combat arms, which it sometimes did. they would demobilized combat arms units to increase the size of the army air service at the time.

and the other issue he dealt with very adeptly whizzed mechanization under his -- during his watch of chief of staff, first experimental mechanized force in the u.s. army was created and tested equipment.turn and organization at the time. summerall retired, stepped down as chief of staff in late 1930. he didn't retire until march march 1931. he had a number of job offers, several politically oriented, which he declined to take part in. but he did accept a position as president of the citadel in 1930. or in 1931. and he and he remained at the citadel and so he retired from their in 1953.

there are a number of aspects about the memoir that i find interesting and revealing of the man and his times. i mentioned that he was the president of his educational organization, the citadel. but one gets the impression, at least from the memoir, summerall seem to learn a lot from his relationships with people much more than fair relationships with books. and he seemed to very forgot to developing long-term friendships from brief encounters. there's several instances in the memoir where he would meet somebody on a train trip somewhere and they would become lifelong friends. and when he was at the citadel, he was he would bng