Orange County News Blog

​Our local conservative yakmouth, Hugh Hewitt, is pretty popular, but not really. I wouldn't place him in the top 20 syndicated radio shows in the country, and his audience is limited to conservative intellectuals (as he can engage in fascinating conversation but usually chooses not to) and coffin dodgers. So what on Earth possessed Baby Hughie to create a paid-content website? Christians usually aren't blinded by arrogance, yet yesterday was the debut of Hughniverse (blech).

What do subscribers get for $54.95 a year ($20 discount if you sign up today!) or $6.95 a month? Hughie's podcast, exclusive blog posts, and the ability to comment on his posts. WOWZA! What's especially hilarious about this is Hughie goes on and on about the glories of the Internet, about how free content will destroy the MSM, and freely gave away his radio program and thoughts--and now, he's putting up a wall (his regular website will continue, but Hughie is increasingly relying on contributors). Hughie, like some of his local prominent acolytes 'round here, is not only arrogant, but a HYPOCRITE. Folks: this is the biggest local rip-off since this laugher.

I haven't paid much attention to Hugh Hewitt as of recent, mostly because all he seems to talk about is Obamacare, and that's not exactly the sexiest of subjects. But I did tune in yesterday, at the very end of the show, and he was playing one of my favorite songs: Lulu's "To Sir with Love" (don't ask). Beautiful, overwrought, late-1960s Brit pop. I have no idea why Baby Hewie was playing it, or why he kept giving biographical details about the singer, but O.C.'s most prominent conservative yakmouth played the song in its entirety and spoke about if the entire time. SHUT THE FUCK UP, HUGH HEWITT, AND LET ME HERE LULU! Maybe he was trying to tie her with Sarah Palin or someone (qdpsteve?) in Commentlandia can provide context, but here's the song without any Baby Hewie yammering:

This Wednesday, as KFI-AM 640 hosts John Kobyalt and Ken Chiampou plugged their next mega-rally--it'll be at the Knott's Berry Farm of the Inland Empire, Tom's Farm in Corona next Saturday--one of them made the observation that a conservative talk-show host had previously mocked them and their listeners as doing little more than "banging pots and pans" and so urged anyone who will attend to--yep!--bring pots and pans to bang. The two were demure for once, but the person they were railing against was none other that Orange County's own conservative yakmouth, Hugh Hewitt. Although I'm all for anyone ridiculing Baby Hewie (I never got around to dissecting his blowjob of an interview with Purpose-Driven® Rick--damn carpal tunnel...), his criticism of John & Ken was one of the few times I actually agreed with the KRLA-AM 830 host. Hewie whacked the John & Ken nation for their Reconquista fear-mongering, making the point that merely yelling won't solve the nation's illegal-immigrant issue (I'm not sure what Hugh's stance is, although I vaguely recall it's more moderate than Tancredo-ish). Eh, whatever: HEADS ON A STICK! HEADS ON A STICK! HEADS ON A STICK!

Brian Levin is the director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, a frequent guest on my KPFK-FM 90.7 radio show, and someone who condemns hate groups on the left (that anti-Semitic imam whom the UCI Muslim Student Union always invites) and right (too many to list) with equal gusto. Funny guy, too! The Center just started a new blog, Hate Fighter, tracking hate crimes and groups across the United States and also showcases Levin's many appearances on national media (here's to hoping he puts up his masterful descruction of Hugh Hewitt of a couple weeks back in which Baby Hewie was whining about the Department of Homeland Security pointing out that extreme-right groups are actively recruiting returning military veterans). Bookmark it.

And now, one of the few known public appearances of La Voz de Aztlan "publisher," Hector Carreon (go to 3:15 of the video). Has anyone ever asked UC Riverside Professor Armando Navarro why he invited the gay-bashing, Jew-trashing pendejo to speak? A new piece on La Voz this week! Stay tuned...

While the FCC CSI tries to determine whether Gustavo actually heard right-wing radio pundit and morality cop Hugh Hewitt of Irvine say "tit" on the air, Washington Times columnist Andrew Breitbart is warning that "uninvited Democratic activists" have waged a "digital war" on ol' Hughcifer.

Sorry for not reporting as diligently on O.C. conservative yakmouth Hugh Hewitt as I did last year, but got a gem for you: yesterday, I do believe Baby Hewie said "tit" on the air!!!

The context: Hewie was interviewing former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich near the 3 p.m. hour, mostly so the two could vent about President Barack Obama. The segment was a disaster from the start: listeners of KRLA-AM 870 didn't hear Gingrich's first two comments due to a curious station silence. They then talked about the auto giants, where around 14 minutes into Hewie's show, he started rambling about General Motors sucking on what I heard to be "the public tit." Obviously, Hughcifer wanted to say "teat," but it came out wrong. Flabbergasted that it wasn't beeped out, I kept listening to see if Hewie would say the term again--and he did, correctly.

You won't hear Hugh say "tit" on the audio available online (it's about after the 14-minute mark here) but I swear on my Santo Niño de Atocha I heard Hewitt say "tit." The only natural ability God granted me was super-good hearing, so I know differences in sounds. Of course, if Hewie did say the word, I don't believe in reprimands or Freudian slips (someone should ask me about the time I accidentally insulted Arabs at a UCLA graduate seminar shortly after 9-11). And don't think I was looking for an excuse to write a post, either: if I wanted to easily bash Hugh, God knows there's so many opportunities...

The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation announced today that John H. Taylor, the foundation's executive director since it opened in 1990 and before that Nixon's chief of staff, is leaving Sunday to become the full-time vicar (or priest in charge) at St. John Chrysostom Episcopal Church and School in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Taylor, who is shown here with his daughter Valerie and the former president in the 1980s, on Jan. 20 sent a formal letter of resignation to board chairman Kris Elftmann. "I have loved my work at the Library and Foundation, and if there were a practical way to keep doing both jobs, I assure you that I would," Taylor wrote. "Having begun working for the former president in 1979, this has been a life's work and no doubt will continue to be, if in other forums (ecclesiastical and otherwise!)."

The great tragedy of our local conservative yakmouth-gone-big Hugh Hewitt is that there is intellect in him. Yeah, he always seems to walk lockstep with wackos (see: Nixon, Romney, Palin), but the guy is well-read, fund-raises often for good non-political causes and isn't ultimately noxious. Silly, sí, but not noxious--especially when compared with his talk-show brethren.

Yesterday was further proof of that. On his blog, Hewitt characterized President Barack Obama's speech as "a fine beginning" and, for the small snippet that I heard his show on KRLA-AM 870, actually disagreed with a loon who hated Obama! Compare that with the following:

*Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin couldn't stop whining about the Rev. Joseph Lowery's bad-ass benediction
*The John and Ken Show was reduced to making fun of black women mispronounce words in expressing their joy about a black man in the White House (in their defense, they also ridiculed a dad who pulled his children from school so they wouldn't hear Obama's speech, and a 24-year-old listener who insisted he has nothing to do with slavery, so what's up with black people being so bitter about the past?)
*Bill O'Reilly yelling at callers as usual
*KABC-AM 790's Mark Levin--the worst excuse for a radio show I've ever heard, even worse than my waste of an hour--playing Ronald Reagan clips like a junkie getting their comforting fix.
*KFI's Kennedy and Suits Show--the second-worst excuse for a radio show in Southern California--whining about how the media will give Obama a one-year honeymoon (funniest moment, though, was when a caller predicted their show would be gone within a year. If God truly is merciful, that will happen) 

*Updated, with new info on the bottom...

We haven't posted on Orange County's own conservative talk-show windbag Hugh Hewitt in a long time, mostly because I got tired of listening both to his program and reading his blog. But a faithful reader clued us in to the latest Vanity Fair, a magazine I usually don't because I really don't find it that big of a deal (I'm more of a Harper's type of guy, anyway). In a 2008 retrospective by writer James Wolcott, he labels Baby Hewie (whom he describes as a "Promethean twit possessed of an infallible gift for getting it pompously, egregiously wrong") a two-time loser for laughably predicting the victories of both Mitt Romney, and then John McCain. Wolcott forgot Baby Hewie's hilarious book unpublished proposal, How Sarah Palin Won the Election ... and Saved America.  but that's okay: a man can suffer so many ignominies in one year. To a better 2009, Hugh, and by better, we mean you keep great ratings and influence no one!

Orange County's most prominent conservative commentator is losing it. Earlier today, he urged listeners to vote for Al Franken, the celebrity challenger to Baby Hughie's longtime man-crush, Minnesota senator Norm Coleman. Hughie quickly corrected himself, but still.

But the strangest slip happened a little bit after, when Hewitt--usually a very articulate man--said this twice:

"...nothing nobody didn't...

Sorry I can't remember the rest of this sentence--I was driving. But he said this twice. A triple negative! Man, even Mexicans--where double negatives are not a no-no--don't commit this type of sin. Wonder what'll happen if Obama actually pulls through--we might have the first on-air explosion in history...