Rick Santelli, CNBC’s Glenn Beck

Tea Party hero jumps on the bogus Census conspiracy story

A simple glance is enough to raise serious questions about the New York Post’s story claiming a Census conspiracy to re-elect Obama, as I wrote earlier today.

But not for Rick Santelli, CNBC’s mad clown. He cites “a lot of reports” in resurrecting the Jack Welch “Chicago guys” conspiracy theory of the September 2012 jobs report in this bizarre segment:

Santelli acknowledges that the would-be scandal is not quite official yet, but blows right past any concerns about whether the allegations are factual or not and goes straight to the dark insinuations:

This is the beginning, and I’m sure investigations will ensue, but it really does raise a very large question…

I had a sense that it didn’t feel right. Jack Welch definitely had a sense that it didn’t feel right. If we knew now what we knew then (sic).

Santelli, who kicked off the Tea Party in 2009 with his rant about a minor proposed homeowner bailout, is edging into Glenn Beck territory here. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is not quite the Bunker of Doom, and Santelli uses a whiteboard instead of a chalkboard, but he’s reporting from an alternate reality all the same.

In Santelli’s telling, the combination of the IRS scandal (which turned out not to be a scandal), the “you can keep it” Obamacare promise broken for a few percent of the country with crappy insurance, the false unemployment-conspiracy scandal, some incoherent ramblings about the Fed, and the administration fining JPMorgan $13 billion combine to mean Obama stole the election with dirty tricks.

He’s painting a picture for ya, see, while stalking the camera::

Though, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to work in the Tides Foundation:

But Santelli’s recommendations are Beckian:

How many times has Warren Buffet said, ‘When you wake up in the morning, you’re supposed to look at your positions and fall in love with them every day or get rid of them. Think about the logic to that…

America, you really need to think about where we’ve been and where we’re going.

I’ve been thinking about the logic of that, per Santelli’s request, and best I can figure, he’s calling for impeachment or for overthrow.

That’s based on a bunch of disjointed ramblings about scandals that aren’t scandals and a relatively minor broken political promise.

Nice, CNBC.

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Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR's business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum. Tags: , , , ,