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I'm Sayin' He Is A Gold Digger: Weiner Takes On Beck's Goldline Ties

Jillian Rayfield | May 20, 2010, 5:10PM

Glenn Beck and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

Anthony Weiner, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Goldline

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Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) says he never meant to engage in a "battle of wits" with Glenn Beck over the Fox News host's pitching for Goldline.

"As you know," Weiner said, "he comes only half prepared to that battle."

But nevertheless the fray began when Weiner rolled out a report this week that questions Goldline's legitimacy. Weiner alleged that the company "uses aggressive sales tactics, conservative spokespeople and rhetoric to sell over-priced gold coins to unsuspecting consumers." Weiner pilloried the "unholy alliance between Goldline and conservative pundits" -- who he calls "paid endorsers" -- and is proposing legislation that would force Goldline to reveal details of their business practices.

On his radio show Tuesday, Beck called Weiner's legislation "another arm of this administration coming out to try to shut me down. This is absolutely incredible."

On his Fox News show yesterday, Beck offered more defense, mainly in the form of a website called Weinerfacts.com. "I've decided," Beck said, "I'm not going to waste my precious air time on 'Weiner facts,' so we have now Weinerfacts.com."

Unfortunately, the site is not so much about the "facts" as it is about "pictures of hot dogs and innuendo related to the Congressman's name," so Beck had to rely on his blackboard to come up with an explanation. "Now it's official," he said. "McCarthy has appeared."

Beck then listed Rev. Jim Wallace, former White House green jobs adviser Van Jones, and former SEIU head Andy Stern as part of an "unholy alliance" (a term he got from a Weiner press release) that refuses to appear on Beck's show, and is therefore a part of a greater conspiracy by the White House. "What are the odds that the President doesn't know what one, two, three of his advisers, and now one Congressman, Weiner, is now doing this to this program?"

"How afraid they really must be," said Beck.

Watch:

Goldline encourages customers to prepare for an inevitable market collapse by investing in gold, whose market value Goldine says is on the rise. On the "Why Buy Gold?" section of its site, Goldline sums it up:

Gold's status as a safe haven asset, gold's ability to offer a hedge against inflation and fluctuations in the dollar, gold's reputation as an internationally recognized monetary and financial asset and the portfolio diversification benefits of owning gold and precious metals.

Weiner, for his part, is questioning whether the gold is worth as much as Goldline is selling it for, while attacking Goldline's for its ties to conservatives. He calls the company "an unfortunate byproduct of the Tea Party movement," and describes the "unholy alliance" between Goldline and conservative pundits, who "promote the purchase of gold as the only safe investment alternative for consumers who want to safeguard their livelihoods," and then cut to a Goldline commercial.

In a press conference this week, Weiner listed as Goldline's "paid endorsers" Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller, Mike Huckabee, and Laura Ingraham, among others.

On Keith Olbermann's show on Tuesday, Weiner explained further, saying if one was watching a health show, "and someone says you should drink as much soda as you can, all throughout the day because it's good for you, and then the very same guy is advocating for Coke or Pepsi in an ad, you would scratch your head."