The Center for Constitutional Rights – or CCR – is going after the Glenn Beck program. Beck recently directed his conspiracy theory fear machine at 78-year-old City University of New York professor Francis Fox Piven – accusing her of trying to “intentionally collapse our economic system”.

It all boils down to an article Piven wrote 46 years ago about how to help poor people in the country by overwhelming welfare rolls and forcing the government into action to address poverty. Beck has since targeted this article dozens of times on his show and deemed Piven a threat to our nation. And - in response – Piven has received numerous death threats from Beck supporters. CCR wrote a letter to Fox News President Roger Ailes – asking him to force Beck to tone down the rhetoric and end the false accusations against Piven before someone carries out one of these deadly threats. Fox denied the request and said, ‘The Glenn Beck Program,’ probably above and beyond any on television, has denounced violence repeatedly.”

And - in an interview over the weekend – new GOP Senator Mike Lee flat out rejected calls for renewed civility within Congress. When challenged whether or not it was appropriate for Members of Congress to engage in violent, heated rhetoric after the Tucson shooting – for example calling President Obama’s health reform law the “job-killing health care bill” – Senator Lee responded, “The shooter wins if we, who’ve been elected, change what we do just because of what he did”. This isn’t about the shooter winning. This is about Republicans – with the help of their commentators on Fox News and talk radio - trying to win elections…by any means necessary.