When Governor Schwarzenegger flew in to San Diego County last week, twice, to see for himself the destruction of the fires, that was OK. And when President Bush flew in Thursday also to see "firsthand," well, why not?

Politicians tend to fly to disaster areas, cluck a bit, look saddened for the photo op, and fly away. The pols aren't needed. If they're going to send help they've already set that in motion. And they could see more by staying home in front of the television set, flipping the remote.

Still, while their ballyhooed little journeys serve no serious purpose, nobody objects much. They're playing politics with disasters -- Katrina was the last big chance -- but that's what pols do. We all know it, grouse a bit, grin and shrug it off. Who cares? Good ol' America.

Then along came Beck, first name Glenn. He is neither governor nor president. He is a person with a CNN television show. He talks. He is of the right-wing persuasion. On Monday, the 22nd of October, he mentioned the fires of San Diego County. He appropriated them to buttress his particular take on patriotism.

He was not here. He was in a studio.

He said: "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today."

Say what?

The fires of the day were ravaging North San Diego. So the county must be Beck's forest.

But who the America haters are is a mystery. North San Diego County is about as conservative a place as there is on Earth, patriotic to the core. It has a love of country that borders on terminal nationalism.

Beck had it wrong, for sure. We all know that. Everybody but Beck seems to know it.

In general, the world pays too much attention to Beck and others on his side of the scrimmage line. There are lots of them, well over a handful, and they share more than the airwaves and viewpoint.

They share outrage. They scream and shout, and spittle often attends their words. They excoriate people who don't agree with them. They call them "idiots," "traitors," "criminals," "diseased" and a lot worse. They share the attack-the-messenger school of discourse.

They insist that they want their "country back," but the United States never belonged to them or to anyone resembling them. They speak of old days that never were. They speak of a country that never was.

I have to defend Beck. Things he said were despicable, low, ignorant, I suppose, but I'd never call for silencing him, taking him off the air. What he said about residents of San Diego County was brutally tasteless. But he had the right to say it.

If there is fault, or something to be done, or someone to blame, we must look inward. The fault lies with us. We listen to such ranting men and women, take them seriously, actually consider their opinions worth our time.

Look at it this way: They count for no more than a politician's visit to dip his toes in Witch Creek.

The loud little bunch on the right, who are furious and who can detect fear and terror in dandelion fields, are not central to our time or to those of us in it. Curiosities, yes. Important, no.

As controversy swirled last week, Beck came back. He said that the two sentences were taken out of context. ("Taken out of context" and "I'm going into rehab" are the first line of defense for all public persons caught with their feet in their mouths or their hands in the till.) He said he was joking.

One critic said that Beck was "wrong, foolish and abysmally stupid."

"Abysmally" is a little strong, I think.

In any case, the point is not to go after the messenger, but the message.

Contact columnist John Van Doorn at (760)739-6647 or jvandoorn@nctimes.com.