As Tea Party activists and other conservatives began converging on Washington, D.C. this morning for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, the war of words between liberals and conservatives continued to broil. 
 
 Today at the National Mall, the rally has attracted more than 100,000 people gathered to see speeches by both Beck and Sarah Palin. Security was beefed up amid concerns of a clash because Beck's rally coincides with the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech, to be commemorated by various marches and rallies on the capitol. 
 
 "Something that is beyond man is happening," Beck told his supporters as the rally opened. "America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness." 
 
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 Beck has shunned criticism from some civil rights leaders that holding his rally on this historic day tarnishes King's legacy. 
 
 In her speech, Palin referred to King and the anniversary of his historic speech, stating that the best way to honor his legacy is to honor men and women serving in the military, who protect our freedoms. She went on to introduce soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
 "Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet. You can't take that away from me," Palin said, referring to her son Track. 
 
 Beck has stated that the rally will be non-political and focusing on honoring America's troops, and has asked attendees to not carry political signs but American flags. A clear religious air hung over the event, with Beck peppering his speech with references to God while a pastor made a prayer offering. 
 
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 But for many attendees, the rally was all about politics. 
 
 Nancy and Tom Mistele came from Wisconsin to attend Beck's rally and events surrounding it. The two say they came because they haven't earned a paycheck since 2006 and are afraid that Americans are losing their freedom and their country. 
 
 "I believe slowly, our rights are being taken away little by little," Tom Mistele said. "A lot of it's already been lost, but it's not lost permanently. We can get it back." 
 
 Cody Smith, an 18-year-old high school student from Indiana, believes passionately that the U.S. government should be stopped from moving toward socialism. 
 
 "We're here because we think our nation needs to get back to the principles of liberty that our founders gave us," he said. The rally is "going to be just historic. It's going to be us standing up and showing people that we're not the racist bigots that the media portrays us to be but that we love freedom, we love people and we want to show people that freedom is really the best way to go." 
 
 Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who is holding a "Reclaim the Dream" march today, berated Beck for hosting the rally on the anniversary of the historic civil rights march. 
 
 "Dr. King is not owned by blacks. But we can't have different opinions of Dr. King's speech," civil rights activist Al Sharpton said at a press conference today. "They're having an anti-government march on a day King came to appeal to the government. You can't have it both ways." 
 
 Sharpton challenged Beck to come to Dunbar high school, the starting point of his rally. 
 
 "Maybe Glenn, if you read the speech you'd be over at Dunbar talking about equality rather than distorting it at the Lincoln memorial," Sharpton said. "You've got the right place wrong speech." 
 
 Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Draws Criticism 
 
 For a rally that's not meant to be about politics, it is all about politics. 
 
 Democrats and Republicans alike today took turns taking stabs at each other and projecting confidence that their own side will prevail in November's mid-term elections. 
 
 Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized Beck's rally as "blatantly political," and predicts voters in swing districts will be turned off by "outrageous rhetoric on the right," which he characterized as ranting conspiracy theories. 
 
 "Congressional Republicans inside the beltway are already popping the champagne bottles, saying that they're going to seize control of United States Congress. It is a premature celebration," Van Hollen said. 
 
 "After the eight years of the Bush administration policies, our economy was driven into the ditch. And for the past 20 months, our Republican colleagues have been carping and criticizing every effort we've made to get the economy out of the ditch and back in gear," he added. 
 
 Bashing the Obama administration's economic agenda was the theme of the Americans for Prosperity's Foundation annual conference today. The event boasted an attendance of 2,500 -- the highest ever for the event since it began four years ago. 
 
 Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell pushed attendees to fight for "federalism and limited government." 
 
 "Democracy is not a spectator sport. I call you to action," he said. "Fight for those principles back home, because there's an awful lot at stake in this country." 
 
 AFP president Tim Phillips dismissed Democrats' criticism as "petty attacks." 
 
 "We're winning and you know you're winning when the other side is reduced to just petty attacks," he said. In November, "I think you're going to see a political tidal wave that changes the direction of this country, and specifically, it's going to be a repudiation of Speaker Pelosi and President Obama's big government big spending policies." 
 
 The National Park Service estimates about a 100,000 people will be in attendance today at Beck's rally. The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) is preparing for a crowd of between 100,000 and 200,000 for all rallies taking place in the nation's capital today. 
 
 ABC News' John Parkinson and Tahman Bradley contributed to this report. ||||| Glenn Beck sees his weekend rally at the Lincoln Memorial as a revival — and even a revolution. 
 
 “This is the beginning of the end of darkness. We have been in darkness for a long time,” Beck told followers in a preview of his “Restoring Honor” rally, on the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech. 
 
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 “Here's what's amazing: They keep saying this is a political event, and it is not. It is not a political event at all. … We have lost our way. We have been standing in spiritual darkness for decades. … Our churches, quite frankly, have grown soft. … It is to give you backbone and spine, and to know that you are not alone — but people are begging for right and wrong,” said beck to an audience of more than 2,500 at the Kennedy Center Friday night. His comments were live-streamed to subscribers to the “Insider Extreme” pay service on his website. 
 
 “I'm convinced that — not just this event, but this time period — is going to be remembered as the beginning of the great awakening in America,” he said. “This is going to change everything, and increase the love. As hate increases, so will love. And that will be the turning point … absolute turning point. ... It's going to be a defibrillator to the spiritual heart of America.” 
 
 During an intermission interview with "Insider Extreme," Beck described the weekend's origins: “We were on our knees and we were all begging God: 'We — we need some help we need — help us here.' And I remember, and I came back and I said, All He keeps saying — all I keep hearing — is, 'Ya have all the pieces. Just put 'em together.' … I mean, we were crying out in the wilderness, going, 'Lord we don't know what that means.’” 
 
 Audience members murmured “Amen!” Later, arms shot heavenward in praise as a Gospel choir sang, “Behold He comes / Riding on a cloud / Shining like the sun / At the trumpet's call / Lift your voice / It's the year of jubilee.” 
 
 Beck eventually choked back tears. But he began in a jovial mood, smirking at his one-night dominion over the Kennedy Center, and feigning a Boston accent as he took the stage. 
 
 “There are thousands and thousands of people that are [web] streaming this right now, and it makes me so happy to know that Keith Olbermann is one of them,” he said, to laughter and applause. “Because while you-all got in here for free, Keith had to pay $6.95 a month.” 
 
 Then Beck blew a kiss to the camera. ||||| Tens of thousands of conservative activists rallied Saturday in the nation's capital on the anniversary and at the same site of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Civil rights leaders are protesting the event. 
 
 Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks during a television interview before the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28,... (Associated Press) 
 
 People line the Reflecting Pool at the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Associated Press) 
 
 Tami Ernst, and her brother John Ernst, both from Houston, are dressed for the occasion at the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.(AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 People walk to the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Associated Press) 
 
 Chris Foran of Sarasota, Fla., sells items to people on their way to the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Associated Press) 
 
 Rally organizer Glenn Beck, who speaks to a faithful audience nightly on conservative Fox News television and daily on talk radio, insists it's just a coincidence that his "Restoring Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial is overlapping with the 47th anniversary of King's speech. 
 
 Two months before nationwide Congressional elections, which could cost Obama's Democrats their majority in the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate as well, Beck's rally becomes only the latest symptom of rampant political partisanship that is splitting the country and drowning out voices of moderation. 
 
 Beck, pacing back and forth on the marble steps, said he was humbled by the size of the crowd, which stretched along the Washington Mall's long reflecting pool nearly all the way to the Washington Monument. 
 
 "Something beyond imagination is happening," he said. "America today begins to turn back to God." 
 
 "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness," said Beck, adding it was now time to "concentrate on the good things in America, the things we have accomplished and the things we can do tomorrow." 
 
 Beck is known for his extreme views and statements. He has described President Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, as a racist. 
 
 Beck was joined by Sarah Palin, a conservative favorite and potential 2012 presidential candidate. 
 
 Neither Beck nor Palin made overtly political comments. 
 
 Palin, greeted by chants of "USA, USA, USA" from many in the crowd, told the gathering, "It is so humbling to get to be here with you today, patriots. You who are motivated and engaged ... and knowing never to retreat." 
 
 Palin honored military members in her speech. She likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists who came to the National Mall to hear King's historic speech. She said the same spirit that helped civil rights activists overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help this group as well. 
 
 "We are worried about what we face. Sometimes, our challenges seem insurmountable," Palin said. 
 
 "Look around you. You're not alone," Palin told participants. 
 
 The crowd _ organizers had a permit for 300,000 _ was vast, with people standing shoulder to shoulder across large expanses of the Mall. The National Park Service stopped doing crowd counts in 1997 after the agency was accused of underestimating numbers for the 1995 Million Man March. 
 
 Civil rights leaders protested the event and scheduled a 3-mile (5-kilometer) plus march from a high school to the site of a planned King memorial near the Tidal Basin and not far from Beck's gathering. 
 
 Beck and other organizers say the aim is to pay tribute to America's military personnel and others "who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor." The broadcaster toured the site Friday as supporters cheered. 
 
 The Rev. Al Sharpton called the demonstration an anti-government rally advocating states' rights. And Sharpton said that goes against the message in King's speech, in which the civil rights leader appealed to the federal government to ensure equality. 
 
 "The structural breakdown of a strong national government, which is what they're calling for, is something that does not serve the interests of the nation and it's something that Dr. King and others fought against," Sharpton said Saturday on C-SPAN. 
 
 "It is ironic to me that they come on the day of a speech where Dr. King appealed for a strong government to protect civil rights and they're going to the site of Abraham Lincoln who saved the union against the state rebellion," he said. 
 
 King's historic speech came at a critical point in black Americans' struggle for civil rights and equality under the law. 
 
 "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," King told a massive audience that jammed the National Mall below the memorial to Abraham Lincoln on Aug. 28, 1963. 
 
 King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, five years later. 
 
 Lincoln was the 16th U.S. president, commander in chief of northern federal forces when the Civil War broke out a century and a half ago. During the war, he issued the emancipation proclamation, which outlawed slavery in the southern states, which had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. 
 
 Beck has given voice to those angry and frustrated with Obama and other Democrats this election year, especially members of the tea party movement _ a loose knit coalition of conservative and libertarian activists who oppose taxes and what they perceive as government intrusion in their lives. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Phillip Eliot, Steven R. Hurst, Brett Zongker and Nafeesa Syeed contributed to this report.
– Some highlights from the Glenn Beck rally, as rounded up by the Times, Post, Politico, and AP: Beck: "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness. ... We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished—and the things that we can do tomorrow." Beck again: “America today begins to turn back to God.” Attendance: No official crowd estimates, as per usual. The phase of choice in coverage seems to be "tens of thousands." Sarah Palin: ""We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want. We must restore America and restore her honor. Here today, at the crossroads of our history, may this day be the change point." Palin again: "You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them."