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Glenn Beck

Hillary Responds to "Pimping" Comment, Reshuffles Campaign Staff; Is John McCain Conservative?; Archbishop Says Islamic Law Unavoidable in U.K.

Aired February 11, 2008 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Hillary in trouble. As her campaign stumbles, Mrs. Clinton reassigns her top manager. Find out how rough things can get when the Clintons hit the panic button.

Plus, the road back. I`ll talk to a top conservative strategist to find out what conservatives need to do to regain the high ground in America.

And a top British clergyman says it`s time for Sharia Law in the U.K. A crazy idea or is he highlighting the inevitable?

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello America. Welcome to Monday.

Over the weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama swept four primaries and pulled ahead of rival Hillary Clinton. He now leads in states and elected delegates. It seems like the wheels of the bus don`t go round and round. When it comes to the Clinton bus, then come off and off. I`ll have more on that here in just a bit.

But first, over the last few days, Hillary took a break from watching her campaign crumble to strong-arm MSNBC into axing or trying to get them to fire one of their anchors for some poorly chosen words.

Here`s "The Point" tonight. I saw "The Godfather". In "The Godfather," Don Corleone said, it`s not personal, it`s business. You know what? When it comes to Don Clinton, getting personal is their business. And here`s how I got there.

This past Thursday MSNBC anchor David Schuster questioned whether Chelsea Clinton was, quote, "sort of being pimped out in some sort of weird way," end quote, by her mother`s campaign, because Chelsea was making calls to voters and giving speeches. I believe, also, calling super delegates.

I made a pact back in 1993 when the Clintons first got in the White House and people started making fun of Chelsea. And I said you don`t make fun of Chelsea. She`s a kid. She`s off -- she`s out of bounds. And I`m a guy on conservative radio. But that was then. Baby`s all grown up now and calling super delegates for Mommy. She`s 27 and fair game.

Even though Schuster apologized on air, he has been suspended indefinitely, which they tell me is TV speak for, about to be fired. And Dave, if you happen to be watching, feel free, send your resume over here. I`m not afraid of offending the Clintons or the Bushes or anybody else. If they don`t like what you have to say, tough luck.

The Clintons flexed the same kind of muscle when "GQ" magazine was set to run an honest behind the scenes account of Hillary`s campaign, only to have Bill Clinton threaten to pull out of a cover story if the magazine ran the piece. So much for that little freedom of the press thing.

In response to the MSNBC comments, Hillary has said, quote, "I am a mom first and a candidate second. And I found the remarks incredibly offensive."

Uh-huh. Sure.

Here`s what you need to know tonight. Anybody who thinks that Hillary is anything but a candidate right now, first, last and always, has been spending way too much time with Amy Winehouse. Know what I`m saying?

And let`s not forget that back in September of last year, our good old buddy over at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann, railed against {resident Bush for, quote, "pimping out General David Petraeus." Gee, looks like the general`s mom didn`t have MSNBC`s phone number.

I guess career military heroes are fair game, but not the adult children of politicians calling on behalf of their politician mom.

You know what? I have $3 myself. You`ve got a world of hurt, you know. You say the wrong thing about my daughters. I get it. But let`s get some perspective here. She`s 27, and she was doing politics.

It`s 2008. Pimping hardly means that Chelsea is turning tricks for a guy in a purple fedora. The language police are at it again. And Hillary Clinton is dressing up desperation as indignation -- I hope she doesn`t cry -- all in the name of staying in control of the real Clinton news network, MSNBC.

Josh Green is a senior editor at the Atlantic. He also wrote the "GQ" article on Hillary that I mentioned earlier.

Same kind of strong armed-tactic here, Josh?

JOSH GREEN, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes, I think it`s a little bit different, Glenn. I do think politics factors into both. But the circumstances last year and today were very different.

I think in the case of "GQ," this is back when Clinton was running a campaign predicated on the notion that she was the inevitable candidate, that this was going to be sort of a coronation. The Clintons then were very big into kind of showing strength that they could overpower all their enemies. So I think that`s what happened there.

What happened with Schuster, I think, is a little bit different. Clinton has lost now, I think, five races is a row if you count the Virgin Islands. Her support among women, which is a key group for her, has tailed off a bit.

And by seizing on the -- on the pimp comment, which I think probably offends women even more than men, it manages to sort of create an idea of victimhood, that they`re being unfairly attacked...

BECK: Jeez.

GREEN: ... that sort of thing, that really has the effect of, they hope, I think, of getting women, you know, indignant and upset and rallying them to Hillary`s cause, which is what she needs right now.

BECK: OK. All right, so Josh, you know, you say that, you know, pimping out offends women and men, yada, yada, yada. True, if it were pimping -- I mean, if it weren`t pimping out. But let me just give Chelsea Clinton`s own words to online supporters of her mother.

Quote, "I`ve been campaigning with her across the country. I am definitely planning on being at the next debate. Would you like to join me? The campaign is picking an online supporters to watch the January 31 debate in Los Angeles with me and to meet my mom."

I mean, it`s -- she`s not actually having sex with supporters, right. But she is doing her mother`s bidding. She`s working for the campaign.

GREEN: Yes. Now, listen, again, I think it comes back to the language and the choice of terms. I don`t think anyone, including the Clinton campaign, would object, had Schuster said, "Well, she`s going to work on behalf of her mom" or even pointed out the inconsistencies. You know, Chelsea was asked for an interview by a 9-year-old reporter earlier and turned him down.

So I wouldn`t say it`s quite a double standard, but she`s certainly acting in an adult capacity on behalf of the campaign. It`s the pimp comment that`s the problem, I think.

BECK: Stop with the language. It`s driving me out of my mind. Did you see -- did you see the Grammys this weekend? One of the guys -- does anybody know, who was the guy that was wearing the "N" word shirt? What`s his name? Boz, Noz, Boz, Koz? Whatever. Wearing a t-shirt that had the "N" word on it. It was the name of his CD or a song or whatever the hell it is. Double standard? You bet.

I`m tired of the language police. It`s a guy saying, "We`re sort of pimping out." He didn`t mean she was turning tricks. When are we going -- when are we going to stop playing the victim card in America?

GREEN: Never in politics if that`s what you`re talking about.

BECK: Well, that`s what I`m talking about.

GREEN: If Schuster had been MC-ing the Grammys, I think he`d still be working.

BECK: Exactly right. Josh, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

GREEN: Good to be with you.

BECK: Now, like I said at the top of the program, this weekend`s primaries, Hillary Clinton took a beating by Barack Obama. As a result she`s starting to freak out just little bit.

Last week I told you how Hillary lent $5 million of her own money to keep her campaign in the black. Yesterday, she announced that she`s replacing her Spanish campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle with longtime friend and insider Maggie Williams, who happens to be African-American.

So, is Clinton just shuffling the deck for a fresh hand? Is she betting on a long shot to win? Or -- and I want you to know I really don`t believe this at all. It`s what they`d say if she was conservative. Is Hillary just a racist and hates Hispanics?

Jim VandeHei is the executive editor of the Politico.

Hello, Jim.

JIM VANDEHEI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE POLITICO: Hi, how are you doing?

BECK: Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, that`s really all she`s got left. Is it enough for her to beat Barack Obama? Everywhere else it looks like Barack is -- everybody is going Barack`s way.

VANDEHEI: It`s a tough strategy, and it`s really hard to find a political logic in history to suggest that you can lose, you know, eight or 10 races in a row, go 27 days without a victory and then hope that you can do very well in big states down the road.

In some ways it has sort of a whiff of Rudy Giuliani`s strategy...

BECK: Yes.

VANDEHEI: ... where he thought he could wait out Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina and make a stand in Florida. Guess what? When you keep losing, people paying attention, quit giving you money and you lose a little momentum.

BECK: Yes. And it`s not -- it`s not just even losing last week, when she said she had to loan herself $5 million. That was a sign. I mean, for the pinheads who vote on, you know, who`s got the best chance to win and not on policies, when you just look at loaning yourself $5 million, that just sends the message of, "Wow, you`re in real trouble."

VANDEHEI: It does. And I think the contrast with Obama was pretty darn stark. In January, Obama raised about $31 or $32 million. She raised $13.5. Both figures are a lot of money, but when he`s doubling her fundraising, it shows that the money in the party is starting to move his direction, means the momentum is moving his direction.

If he has a lot more money and he has a playing field that seems to play to his strengths and to her weaknesses, that gives him a huge advantage, because he can spend a lot of time and a lot of money introducing himself to those voters who might not know him.

BECK: "Washington Post" printed the names of these super delegates. It`s got -- these guys have got to be, "Oh, crap, no. Come on." It`s got to be a living hell for these super delegates.

VANDEHEI: Right.

BECK: I mean, are they getting phone calls in the middle of the night from both parties? What kind of deals can be possibly made?

VANDEHEI: Phone calls, chocolate. Probably a little money. You know, it`s -- think about it. You have 796 people who could end up deciding who`s going to be the nominee if this thing is as close as we think it will be heading into the convention.

I don`t think it will actually come to that, because I think there`s going to be a lot of pressure on the party to unite behind whoever has the most votes and the most delegates once we get through, you know, at least Pennsylvania.

BECK: Yes.

VANDEHEI: But it is a realistic possibility that we do go down to where you have the old party bosses, 796 people sitting in a room and deciding. And remember those delegates that Hillary says are committed. Well, they`re only committed because they said verbally they`re committed. They can always change their mind.

BECK: Jim, there`s -- I can`t figure out a reason why Barack Obama would ever take vice president. I don`t think she would.

VANDEHEI: Right.

BECK: If he doesn`t -- if he doesn`t get the nomination, you don`t see him taking vice president? You don`t see a super ticket here between the two of them happening, do you?

VANDEHEI: I don`t. I think it would be much more likely that he would agree to be her vice president than he would actually want her to be his vice president. I don`t think that he would want sort of the baggage that comes with being a Clinton at No. 2. They attract so much attention. It would distract from the presidential front that he wants to portray. So I can`t imagine that he`d do that.

BECK: Yes, OK. Jim, thanks a lot.

Coming up, GOP race is down now to two people. Mike Huckabee is fighting like he`s got a chance. But here`s a headline. I don`t think either one of them are real conservatives, but I`ve got somebody on next that disagrees with me strongly.

And the archbishop of Canterbury has opened up England`s doors now to Sharia Law. I`ll tell you how political correctness may be the death of bloody old England.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin taking a page from our playbook, the Reagan playbook, warning the U.S. of an arms race. We have the details on that and how it relates to the price of your bread in tonight`s "Real Story."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Maybe it`s just me, but when I hear politicians speak, it`s like, remember the Charlie Brown cartoons with the teachers, where they`re just "wa-wa-wa-wa"?

I listened to a Barack Obama speech. I listened for 20 minutes. I have no idea what the guy even stands for. I`m going to play the speech tomorrow on the radio program. It will blow your mind. Maybe it`s time to using common sense. You know, when it comes to governing ourselves, and I just happened to find this weekend 18 common-sense ways to make America better. It`s like listening to your grandfather without all the grumpiness. Coming up in just a minute.

But first, now that Barack Obama pulled ahead this weekend for the Democrats, it`s worth noting that Mike Huckabee took the wind out of John McCain`s sails, as well. That`s news but only kind of sort of. Because at this point it would take divine intervention for Huckabee to get the Republican nomination, because according to my earthly math, it`s just not possible.

Yet he continues to run. Why? Does he want to be VP? Or could it be that he, like other conservatives, thinks that John McCain stinks on ice? Although he`s never, ever said anything like that. So I`m going to stick with a VP or cabinet position.

Remains to be seen, but come November, what does a true conservative do?

Robert George is a professor of politics at Princeton University.

And Robert, you say that John McCain is a real conservative.

ROBERT GEORGE, PROFESSOR OF POLITICS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, he`s certainly defected from the conservative cause on a number of issues and some very important ones. He`s certainly a great deal more conservative than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I should say especially Barack Obama.

BECK: Well, yes. Well, OK, but let me ask you this. Because...

GEORGE: That tells us what we need to do.

BECK: No, no, no. No, but it doesn`t. It doesn`t. And I speak as an alcohol, so take it for what it`s worth.

I believe in the theory of bottoming out. We are enabling the Republican Party to sell out by saying every time, "Well, this is better than this." Well, you know what? This is slowly becoming this. They just keep moving further and further left. When is enough enough?

GEORGE: Well, certainly, the conservative movement has to put some pressure on John McCain. The conservative movement has to make demands. And I think the conservative movement will make demands. They`re not simply going to give him a big kiss and say, "Thanks for being our standard bearer." And that`s the right thing to do.

BECK: But how do you trust him? I mean, how do you trust any of these weasels? John McCain says, "I get it. I get it on the border." Yet then he appoints, as his Hispanic outreach adviser, Juan Hernandez, who is the biggest open boarders, give them all amnesty, wherever a Mexican is there is Mexico kind of guy you`ve ever met. How do you trust them?

GEORGE: Well, you should have learned long ago, as I did, not to trust politicians in general. But you do your best. You put pressure on people. Certainly, McCain has some people around him who conservatives do trust. Sam Brownback, for example. Tom Coburn, Phil Graham, Jack Kemp.

Now, that doesn`t mean that John McCain has put together a perfect team by any stretch of the imagination. There are some people who are close to McCain that I don`t want to be anywhere near the neighborhood. Redman, for example. David Souter.

BECK: How do you -- how do you believe that the guy -- I mean, here - - because here is McCain`s rap, that he`s going to work together and he`s going to bring everybody together. He`s going to reach across the aisle. But he only reaches across the aisle in one direction.

Can you name a time where he`s grabbed Ted Kennedy by the collar and said, "Hey, listen up. I need you to do this for the conservative side?" Have you ever seen him do that?

GEORGE: There`s no question that Teddy Kennedy is a much more solid liberal than John McCain is a solid conservative. But when you compare John McCain with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, when you think about who`s going to sit on the Supreme Court, depending on who`s elected president, I think it`s pretty clear that, while we have to put a lot of pressure on John McCain, we have to work very hard to make him earn our support, at the end of the day, we need to elect him over Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

BECK: I have to tell you, Professor George, I hear a lot of great things about you. I hear that you are just -- you are -- you`re a beacon there at a university as a conservative, and God bless you...

GEORGE: But let me guess. You don`t trust my analysis of this particular...

BECK: No, no, no. Here`s -- no, no, no. I mean, I don`t trust any of the weasels in Washington. And I -- and I have to tell you. I think there comes a point to where you have to say, "I`m not compromising any more. I`ve compromised enough."

Is there a point to where you would say that ever? Is there ever a time that you say, "You know what? You just can`t vote for the Republican. I don`t care how bad the Democrat is"?

GEORGE: Well, there would come a point, and that`s when the Republican is every bit as bad as the Democrat. If I believed that John McCain would make the kinds of judicial appointments, and particularly Supreme Court appointments that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make, if I believed that John McCain`s national security policy would be just as bad as the one Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is likely to put into place, then I would say, curse on both their houses.

But the reality is that, for example, with judicial appointments, something that I`ve been focused on, with judicial appointments, what we`re going to get out of John McCain may not be perfect, but it will be a lot better than what we`d get out of either Democrat.

BECK: I`d like to talk to you about that some other time. The Gang of 14. George H.W. Bush, we said the same thing there. We`ll have to leave it at another time.

Now with the GOP choices this liberal, I believe, is obviously America is about to take a left turn, could be a huge left turn. Tomorrow, special attention to Barack Obama.

Oh, he`s an inspiring speaker, injected a lot of life into the campaign season. But you may be shocked at how left this guy really is. The truth is in all those little fuzzy details, and we`ll have them all tomorrow. So don`t miss it.

Now, coming up, the archbishop of Canterbury claims the adoption of Islamic Sharia Law in the U.K. is unavoidable and it would help, quote, "social cohesion," unquote. Yes, except for those nasty little beheadings and honor killings.

And for the first time ever, the U.S. is going to import wheat from foreign nations. Spells big trouble for our economy here in the world`s bread basket. Tonight`s "Real Story" coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: As bad as the Islamic extremist problem is here in the United States, it is far, far worse in England. Their Muslim population hovers at approximately two million people, which is not a big deal, if it wasn`t for a disturbingly high percentage that considers themselves Brits second and Muslims first.

And then on top of it, especially disturbing when the archbishop of Canterbury told the BBC last week that the adoption of parts of extremist Sharia Law was, quote, "unavoidable" in Great Britain.

Sharia Law sanctions stonings and honor killings. It virtually strips all rights from women and places fundamentalist religious belief above the state`s rule of law. It`s a parallel law.

Britain, you better hope that Sharia is avoidable or you and the rest of the free world are in a whole lot of trouble.

Melanie Phillips knows this issue very, very well. She is the author of "Londonistan."

Melanie, this is a thing that you`ve been ringing the warning bell about for a very long time. Was he actually encouraging a parallel law?

MELANIE PHILLIPS, AUTHOR, "LONDONISTAN": Well, he says he was not encouraging a parallel law. But the fact is, what he has said is that he wants to have supplementary jurisdictions of -- of Islamic law, in which Muslims living in Britain could choose whether to be under Sharia, Islamic Sharia Law or English law.

BECK: That`s insanity.

PHILLIPS: Yes. But the trouble is he`s denying what he has said.

There`s been the most amazing outburst of anger. I`ve never seen anger like it. And that`s because British people know very well that their country is already being Islamized by stealth.

BECK: OK, first of all...

PHILLIPS: Nobody is allowed to talk about it.

BECK: ... you`ve already had a Somali gang that was involved in murder that kind of went around the law and used their own Sharia Law, as well. This is the kind of slippery slope that you saw in the Sudan. People in the Sudan said, "Oh, well, it will just be the veils. It won`t be the beheadings." Then before you know it, it`s the beheadings.

PHILLIPS: Well, this is the problem with the archbishop. He thinks that it`s possible to have a nice kind of Sharia, a liberal, western kind of Sharia and not have, you know, amputations and stonings and all that sort of stuff. And I`m afraid he`s very naive. He doesn`t actually understand what Sharia is.

But it`s not simply the Sharia courts that you just mentioned, which operate outside the criminal law in administering justice. We also now have Sharia-compliant finance, Sharia-compliant mortgages. Our prime minister has said he wants Britain to be the center of Islamic financing.

Our state welfare system is recognizing polygamy. It is giving welfare benefits to the multiple wives of Muslim men. Our institutions are delivering -- our occupation institutions are delivering Halal food, making special arrangements for Muslims.

Now, of course, one should be considerate to minorities, and one should allow them the space to practice their religion and form communities of faith. But what one must not do is allow a faith to take over the majority religion and culture. And I`m afraid that`s what the archbishop of Canterbury does seem to be suggesting, even though he doesn`t appear to know that is what he`s suggesting.

BECK: Oh, big trouble. Melanie, thank you very much. And thanks for ringing the warning bell.

Let me just ask you this. I mean, England, would you be -- would you -- if the Mormons actually practiced polygamy, would you be giving them benefits? I don`t think so.

Coming up, Cold War redo. It is Russian President Putin having some tough words for the U.S. But is he just taking a page out of Reagan`s playbook? The answer is yes, and it should open your eyes. Tonight`s "Real Story." Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) * BECK: If I said that Barack Obama had a big weekend, you`d probably think I was talking about the clean sweep versus the Clinton machine. But oh, I`m not. Didn`t you hear? He won a Grammy. We`re doomed.

I`ll give you the full details on that coming up, but first welcome to THE REAL STORY. If you need more evidence that this just ain`t our grandparents` America anymore, then consider this. The United States, the breadbasket of the world, is now predicting that our inventory of wheat is headed for a 60-year low. The last time we were at this level of wheat was 1948, and back then we had a good reason, our farmers were shipping al of our wheat overseas as a part of the rebuilding effort after World War II. But, we`re not rebuilding any European cities right now, or at least not yet. So, where is all of our wheat going?

The real story is, there is a battle going on in America`s heartland, right now. It is a battle between food and fuel and feed. Farmers have to decide whether to plant a crop like wheat and hope that prices stay high, or instead plant a sure thing, corn, because they can cash in on government ethanol subsidy difficulties and sell the feed for cattle if they can`t sell it to the government. But it`s not even a fair fight anymore when it comes to wheat. The ethanol rush with its free millions from the government, your money, by the way, has taken basic free market concepts like supply and demand completely out of the mix.

Farmers don`t always plant what Americans need anymore, they plant stuff where they can make money. It`s a weird combination of government socialism and farmer capitalism. And who can blame the farmer? I`d do exactly the same thing, Jack. You know, I don`t know how to make this point any more clear than this, corn ethanol is not practical. It is not our solution for our energy problems. It is only a political one.

I write about it in "An Inconvenient Book." Listen to this fact: It takes about 1.29 gallons of gas to create one gallon of corn ethanol. That`s like trying to get rich by buying dollar bills for $1.29. It doesn`t work. The result is the prices for the type of wheat that we use to make flour, you know, bread, the stuff that us average Americans still use to bake with, is now up 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Need I remind you, it`s February 11. I don`t care what the government statistics say, that`s real money.

And for Americans who are already being squeezed at the gas pumps, squeezed in the paychecks, squeezed in the mortgages, it may be the icing on the now 50 percent more expensive cake. Jim Bowers, the president of Bower Trading.

Jim, price of wheat in a nutshell, what is the ramification of wheat going up this much?

JAMES BOWER, BOWER TRADING: Glenn, you had a lot to say there. You answered a lot of questions I was going to try to address, but here is the situation in the wheat. This situation is a global factor which is essentially stemming from what happened about four or five months ago when we had major crop shortfalls, not only here, Glenn, in the United States. Remember the Easter weekend freeze? We also had problems in the Ukraine. We had a horrible crop in Australia, we had a small than crop -- than expected crop in Canada. It was the perfect storm for a lot of supply problems and disruptions. The market was not prepared whatsoever for that to happen, because we kind of got used to $3, $4 wheat, all the sudden the world woke up and we`re out of wheat, particularly of durum and hard red Winter wheat.

BECK: Jim, I read in the paper this weekend that we`re actually going to import wheat. I thought to myself, my gosh, I`ve been saying that for two years. We`re going to be the only society that actually burns up its own food supply for fuel and it`s exactly what`s happening. Tell me it`s not just the wheat, this now will affect milk and everything else, right?

BOWER: Glenn, I`m extremely worried about what could happen this Summer if we have a drought like we had in 1983 or 1988. I`m a numbers guy. If we look at these numbers going into our Summertime, if we have a crop failure, we literally can take some of these supply and demand down to debit situations. In that case, the USDA is going to be faced with a series of challenges which they`ve probably never faced before. My biggest concern is why are they not addressing these issues right now before they happen? And I`m really disappointed in the government so far, though. The function of the market is to discipline government and I don`t see it right now.

BECK: You say -- and I don`t even understand this -- you say if this thing goes as bad as you think it might, we could lose whole industries to the southern hemisphere. What does that even mean?

BOWER: Well, I`ve been talking about that for quite some time. What happens when we get these big spikes up in food prices, particularly here in the United States, what happens is they spike, spike, go higher and higher, and then they finally collapse. What happens is that business is transferred to a lower labor-cost base such as Brazil or Argentina and they`re just sitting there waiting to get this business transported down to them. The prices to the farmers` right now short-term are great in their eyes, but really the worst thing to happen to American agriculture, in my opinion, is for prices to stay escalated at a very, very astronomical level, because what happens is, again as you just mentioned, we`ll pick up this slack and I`ll move it to the southern hemisphere and then it will be very difficult to get it back.

BECK: Oh, this is -- I mean, America, man. We have got to wake up. But hey, let`s worry about global warming. Jim, thank you very much.

Now, one of the reasons that I talk about unconventional issues on this program, like wheat prices and bond insurance -- I mean, nobody else is talking about this stuff -- is because I believe it all relates to our security. Unlike a lot of people, I don`t believe there`s a difference between our economic security and our national security. If we can`t buy bullets, if we can`t afford fuel for our jets, then fighting war kind of becomes a moot point, doesn`t it? That`s why the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I heard what Russian president Putin said over the weekend. He said, and I quote, "It is already clear that there is a new arms race being unleashed in the world. It is not our fault. We didn`t start it. But we are forced to retaliate..."

Now, to most people they`ll tell you this is simple propaganda, he`s just talking to his own people. Great. But, if you`re a student of recent history, then you might know the real story is how eerily familiar that sounds, except now it`s not coming out of the mouth of Ronald Reagan. Think about this. The Soviet Union did not collapse because we beat them with their armies, we collapsed them because we hammered them economically. Cheap oil created a mountain of debt for the Russians.

Now, while that meant we saved billions of dollars on oil, we turned that around and put it into our military. Now the tables have completely reversed. Russia is flush with so much oil money that our own national director of intelligence just admitted how worried we are about the, "financial capabilities" due to all of that oil wealth. Meanwhile, we`re the ones buried in debt. Back then it was Russia fighting Islamic radicals in Afghanistan including, what was his name, oh, yeah, Osama bin Laden.

Now we`re the ones spending billions to fight extremists led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. If history is repeating itself, we already know how this story ends. It is up to us. We`ve got to get more Americans to read recent history and rewrite the ending. We have got stop spending billions of dollars that we don`t have. We have got to stop enriching our enemies through oil. And most importantly, the real quick fix is stop the Socialist ideas from gaining credibility.

You know what? Government healthcare, free college tuition and guaranteed wages did not stop the Soviet Union from collapsing, and it`s not going to stop us either, in fact, it will help it along.

Paul Joyal, is a vice president at National Strategies and an expert on Russia.

Paul, first of all, let me just start here. Part of this is for domestic, part of this is also to stop us from putting the missile shield up. He`s trying to strong arm Europe, correct?

PAUL JOYAL, RUSSIAN AFFAIRS EXPERT: Absolutely. It`s very much directed at Europe, at our plans to put the ABM system in and very much directed against NATO and its fragile position that has been created since our efforts were undertaken to expand NATO and the drastic cut back in defense spending in Europe.

BECK: You know, I said this, I don`t know, eight months ago on the air. It just dawned on me, I feel like the biggest dope in the world. Communism never went away, they just changed tactics. I mean, they just took down the statues and everything else, changed the name of their party. It`s the same kind of stuff except it`s even spookier now, Paul, correct me if I`m wrong, but what is it? It is Gazprom? They have the former German chancellor on the board of this, everybody is in on it now and they`re crushing Europe.

JOYAL: Well, certainly we face a challenge that we`re unprepared for which is economic penetration, power and wealth being brought to bear to recruit, outright, on leaders, former leaders in the western world. This is something that`s very, very difficult to get your arms around. And now with the growing dependency Europe has to gas from Russia, we see why the wisdom during the Reagan administration was to prevent, at all costs, the building of the Yamal pipeline which Reagan succeed at preventing.

BECK: Right. And wait a minute, and he didn`t want that built because he knew then Europe would be at the hands of what he called the "evil empire." Right?

JOYAL: You`re absolutely correct.

BECK: And they`re building this now, are they not?

JOYAL: Well, there`s more pipelines being built. Of course, one of the projects that Chancellor Schroeder supported when he was in power was the building of a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. So, there are many. And now he was rewarded with his position on the board. Raw gas in Germany is 50 percent owned by Gazprom. So, the penetration of Germany is very strong. The one state that has been able to develop independent power has been France with their nuclear energy.

BECK: It`s amazing. And this weekend Venezuela threatened us. I mean, same thing. I mean, these people who have the oil, that have the power have everybody right where they want them. That`s the real story, tonight.

Now, coming up, every presidential candidate has a plan to fix America. I actually found 18 common sense ways we can fix America, and they`re coming up next.

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BECK: You know, we do a lot of segments on what`s wrong with America, but not enough on how to fix them. So, tonight I want to bring a few great ideas from a magazine article I just read called "Self-Help Guide to Living in a Free Society". They list a total of 18 tips. It could have been written by my grandfather.

Here`s a couple of my favorites. No. 9 is: "If you default on a loan, accept the consequences, lick your wounds and avoid making the same mistakes again. Don`t expect the government to bail you out with money fleeced from the taxpayers who made a more prudent lending and borrowing decision." And I would like to ad, here, don`t expect the government to bail you out with money it`s borrowing from China.

Here`s No. 2 on the list: "Don`t expect others to pay for your foolishness. If you spill hot coffee on yourself, be more careful next time, don`t sue the restaurant that served you or push for a law to regulate the temperature of coffee. And if you`re and a jury, don`t award huge sums for being irresponsible."

I can`t help but think, if we would teach our kids things like this instead of multi variable calculus that they`ll never use, maybe we wouldn`t be quite as far down the welfare avenue that we currently are.

Gen LaGreca is the author of this piece that appeared in a magazine, "The New Individualist," I had never heard of, but what a great magazine this is. She is also the author of "Noble Vision."

And I have to tell you, if -- your book, is it a novel, what is it?

GEN LAGRECA, AUTHOR: Glenn, it is a novel. But it is coming true, unfortunately. It`s a story about liberty and it covers some of the same issues that the article does.

BECK: I have to buy it, because if it`s as common sense as these 18 tips. Here`s one. I read this on the plane on Friday or Saturday, I said, "Yes!" This one: "If you choose to live in a hurricane zone, then buy insurance and take your chances." I look at this all the time and say, you`re dumb enough to build your house on the side of a hill in California. What do you think was going to happen, boo-boo? I mean, what brought you to writing this?

LAGRECA: Well, you know, as America is losing our basic foundation, our basic principle that we were a society of people who took care of themselves and the government did not interfere with our lives, and so our fellow citizens are becoming more and more dependent on the government to provide for their needs, to fulfill every need and to give them things and so I wanted to make clear what our founding principle is.

BECK: This is -- I mean, I`ve been reading this series of books called "The Real," it`s the real George Washington, the real Thomas Jefferson, the real Ben Franklin. All this stuff is founding father stuff, all of this stuff. I mean, look at some of this, 17: "Don`t campaign for the government to give you things for free." No. 15: "Don`t expect any guarantees in life, there are none." "Don`t support laws that control your employers, they`re covered by the constitution, too." How did we get here?

LAGRECA: Well, you know, Ben Franklin said that if the taxpayers know they can vote themselves the taxpayers money, other taxpayers money, it`s going to be the end of the Republic and I think that`s what`s happening today. And unfortunately a lot of politicians like to develop special interest groups and voting bases, so it`s to their benefit to promise things.

BECK: Do you see any way, Gen, because I read these -- and in America, I don`t even know where you get "The New Individualist." I`ve never heard of it. Is it a new magazine?

LAGRECA: Yes, it is. It`s published by the Atlas Society, which promotes the ideas of Ayn Rand.

BECK: Ah, that`s why. OK.

LAGRECA: And they`re offering a free copy, if you like the magazine and you can read the article for yourself.

BECK: I may have to -- I may have to charge you. This has turned into an infomercial. Now how much would you pay? So anyway, I read this and it`s such common sense, but it`s what my grandfather used to say as we would walk in the back of his raspberry field, he would say these things to me. How do you get dummy Americans who haven`t, you know, grown up with my grandfather, to get these?

LAGRECA: Well, the self-help guide talks about how the welfare state is really destroying us, not just politically, which is bad enough, it`s bringing us to Socialism, but it`s destroying us psychologically and that`s important for everyone to realize, because if we don`t control our own lives and expect the government to do everything for us, then where`s our independence, where is our self-esteem? We`re replacing the American eagle flying proud and free with a chicken penned in a coop waiting to be fed.

BECK: You ain`t kidding. Gen, I appreciate it. Thank you very much, it`s a great article. I tell you, I have had a problem with Ayn Rand for a long time because of her godlessness. But I have to tell you, lately I`ve been thinking about "Atlas Shrugged" a lot. I`d like to go find a place where I could just go live with other people who are like-minded. Oh, and you`d like to send me there, wouldn`t you?

Coming up, as if he didn`t get enough publicity this weekend, Barack Obama, oh thank goodness he won that Grammy. The question is, can he win a Grammy and an Oscar like Al Gore? I`ll explain, next.

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BECK: And on a personal note, some days are better than others. Over the weekend, everything that could go right for Barack Obama did go right. And in some perverse sort of way, I couldn`t be happier.

Obama seems like a perfectly nice guy, you know. It`s -- I like him. I don`t like what he stands for, we agree on almost nothing. But he seems like a nice guy and, you know, I could have dinner with him, not that he would have dinner with me. However, when things went well for Obama, that meant this weekend things were, oh, not going to well for the Clintons and Hillary cried.

Not only did Obama win the contest this past weekend, but he also won his second Grammy award. They love to give Democrats awards, don`t they? Al Gore won an Oscar and a Grammy and now it`s time to give some statues to Obama. He won for the audio book version of his blockbuster, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," which, by the way, was the working title of my last book, but he had already taken it.

So, like I said, it`s not just that nice things went right for Barack Obama, but his winning the Grammy meant that possible first husband Bill Clinton didn`t win. You see, Bill was chasing his third Grammy with "Giving: How Each of us Can Change the World." Yeah, sounds like a page- turner.

I sold about 30 percent more books than Bill Clinton did and he got a Grammy nomination while I can`t even get a review from the "New York Times" on a book that`s been in their top five for 12 weeks. Well, it`s a good thing the bias of the liberal media is a myth or I`d be pissed.

Another former Democratic president who also didn`t win was Jimmy Carter with his "Sunday Morning in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World, a Collection of Bible Lessons." Sorry, Jimmy, Bible lessons are lost on the Grammy crowd, since at least seven of the 10 Commandments were broken during the after-party. But you can bet that if there was a Grammy that was won for a book on broken commandments, the winner would be sure to thank Jesus during their acceptance speech.

So it was the best weekend ever for Barack Obama, and three days of loss, disappointment and heartbreak for the Clintons. Like I said at the beginning, some days are just better than others.

Don`t forget, if you want to know what`s on tomorrow`s program, or if you`d like more in-depth commentary on the news of the day, you can sign up right now for my free daily e-mail newsletter at the all-new, completely redesigned glennbeck.com. From New York, good night, America.

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