Return to Transcripts main page

Glenn Beck

Why is Iran Detaining British Marines?; How Will Elizabeth Edwards` Cancer Affect Their Family?; Anna Nicole`s Cause of Death Determined

Aired March 26, 2007 - 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, showdown in Iran. British soldiers held hostage by Iranian forces. Is this an act of war?

And the Anna Nicole autopsy report is finally out. What killed her?

DR. JOSEPH PERPER: Chloral hydrate, Ativan, Valium, thallium (ph).

BECK: Or should I say, what didn`t?

Plus, anarchy in the U.S. Portland peace activists burn a United States soldier in effigy. How peaceful.

This and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, if you`ve paid attention to the news at all the last few days, you know that our friends in Iran have been kicking it up a notch.

Recently, they have captured 15 British soldiers and their vow to continue working on a nuclear program, despite warnings to stop, they say they don`t care what the U.N. says.

Here`s the point tonight: I believe that Iran is panicking, and this makes them more dangerous than ever before. And here`s how I got there.

I`m a guy, in case you`re a new viewer to this program, I`ve been saying it for a while, that Iran and the west have been headed for World War III for quite some time.

Iran`s dangerous behavior, however, may actually be a good thing, kind of. Because it means that the pressure that we`re putting on them is beginning to work. When a rat is cornered, it lashes out and bites you. Iran has been cornered and now it`s lashing out, and it`s trying to suck us into a war.

Now, this seems counter intuitive to most sane people in the west. But you`ve got to think like a Middle East mullah for just a second.

Why would a country intentionally provoke the west by kidnapping British soldiers? Is Ahmadinejad insane? No. He is a chess player, and he us already many moves ahead of us. If you don`t believe me, look at recent history.

Remember last summer? Hezbollah, backed by Iran, kidnapped Israel soldiers. Sound familiar? Oh, wait. This triggered a limited but attention grabbing war. The Israel government was split. Every -- all the politicians arguing, how do we fight this? And because of that, they lost for the first time in Israeli history.

Iran, on the other hand, had its image emboldened throughout the Middle East. Ahmadinejad knows our Congress is split, as well, and he is banking on the same result as last summer.

The only reasons you do something like kidnapping a bunch of British soldiers are, A, you`re desperate, and B, you know if you control the conditions of war, you can control public opinion of the war.

So far, Britain has showed measured restraint, but how long will that last? Here`s Tony Blair`s latest response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I hope that this can be resolved over the next few days, but the quicker it is resolved, the easier it will be for all of us. But they should not be under any doubts at all about how seriously we regard this act, which was unjustified and wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: The leaders in Iraq -- I`m sorry, in Iran, want a war to happen now, but a limited war. They want it to happen before anybody has time to think about it.

Rationally, if they wait until this window of opportunity closes, they know they will be isolated from the world, and they will collapse from within.

Now the question is, will America take Iran`s bait? Doesn`t look like it yet. Yesterday, however, Nicholas Burns from the State Department told a Senate committee that sanctions were so effective that other countries may soon be following suit and reevaluating their business practices.

So sanctions are apparently working, as it is on Iran`s own consumption. Because foreign investment in Iran`s oil fields has gone down dramatically, oil production has stagnated. Some people say that Iran`s oil exports could drive up in as little as 10 years. They may even start rationing gasoline soon.

And because of this, the public is growing restless. The Iranian government backed into a wall. They need to distract the masses and create something they can all get behind, a war.

Here`s what I know tonight. Iran is testing us. They are watching us. They want to see if we`re going to blink. The leaders in Iran want a war, and they want it because they believe that, with all of the politics that`s going on right now, we will fight it as halfheartedly as we are fighting it in Iraq. That`s a war they feel they can win.

Here`s what I don`t know. What will come first, an Iraq type war where it`s just a mess? Or will it be their demise? Jimmy Carter made dangerous mistakes when he dealt with Iran a generation ago. Are we going to follow the same misguided path?

Joining me is Richard Miniter. He is the author of a books "Shadow War" and "Losing bin Laden". Also joining me is Jed Babbin. He`s a former undersecretary of defense under George H.W. Bush.

Richard, let me start with you. The mullahs, are they watching Congress, or am I just a conservative that`s trying to throw Congress under the bus?

RICHARD MINITER, AUTHOR: Well, on a regular basis, all the radio, television broadcasts, magazine articles and speeches of the Iranian parliament are translated into English and studied back here. And of course, the Iranian embassy in Washington, part of its job is to transmit back to Iran for translation everything that happens here. And it`s read and it`s studied. Absolutely, they`re looking at Congress.

And they`ve also given speeches praising the Democrats for winning the elections in 2006...

BECK: Right.

MINITER: ... calling that victory a victory for the Iranian people.

BECK: OK.

MINITER: They`ve attacked Pelosi. So yes, they`ve focused on everything.

BECK: And there was a plank in the emergency spending bill, if I`m not mistaken. It`s sad. We`re going to tie the president`s hands. He will have to come to us before he can do anything with Iran, which I believe is part of their intent now.

Jed, let me go to you. The second premise of my theory is they are -- last year`s war, last summer`s war with Israel was almost a training ground for them. Are they looking to recreate the same thing this year?

JED BABBIN, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Absolutely. I mean, they are not panicked at all. They are gradually ratcheting it up. And we have to understand, it`s not just Ahmadinejad but the ayatollahs who stand behind him and really use him as their face man, their flack in the world media.

The ayatollahs have been ratcheting up the war against the United States since 1979. Jimmy Carter messed up to start with, but quite frankly, no American administration has dealt effectively with Iran since then.

They have ratcheted up the war. They want to be a hegemon in the Middle East, and they`re well on their way to doing that. Once they obtain nuclear weapons it`s going to be very, very difficult for us to interfere in whatever they want to do in the Middle East.

BECK: So, but Richard, don`t you think -- I mean, I don`t think that they`re panicking in one way. But in another way, the sanctions are starting to work. We`re starting to tighten the screws on them, and they`re starting to tighten the screws on their own people right now.

MINITER: Well, they`re certainly tightening the screws on their people. They cut the tongue out of the head of the bus driver`s union, because he spoke up against the mullahs.

There`s an enormous movement inside Iran against the mullahs. It`s a nation of 60 million. The mullahs probably have the support of about 1.5 million.

But I don`t think the sanctions are working. I think Nicholas Burns said, and I`m hearing what the State Department is always saying, that every State Department program is working all the time perfectly.

The fact is, sanctions are not working. But what is working is the Treasury Department sending officials all around the world, going to banks and saying, "Are you sure you want to do business with the Iranians? Because there might be consequences here for you in the U.S."

And that kind of strong arming has led to the closure of your Iranian accounts and a lot of -- has made it a lot harder for other countries to invest in Iran. That`s the part that`s working.

BECK: What are you implying? Or what are we implying that the consequences will be? Because I know companies like Siemens in Germany, they`re moving on. I mean, they`re doing business, right?

MINITER: They are. That`s right. Siemens has become a major investor in Iran. But now they`re starting to hear they might not have access to U.S. capital markets. We might not let them list on the New York Stock Exchange.

We may have imposed secondary sanctions on European companies that do business with Iran, such Siemens, such as Malnika (ph), the Austrian company that sold 700 sniper rifles to Iran last year. Three hundred of those rifles have been captured inside Iraq.

BECK: OK. Jed, you came into the administration right after Ronald Reagan, and you saw the effects first hand after Reagan sunk their navy. Why wouldn`t we do this again?

BABBIN: Well, I think right now, we don`t have the resolve. The simple issue is that we are in a self-imposed quagmire in Iraq. I don`t believe the president has the support of the American people. He certainly doesn`t have the support of Congress.

And what he needs to do is to start leading and speaking and demonstrating that Iran is the central problem there, the central terrorist nation in the world. And they`re, quite frankly, much more important to the Middle East equation and to the American security than Iraq is at this point.

BECK: Richard, the one thing I thought of today is let`s learn from history. Because if you don`t learn from history, you`re going to repeat it. What was the worst thing that Jimmy Carter did, that just don`t make this mistake Jimmy Carter made?

MINITER: He negotiated with the mullahs -- we had 52 -- with the ayatollahs. He had 52 American diplomats held for 444 days. He talked and negotiated and begged and pleaded for almost all 444 of those days.

And it was only when Reagan came in -- you remember, those hostages were released six minutes after Reagan was sworn in because they feared an attack. These people fear strength.

BECK: Yes.

MINITER: Reagan negotiated with them in a second hostage crisis in Lebanon. Negotiating doesn`t work.

The other thing is, the British navy needs to inspire more fear. They used to rule the waves. Now, it`s wave the rules.

BECK: OK. Jed, thank you.

Richard, appreciate it.

And in case you had any doubts about Iran thinks about us and Israel, for that matter, I want you to watch a cartoon that we found. It was playing on a news broadcast in Iran. It is something that you`re not going to see on any other network in America, and that`s why we call this segment "Missed by the media."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Wow, do they need Walt Disney over in Iran. Obviously, George Bush and the Jews milking 9/11 for all it`s worth.

Coming up, officials released details today in the death of Anna Nicole Smith. The only question is not what drug she was taking, what drug she wasn`t taking. We`ll check into the latest on the toxic cocktail that killed the "Playboy" pin-up.

Plus, everybody is talking about the terrible news about Elizabeth Edwards` cancer than how it might actually help her husband`s poll numbers. I don`t care about his campaign. What is the impact on the family. I`ll explain, coming up.

And later, outrageous video of a U.S. soldier burned in effigy. Where did it happen? Tehran, Syria? Try Portland, Oregon. We`ll look to the fall-out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Hello, my name is Glenn, and I`m an alcoholic. You know, I`m very open about -- I`m sorry to say, I`m one alcoholic that doesn`t believe it`s a disease, but it doesn`t matter either way. But I`m open to talking about my disease, or whatever I`ve struggled through. That`s a decision I made a long time ago. And at first, it was very difficult talking about something that was so.

Last night I was watching "60 Minutes", and I saw the interview with John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards. And I felt the same way about them. Here they are talking about something that hits so close to home. And they shared it with the American people. Here`s a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said, "Mommy`s cancer is back."

And they said, "Can she die from this?"

And I said, "Yes, but she could live a very long time."

And Elizabeth said, "All of us are going to die from something. We`re all going to die from something. And Mommy knows now what she`s probably going to die from."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don`t know about you. I played this game in my head, because I`m a psycho more than once about how I would talk to my kids about something so hard. I can`t imagine how hard it must have been for John Edwards to say these things to his kids.

He and his wife have shown tremendous strength and courage as they have come forward with the news of their illness. No mistaking just how she feels about what`s best for her and her husband. And yet, it took me by surprise.

Here`s another piece of last night`s "60 Minutes" that aired on CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, WIFE OF JOHN EDWARDS: Cancer took a lot away from us a few years ago. It took a year of my life, and a lot of John`s. I didn`t want it to take this away not just for me but from those people who depend on our having the kind of president he would be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. No questioning the commitment that these two share, but was anybody struck by the, hey, let`s forget about the Edwards, you know, candidacy here for a second and think about the Edwards` family? Maybe it`s just me. I hate to judge them. But it was weird.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist, author of the forthcoming book, "Living the Truth".

Is this a normal reaction for a family? Are they living in denial or are they just better than I am?

KEITH ABLOW, PSYCHIATRIST/AUTHOR: Well, look, I think denial is a normal reaction for most families confronting a disease as grave as this one. I mean, denial is a natural stage in the progression of accepting an illness.

But there`s another thing operating here, which is that, you know, her choices are, as she has said, fairly limited. She`s either to withdraw from the world or to continue engaging with it.

And to withdraw, it`s hard to imagine, what do you do exactly? You change the whole structure of your children`s days? Do you take them out of school and travel the world?

In other words, the momentum of your daily life, whatever your life is, running for president or working down the block, can be a healthy thing to maintain for yourself and the family.

BECK: I understand that. But here`s the thing. There are so many things in my life that, if I found out that I was, you know, going to be dead soon, I would not spend the hours that I spend working on this.

Because, really, to change the world, you don`t change it through the office of the White House. You change it through changing your family. And wouldn`t you want to just imprint that image of your mother and the family together as hard as you could, for as long as you could?

ABLOW: Well, here`s the thing. God forbid -- we`re knocking on wood here -- you were in the position that Elizabeth Edwards is and I were your therapist or psychiatrist.

BECK: Yes.

ABLOW: Allow me.

BECK: OK.

ABLOW: I would say, "Look..."

BECK: Stand in line.

ABLOW: I would say, "Here`s the deal, Glenn. You have an opportunity in a moment here. You could decide to invest that moment in loving your children and your wife in a particular way, and for instance traveling or perhaps picking your kids up from school every day.

"On the other hand, these are kids who are 6 and 8. And there`s a legacy to be left to them. One of the legacies that you might choose is that you might say, `Look, I want my legacy to be that they see me demonstrate grace under pressure, that they see that I really believed in the principles that other people just said were work oriented, rather than from my heart.`"

And that`s one thing that Edwards did say in this interview: "This is not work to me. The work was work I did as a liability attorney."

BECK: Sure.

ABLOW: "This is just me and my passion and my wife and my legacy. And you know, frankly, the momentum of that, of investing yourself and not withdrawing."

I`d say, look, I`d be more worried as a psychiatrist who`s counseled plenty of people facing malignancies saying, "I`m going to make a drastic change in the direction staying home," because that can lead to a lot of depression. And that`s no good where cancer cells are involved.

BECK: you know, I just -- two thoughts come to mind. One, I think she is in denial but not about her illness, about his chances of winning. He`s just not going to win.

ABLOW: That`s a different issue.

BECK: I know it is. But that`s why I won`t go into it.

The second thing is tomorrow, on the radio show, I`m going to talk -- tell a story about a woman who went to a hospital to find out if she had a genetic disabling disease that will make her really kind of like Steven Hawkins in the next 20 years. She wanted to know because she wanted too change her life.

And I thought, maybe the Edwards family has already made those changes instead of waiting to hear the bad news and then saying, I`m going to be the perfect human being. Maybe they`ve already made those changes. Maybe this is a real sign of health of their family life.

ABLOW: Well, look, I think that that remains to be played out. Here`s what we`re going to see unfold, I think for our benefits as a general public.

We will see -- and unfortunately, the decline that`s fairly inevitable with this kind of illness is going to one that`s played out publicly. So we`re going to see John Edwards and how he responds to his wife at moments of health crises.

Should he be by her bedside if she needs him there? Absolutely.

BECK: Yes.

ABLOW: But should he be journeying forward with her? I think that`s true, too.

BECK: All right. Thank you so much, Doctor. I appreciate your time.

Coming up in just a second, we have the latest on Anna Nicole Smith. Got some drug problems. Who would have thunk (sic) that?

And also the latest in "The Real Story". Don`t miss it, tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, it only took six weeks, but we finally know what took Anna Nicole Smith. I hope you`re seated. What took Anna Nicole`s light from the world and plunged us all into this dark abyss? Believe it or not: accidental drug overdose. I wouldn`t have seen that one coming, like, seven years ago?

In a joint press conference today, Seminole tribal police chief Charlie Tiger and Broward County medical examiner, Joshua Perper, confirmed that there were nine different prescription drugs that were part of her system.

Chief Tiger was quick to point out that authorities found no evidence of foul play. Really? Well, I guess we`re done here, right? No, not so much.

Pam Bondi is a Florida state prosecutor.

Pam, what are still -- how many drugs were in her body? There were nine. Do you know what they were?

PAM BONDI, FLORIDA STATE PROSECUTOR: Nine, a combination, Glenn, of many, many things. I don`t think methadone was one of the contributing factors, which everyone had speculated about.

She was on antibiotics, as well. She had a temperature of 105 degrees. She was very, very ill.

BECK: Was there any blood in her drug -- drug stream at the time of her death? I mean, she had so much going on inside of her, and yet she had a nurse by her side the whole time. What kind of crappy nurse was this?

BONDI: Well, you know, I`m sure that the licensing board who looks at doctors and nurses will be looking at her nurse to see why she didn`t call 911. Of course, she called -- the nurse called her husband first. She then called Howard Stern before paramedics were called.

But as we know, Anna Nicole did not want to go to the hospital. She was a grown woman. She did not want the publicity. She insisted on staying in her hotel room.

But again, she was under the influence of many, many drugs, as well as having the flu, and that`s what Dr. Perper ruled as the cause of death.

BECK: Shouldn`t a nurse have some sort of ethics, to where they say, "I can`t work for you. You`re taking" -- I mean, what was she taking methadone for? She`s taking all of these drugs. Shouldn`t the nurse have known this was horrible and said, you know, no?

BONDI: Well, we don`t have the released statement yet, Glenn, from the nurse, but we do know she was taking so many drugs. We don`t know that the nurse knew exactly what she was taking...

BECK: OK.

BONDI: ... and what she was mixing or how long she had been with her.

BECK: So then we know about doctor shopping and how seriously you take it in the state of Florida.

BONDI: Yes.

BECK: Because, you know, you went after that evil Rush Limbaugh for doctor shopping. What about doctor shopping here? She had to have been seeing multiple doctors.

BONDI: Well, she would have been the one charged in it, though, Anna Nicole, if that was happening. You charge the patient. Because if you want to get like, let`s just say, hydrocodone and your doctor will only give you a certain amount, you`d go to four or five doctors and don`t tell them you`d been to the other.

So she would have been the one who would have been responsible for that. It`s just a tragedy, though, isn`t it, with the drugs in our society?

BECK: And when do we find out -- I hear Zsa Zsa`s husband, who I hope we have on the show soon. Zsa Zsa`s husband took a DNA test. How long before that nonsense is up?

BONDI: Well, I can tell you, especially with the private lab, they will have DNA results within a day, a day and a half. So they probably know all the results by now. I think everybody`s keeping their fingers crossed that it`s Larry Birkhead.

BECK: Me, too. I know. I`ve been kept up all weekend.

Pam, thanks.

BONDI: Thanks, Glenn.

BECK: Up next, why is ex-Governor Jeb Bush getting the cold shoulder from the University of Florida? I wonder, couldn`t be a vast left-wing conspiracy, could it? I`ll explain in tonight`s "Real Story". That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right, welcome to "The Real Story." This is where we try to cut through the media spin and find out why a story is actually important to you.

Late last week, the faculty senate at the University of Florida voted against giving former Governor Jeb Bush an honorary degree. The senate chairperson said, well, you know, we just don`t give these awards to politicians. You`ve got to have the right background. They almost always go to distinguished scientists, nurses, doctors, engineers and artists. Yes, got to love those finger-painting artists. They`re much more qualified than a former governor of one of the largest states of the union.

But the real story is that`s a flat-out lie. You know, if you`re a liberal, you should be offended, because this woman is basically calling you an idiot. No less than five former governors have received honorary degrees from this university. And as far as I can tell, none of them were scientists, nurses or artistic origami expressionists. Oh, but they do have one thing in common: They`re all Democrats.

You know, what is it in America with admitting that you`re a liberal? You know, how do you feel when people treat you like a 4-year-old with Alzheimer`s, Democrats? How do you feel when they lie right through their teeth because they just think you`re too stupid to check the facts? Like every other game that the Democrats are currently playing, this whole thing is about politics and everybody knows it. So why not just say it?

Why not people like Keith Olbermann coming out and saying, "I`m proud to be a liberal"? I say it. I`m proud to be a conservative. Why don`t they just stand up and say, "You know what? We don`t like what Jeb Bush. He`s the guy that was known as the education governor, and he`s done nothing for education." Now, I`d agree -- I`d disagree with you, but at least I`d respect you for your honesty.

Democrats, you`re being sold out and abandoned by your own party, just like the Republicans were. You may be leading this country right now, but you better figure out who`s leading you and where they`re leading you.

Ben Shapiro, nationally syndicated columnist and author of "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America`s Youth."

Ben, I looked it up. This is who`s been given this honorary degree. Magnum P.I., the star of "Wild Hogs," and the guy who sang "Sussudio," yet Harvard passed on Ronald Reagan, Oxford snubbed Margaret Thatcher. I mean, to me it sounds like Jeb Bush is in the right company.

BEN SHAPIRO, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: Yes, I think he is. He`s also in the company of Laura Bush. When I was back at UCLA, I remember the business school was thinking about honoring Laura Bush, and they decided not to, so this is nothing unusual.

BECK: So why don`t people just admit it? Why are they afraid? Conservatives, they`ll come out and say they`re conservative. What is it about these universities -- well, he had the wrong credentials. No, he didn`t. You just don`t want to give it to him because he`s the brother of the president and/or he`s a conservative.

SHAPIRO: Yes. I think that this all goes back to the same underlying condition for a lot of these liberal professors, which is they believe that their opinion is fact and everything else is fiction. So if they say that Jeb Bush is not good for education in the state of Florida, it`s not because they`re liberal. It`s because that`s a fact, and anybody who disagrees with them must be spouting lies. And therefore Jeb Bush is entirely unqualified to be given a doctorate.

BECK: Ben, I would disagree with them, but I would respect them if they said, "Well, he was bad for education." That`s not what they said. They said he didn`t have the credentials. Bull crap he didn`t have the credentials. If Tom Selleck has the credentials, Jeb Bush has the credentials.

SHAPIRO: It was actually very interesting. If you watch the tape, which is available online, one of the professors actually got up and said that one of the reasons that he didn`t want Jeb Bush to get an honorary doctorate from the University of Florida is because Jeb Bush was involved in the election of 2000. So some of them are actually very clear about this.

But, again, it goes back to this whole idea that they`re going to twist the syllabus, just as they twist, you know, this process. Everything that they say must be a fact. They lived in the ivory tower so long that they really believe everything that they say is gospel truth.

BECK: Ben, does it ever strike you as insane that the people who are always screaming to America for diversity cannot handle diversity of thought?

SHAPIRO: Glenn, you know, it`s insane only in that it`s completely hypocritical. But it`s certainly consistent with how they look at race; it`s certainly consistent with how they look at religion. The only kind of diversity that matters is the multicultural diversity that means nothing with regard to thought.

BECK: OK, Ben, thanks a lot. Now, if you watched any of the Sunday talk shows yesterday, then you definitely got your fill of Alberto Gonzales. What a political circus that is.

But while the clowns are out in front of the cameras lying to you and expecting you to buy it, there`s a gang of thieves, Democrats, in the backroom stealing everything you believed in and everything you`ve worked for. I want you to take a look at a video of an anti-war protest in Portland, Oregon. They`re burning a U.S. solider in effigy.

The real story is, our grandparents would literally be running from those people, and those people are associated loosely, in America`s minds, with the Democratic Party. Right now, I understand that nut-job radicals exist at extremes of both parties, but this is about those radicals finally getting mainstream credibility. And the Democrats are enabling it.

This is about the Democratic leadership empowering the fringe every time they treat their base like a bunch of zombies hooked up to the matrix. Democrats, wake up! You`re being hijacked. These radical groups are better organized, they are better financed, thanks to George Soros, and better focused than you are.

It`s the same with the Republicans. You know, and, worse, they`re the only people in your party who actually seem to believe in something. Unfortunately, it happens to be socialism and America-bashing!

Former Democratic Senator Bill Bradley was on "Meet the Press"" yesterday. He listed eight stereotypes about Democrats, eight things that he believes symbolize America`s perception of what the party stands for. Now, he`s not saying that any of these things are necessarily true, but anybody who`s done anything with marketing knows it doesn`t matter, because perception is reality.

Here they are: fear of thinking big, soft on defense, wasting people`s hard-earned tax dollars, closed-minded devotion to the secular, wealth-bashing, special friends, hypnotized by charisma, and -- listen closely to the last one -- won`t take a stand on strong principles.

You know what? I agree with all of them, but it`s the last one that worries me the most, because it`s not just a stereotype. I personally believe it`s true.

I saw it happen last year with the Republicans, and now it`s happening with the Democrats. You know, I know that the people in the video are not who Democrats are. These guys are crazy whack jobs. But mark my words: It will be exactly who the Democrats become unless they take a stand now.

Julie Roginsky, she is a Democratic strategist. I know you`re going to tell me that these aren`t Democrats.

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: They`re not. They`re anarchists, Glenn.

BECK: I know. They`re anarchists. I get it. But much of America associates the message with yours...

ROGINSKY: They do? I don`t think that at all.

BECK: Yes, absolutely they do, because you embrace people...

ROGINSKY: Oh, please! Oh, my God.

BECK: Cindy Sheehan?

ROGINSKY: Listen...

BECK: Cindy Sheehan?

ROGINSKY: First of all, let`s leave Cindy Sheehan out of it. This woman...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: No, no, no, no, no, Julie, hang on.

ROGINSKY: Let me just say this.

BECK: You cannot control -- this is my show, not yours. You cannot control and manipulate this. You tell me the difference between the message of Cindy Sheehan that every Democrat hugged, and then they realized, "She`s a freak, get away," but you`ve never divorced yourself from her.

ROGINSKY: Cindy Sheehan paid what I consider to be the ultimate price, so I`m not going to sit in judgment on Cindy Sheehan.

BECK: This is exactly why they associate you with this.

ROGINSKY: But listen to what I`m saying to you. Listen to me. Those people did a despicable thing. They burned the American flag; they burned our soldiers in effigy. I`m a Democrat. I`m certainly not associating myself with them. They`re anarchists, which means that they don`t believe in government, whether it`s Democratic government or Republican government.

BECK: I understand.

ROGINSKY: I happen to think, by the way, that polling shows more recently that Democrats have more credibility on national security, Glenn, than Republicans. So I don`t know how you think Americans are associating themselves...

BECK: You know what? If you really think that this is about Republicans and Democrats, with me being a Republican and you being a Democrat, you`ve missed the point. The point is, the Republicans sold the American people down the river...

ROGINSKY: Yes, they did.

BECK: ... and completely isolated themselves, and now the Democrats are doing the same thing. You`re the party that put Michael Moore into the presidential box with Jimmy Carter. You are the party that has a Kennedy hanging out in New York with Chavez. How can you possibly think that`s mainstream America?

ROGINSKY: And you`re the party that`s about to nominate a guy for president who sponsored an immigration bill with a Kennedy. So let`s...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Wait a minute. Whoa, you`re right! That`s exactly right. That`s the same thing as...

(CROSSTALK)

ROGINSKY: I`m not really sure what your point is. But I think...

BECK: My point is, you are hanging out and associating yourself with...

ROGINSKY: With who? With those people?

BECK: With Michael Moore, who is an avowed socialist.

ROGINSKY: What do they have to do with anarchists?

BECK: With Chavez, see, you can`t -- you know what? This is sad. This is really sad.

ROGINSKY: You know, I don`t get the point. It`s not, Glenn.

BECK: America gets the point.

ROGINSKY: Glenn, Glenn, America, by and large, support the Democrats. Generically, 15 percent more identify themselves as Democrats than as Republicans. You and your right-wing friends can talk about how you associate Democrats with anarchists all you want, but you and I both know the American people are not buying it, Glenn. That`s sad that you`re doing that.

BECK: You know, it`s tragic, because I think it`s going to hurt the country. It`s going to hurt the country that the Republicans sold out every value -- you know, "Time" magazine did this thing about...

ROGINSKY: That`s true.

BECK: See, you know what? I can`t really have a nice conversation with you, because you just want to make it about the parties. It`s not. It`s about America. It is about standing for something. Ronald Reagan would be weeping right now, because the Democrats -- or the Republicans sold out the Reagan vision.

And the Republican -- or the Democrats are trying to champion this as, "Oh, my gosh, the country has gone liberal." It hasn`t. The country has always been common sense. And the parties are separating us and dividing us by the kind of rhetoric, Julie, that is spilling out of your mouth.

ROGINSKY: Well, I`ll tell you this. You don`t think the Democrats stand for anything, but I would argue to you that the Democrats got a lot accomplished as soon as they got to Washington. The Republicans stymied, for example, stem cell research. Democrats support it.

BECK: Oh, well...

ROGINSKY: The war in Iraq, Democrats overwhelmingly against it. You`re talking -- I`m pointing to specific issues, Glenn.

BECK: Julie, Julie, OK, I appreciate it, Julie.

ROGINSKY: I`m pointing to specific issues.

BECK: Julie, I appreciate it. We`re out of time. We`ll have to continue it again.

ROGINSKY: Any time.

BECK: We`ll pick it up, Julie, with how much you`ve accomplished in that war bill and also stem cell research...

ROGINSKY: Quite a bit.

BECK: ... the thing that everybody elected everybody in Congress for.

ROGINSKY: Quite a bit.

BECK: Julie, you`re on some sort of hallucinogenics, but maybe it`s just my tie. That is the "Real Story" tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: The majority of kids now, 12 to 25 or 15 to 25, believe the American dream is now fame. You`re not going to be able to solve Social Security. You`re not going to be able to solve Muslim fundamentalists. You`re not going to be able to solve the rift between Democrats and Republicans if your kids think the American dream is fame.

So you know what? Off the high horse here. Thinking you`re all so important because none of us are, man. The world spins without us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: But our world doesn`t spin without our families. Now, let`s talk about Hollywood for a second. No longer shy about making movies about 9/11, they had "World Trade Center," "United 93," they were the first ones to broach the subject. And now there`s "Reign Over Me." I don`t know if you saw it this weekend.

It stars Adam Sandler as a man who lost his family in the attacks and Don Cheadle, who`s supposedly great in this movie, as his old college buddy. Actress Saffron Burrows stars in this movie. I recently had a chance to speak with her about the film and the event that changed the world forever.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Saffron, hi, how are you? Were you afraid at all to take on 9/11? I mean, when you had to read that script, I would imagine you said, "I got to read every page of this"? True or not?

SAFFRON BURROWS, ACTRESS: Yes, it is true. And it becomes very apparent when you first read the script what direction the story is going in, I think because it`s such a personally told story. It`s very much a character that is one in a million, you know, six years on.

BECK: So tell me the story. Don`t wreck anything, but tell me the story.

BURROWS: Sure. Well, I would say, in a way, Don Cheadle`s character is the eyes of the audience. He`s a man who`s, for all intents and purposes, living a very good life with a wonderful wife and children and sleepwalking, to a certain extent, through his life. Bumps into Charlie Fineman, an old friend from dental school who he`s not seen since 9/11, who`s clearly had a breakdown of sorts, played by Adam Sandler.

And Don Cheadle`s character, Alan, sort of takes it on himself to get to know himself a little bit more through his old friend and, in some way, try to tussle with the grief that his friend is going through, who`s lost his family in 9/11.

BECK: Where were you on 9/11?

BURROWS: I was filming in Ireland on that day, in Connemara.

BECK: What was it like for you in Ireland?

BURROWS: I was with American colleagues. And we were in a very remote part of Connemara, and the news came through gradually. And, of course, there was a feeling of disbelief. There were also a number of Irish fatalities that day.

And, I mean, the country was appalled and shocked. I think being somewhere so utterly rural but, really, just a skip away across the Atlantic from New York, it was quite a strange -- I mean, it was a horrendous day.

BECK: Did you have -- you know, you were just talking about in the movie that, you know, you kind of -- I love that idea, that you`re just sleepwalking through life. Did you have a 9/11 sleepwalking experience? I feel like we`re sleepwalking again. I feel like we`ve gone right back to where we were.

BURROWS: I certainly felt -- I mean, it was impossible to comprehend the images we were seeing on the news channels. I think it took everyone a very long time for that to sink in. And I think what`s a terrible tragedy now is the events and the aftermath of that have come so far from any sense of, sadly, of the world unifying in any way. You know, in my own country, we`ve had bombings recently. And I can see now...

BECK: We`ve really lost our -- we`ve just -- we`ve lost our way on so many -- I mean, I just feel like we`re being torn apart from every direction. You know, I said, right after 9/11, we will never defeat -- we`ll never be defeated by an outside force. We`ll only be defeated by ourselves. And we`re doing it. We are just defeating ourselves.

BURROWS: It does feel -- I mean, I keep thinking of Yeats poems that comes to mind because I was in Ireland at the time, where he says, you know, turning and turning in the widening gyre, things fall apart. The center cannot hold. And it doesn`t seem that we`ve moved very far in the last century at all.

BECK: My father says -- it so weird you said that. My father said to me, he says, look how far technology has come in the last hundred years. Look how much life has changed in the last hundred years. And philosophy, go back 2,000 years, and it hasn`t changed. I mean, we`re the same people, and we`re dealing with big boy toys now, and it`s frightening.

BURROWS: Reprisal from reprisal, yes, I think what Mike Binder has done with this story, particularly, has just said, you know, there`s no attempt to take on the entire community of New York. It`s just one man`s story and the effect several years on and the ramifications of that on his life.

BECK: Look forward to seeing it. Thank you so much.

BURROWS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, the Anna Nicole verdict is out. And I don`t know if it was just me, did the announcement seem more like an Oscar acceptance speech than the reading of a cause of death? Ladies and gentlemen, the medical examiner of the year, Dr. Joshua Perper!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Thank you very much, Chief. I would also like to thank Sheriff Ken Jenning (ph), the Broward County sheriff and his officer, if I would mention the people who are and worked in this investigation team. I`d also like to thank the Miami-Dade Police Department for their (INAUDIBLE) computer services section.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Oh, it was great. It was great. I loved him in all of his films.

Now, for anybody who had "drug overdose" in the pool, you`re a winner. But if you thought there was foul play or illegal drugs, so sorry, better luck next time, you know, next time that there`s a former Playmate reality star with a creepy pseudo husband slash lawyer and 25,000 perspective fathers of her newborn child that passes away, then maybe you`ll have another chance at it.

By the way, the Anna Nicole case has been such a circus that you wouldn`t think there would be anything that, you know, could make you more uncomfortable than you have been, but we`ve been getting tons of e-mails on this one topic. And, look, I`m going to be the one television host that will address it.

Here`s a letter from Jim in San Francisco. He`s just a sample. He writes, "Glenn, I`ve got to ask. The Broward medical examiner, Joshua Perper, what`s up with the head? I know it`s insensitive to ask, but, honestly, at this point, I don`t care. I can`t focus on anything he`s saying. I need answers."

Jim, oh, I know. I know. You know, by all appearances, he seems like a nice, competent guy, and I`m sure he is, a nice competent guy that just happens to have a giant head or a bump on his head or something. Jim, you`re not the only one that`s been a tad distracted at times.

Here`s the truth behind the bump. Oh, yes, we`ve been investigating. Apparently when he was a small child, his aunt mistakenly dropped him on his head and a blood clot thickened that part of his skull. He does have a sense of humor about it. He told "The Sun Sentinel," because they asked him, and he said, quote, "Definitely not a member of television `Coneheads.`" And he said, "I used to say that I had extra brains that, you know, couldn`t be accommodated in my head."

Well, actually, that one would kind of make sense, you know, just to make up for the lack of brains in almost every other person involved in the case, even me, I think, at this point. You can send me questions, you know, related to newsmakers` physical appearances at GlennBeck@CNN.com. We`ll see you back here tomorrow night and tomorrow on the radio.

END