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Glenn Beck

Could Eminent Domain Help Solve Border Crisis?; No Justice for Ramos and Compean?; No Clear Winner for GOP; "American Idol" Ratings Falling

Aired January 17, 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, the battle for the border continues. Some land owners are actually blocking the fence from being built. What are these people thinking? We`ll ask homeland security chief Michael Chertoff.

Plus, without a clear frontrunner, and time ticking, Republicans could be facing something they haven`t seen in over 60 years. It`s called a brokered convention. We`ll explain how it works.

And what do old-time national socialism and modern-day liberal politics have in common? Jonah Goldberg, author of a new controversial book, liberal fascism, will explain.

All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Hello, America.

You don`t want to miss a second of tonight`s show, because we have it jam-packed with all kinds of stuff. But let me start here.

One of the great things that makes this country really just so different than any other place on the planet is the American dream, where you can buy a little patch of land, a place you can call truly your own. The pride of private property.

The original line in the Declaration of Independence -- I don`t know if you know this -- guaranteed you life, liberty and property. My, how things have changed. Here`s "The Point" tonight.

Eminent domain. It is the sneaky little trick national and local governments too often have been playing on American citizens, where they take private land for public profit. However, a crisis in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, may be the one case where Uncle Sam is doing the wrong thing but for the right reason. And here is how I got there.

First of all, let me clarify our terms here. Eminent domain is where the government can legally take private land for the public good. They have to pay for it. They can even buy it if the owner doesn`t want to sell it. The problem with eminent domain is, too often, lately, we, you know, we have seen local governments doing this to build hotels and malls and casinos, and that`s un-American and a load of bull crap.

I am sick and tired of our government and our Supreme Court stomping all over the rights of its own citizens for no other reason than common greed. That is an abuse of power that reeks of iron-curtain oppression. And we have a Supreme Court to thank for that.

However, when it comes to eminent domain, there is reason for it. Freeway scenarios. Extreme national security situations. And, I believe, the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, is knee-deep in exactly that.

Mexican illegal immigrants come streaming across the border in droves. I`ve gone to great lengths on this program to remind you how intimately connected the issues of illegal immigration, national security and economic security are. I mean, remember, these are not all busboys and lawn mowers that as are coming across this border, potentially.

In order to build a fence and seal this border, a U.S. district judge has ordered Eagle Pass to surrender 233 acres of land. I understand that the Department of Homeland Security is under congressional mandate. It is law to build 670 miles of a new border fence by end of the year.

But people are wondering, is this the only solution? To build this thing on private land of Texas citizens? I`ll explain in just a second.

Tonight, America, here is what you need to know. Private property is just that; it is private. And the government should only flex their muscles to grab it under the most extreme conditions. Sadly, our border crisis condition is getting more and more extreme every day, and Eagle Pass is paying the price.

Michael Chertoff is the secretary of homeland security.

Secretary Chertoff, you know what? This, to me, is exactly what eminent domain is supposed to be about. Not about hotels, not about higher property taxes, but about our security and things that matter to all of us. You`re in a bad situation on this, but is there any other -- is there any other option than buying this land from these homeowners?

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, Glenn, of course the vast majority of people that we`ve approached have cooperated with us. They`ve let us survey the property, and, we`re perfectly happy to pay market price for that piece of land we need to build a fence or put up a light or build a road.

There are some people who have objections to it. And what we can`t afford to do is delay the national security and delay the commitment to build this fencing simply because some people prefer not to have their land be used for this kind of activity.

BECK: OK. Help me out on this. It is my understanding that, when they passed the Secure Fence Act, they put in it, and I believe I got this from you -- I believe you sat on this program and told me -- that all of the environmental rights were washed away in it. Every -- there was no -- it was a clear bill of health that you could just go and do what you needed to do.

Why are we dealing with this now?

CHERTOFF: Well, you`re quite right, Glenn, that I was given the ability to waive environmental restrictions. And I have done that on a number of occasions when I needed to do it.

In this case, we want to have entry on the land. Now we don`t want to have an armed confrontation. But we needed to get a court order to go in and get that entry.

Now, the district judge, as you pointed out, has given us that court order, and we`re going to begin going in and doing what we have to do to determine what to build and where to build it.

BECK: OK. Let me switch the stories on you here for a second. Because I read -- there were two stories that I read recently from you. One is, what did you -- what did you even say -- there were 6,000 different kinds of ideas -- I.D.s that can get people across the border? It was some ridiculous number like that.

CHERTOFF: You know, obviously, part of the border security effort is not just what goes on between the ports of entry but what goes on at the ports of entry.

And it may amaze and, frankly, disturb a lot of your viewers to learn that, up until now, the border inspectors have been presented with up to 8,000 different kinds of identification for people trying to cross the border, claiming to be American citizens. And some of these are baptismal certificates or library cards, things which are very, very easy to counterfeit.

BECK: Why can`t we get rid of the library card? Why can`t we close the library and baptismal certificate loophole?

CHERTOFF: That`s exactly what we are doing as of January 31 of this year. We`re going to reduce the number of documents to about two dozen. They will be things that are widely distributed, but at least have some measure of security, like a driver`s license, plus a birth certificate.

Eventually, we`d like to get to the point that we have real security even in these documents, but in the meantime, I`d like to make sure that at least we remove the most outrageous kinds of identification that we`ve been presented with.

BECK: OK. You said also today that your -- on the BBC, it was reported today in America, that you said that Europe is now a terror threat because you say Europe is a staging ground. We`ve seen this one coming for an awful long time. But we have the visa waiver program with so many European countries.

Why don`t we get away from a program that you said, quote, "Visa waiver program creates very small windows for us to check these people out," end quote.

CHERTOFF: Well, that`s been the problem, Glenn. For countries where there is no visa requirement, we generally first encounter a person who comes into the country when they arrive at the airport.

But here`s the good news. We got the authority last year to put into effect what we call electronic travel authorization.

And what this means is people, even from visa waiver countries, before they come, will have to register online with the United States, will get information about them, will be able to check them out well in advance of their coming. And that will give us the kind of security that we`ve previously only gotten when we had visas from people coming from overseas.

BECK: OK. One last question, sir, and I don`t know if you`ve seen the article on what the spy chief said recently, that he wants to -- the ability to read absolutely everything on the Internet. Be able to read all e-mails, et cetera, et cetera. And I have to tell you, that made the hair stand on the back of my neck.

Are you familiar with this program, and are you for this kind of a program?

CHERTOFF: I have to say, I saw the article. There is no intention or desire on the part of the intelligence community to read all of the stuff on the Internet or all the e-mail traffic.

Everybody in the government is committed to the idea that, when we do have lawful authority to intercept communications between a terrorist in South Asia and someone in the U.S. or between a terrorist in the Middle East and one in North Africa, that we then exercise that authority.

But nobody has the intention of wholesale reading everything or looking at everything.

BECK: OK.

CHERTOFF: And I think that was kind of a misunderstanding of the story.

BECK: OK. Secretary, thank you.

Now, anniversaries are usually a joyous thing to celebration. Sadly, this is not the case today. An anniversary is happening today. One year ago, border agents Ramos and Compean turned themselves in, were imprisoned for honorably doing their jobs and trying to keep armed Mexican drug dealers out of the country.

The facts are the facts as we know them today. I believe they are our country`s first political prisoners. Each passing day, the injustice multiplies.

Here with me now is Tara Setmayer. She is the communications director for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. She has been monitoring this case since it began.

Tara, is there any, any progress at all? Last time we spoke, it was right before Christmas. Everybody had petitioned the president, please do what you did for Scooter Libby and pardon these guys. Nothing.

TARA SETMAYER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, REP. DAN ROHRABACHER: Well, unfortunately, that`s still the case. The president has, just like he did a year ago today, he did nothing.

Congressman Rohrabacher personally asked members of the president`s senior staff to have them get with the president, intervene behind the scenes and to tell the trial judge, please let these guys remain out on bond pending their appeal. Which is a courtesy given to common criminals oftentimes in this country. And they didn`t do that. And the judge waited until the day before, and denied bond, citing there weren`t extenuating circumstances.

BECK: Oh, my gosh.

SETMAYER: So -- and you know what? Eight days after -- roughly, after Ramos was in prison, he was savagely beaten by four illegal alien gang members in federal prison. I know, because I was there days after and saw the -- saw his injuries.

BECK: All right.

SETMAYER: So, the president, you know, is showing a blatant disregard for these guys and the nightmare that they have endured. And he spared Scooter Libby and didn`t feel it was necessary to spare them. It`s outrageous.

BECK: Tara, there are those who believe that there is real resentment now in the White House towards the media on people like me or anybody in the media that is hammering this on the White House, that there is real resentment and anger coming from the White House. They just want this left alone. True or false?

SETMAYER: That`s absolutely true. Members of the media who have asked questions repeatedly during press briefings, even of the president, have been received with hostility.

Tony Fratto, over the Christmas break, when there was a groundswell of support, and Democrats got involved, and we introduced the bipartisan resolution, asking for commutation, pleading again with the president to show Christian charity during the holidays to commute sentences.

Tony Fratto interrupted a journalist as he was asking the question. You say there`s a process, but the president didn`t use that process for Scooter Libby. And Tony Fratto said, no, no, no, next question. It`s unreal.

BECK: And the appeal, it looks like Sutton is still hanging on. I mean, he`s just going to go tooth and nail all the way to the end on this, isn`t he?

SETMAYER: Well, that`s the benefit of being a very close friend of the president. He`s been hiding behind that friendship for this entire prosecution. The president has reinforced his friendship with Mr. Sutton, saying, he`s a good friend.

And I can tell you, my sources are telling me that, if the Fifth Circuit ruling comes out against the government`s position, then Mr. Sutton is prepared to take this to the next level, which would be full circuit review, and that is really unbelievable.

But the good side of that is, that if they do throw the gun charge out, which carries the ten-year sentence, that they have an opportunity to come out on bond, and they may be free sooner than later, and that`s our -- that`s our hope.

BECK: Tara, thank you very much.

And America, I want you to know. We haven`t forgotten about Laredo and going down to the border. We are going to do it. It is in the planning stages now.

Coming up, GOP race is so close that, if there is no clear choice at convention time, what happens? I will explain it to you, coming up in just a second.

And then the latest national Zogby polls shows Hillary and Barack neck and neck. I will talk to somebody who knows what that really means for the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, we have been talking about the economy all week. How fitting, then, that the Federal Reserve chairman was on the Hill today to talk about economic stimulants. Yes. Nothing like thinking ahead.

So, while Washington tries to screw this up even more, what are you going to do? I have some answers for you, coming up in just a bit.

But first, we`re right in the middle of one of the closest horse races in political history. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, pretty much in a dead heat for first place. And there`s pretty-boy John Edwards, like an 8-year- old kid that just won`t go away.

However, most experts agree that the Democrats will choose their nominee before their convention in September, which is a good thing for safety.

As for the Republicans -- not so much. The race between Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, John McCain could be so close that, by convention time, there may be no clear candidate with enough electoral votes to win. That would be big news. That would be the first brokered GOP convention in 60 years.

I don`t even know what that even means, really. Here`s GOP strategist Whit Ayres to explain it to us.

Whit, explain -- explain the brokered convention.

WHIT AYRES, GOP STRATEGIST: What that means is that the delegates who are selected in these various primaries are normally committed to vote for their candidate on at least the first ballot, but if on the first ballot, no candidate gets a majority, which for Republicans is 1,245 delegates, then you start all over.

And you`ll go to a second ballot. And the people who have fewer delegates start negotiating with the people who have more delegates. Perhaps to cut a deal, perhaps to swing their delegates to one of the leaders, so that they will get, ultimately, a majority of the delegates, and win the nomination.

BECK: OK. So let`s just war-game this out a bit. Let`s say that it`s -- let`s say that it`s Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney, the top three right now, they go into the convention with those, with that standing. What happens then? Do they start going to the Ron Paul people and say, "Hey, we like gold, too?"

AYRES: Perhaps, or they go to the Fred Thompson people and say, "Would you like a cabinet position in my administration? Would you like me to promote certain policies that you really care about? I will do that, if you will try to get your delegates to vote for me."

Now, those delegates don`t have to vote for the person that the other candidate endorses, but he would be very persuasive with them, I think.

BECK: OK. So, you could end up with just the situation where John McCain says, if you know, he has more than anybody else, he can say, "Hey, Mike, I want you to be the vice president."

AYRES: Perhaps. He could, although I think that would seem like a dirty deal. It would be a little too transparent.

BECK: Why?

AYRES: Well, if it looked like he had to give away something like the vice presidency, I don`t think it would give him that image of strength that he`d like to have, going into the national -- national election. But it`s entirely possible.

BECK: Do they -- you know, I had Penn Jillette on, I think it was, when was it, last night, and he said to me, "You got to hate the other guys." If you`re running for -- I don`t think you have to hate the other candidates. Do you?

Do these guys really -- because I got the impression with the Democrats, they hate each other right now. Those three hate each other. And I`ve heard that the other candidates all hate, for some reason, Mitt Romney.

Is there -- don`t they have healthy respect for each other, say, you know, "I just disagree with this, this and this. I think I`d be a better lead guy, but come on in."

AYRES: Glenn, when it comes to winning a national presidential election, personal feelings don`t matter that much. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson detested each other. But they ran on the same ticket and they won.

BECK: Right.

AYRES: So, I think, if you`ve got the presidency hanging in the balance, your personal feelings don`t matter that much. Or at least you tend to get over them.

BECK: In the Democrats, as I understand it, with the Democrats, they actually would count second place. For, like, right now, if you would -- if you would look at the clear -- person who has the most votes, it would be Mitt Romney. Because he`s been either one or two in all of them, and so, he`s kind of the general favorite if you look at it that way.

But it`s all or nothing with the Republicans. With the Democrats, it`s the other way, right?

AYRES: That`s very important for your viewers to understand. If you have a state with 100 delegates, and in the Republican side, the top three finishers get 35, 30 and 25 percent, the person who gets 35 percent, gets all the 100 delegates in most states.

On the Democrat side, they`re proportional. So the people who get 35 percent get 35 delegates, and then 30 delegates and then 25 delegates. So they could remain very close going forward, even if the same person wins a number of primaries.

BECK: This is going to spell doom for the GOP, if this actually happens. Thanks, Whit.

Coming up, "American Idol" is back, but it`s not packing the same punch as it has before. Based on the ratings, it looks like people are watching something else. But for the life of me, with the writers` strike, I mean, you`re losing to reruns?

And like it or not, we are in a recession. At least, I believe so. But it doesn`t mean that you have to suffer or your job has to suffer. Tonight`s "Real Story," coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: We have had the first two episodes of "American Idol." Is anybody watching?

Ratings are down now 11 percent compared to last year. And it`s -- it`s kind of surprising, because we are all expecting reality TV, like "Idol," to grab big numbers because of the writers` strike. I mean, it sucks to lose ratings when there`s nothing else on television except things like, I mean, let`s be honest, this show. Just saying.

I can`t believe people are paying attention to the presidential election, and to the future of the free world. It could be, however, Dennis Kucinich with the alien stuff might actually be less boring than Paula Abdul. But I don`t think so.

James Poswodnik (ph), he is the media critic for "TIME" magazine.

Pono -- Poniewozik, right?

JAMES PONIEWOZIK, MEDIA CRITIC, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Poniewozik.

BECK: Poniewozik. Love it. Love that name.

PONIEWOZIK: Thank you.

BECK: So, what happened to "American Idol?"

PONIEWOZIK: I think that it`s hit its peak. I mean, it was a huge show. It`s still pretty big. But it had probably gotten about as big as it could possibly be.

BECK: But James, where are they -- where are they going?

PONIEWOZIK: Well, they`re going down. I mean, you know, they`re...

BECK: No, no...

PONIEWOZIK: You mean the direction of the ratings, or...?

BECK: No, no. Where are the people going? What are you watching? I mean, it`s one thing to -- you know, if a new show comes on against me -- let`s say the Cartoon Network says, "We`ve got a new cat cartoon." I expect our ratings to go down.

PONIEWOZIK: Yes, because you have a lot of cat people watching your show.

BECK: Absolutely right. But when you`ve got a writer`s strike and there`s nothing new on television going on, and your ratings go down, that`s kind of worrisome.

Is that a general trend for television? Is this maybe a wakeup call to the writers and to everybody in television, "Hey, wake up. We`re destroying television here." Or is it just that people are not interested in Simon?

PONIEWOZIK: It`s been a general trend since the writers` strike. Certainly, people have left television. They`re watching DVDs. They`re, you know, God knows, maybe reading books, spending time with their kids or something crazy like that.

BECK: No, no.

PONIEWOZIK: And people -- you know, a certain percentage of people have found alternate entertainment, so are watching shows on cable or are watching DVR programs or DVDs.

BECK: Right.

PONIEWOZIK: In any event, it doesn`t seem like -- you know, there`s this general drop-off in viewership because there isn`t as much new stuff on, but some reality shows like "American Idol" are not necessarily benefiting from that. I think "Idol" is sort of -- it`s facing the same decline that it would have anyway.

BECK: I have to tell you, I mean, I don`t understand. These people say, I don`t watch TV, I have a life. All right, whatever.

PONIEWOZIK: They`re lying.

BECK: Whatever freak boy. The writers` strike, how long this thing can go on? You think this could go on the rest of the season without it really doing significant damage to television?

PONIEWOZIK: I think it`s already done some damage to television. If it goes on for a long time, it can do some pretty significant damage, I think, especially to big network television, because, as we said, you lose -- you accelerate the loss of the kind of viewer that TV was losing already.

Now, you know, the directors are working on their contract negotiations. If they strike a deal, it`s possible the writers could strike a deal following that pretty quick. If that doesn`t happen, this could easily drag through the rest of what was going to be this season.

BECK: Well, I want you to know, America -- thank you very much, Jim. America, this is my promise to you. This kind of mediocrity is going to come to you night after night, writers, no writers. My personal guarantee.

Now, recession-proof. How are you going to recession-proof your job? We`ll tell you in tonight`s "Real Story," coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, coming up in just a bit, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, now running neck and neck, but would their liberal progressive agendas be good for this country and our planet?

I have an author of a new book that I am reading that is absolutely a must read by Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism." All the details, and Jonah will join us, in just a few minutes. Please, don`t miss this.

But first, welcome to the "Real Story."

Major economic news breaking just about every day now. You would think this would be, you know, a pretty good time for our government to be in session, right? Yeah. But you`re not really probably thinking like a politician.

See, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes it`s more important for him to be leading the caucuses in his home state of Nevada than leading the U.S. Senate. So, they`re still on session. But then again, isn`t every average American still on their holiday break?

I mean, come on. If Harry Reid was at work today, he probably would have heard Fed chairman Ben Bernanke`s sunny outlook on our economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The baseline outlook for real activity in 2008 has worsened.

The downside risk to growth have become more pronounced.

Labor market conditions in December were disappointing.

Private payroll employment declined.

Employment in residential construction posted another substantial reduction.

Employment in manufacturing and retail trade has also decreased significantly.

Employment in services continued to grow, but at a slower pace in December than in earlier months.

Financial conditions continue to pose a downside risk to the outlook.

The financial situation remains fragile, and many funding markets remain impaired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: And I thought things were bad. Oh, good God. What`s happening to us?

Well, since this is an election year, the economy matters, right? Today`s hearing quickly turned to some of the great ideas that our politicians have to get things moving again, and I`m going to get to them in just a second.

But the "Real Story" is, to me, the best course of action is also the easiest course of action with this Congress, and this White House -- do nothing. Think about this. The government has screwed it up.

The government and the Fed are the people who got us here. Do we really want them making emergency decision that as are obviously motivated more by politics than sound economic principles?

I don`t think these people even understand the economy.

For example, according to "The Washington Post," John Edwards says that the one thing we should do right away is invest in clean energy because -- I don`t know, maybe somebody should explain how solar panels are connected to the economy. But I`m sure that makes sense somewhere.

Senator Clinton likes the clean energy idea. She says $5 billion worth, just as long as it`s on top of $30 billion in emergency housing fund, $25 billion in emergency heating assistant fund, and $10 billion in unemployment insurance fund. Oh, oh, and an automatic five-year freeze on subprime mortgage rates, because, you know, all of those innocent borrowers got duped by the man into buying those McMansions and the big, bad banks.

Luckily for us, the Democrats and the government is there to save them.

Fear has a funny way of making people throw reason and logic right out the window. It happened right after 9/11. Remember? How many people were just willing to give up their liberties in the name of security?

Well, fear is back. But this time, it`s economic security. And people are afraid now.

So, instead of the Republicans telling us they can secure us against the terrorists, now it`s the Democrats, telling us that they can save us from the economy and the promise of free government handouts. Oh, it`s almost too much for people to resist, which is exactly why politicians love it, especially in an election year.

Last night we talked about the crazy idea that maybe there`s something we could do on our own to prepare for tough times. I want to continue that tonight with some ways that you can protect your own job, your own paycheck, in case all of the government little gimmicks fail, which I`m sure will never happen, and we end up in a recession anyway.

Les McKeown is the president and CEO of Predictable Success.

Les, let me start here. What is -- is there such a thing as a -- a recession-proof job?

LES MCKEOWN, PRESIDENT & CEO, PREDICTABLE SUCCESS: No, there`s absolutely no such thing. Not anymore. Everything is relative.

Not only are there not recession-proof jobs, there is no such thing really as job security. It comes down to the individual.

BECK: Hang on just a second. Even government jobs?

MCKEOWN: Well, government jobs may have a longer shelf life.

BECK: Yes.

MCKEOWN: They may degrade more slowly.

BECK: OK.

MCKEOWN: But even they aren`t totally secure.

BECK: Right. OK.

So what are the best jobs in a recession to have besides, you know, a government job? What are the best jobs to have?

MCKEOWN: Well, you know, everything is relative, Glenn, as we just said. Maybe something in academia, you know, where you can still get tenured occasionally.

Health care, sort of. If you are selling products or services to the ultra wealthy -- and I`m talking billionaires -- you might get a little recession-proof.

BECK: OK.

MCKEOWN: But by and large, the reality is this, Glenn -- look, you work in the media industry, right? The media industry is not recession- proof.

Glenn Beck is pretty recession-proof. You have made a way to make yourself recession-proof. And that`s what people have got to understand. It`s up to you.

BECK: Listen to this guy. He`s a genius.

Upstairs, this guy is an absolute genius.

Wall Street is going to get hit. Real estate is going to get hit.

More importantly than what job you`re in, because now is not the time to really be looking for a job, what showed you be doing? Because I -- you know, I just had this conversation with my daughter. She`s in college.

And I said to her last night -- I said, "You`ve got to make yourself invaluable. You have to be somebody in the company that is really helping, so when they cut people, they say, not that one."

How can you do that?

MCKEOWN: You have got to be the last person anybody wants to see go out the door. And that`s all about individualism. It`s not about a specific set of skills.

We all know people who are very good as X, but it wouldn`t matter what happened to our organization, we would still want them around. And you have really got to be that person.

And that means doing two things. Sure, work on your skills. Be a great media pundit, if you are going to be a media pundit. But also, get a sense of fit. Work out what it takes to be invaluable to your organization.

Two words to pinpoint in the back of your eyelids -- add value. Add value.

How do you ad value in an organization? If you are worth more to that organization, any organization inside than outside, they won`t let you go.

BECK: OK, Les. I have to tell you, I would keep you around just because of the cool accent.

But this is -- this recession is really not going to look anything like what we`ve seen before, right? This is different. Like, the tech bubble burst, and that was just one industry. But this is going to be widespread.

MCKEOWN: Yes, this is, sadly, deeper and longer. I`ve been through seven recessions, not counting my time back in the U.K., where I picked up this accent. And this one is going to be deep and it`s going to be long.

And here`s the -- here`s the really sad news about this, Glenn. This is very important for you and the folks who are going to be commenting on this for some months to come to understand.

Most of the hurt is going to be under the radar here. Sure, some of the big-name organizations may go under, we may see some banner headlines about job losses. You know, if some mortgage organization or an auto parts supplier goes out of business, sure, we`ll hear about 10, 15, 25 jobs going, but that amount of jobs are going to be regularly in small-to- medium-sized businesses.

BECK: OK.

MCKEOWN: And that`s really where the hurt`s going to be.

BECK: Les, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Now, remember, if you really want to recession-proof yourself, then my recommendation is, go out and buy a copy of my new book, "An Inconvenient Book." I mean, it has absolutely no tips, no tricks on how to weather a bad economy, but it does make fun of politicians, particularly Al Gore, and also Michael Moore quite a bit.

I mean, so, at least you`ll be laughing through the hunger pangs. And it`s 295 pages, so if you are cold, you might have, you know, 295 days of heat. I`m just saying.

"Inconvenient Book," heat your home all winter long. Available now at glennbeck.com, bookstores everywhere.

Now, coming up, what happens if a Democrat wins the presidency this November? I have a guy next who has a pretty scary scenario. He`ll clear it up in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, it`s all come down to this. After months of campaigning, countless debates, slimy personal attacks, a new poll is out that says Clinton and Obama are at a virtual tie. But I could give a flying crap about the polls these days. What I`m concerned about most is the socialist track that we are on here in America.

Government health care, private investor bailouts, guaranteed job security -- it has become mainstream. We are enslaving ourselves voluntarily.

It`s like we`ve gone from embracing free markets to embracing fascism virtually overnight. And there is no one that explains how that happened better than "National Review Online" editor Jonah Goldberg, whose new book, "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left," is an absolute, positively must read. If you have to buy one book this year -- and I mean this sincerely -- buy mine. But then go to the library and get this one.

No, seriously, over my book, even, buy this one.

It is the book, Jonah, that I wanted to write for my next book because I had been fascinated by how we got here.

JONAH GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "LIBERAL FASCISM": Yes.

BECK: And the more you read history, the more you see, this has been a -- by design, we have been designed to go into happy fascism.

And explain this first.

GOLDBERG: Well, sure. The smiling face thing, that`s actually -- it`s explained on like page two of the book.

George Carlin, of all people, he said, look, when fascism comes to America, it`s not going to be storm troopers and (INAUDIBLE) thugs. It`s going to be smiley happy face fascism. It`s going to be, you know, make you feel good Nike fascism. And there`s a lot of truth to that.

And one of the important things to remember is that fascism was popular. People wanted fascism. They wanted what Hitler and what Mussolini were selling. There`s no way it could come about...

BECK: Before -- and you make this, such a great point. Before they started exterminating people.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: You know. And I -- and I have to tell you, America, you will not believe, when you read this book how much history you never, ever learned.

Wilson -- Woodrow Wilson, all I know is League of Nations.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: The stuff in this book about Wilson is staggering.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: This guy was a legitimate fascist.

GOLDBERG: Well, he was -- let`s put it this way, because we can get boiled down in all the jargon. If you go by what people think of fascism - here`s a normal person on the street, someone who suppresses several liberties, the (INAUDIBLE) political dissidents in jail, sends out goons to beat people up in the streets...

BECK: What they say about Dick Cheney and George Bush in hyperbole...

GOLDBERG: Right -- times 1,000. Wilson actually did.

I mean, what the worst bed-wetting liberal imagines Joe McCarthy did, Woodrow Wilson did by 1,000 orders of magnitude. Shut down magazines and newspapers, unleashed 100,000 propaganda agents throughout the country to whip up nationalist fervor. You know, on every front, he`s sort of the hard fascism.

The soft fascism of the smiley face is not George Orwell`s "1984."

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: It`s Aldous Huxley`s "Brave New World," where we have prepackaged joy, where we are made happy, where we have happiness delivered to us rather than we try to pursue it. You know, in "Brave New World," people go around chewing hormonal gum and having everything done for them. And in many ways, that`s sort of where we are heading to.

I remember we talked about this the other day. You know, in California, they are proposing now that your thermostats have to have a radio monitor in it so that the state can control your thermostat. It`s like the old "Outer Limits" thing.

BECK: Right.

GOLDBERG: We control the -- they now literally want to control the air you breathe.

In Britain, what were originally security cameras that were intended to catch terrorists are now being trained on people who are eating in their cars. On lots of streets in British towns, if you litter, all of a sudden, a booming voice comes out, and says, "You, sir, pick that up," because they have cameras trained to catch littering.

In Canada, they have public service announcements to tell people how they should -- first of all, obese people in Canada now can`t get all kinds of surgeries because the state, while rationalizing socialist health care...

BECK: Government health care.

GOLDBERG: ... they just say some people just don`t deserve it because they don`t take care of themselves. Nutrition is not a private matter anymore.

They also have these new public service announcements where they literally try to terrify you. I mean, talk about -- I mean, terrify you into worker safety.

There`s one where -- you can find it on YouTube. There`s a chef, and she`s talking about how she`s going to get married, and how excited she is. And then all of a sudden, she slips and falls and pours burning hot oil all over her face, and the camera shows it, her screaming agony. And then they say, you know, on the job safety, it`s no joke, or something like that.

BECK: You say -- I just read the last chapter of this last night, and I have got to tell you, man -- America, you have to wake up to this stuff. You talk about what Hillary Clinton has written in the past, what she has said recently. One of the quotes, and I have it here, is she wanted to put videos with scenes of commonsense baby care, how to burp an infant, what to do when they get soap in the eyes, et cetera, et cetera, she wanted to put it in hospitals, clinics, any place where there was a line.

GOLDBERG: Department of Motor Vehicles.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: You`re waiting there. And the irony of this is, you know, our real image of fascism, the culture and the literature, is "1984," with these giant jumbotron TVs that tell you how to live your life.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: Work makes you free, and all this kind of stuff. She wants to do the same thing. And the rationale for it is a classic fascist mechanism.

Fascists whip up a sense of crisis so that you drop your objection, you drop democracy, and you rally around the state. And she says that human beings, every single person who is born, every baby, is automatically in crisis, and, therefore, government professionals have to intervene to help you create a properly ordered progressive child.

BECK: Well, she -- this is an actual quote. "As adults, we have to start thinking and believing that there isn`t really such a thing as someone else`s child."

Tell me, I mean, because I know -- in your book, you explain where she has come, who she learned from.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: Unbelievable radicals that she has been trained by.

GOLDBERG: It`s an intellectual tradition that goes all the way back to the progressives. I mean, Woodrow Wilson, himself, when he was an educator, he was the president of Princeton. He says the chief job of an educator is to make the student, make the child as different from the parents as possible.

And it goes all the way up throughout the social gospel, throughout the progressives. The Nazis had the same philosophy.

And -- but Hillary, herself, she was trained as -- you know, a radical agitator by a Saul Alinsky, who was a -- you know, a committed leftist. And so people think, well, he was a committed leftist, therefore he wasn`t fascistic. But if you actually read "Rules for Radicals," it drips with fascist themes.

She volunteered to help out with the Black Panthers trial. Now, it`s funny. You know, the Black Panthers, OK, here you have a group that is paramilitary, wears uniforms, carries guns around, extols violence for its own sake, assassinates police officers, believes in racial superiority and sort of (INAUDIBLE) around for black people and all the rest.

And yet, if you say, gosh, that sounds fascist, people go, what? That`s crazy. But it shows you where sort of the sympathies were of the leftist radicals.

Now, to be fair, Hillary wasn`t violent. She wanted to work through the system. She was much more of a go through the system type.

BECK: Here is the problem, and you make it so unbelievable care and to the point I`m like, OK, I get it, Jonah, is you want to make sure that you understand that -- people understand, you are not calling these people Nazis.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: Because that`s what they always say about George Bush -- oh, he`s a Nazi.

GOLDBERG: Right. Right. I`m not saying that.

BECK: You are not saying that at all.

It is -- like, for instance, Obama just said this week that he is for animal rights. Well, when you understand what that means, animal rights means you can`t have a pet. You can`t own an animal because of the animal activists.

And on the other side, let`s play fair here and let`s just not throw the left on the burner.

GOLDBERG: Sure.

BECK: Huckabee this week said that he wants to -- he wants to change the Constitution to make it more inline with God`s laws.

GOLDBERG: Right.

BECK: It is government babysitting us. That is fascism.

GOLDBERG: That`s right.

Well, I mean, Huckabee, you know, until recently, when he got so much grief over it, he switched sides. But he was committed to a nationwide smoking ban.

You know, Ronald Reagan, who believed that government was the problem, not the solution, would have burst into flames before suggesting something like that.

BECK: Yes.

GOLDBERG: And this is my problem with compassionate conservatism. I talk about it at the end of the book.

You know, the original progressives were deeply religious people, but they were heretically religious in that they believed that it was the state, only the state could bring you Christian redemption. That redemption was no longer personal. It had nothing to do with your personal relationship with God, it had to do with the state imposing the perfect society on people to make you right with God.

And we find some of that, we find echoes of that in compassionate conservatism. It`s a right wing progressivism. And Huckabee, what scares me about him, is he`s sort of compassionate conservatism on steroids.

BECK: You`ve got to -- America, please, pick this book up. Please, pick it up. You will not believe what you haven`t learned.

Coming up, the ever-congenial potential first gentleman of the United States, Bill Clinton, a bit of a temper. Who knew? Details of what he said to a reporter in Vegas coming up.

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BECK: Well, Bill Clinton had an exchange caught on camera with ABC and their reporter in a lawsuit that was filed in Nevada to change some of the rules of the caucus. It was filed to ban special caucus sites near casinos.

Well, that sounds odd. And that is exactly what ABC reporter Mark Matthews thought.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MATTHEWS, REPORTER, ABC: Mr. President, about Nevada, one quick question.

Should the Clinton campaign take a stronger position against that lawsuit that wants to get away from the caucus sights on the Strip?

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You asked the question in an accusatory way, so I`ll ask you back. Do you really believe that all the Democrats understood that they had agreed to give everybody that voted at the casino a vote worth five times as much as people who voted in their own precinct? Did you know that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: That is shocking, but he doesn`t mention that it would be extraordinarily unlikely for that to happen, not as extreme as he is claiming. And it happens in lots of states because they base the delegates on turnout.

But even if he wasn`t exaggerating, why bring it up now? Well, the lawsuit was filed by Clinton supporters two days after Obama got the endorsement of the culinary workers that work at casinos.

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MATTHEWS: If the culinary workers had not endorsed Obama, would they still be dealing with it?

CLINTON: Well...

MATTHEWS: Would they still be filing a lawsuit?

CLINTON: ... I think that the teachers and other people that are voting in their own precincts would have filed a lawsuit once they found out that a vote counts -- you know, this is a one man, one vote country. And I`m amazed nobody like you ever -- you should be offended by this. Do you think that one person`s vote should count five times as much as another?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. So, they would have filed a lawsuit about rules that they had agreed on almost a year ago? Yes, it doesn`t make sense, and Clinton became angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Get on your television station and say, I don`t care about the home mortgage crisis, all I care about is making sure that some voters have it easier than others. And that when they do vote, when it`s already easier for them, their vote should count five times as much as others.

That is your position. If you want to take that position, get on the television and take it. Don`t be accusatory with me. I had nothing to do with this lawsuit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: He had nothing to do with it. Why? If it`s such a cause, why distance yourself? Shouldn`t you be leading the charge?

And then he ended with a Democratic standby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: I`m just saying those are the rules that were agreed to in March.

CLINTON: Well, but I...

MATTHEWS: By those same people that are bringing the lawsuit.

CLINTON: Well, none of them knew that the votes were rigged that way. They found that out later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Two words for you -- butterfly ballots. Democrats pick the rules, then when the results don`t come out the way want, then they say they didn`t understand the rules that they made, and so they sue to get their rules overturned.

I love politics.

From New York, good night.

END