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Glenn Beck

Is Obama the Next Jimmy Carter?; Teens to be Tried as Assaults for Assaulting Disabled Girl; Book Examines Most Expensive Bottle of Wine

Aired May 19, 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, Obama on America.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can`t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times.

BECK: Hmm. Sounds a little something like this guy. I`ll tell you why Chairman Obama will be bad for the country.

Then Mexican police chiefs murdered and forced into hiding. Just another example of the problems on our border.

And is the Senate trying to sneak amnesty in the war-spending bill? I`ll ask former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer what Washington should be doing about all of this.

And has the GOP abandoned conservatives? Jon Voight, the lone conservative voice in the Hollywood wilderness.

All this and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America.

I`m on pins and needles. I don`t know how it`s going to work out tomorrow. Kentucky and Oregon are going to have their Democratic primaries. Oregon is where Barack Obama is hoping to claim victory over his rival Hillary Clinton. Obama is also hoping to pitch himself to Oregon as the environmental president. Great, just what we needed.

At a rally near Portland the earthy, crunchy capital of the world, Barack said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We can`t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times and then just expect that every other country`s going to say OK. That`s not -- that`s not leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Really? Forgive me if I respectfully disagree. America, here`s the point tonight. Barack Obama wants us to relive the Jimmy Carter years. And I don`t really want to go back there. And here`s how I got there.

I feel Jimmy Carter -- I`m out on a limb -- probably the worst president in modern history. And considering the competition, that`s saying something. He presided over 20-percent inflation, double-digit interest rates, a naive foreign policy. Think there was a burning helicopter in there someplace, epic gas shortages, and skyrocketing oil prices.

When asked how Americans should deal with a cold winter in the face of expensive heating oil, Jimmy Carter said, "I don`t know. Wear a sweater."

To make his Jimmy Carter impersonation perfect, Barack Obama, I think all he needs is a southern accent, a beer-drinking hick of a brother, and a peanut up his you know what.

Americans don`t retreat; we innovate. Invention is what moves us forward, not regulation. Putting on a sweater? Turning down the thermostat? Those are more distractions from a desperately needed long- term solution to our energy problem that I got news for you, just ain`t going away.

Let me remind you: America runs on oil. And cars are just the beginning. Driving SUVs, those are not the problem. Focusing on polar bears and ethanol, that`s the problem. We can do anything in this country. We`ve proved it time and time again. We committed to landing on the moon, and we put a whole butt-load of men up on the moon. Now we need the same kind of dedication from a president who will grow a set and lead the charge.

Better yet, we need a president that`s not an obstructionist, who will shove the obstructionist government out of the way of American entrepreneurs. The lasting solutions are staring us right in the face. It`s cold oil technology, nuclear energy, aggressive domestic drilling. Those are just medium-term solutions. But we need them. And we need the American dreamers to take us to the next step and ensure our future is as glorious as our past. And it ain`t the government that`s going to do it.

The only thing keeping us from energy independence are the weasels in Washington that lack the vision, all the while blocking the doorway to our future.

So tonight, America, here is what you need to know. America`s future is not in her past. It never has been. We made it through the four-year nightmare called the Carter administration, and returning to that same impotent thinking would be a tragic mistake and, given the world today, I think it could be a fatal mistake.

Barack Obama wants the Birkenstock crowd to vote for him. You know what, Barack? Who else are they going to vote for? He`s proving yet again he`s a politician by telling Oregon voters exactly what they want to hear. So thanks anyway, Barack but I think I`m going to keep my SUV, eat as much as I want, and crank the heat up to about 85 just to piss all the people wearing Birkenstocks that don`t shave under their armpits, just to piss them off.

I`ve got my fingers crossed, America, for a leader, not another Jimmy Carter.

Stephen Moore writes editorials on economics for the "Wall Street Journal."

Stephen, my gut says Obama is Jimmy Carter. Right or wrong?

STEPHEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, I feel like I have to get out my bell-bottom jeans and my disco music. I mean, it is a replay of the 1970s.

And Glenn, when I heard that excerpt you did from his speech in Oregon, it really did remind me of Jimmy Carter. Remember, he used to give these speeches in the cardigan sweaters next to the fireside and say everybody turn their thermostats down.

I mean, the four years under Jimmy Carter, Glenn, were the worst four years for family income in the last 50 years. We don`t want to go there again. We`ve done that. We`ve been there.

BECK: OK. So let`s go through it. Some of the things: tax rates.

MOORE: Seventy percent. Seventy percent. And under -- I forget. Do you live in New Jersey or New York, Glenn?

BECK: I live in Connecticut.

MOORE: Good for you. Well, if you live in New York, New Jersey, or California, when you combine his tax increase with the state`s taxes, you`re facing 60 percent marginal tax rates. So we`re right back where we were in the `70s.

BECK: Without any kind of deductions like they used to have.

MOORE: That`s exactly right.

BECK: Windfall profits.

MOORE: Yes, we did that. That was one of Jimmy Carter`s swan songs. We put in place a windfall profits tax in 1979. What happened when we did that was our reliance on foreign oil went way up.

BECK: Went up, yes.

MOORE: And our domestic production went way down. Barack Obama wants the same thing.

BECK: Spending out of control in Washington under Jimmy Carter.

MOORE: Well, I don`t think Jimmy Carter wanted to spend as much as Barack does. This is -- they both wanted to spend a lot of money, and the budget went through the roof under Jimmy Carter, but Barack Obama is calling for $300 billion a year of new spending per year.

BECK: Right. And then you`ve got the foreign policy where he wants to talk to our enemies. He wants to hollow out our military. But you know, Stephen, here`s what -- here`s what really frightens me.

There`s a possibility that the Senate only has 40 Republicans. And I`m not a fan of the Republicans. But maybe 40. That can`t stop a filibuster. That`s not going to happen. They`ll be down 70 seats in the House, and they`ll have Barack Obama. Good God almighty, what does America look like in 18 months?

MOORE: It`s a frightening proposition, because you`re talking about repeating all of the economic mistakes of the 1970s. And the problem is when Jimmy Carter did it, at least we didn`t know that all these things would go wrong. Now we know. We`ve been there.

BECK: So Stephen, I don`t understand...

MOORE: What`s the logic of repeating the mistakes of the 1970s?

BECK: You and I have had dinner, and I know you disagree with this, because we`ve argued about this a million times. It`s not the -- just the mistakes of the 1970s. These are the same mistakes we made during the Great Depression.

MOORE: Right. You know, you`re right about that. And the problem is Democrats, they look at the situation, and we all see government failure, everything from responding to Katrina to the out-of-control budget, the deficits, and then liberals respond to that: "Hmm, I think we need a little more government to deal with these problems." When government created -- government created the problem with the high gas prices and the high food prices.

BECK: Crazy. Stephen, thanks a lot.

Now it hasn`t been luck that built America into the world`s lone superpower. I don`t know if those in Washington think that or not. It was the hard work and tireless innovation of men and women with true vision. It`s people like you.

It would be easy to say that kind of foresight is in short supply these days, but it`s not. That`s not the case. We`ve got great thinkers, a new generation of innovators champing at the bit, but we`ve got them in handcuffs that the federal government has slapped on their wrists. Instead of progress, we have too many empty suits and attorneys in Washington talking about sacrifice. If we`re going to continue leading the way that has got to change, and it`s got to change quickly.

Bob O`Brien is the stocks editor for "Barron`s" online.

Bob, you know what? What kills me, because I run a business, the last person I ask for advice in my company is the attorney because they`re paid to say no.

BOB O`BRIEN, STOCKS EDITOR, "BARRON`S" ONLINE: Of course.

BECK: That`s who we`ve got in Washington, a butt-load of attorneys telling us how to run our country. And it`s just -- it`s not working out well.

O`BRIEN: It`s not working out well. And Glenn, that is absolutely a formula for failure there: when you let a bunch of regulators make decisions about policy that are going to affect, particularly, pocketbook issues. Because there`s such a divorce from reality that takes place in Washington.

They`re not even realizing the impact that some of these -- some of the conditions are having on your spending power in the rest of the country. So outside the beltway, there`s absolutely no sensitivity to what`s going on in America.

BECK: OK. We have -- everybody`s talking about, "Oh, well, we`d better not drill anywhere." In ten years it`s my understanding that China, if their growth continues at the pace it has in the last ten years, they will use every bit of oil production that the world is doing right now. They`ll use all of it. That would be massive problems for the rest of the world. There will be war for oil in ten years. And yet we`re not doing anything.

What should we be doing? How do we get this story across, Bob, to people to say this isn`t just a run on -- you know, on gas prices this time. This -- we`re looking at the future?

O`BRIEN: Indeed, Glenn. And you know, it`s not just a question of production these days. I mean, if you look at the U.S. oil industry, we haven`t built a new refinery in the United States in over 25 years. That means an entire generation without adding capacity to that refining operation.

The production is less of an issue right now. It`s simply coming up with the finished product that you can use in any kind of a coherent...

BECK: Why don`t we stop using -- why don`t we stop making different blends?

O`BRIEN: Well, there are a number of ideas out there that could be -- that could be -- that could be considered. I mean, why micromanage some of the -- some of the details about seasonal blends, for example?

BECK: Right.

O`BRIEN: And just simple let the -- let the consumer select the product that they want to use and that works best for their lifestyle.

However, the government has basically decided that it`s going to take a very top-down approach to these things and dictate to the oil companies exactly what`s going on.

BECK: So...

O`BRIEN: At the same time they`re not dictating that they ought to be able to build up some refining capacity.

BECK: Bob, you told me, I don`t know, about a month ago, you said if oil prices are still this high -- and they`ve only gotten higher since we last spoke.

O`BRIEN: Yes.

BECK: If it`s this high July 4, that`s a tipping point. What does that mean?

O`BRIEN: Well, that means you`re going to be looking at $4 a gallon when you pull up to the pump. That means effectively that that`s money that you`re not going to be able to spend, whether it`s buying some kind of a consumer discretionary item or perhaps even cutting right into your ability to basically...

BECK: What does that mean long-term for the economy?

O`BRIEN: Well, it means that the economy becomes an -- completely the victim of inflationary pressures here. And inflation pressure that nobody in government is going to be able to try and wean us away from.

You`re going to start to see inflation moving up 7 to 8 percent over the course of -- over the course of the year. And that`s basically going to be the biggest pocketbook issue that voters are going to face when they head to the polls.

BECK: OK. Bob, thanks a lot. We`ll talk to you again.

O`BRIEN: Thank you.

O`BRIEN: Coming up, the GOP is facing an identity crisis. Republicans across the country wonder if they get the party`s act together before November. We`re going to talk to Oscar-winning actor, leading conservative voice in Hollywood, Jon Voight, for some perspective.

And an update about a truly horrific story about a defenseless woman. We`re bringing you this update -- you`ll remember it -- just right around the corner. Don`t miss it. It`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: A while back I told you about an absolutely heartbreaking case of Ashley Clark. She is a disabled young woman who was ambushed, terrorized, and beaten for hours in her own home by a teenage couple. We weren`t able to show you their mug shots or give you their names before. Now we can.

Richard Jones is the sheriff in Butler County, Ohio. And Bobby Clark is the father of Ashley Clark. We have wanted to -- we`ve wanted to have you guys on for a while. But Bobby, we haven`t because -- because of what`s going on in the courtroom. And we have some really good news.

And Sheriff, let`s start at the beginning with you first. Let`s go to the beginning and just describe quickly, refresh people`s memory on what happened to Ashley.

SHERIFF RICHARD JONES, BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO: Well, basically, these two people broke into Ashley`s home and -- the night before, and they waited for the mother to leave that morning. They stayed in the basement. They hid out.

They left that morning, the mother did. And they went upstairs from the basement area, and they basically began to torture Ashley all day long. Six, seven hours, all day.

They cut her hair off. They tied her up. They made her walk outside in the snow barefooted. They put her in the shower, soaked her down wet. They hit her in the head with a ball bat. She begged them not to strike her in the head. She`s had brain surgery. She has a disability. Very nice girl.

She knew these people. They basically tortured her for six or seven hours in her own home.

BECK: OK. Priors? We can now talk about priors.

JONES: Sure.

BECK: These dirt-bags have prior records?

JONES: Oh, yes. On average the both of them have about 15 priors, which includes assault, weapon charges. I mean, they`ve been in trouble, probably, since they were 12 years old.

BECK: Why...

JONES: This isn`t the first time.

BECK: You know, at some point you`ve got to ask yourself why aren`t we putting people in jail?

Now, they`re going to be tried as adult. The bail is some of the highest anybody has ever seen. It`s a million dollars cash, is it not?

JONES: A million cash. Some of the highest I`ve seen. But we`re fortunate. We have a judge in this case that`s really a -- really a person -- the people`s judge. And he sent a message on this.

BECK: OK. Bobby, first of all, how is Ashley?

BOBBY CLARK, ASHLEY`S FATHER: She`s doing as good as she can.

BECK: My heart was absolutely broken when I -- when I heard this. I have three daughters myself, and I can`t even imagine what you and the family have gone through, let alone what Ashley has gone through.

Now you sat in the courtroom, and you saw the judge give these two $1 million cash bail. They`re not going anywhere. And said they were going to be tried as adults. How did they react, and how did you react?

CLARK: Well, I`m just -- I`m real happy at the outcome of it. It`s just been -- the sheriff`s office and the prosecutor`s office and Judge Craft done exactly what I wanted: binding it over to adult court, because I feel that these people needs every day they can get.

BECK: How did they react in court?

CLARK: They was kind of aston -- they were surprised. Their mouths just dropped open when he give them the bond.

BECK: Good, good. Ashley, I understand had a really hard time the day of the court case, because you -- she was crying. She`s been afraid of these people coming back and getting out, right?

CLARK: Yes.

BECK: And what happened the day of the court case?

CLARK: She was a lot better after she actually watched the news at 12 and seen that them people was bound over to adult court and that they had set that bond. We explained to her what it was. And she was really a whole lot better later on in the day after she seen that and after she realized that these people were going to be there a while.

BECK: How have you seen -- how have you seen -- what differences have you seen in your daughter since this? Is she the same -- is she the same person?

CLARK: She has a little less trust with people now. She`s starting to get some of it back.

BECK: Are you the same person? I have to be real honest with you, Bobby. I have so much admiration. I mean, look at you. You`re sitting there with that T-shirt with the great saying on it. It would take everything in me -- I wouldn`t, but it would take everything in me not to pick up my loaded gun. I would be so angry you`d do this to my daughter. How are you doing?

CLARK: Well, at this point, if it hadn`t been for the sheriff`s office and the people that works for the sheriff`s office, talking to them and letting the system work, I`m just trying to concentrate on helping my daughter at this point.

BECK: They cut up her prom dress.

CLARK: Yes.

BECK: Any idea why they did that?

CLARK: I have no idea.

BECK: And Saturday is her prom. Is she going?

CLARK: Yes, she`s going. She was actually donated a wig by a wig shop in Fairfield, and a local dress shop, David`s Bridal, donated her a new prom dress.

BECK: And is it -- she`s wearing the wig, because they cut off all of her hair?

CLARK: Yes.

BECK: Bobby, best of luck. Our prayers are with you.

And Sheriff, you keep getting the bad guys. Will you?

JONES: Good thing -- Glenn, remember this. Their parole officers aren`t even born yet. And they`re in the big boy jail now, and they`re not going to have a lot of fun. I promise you that.

BECK: God bless you both. Thanks a lot.

JONES: Thanks.

BECK: Back in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know, back in my drinking days I drank a lot. I didn`t really get fancy. It was pretty much Jack Daniel`s. You know, working man`s drink. Even though I did very little work. You know, I hear you can still get it for under 25 bucks a fifth. I just hear those things.

So when I read about a guy who paid over $150,000 for a bottle of 200- year-old wine, I thought, yes, and I was a crazy alcoholic. Right.

The story -- if you`ve not heard this story, you have to read this book. I couldn`t put it down. "The Billionaire`s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World`s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine." Its author is Benjamin Wallace.

How are you doing, Benjamin?

BENJAMIN WALLACE, AUTHOR, "THE BILLIONAIRE`S VINEGAR": Hey, Glenn.

BECK: You know, I just told you of the air and let me just tell you quickly. I read about ten books at a time. And I try to be fair and, you know, read a little bit of each, because I`ve got to plow through them all. I always know it`s a good book when I stop reading the other ones just to plow through one. That`s what I did with this book.

This is a fascinating story. Tell quickly -- tell the story. What happened?

WALLACE: Thanks, Glenn.

This is the story of the longest running mystery in the modern wine world. It`s a bottle of 200-year-old Chateau Lafite that sold at auction in 1985 for the world record price of $106,000. And supposedly, this bottle had belonged to Thomas Jefferson and disappeared for 200 years. It was discovered in a cellar in the middle of Paris.

From the beginning there were questions about whether or not this bottle was real or whether it was a forgery.

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: And so the book sort of pursues that mystery.

BECK: It really -- I mean, it`s amazing how -- I mean, these wine people, just dumb as a box of rocks. It made me feel good. It`s like, oh, yes, he`s screwing you.

And then you see -- you see how many people were really almost enablers, because they wanted it to happen. And then in one of my favorite parts of the story, tell the part where -- where the guy kind of really gets nailed by being a jerk neighbor. You know what I`m talking about? Where he -- OK, go ahead.

WALLACE: Yes, well, this is Hardy Rodenstock, the German man who found the bottles of wine, supposedly, in Paris.

BECK: Yes.

WALLACE: He had some problems with his landlord in Munich. And when he finally vacated the premises after -- it was one of these nightmare tenant stories. And the guy finally got him out. And he went down into the basement, and he found empty bottles of wine, corks, labels that had never been used, and a giant pile of dirt, actually, with a dead frog in it that he thought the guy had been using to rub all over the bottles and make them look old.

BECK: So now I`m seeing Malcolm Forbes, you know, drinking from a bottle that had dead frogs rubbed all over it. It was -- it`s fascinating.

What`s frustrating is the end of the book it doesn`t really end, because it`s still going on.

WALLACE: Right. The legal case is still going on, but I -- I think most of the information that has come out, that is going to come out, has come out, unless Hardy Rodenstock suddenly decides to, you know, break down and make a tearful confessional, which I don`t think is going to happen.

BECK: Right. So what the most amazing part of this, when you were going through it? Was it -- I mean, the guy Koch, who was a billionaire who was just -- I mean, just the description of his wealth -- and you crossed him. He`s like, "I`ve been screwed." He pulled out all of the stops. What was the most amazing thing that you found in the story?

WALLACE: Well, one of the interesting things about the story, and I don`t think I`m giving too much away, because really the focus of the book is the mystery about the origin of these battles.

But what happened to the bottle, the $106,000 bottle of wine. About a year after the Forbes family bought it, they displayed it in their galleries in downtown Manhattan. And a curator was walking past the bottle one day, and they noticed something bobbing in the liquid.

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: And it turned out that, because they had displayed this bottle of wine under a halogen light, which is not what you`d call ideal cellar conditions...

BECK: Right.

WALLACE: ... the cork had dried up and fallen into the bottle.

BECK: Don`t worry about it. It`s only a $150,000 bottle of wine.

"Billionaire`s Vinegar." Great read. We`ll have more coming up.

WALLACE: Thanks, Glenn.

BECK: You bet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Let me paint a quick little picture for you. A small business owner in Boston losing thousands of dollars to theft. The cops can`t seem to help, can`t figure it out. So one night he stays late, catches the thief red-handed. Now he`s facing criminal charges.

Find out -- only in America. Find out why in just a bit.

But first, welcome to our "Real Story."

I know it`s not really making headlines these days, but there`s a recent spike in violence in the war that we`re fighting, and you need to hear about it. So give me 30 seconds here.

Over the past few weeks, a top-ranking police official was shot 50 times outside of his home. The latest in a string of eight high-ranking police assassinations at the hands of violent militias. Lower-ranking policemen and soldiers have been dragged out of their homes in front of their families, out into the street and beheaded or shot.

The government has lost control of entire areas, and law enforcement officials have been begging the U.S. for asylum. It sounds pretty bad, right? Well, here`s "The Real Story."

These events are not taking place in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are happening right along our own border with Mexico, five miles from U.S. cities like El Paso. Of course, now, you`d never know this is happening if you listen to any of our politicians or the media, who just seem to dismiss illegal immigration as, oh, they just hate Hispanics, that`s what it is.

It`s a security issue. Let`s take a look at some of the facts.

In 2001, there were 335 assaults against our border agents. These are our troops just as much as the troops are over in Afghanistan.

This year there have already been 362 assaults in four months. At that rate we`re going to end the year with 1,068 assaults on our border agents. But the numbers don`t tell the whole story.

Our border agents are often pinned down by sniper fire from drug cartels trying to sneak their people across the border, and our agents are often outgunned and overwhelmed. This is an all-out war. And it`s happening right along our border.

So as we head into another election season, what is it going to take for any of these candidates to stop talking about global warming, the frickin` polar bears and flag pins, and start talking about a war that no one wants to admit we`re really firing -- fighting?

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is with us.

Hi, Ari.

ARI FLEISCHER, FMR. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Glenn, how are you?

BECK: Not going to happen, is it? This border fence, this border stuff, not going to happen.

FLEISCHER: Well, what`s really happened is the whole passion that was behind this issue in the Republican primary has now faded, with John McCain being a border state senator who comes from a different position on this issue than a lot of the conservatives.

BECK: Barack Obama certainly won`t make it an issue. It`s a fading issue.

BECK: But here`s the thing. But it`s not...

FLEISCHER: Fading in the campaign.

BECK: Yes.

FLEISCHER: It`s a fading issue in the presidential campaign.

BECK: It`s not with the American people.

FLEISCHER: That`s correct.

BECK: These guys, it`s not -- this is not a conservative issue. This was 70 percent of the American people. You know, how is it that they can be so far out of step?

FLEISCHER: Well, it`s a terribly complicated issue, as you know. Part of the answer is also, do you or don`t you allow people who`ve been in this country illegally to stay in this country?

BECK: But you know what?

FLEISCHER: How do you handle that giant population that`s here, while, how do you shut down a current border that`s still a leaking border? We`re getting better at closing the border in a lot of places. It`s one of the reasons there`s an uptick in violence. A long way to go.

BECK: They don`t care what the American people think. I don`t think these weasels in Washington care.

Do you know that Wednesday they`re going to vote on yet another bill - - they have -- they have tucked amnesty in the war spending bill yet again. I mean, I feel like it`s the Declaration of Independence. Stop injuring us.

FLEISCHER: Well, the whole issue is, can you secure the border first or do you need to do something comprehensive? And Washington is split on that. Republicans are split on that. And that`s one of the reasons it`s faded as a political issue, because Republicans aren`t unified.

BECK: OK. Do you think that there`s -- do you think there`s any chance that John McCain wins?

FLEISCHER: Yes.

BECK: Do you?

FLEISCHER: I think it`s a 50-50. I think if any Republican other than John McCain -- and I`m not exactly a John McCain Republican myself.

BECK: Yes.

FLEISCHER: I`m more conservative. But any other Republican cannot win in this environment, Glenn. It`s that bad for Republicans right now.

BECK: But it`s because they`re not really Republicans. We`re going to talk to Jon Voight here in a second, but they`re not really Republicans. I`m sorry, they are Republicans. That`s a party. They`re not conservatives.

FLEISCHER: Yes. Well, when it really came down to it, can you cut spending, can you reduce the size of government, it only became a question for everybody of, can government just grow slower rather than can you actually stop the growth entirely?

BECK: So what happened?

FLEISCHER: I think Republicans hit the political reality of -- a lot of people say they`re for cutting spending, but when the truth comes to it they really don`t mean what they say. And they want to come home, deliver pork, deliver bacon, and deliver big spending programs.

BECK: So when you have a big issue like, for instance, oil -- I mean, here we are sitting with oil and huge problems. I mean, Rome is burning. And nobody`s really doing anything.

FLEISCHER: Well, I can`t believe when President Bush was over in Saudi Arabia and we`re asking Saudi Arabia to increase production, shouldn`t the answer be, why don`t we increase our own? We have huge untapped supplies of energy in this country, but largely because of environmental rules we`re not going about doing it. We can help protect ourselves, and we`re not doing it.

BECK: All right. We had the president of the United States fly over to another country, practically get down on his knees and beg them for oil. These are people that still use camels for transportation. I mean, what are we doing?

FLEISCHER: Well, look, there`s nothing wrong with George Bush asking Saudi Arabia or anybody else to increase their production. It`s more about how it helps all of us.

BECK: We are beholden.

FLEISCHER: That`s the point.

BECK: Right.

FLEISCHER: And we need to be developing our own resources here at home. Now, John McCain -- again, this is the irony. One reason he might win is because he`s different from Republicans on environmental issues. He`s against developing our oil supplies up in Alaska in ANWR.

I`m for it. He`s against it. He might win.

BECK: But the American -- I don`t see that as a win. The American people lose.

FLEISCHER: Well, my point is you asked, can he win an election? He can win an election because he`s such a different kind of Republican in an anti-Republican year.

For somebody like me, who`s ideologically a lot more pure, he`s not my exact cup of tea.

BECK: Yes.

FLEISCHER: He`s not George Bush`s third term. He is a centrist. He is a maverick. And that`s one of the reasons he might win.

BECK: OK. All right. Thanks. We`ll be -- we`ll be watching together as everything shimmies apart.

Now, been saying the Republican Party is struggling with voters. It`s -- you know what? It`s like saying Britney Spears is struggling with parenthood and booze and promiscuous sex. The list goes on and on.

Here`s how Republican Congressman Tom Davis recently described the party`s ills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DAVIS (R), VIRGINIA: But at the congressional level at this point the reputation is just in the trashcan. And the Republican brand name, if you were to put this on a dog food, the owners would just take it of the shelf because nobody`s buying it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: There`s a good campaign slogan for you -- so awful, dogs won`t even eat it.

Some Republicans like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator McCain believe the answer lies in the center. Move to the center, the voters will follow.

"The Real Story" is, when you stand for nothing you don`t appeal to anybody. Right now the GOP stands for nothing.

What happened to financial discipline? What happened to family values?

A trillion-dollar deficit? Are you kidding me? Earmarks for bacon museums? And an onslaught of GOP scandals.

These aren`t the values conservatives embrace. They`re the values politicians, hookers and special interest groups embrace.

Here`s some advice. I`m going to give you this for free, Republicans.

We`re on to you. We`re sick of it. If you want to win in November, you`d better start remembering what you stand for and who you really represent.

Academy Award-winning actor and proud conservative Jon Voight joins me now.

JON VOIGHT, ACTOR: That`s a heck of an introduction.

BECK: Yes. Well...

VOIGHT: God bless me for showing up on your show.

BECK: Yes. You`re not -- I mean...

VOIGHT: Who else would do this? Proud conservative.

BECK: Do you -- you don`t have a chance of getting another gig in Hollywood, do you?

VOIGHT: Well, you know, with that introduction I`m not.

BECK: Are you a proud conservative?

VOIGHT: Well, I -- yes, but host of my values are -- I`m an independent thinker and I go after the -- what I think is the truth.

BECK: Yes. You`re more of an Independent. You`re a John McCain kind of guy, Rudy Giuliani guy.

VOIGHT: Yes.

BECK: So your big issue is what? What`s the most important thing?

VOIGHT: The safety of the United States. And all it stands for.

BECK: OK. So that includes the border?

VOIGHT: Sure.

BECK: Fence?

VOIGHT: Right now, yes.

BECK: How come John McCain -- how do you get to John McCain just on that issue when he`s the guy who says amnesty, let`s not build a fence?

VOIGHT: I think he got the message pretty clearly when the voters spoke. You know.

BECK: Yes.

VOIGHT: I think that he knows what`s going on now.

BECK: Does it frighten you? Because you just got back from Israel.

VOIGHT: Yes.

BECK: Does it frighten you at all to hear somebody like Barack Obama say let`s talk to our enemies? And not just our enemy, not like normal enemies, but like crazy movie enemies. Does it bother you at all to be in that situation?

VOIGHT: What do you mean by crazy movie enemies? I don`t know what that means.

BECK: Sorry about that.

VOIGHT: I can deal with that.

BECK: You know, like a Spider-man, something you would see in the movie, where it`s, you know, Dr. Evil.

VOIGHT: Yes, that`s exactly right.

BECK: These guys are -- these guys are so far -- I mean, they`re...

VOIGHT: Barbarians.

BECK: Yes.

VOIGHT: Their philosophy is the martyrism of death. This is it.

BECK: So how do you -- being just back from Israel and seeing the truth down on the ground...

VOIGHT: Well, here`s what I -- it was interesting. I was there for the speech that Bush made to the Knesset. I was there. And at that juncture I had just returned from a place called Sderot. And it`s S-D-E-R- O-T.

It`s a half-mile from the Gaza border. It`s been bombed. It`s a little town, a very pleasant little town. It could be an American town.

It`s been bombed by 7,000 rockets since the turn of the century. And many -- it has accelerated since it`s -- since Gaza has been turned over to the Palestinians.

I went to visit those people because I saw them -- saw -- there was a little fund-raiser for the folks, for some of the children. And they spoke and it was amazing to me what was going on, and I wanted to see it for myself.

So I went there and I took a look, and it was -- there were so many different images that I have from it. One is that there`s no one on the streets. Middle of the day, nobody`s on the street.

There are -- at every bus stop there`s a place where the kids can run to, some kind of shelter. And you have to -- you have 18 seconds to get to a shelter once they announce that the missile`s coming in.

All of the children in the town, all of the children, are experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. I talked to the first responders -- you know, the psychologists, the firemen, all of that, and they were all wonderful people. They really moved me deeply by the commitment they`re making to the life of that town, trying to keep it alive in this atmosphere.

BECK: It`s really a red herring to -- I`m not saying that Israel is perfect on everything. No country is. But it`s really a red herring that it`s an Israel-Palestinian thing. It is a Hamas, Hezbollah, militant Islamic thing.

VOIGHT: It is.

BECK: They`re using the West as a rallying cry.

VOIGHT: Sure. And, you know, this is the big myth that the Israelis are keeping these people down. No, they`re not keeping these people down.

The Israelis are bending over backwards to try to make some kind of accommodation. They gave them Gaza.

BECK: Right. Have you ever seen...

VOIGHT: And what did they do to Gaza? They destroyed it.

BECK: Right.

VOIGHT: And who did that and kept these people -- because they`re delivering them into poverty and degradation and creating a new generation of suicide bombers. That`s what they`re doing.

BECK: The next time you go, go in, ask specifically to go into a place where they hand out the gas masks for the kids. And it`s shocking.

They hand out gas masks and epinephrine for -- you know, for infants all the way up. And you`ll se it. It`s in English, it`s in Hebrew, and it`s in Arabic.

VOIGHT: Yes.

BECK: It doesn`t matter what your nationality is. It doesn`t matter what language you speak. They`re trying to help everybody.

Jon, I hate to say it, but we`ve got to run. Good to talk to you.

VOIGHT: Well, it`s good to see you briefly.

BECK: All right. Thank you.

Coming up next, a man who`s facing criminal prosecution just for protecting his property. You`re not going to believe this one. Blood will shoot out of your eyes. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, imagine you`re a small business owner who`s been robbed four times. You`ve lost thousands of dollars. You think it might be one of your employees who`s robbing you blind.

So you decide you`re going to stake out your own business with a shotgun by your side for your own protection, hoping to catch the thief in the act. Not really something I would do, but hey, it`s a free country.

Well, your worst fears are realized when you catch a senior employee going for robbery number five. A guy you trusted and gave a break to.

You order him to freeze. But he takes off. You shoot up in the air two times. Then you fire twice more at the getaway car.

You pump that gun, and you shoot at the tires. Two times. They pick up the bad guy, but then they come back and they arrest you.

That is exactly what happened to one Boston businessman who`s now facing gun charges for trying to protect himself and his business. Even worse, prosecutors say they may be forced to drop the case against the thief. This isn`t disregard for the Second Amendment. This is an insult to plain common sense.

Michael Bergeron, he is the attorney for David Crest, the man who was trying to defend himself against another robbery.

Michael, like I said in the monologue here, I wouldn`t have done this. Why did he? Why did he not, you know, get a video camera and call 911?

MICHAEL BERGERON, ATTORNEY FOR DAVID CREST: Well, frankly, he was frustrated with the events over the past six months. He does have a lawful -- a license to carry his firearm. And he did report the first two incidents in October of `07 and February of `08, after which no suspect had been found. He was acting on his own suspicions, and thought he would be able to at least confront the intruder that night.

BECK: OK. Again, you know, you can have a concealed weapons permit, and God bless you for carrying a gun, and you have a right to defend yourself and your property. He never fired at this robber, who turned out to be somebody he gave a break to, right?

BERGERON: That`s correct. He never fired at him. There were two warning shots fired to the side after they were out the exterior door of the building.

And then as the car, which was about three feet from him, as the car was leaving with his property in the back, he fired at the two front tires before the car exited. He didn`t pursue the car or shoot at the car or Mr. O`Connor after that.

BECK: And then when the cops came they actually told him, "Good job"?

BERGERON: That`s correct. They were actually thanking him. The local police officers were actually thanking him at the scene that night.

And David was not arrested that night. It wasn`t until the next morning, where information was being presented to him, that the police chief was thinking about taking charges out against David.

BECK: OK. And what are the charges, and how long could he serve?

BERGERON: There`s two charges, assault with a dangerous weapon, which carries up to five years in state prison, it`s considered a felony here in Massachusetts. And then the second charge is discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. That carries up to 90 days in the house of correction and a $100 fine. The assault with a dangerous weapon, the victim in that case is Mr. O`Connor.

BECK: OK. And that`s the burglar?

BERGERON: Yes.

BECK: OK. Now, your client may not be able to testify against the guy who was robbing him because he`d have to testify against himself.

BERGERON: That`s correct. Mr. O`Connor, coincidentally, is scheduled for a pretrial conference on the date of David`s arraignment this Wednesday in Hingham District Court. I imagine the attorney for Mr. O`Connor is going to send that case to the trial session.

That being said, my client would be forced to invoke his Fifth Amendment right, as he would be offering testimony against himself and unable to testify against Mr. O`Connor. As a result of that, Mr. O`Connor is presently at the house of corrections being held on bail. It would be...

BECK: So there`s a possibility that the owner that was robbed may end up in jail and the guy who was doing the robbing walks away.

BERGERON: In theory, that`s correct. With a lack of -- David has no record. So he won`t be going to jail on this case. In fact, it`s a very triable (ph) case. I would have no problem defending him at trial. But in theory you`re correct.

BECK: OK. Michael, thanks a lot. We`ll follow the case.

Now, coming up, if we left our entertainment choices up to critics, oh, there would be nothing to watch, trust me. Summer at the movies, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Even with all that global warming out there, I`m told that it`s getting kind of close to summer. Despite the fact that it struggled across 55 degrees in mid-May here in Manhattan. But summer means summer movies.

"Iron Man" was the first blockbuster of the summer, making over $220 million so far. But it was a sequel to the "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" that won the weekend box office with $57 million just this weekend. It`s time at the top could be short-lived, though.

Thursday brings the first "Indiana Jones" movie since the first year the president`s dad was in office. You might think that it`s an odd choice to bring back "Indiana Jones" with Harrison Ford pushing 70 now. Can you believe that? But let me give you a number that will change your mind.

The previous episode, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," made an inflation-adjusted $820 million worldwide. That`s enough to run away from a giant boulder, even if you have to do it with a walker.

Next week brings the return of those lovable and slutty New Yorkers from "Sex and the City." I like to think of this one exactly in between "The Golden Girls" and hardcore porn. But despite that, it has a lot of hype surrounding it.

"Time Out," a New York-based magazine, is so sick of the hype they actually released a "Sex and the City" hype-free issue. It comes out May 30th.

June 13th brings us "The Incredible Hulk" again. Remember in 2003 there was this big screen version of "The Hulk"? It was so horrible, the studio I think is just basically hoping that we`ve all forgotten it even existed.

It replaced all of the actors, seemingly tripled the amount of computer-generated Hulk effects, which is I think what was missing last time. I don`t think you`re really going to see "Citizen Kane" here, but at least it`s literally impossible for it to be worse than the last one.

Finally, June 20th brings us "Get Smart." A big moment for Steve Carell. He`s the brilliant one in "The Office." And he scored huge hits with "40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Little Miss Sunshine."

But he needs to bounce back to prove that he`s a real big box office draw. His last effort was "Evan Almighty," $175 million disaster. Kind of a little like the Clinton campaign. I`m just saying.

For more commentary on the news of the day, sign up for my free e-mail newsletter. It comes in your mailbox absolutely free every day. You just sign up, front page of glennbeck.com.

From New York, good night America.

END