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Glenn Beck

Obama Ad Accuses McCain-Palin of Lying; Fallout from Fannie and Freddie Bailout; Will Congress Finally Act on Energy?

Aired September 09, 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 opens fire on Palin. Does he know she`s not running for the presidency? And for that matter, neither is George W. Bush?

Plus, one CEO says the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac makes the U.S., quote, "more communist than China." You know who his partner used to be? George Soros.

And then a new report debunks some of the sleazy rumors about Sarah Palin. We`ll talk to her biographer and separate the truth from fiction. And we`ll run video of her giving speeches and stuff. Man, she`s hot.

All this, and more, tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Hello, America. And welcome to the program. My name is Glenn Beck, and I just want to set myself apart from Keith Olbermann. This is an opinion show. And what`s more, I`m a conservative.

Now, this was supposed to be a new kind of election, wasn`t it? We were supposed to have, you know, the -- all kinds of new stuff. We`re going to cut through all the divisiveness.

We have our first major party African-American presidential nominee. The strongest female vice-presidential nominee in our nation`s history. So I`ve got to ask: why does it seem like the same old political crap that, you know, we always hear? Here`s "The Point" tonight.

This campaign once again has evolved into lies, smears and desperation. Both sides should have a guilty conscience. But now one campaign has reached a new low by calling their opponents a liar. And here`s how I got there.

Last weekend, Barack Obama said this to ABC`s George Stephanopoulos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: It`s the same thing about questioning your faith.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What was the first thing the McCain campaign went out and did? They said, "Look, these liberal blogs that support Obama are out there attacking Governor Palin." Let`s not play games.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. All right. Let me ask you this, Barack. I mean, we`re all tired of the name game, you know, and the calling each other names and everything else. Why are you now running this new ad?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They call themselves mavericks. Whoa. The truth is, they`re anything but. Politicians lying about their records. You don`t call that maverick. You call it more of the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Yes, you heard it right. Barack Obama is now taking the high- minded "liar, liar, pants on fire" approach, which I believe they still teach at Harvard.

Ask any lawyer and they`ll tell you, it`s the worst mistake you can possibly make, is calling the other side a liar. You can take the jury, and you can point them in that direction, but the jury wants to make up their own minds. It works in politics, I believe, as well.

So America, here`s what you need to know tonight. Those desperate tactics show that Obama is worried, especially when you consider how much time and energy the Democratic presidential candidate is spending going after the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Why? The gender gap that has always plagued Republicans is gone. It`s a new poll out today.

Plus, isn`t attacking, you know, Palin supposed to be Joe Biden`s dirty work? Where the hell is he? Is he on Amtrak again? I love this train. No, I really do.

If the Dems are getting this bad in September, the only October surprise will be that any of us will still be listening to them in October.

Mary Matalin is a Republican strategist and former White House adviser.

Mary, that ad actually was talking a little bit about, you know, the Bridge to Nowhere, how -- how Palin supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere. Do you know the facts on -- do you know the facts on Obama and Biden on the Bridge to Nowhere?

MARY MATALIN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: They voted for the Bridge to Nowhere.

BECK: Yes.

MATALIN: And she stopped the Bridge to Nowhere. You know those facts.

BECK: Yes.

MATALIN: And if we want to see who was for what before they were against it, he was against tax increases. I mean, now he`s changed his position on taxes. He`s changed his position on Iran. He`s changed his position on the surge. He`s changed his position. He was against, or for many substantive issues before he was now where he is. So he needs to be careful on that.

BECK: Right.

MATALIN: The matter is, as she said today -- and didn`t you love this when all the cameras cut away from his presentation to her, just introducing John McCain? And she said today, he, Obama, requested $1 billion in earmarks. Those two voted for the Bridge to Nowhere. And she has cut millions and millions and millions of dollars when she was governor.

BECK: Here`s the other part of the Bridge to Nowhere thing that Obama and Biden wouldn`t like you to remember. There was a -- there was a second opportunity on the Bridge to Nowhere for those in Washington. Senator Tom Coburn introduced a bill and he said, "How about we take the funds from the Bridge to Nowhere and cut it and redirect those funds to Katrina victims?" And both Obama and -- and Biden voted no.

MATALIN: We`re very familiar with that down here in New Orleans.

BECK: I love that. OK. Why do you suppose that Obama is going after her? I mean, that should be Joe Biden`s job. Have you ever seen a presidential candidate go after a vice-presidential candidate like this?

MATALIN: No. Glenn, and you`re right; you`re a good strategist. That`s the worst possible position you want to be in, in the sprinter, because here`s what`s happened. They both got movement off their conventions, but John McCain got what we used to call the big mo. He got momentum. He`s transformed this entire race. You`ve heard all the cliches about it, but the fact is as you sensed in your monologue, he changed core constituencies, women, by 20 points. The core narrative. Obama is just politics as usual.

And he changed the geography of the whole thing. She`s getting industrial states. She`s going to get western states for him. And most importantly, people like you and me, Glenn, who were skeptics on this, can now be enthusiastic conservatives for this race.

BECK: Yes. Let me -- let me ask you this, on a strategy thing. A friend of mine and I were talking yesterday about Barack Obama and the way he is changing his position like on taxes, et cetera, et cetera. If you were advising him, isn`t that one of the worst things he can start doing now is to change his positions on things? If you`re coming down on the polls, shouldn`t you remain strong and true to yourself?

MATALIN: Yes. What they -- what happened here is they`re a one-trick pony. They only had -- they had no Plan B. They had no act two. They totally predicated their victory on Bush bashing, which as you`ve noted, people vote forward, not backwards in races. And they`re sick of it.

Or the same position on Iraq. People now believe the surge has worked. And they`re -- they are attributing a credit of that to McCain, who was early for the surge.

They predicated their large issue on global warming, which has now turned into drill, baby, drill. People want to use our own resources that we have here. So their issues have flipped. Their narrative has flipped, and they`re off their game, which is not a position you want to be in with 54 days remaining.

BECK: Right. Barack -- Barack said over the weekend that he -- he would delay rescinding President Bush`s tax cuts on the wealthy if the economy is in trouble or in a recession.

Please help me justify in my own head, how, if you`ve been preaching, like all the liberals have, that tax cuts on the -- or tax increases on the wealthy do not hurt the economy, that it doesn`t slow down job creation? How could you possibly now make that case and the case that, if the economy`s in recession, I can`t give a tax increase to the rich?

MATALIN: Your question, help you understand it? I cannot even begin to explain it, except to say that, if he`s now stopped talking to those lefty primary voters, and he`s talking to real people, who create real wealth, who provide real jobs, who are the backbone of this country, they know that they are not rich, that they cannot buy more or hire more or expand their businesses if they get a tax increase.

So maybe he`s listening to those people. Or maybe he`s listening to you.

BECK: You know, I know that you`re -- you know, you`re a Republican and everything else. And I -- you know, I don`t mean to insult you here, because I mean, I always think you`re telling me what you really believe.

But can you be as unvarnished as you can? Have you ever seen anything as perplexing as his positions and how they are constantly fluid? And yet somehow or another, nobody really seems to notice that.

MATALIN: Well, can I just say at the outset, I am a Republican, because the Republican Party has been the vehicle for putting in place conservative policies. But I`m a constitutionalist. I`m a federalist. I`m a conservative first, as are you, and I go with the candidates who best -- can best get that put into practice and into policies.

But what I have seen over the past 30 years -- I`m not media bashing, this is what it is -- Obama was supposed to be -- and is -- the candidate of the media. So -- and they also like Joe Biden. I like Joe Biden. You and I have had this conversation. But they`re going to let him slide, both of those guys slide on everything, while they`re in a complete and utter hair-on-fire feeding frenzy, the likes of which we have never seen in modern politics.

BECK: OK.

MATALIN: And it`s backfired on them. I`m not being a partisan to say that.

BECK: Right.

MATALIN: That`s just quantifiable.

BECK: Let me ask you this. Is it -- is it wrong of me to point out that today they were talking about Joe Biden`s policy of dividing up Iraq into three sections on race and religion. Is it wrong of me to point out that the running mate of the man who`s the first African-American seems to be into segregation, enforced segregation?

MATALIN: Well, they`ve got -- they`ve got two arguments here. One is experience and one is judgment. The judgment of the guy who was supposed to have buttressed the lack of experience for the top of the ticket is a clear display of bad judgment: "The surge isn`t going to work. We`ve got to partition the country." The surge has worked. And no, they don`t want to be separated. The Iraqis want to be Iraqis, one country.

BECK: The leadership in Iraq said that this was not only bad news for Iraq, this would be a disaster for the region. And I thought, that`s not a good thing for Barack Obama.

MATALIN: Well, that`s their foreign policy judgment. That was supposed to prop up the top of the ticket.

BECK: OK. Thanks a lot, Mary. We`ll talk to you again.

MATALIN: Love you, Glenn.

BECK: Love you, too.

All right. Do you have one of those pinhead friends that, you know, they`re always telling you -- you`re going to be at a party before the election, and you`re going to say, "Hey, gee, Glenn, you know, Barack Obama, he`s just better because of" -- whatever. Get the arguments against the idiots. You can do that by signing up for my free e-mail newsletter at GlennBeck.com.

Coming up, we have the latest on is America actually turning into communist China? One corporate CEO says, absolutely, it`s true. Coming up in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Coming up, dirty tactics and vicious attacks have been part of our American political scene forever. But the way our media has treated Sarah Palin is unprecedented. Tonight no more lies, no more rumors. "The Real Story" on Sarah Palin, coming up.

But first, if your doctor came to you and said, "You need a quadruple bypass, you know what I mean, otherwise you`re going to die," at that point you really don`t have much of a choice. You better go and get the surgery.

Then afterwards you realize, you know what, that 20,000-calorie, you know, Michael Phelps diet doesn`t really work so well for me, because I don`t swim. You know, so then you have to make a choice: am I going to die or am I going to start exercising and eating right? Me, I pull the "die" option.

Well, the recent bailout of Fannie and Freddie by our government is the same thing. You know, I hate to say it, but at this point, survival of our entire financial system is on the line. We really didn`t have any choice.

But now that the operation is over, are we going to smarten up, change our ways and set an example by putting those people responsible -- oh, I don`t know -- maybe in front of a jury? Or are we just going to give more taxpayer money to the automakers and the airlines and the energy companies, and then act shocked -- what? -- when they all have to be nationalized in the next five years?

Jonathan Koppell, he is a professor at the Yale School of Management.

Jon, George Soros` partner said yesterday that we are now more communist than China is. Agree or disagree?

JONATHAN KOPPELL, PROFESSOR, YALE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: Hi, Glenn. Thank you for having me.

BECK: Sure.

KOPPELL: I think that might be a little bit hysterical as a reaction to the Fannie and Freddie story.

BECK: Well, here`s the thing, Jon. I mean, and it`s not because of the Fannie and Freddie, but it`s, when is this going to stop? I mean, it`s almost like we`re on the -- you know, on the verge of saying, "I don`t know. fascism seems pretty good."

KOPPELL: Well, fascism, I don`t know if we`re talking about that. But what we`re definitely talking about is some socialization of risk. And I think that the Fannie and Freddie situation is -- is unique. These are unique companies and there are special connections between them and the federal government.

But if you look at the Bear Stearns situation -- and now people are talking about Lehman Brothers in the same way -- those are private companies that made some bad choices. And the idea that they`re, quote unquote, "too big to fail" doesn`t seem consistent with the way that the market is supposed to work, at least how I understood it.

BECK: Well, wait a minute. I mean, can`t we make the case for Ben and Jerry`s, that in the hot summer months, you know, ice cream is too important to melt? Why not pay for the refrigeration for Ben and Jerry`s in the summer months?

I mean, everything could be too big, or too important, or now is too critical at a time. How do we -- how do we turn this corner to not start nationalizing our airlines? Not taking on the big three autoworkers -- auto plants?

KOPPELL: I think what you just were getting at is right. Everything is -- everything is too something. So the question is, are we willing to - - are we willing to bite the bullet and let these big companies die? And the answer -- the answer thus far seems to be no.

And it`s interesting, if you think about it, why? Because nobody wants to be the treasury secretary or the Fed chairman when the economy, you know, goes into an Armageddon, right? So everybody talks a good game. But then when -- when they`re the one facing Russian roulette, they say, "Oh, we`ve got to bail them out."

BECK: OK. But doesn`t this make -- I mean, look, if I -- you know, in some ways painkillers are bad for you, because they`re covering the pain. And if you don`t know what the problem is, you need to have the pain. Right now we`re covering the pain.

We`re not letting any -- you show me the hearings that are happening with the people at Fannie and Freddie. You show me the people who are responsible for this. There`s no Enron action happening here. The only way we`re going to fix this is if people feel pain, and that is either through financial pain, or through jail pain.

KOPPELL: Yes.

BECK: We`re not getting either of those.

KOPPELL: It`s actually -- I actually argue it`s worse than that, which is it`s not only that we`re not feeling the pain. It`s that by making sure that we won`t feel the pain, we`re actually encouraging them to do the very same things that got them into trouble this time.

All right, well, we`ve got a problem of moral hazard, which is if I say, "Don`t worry, buddy. No matter what you do, we`re going to bail you out," I`m basically encouraging you to take more and more risks. And that`s what we`re doing. That`s what we`re saying: take more risks.

BECK: Let me ask you this. This is the old-boy network. This is a golden -- Fannie and Freddie are golden parachutes for the government. All -- they`re all cronies who have been in former administrations and friends of congressmen and everything else. This is all the old-boy network.

The other side of that is, a lot of foreign governments were holding some of this money. And we couldn`t let them -- we couldn`t let these things fail because then those foreign governments would look at us as -- as a bad risk.

I mean, this is the kind of change America is looking for, to stop this kind of bull crap. How do we do it?

KOPPELL: Well, first of all, you`re 100 percent right, which is why Fannie and Freddie are so special. If we were to let them fail, it would be not only an economic crisis but an international political crisis for the reasons you just said.

And so looking forward to the future, one has to say, look, no matter what we do, we can`t have this kind of ambiguity regarding these institutions. Are they government? Are they private? That`s the -- that`s the real source of the problem here.

BECK: And -- and they haven`t solved this time.

KOPPELL: No.

BECK: They`re waiting for the next Congress and the next president to solve it, right?

KOPPELL: Well, I think that`s -- I think that`s right. And one might argue that maybe they should. But clearly, the current -- the current, you know, fix is not a long-term fix. We`ve got to figure out how we`re going to deal with this.

BECK: Jonathan, thank you very much.

Now coming up, since the majority of the American public is overwhelming in -- overwhelmingly in favor of offshore drilling, doesn`t it make sense that Senator -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is saying that Democrats have several opportunities to vote on such an action? Yes. But it`s an election year, so is anything actually going to get done? We`ll tell you about it, coming up.

And no matter how hard they try, those crazy liberals just can`t make those Sarah Palin rumors stick. We`ll sort through the latest round of fact or fiction in tonight`s "Real Story."

And don`t forget, sign up for my magazine, "Fusion" magazine, for our scariest issue ever. There it is, the most controversial cover we`ve ever done, "Messiah or Mussolini." Obama. Yes.

We also have, if you order right now, the exclusive interview with Nacho Ramos. It is his jailhouse interview. You can get it now by signing up at GlennBeck.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Drill, baby drill. That was the mantra from the Republican National Convention. And now that Congress is finally back to work, the Republicans, many who didn`t go on vacation, want to vote to get some increased offshore drilling action.

Senator majority leader Harry Reid said the Democrats are, quote, "offering Republicans multiple opportunities to vote for increased drilling."

Over at the House today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rolled out the Democrats` energy plan. Let`s talk about that now with Republican Congressman John Peterson from Pennsylvania.

Hello, Congressman, how are you, sir?

REP. JOHN PETERSON (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I`m fine. Thanks, Glenn, for your good work on this issue.

BECK: You bet. Tell me about the Pelosi plan and the -- and the difference here. It just seems like a setup coming from somebody who has absolutely no desire to drill. Now all of a sudden, you know what? We should drill.

PETERSON: Well, they`re talking about it but with no specifics. What`s alarming is my Democrat friends who have historically, and who want to support production today, know nothing about what`s coming down. The Republicans have not been invited to the table. The rank-and-file Democrats don`t know. So this is another top-down Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi plan that we hope will be meaningful. But we have no way of knowing.

BECK: Right. And you put together how many -- you have 130 co- sponsors now?

PETERSON: I think we`re approaching 140. We`re going to -- we`re going to grow that a lot this week. That`s my charge this week, is to get a lot more sponsors. We have 70-some people who have supported this in the past who are not on the bill.

BECK: OK. There are -- in case you don`t know who Congressman Peterson is, you and your partner from Hawaii have put together this bill, and you didn`t allow lobbyists in the room?

PETERSON: That`s right.

BECK: You didn`t allow anybody in the room that had the same old, same old?

PETERSON: That`s right. No lobbyists, no leadership staff, no power brokers. It was just 23 members of Congress -- 11 Democrats, 12 Republicans -- and we hammered out a bill. And it`s a good bill.

BECK: You know, I`ve read the bill. There`s a couple of things in this that I wouldn`t like, but I wouldn`t expect, you know -- I wouldn`t expect...

PETERSON: It`s a compromise. It`s a compromise.

BECK: I wouldn`t expect to have everything I want.

PETERSON: We`ve got 90 good, 10 bad.

BECK: OK. Tell me -- tell me why people who want offshore drilling wouldn`t just let the ban now elapse. We`re, what, 25 days away from all of these bans elapsing? Why not just let them elapse?

PETERSON: Well, that would be -- that would be a wonderful victory for America. We`re going to have to watch, though, their continuing resolutions, because if they continue the ban in those resolutions and it continues.

We`re hoping that if it comes to that, that we can get enough Democrats to join us, and not support the CRs. Now, that will shut government down in general, and that`s what some people are afraid of that.

But I want to tell you, the energy issue in America should be treated just like we`re treating terror, just like we`re treating other war issues. This is a crisis for the economic viability of this country. And for us to continue to be more dependent on unstable parts of the world -- the weather, terroristic attacks and unstable countries is what`s going to determine our energy prices. We`ve got to change that. We`ve got to take charge of this, like it`s a crisis issue.

The sense of urgency still isn`t in the Senate. It still isn`t in the leadership here that it ought to be. There needs to be a sense of urgency. We have to solve it now.

BECK: Yes. Congressman, you`re 25 days from those things elapsing. Don`t do anything and compromise our future away.

PETERSON: Oh, no.

BECK: Let the damn things elapse if you have to. And if it means shutting down the government, there`s a lot of use out here in America that will come rushing to your side. We`re sick of it, sick, sick of it.

Thanks very much, Congressman.

Coming up next, Sarah Palin. We`ll separate rumor from reality in tonight`s "Real Story." It`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, welcome to "THE REAL STORY."

If you really think about it, this is just the third major election that the Internet and e-mail have been around for. And that is counting the election in 2000 when most people thought that pets.com was the future. And Google was a cute little research project.

My point is, is that the Internet has completely changed the way we live, the way we communicate, and most importantly, the way we vote. Candidates think that they can use that to their advantage by building e- mail lists and announce, I`m going to announce my candidacy on a web video. Aren`t I cool?

"THE REAL STORY" is that the Internet is kind of like P. Diddy`s brain. I think there`s some intelligent information in there someplace. But you`ve got to look a long time before you find any of it. That`s why instead of taking advantage of the Internet, the candidates now seem to be spending most of their time trying to defend themselves from the Internet.

You watch cable news, right? You`re probably pretty informed. But have you noticed how many stupid people are surrounding us? I mean, there`s so many people now that get ridiculous e-mail forward from a friend talking about, hey, Obama, he`s really a Muslim. And then they take that as fact. And then they freak out, oh, no! And then they forward it to 50 other pinheads who also take that as a fact and who are still waiting for their windfall from some distraught Nigerian businessman.

Anyway, the latest person to witness just how fast online slime can multiply is Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. You`ve probably heard most of the smears already. Trig is really her daughter`s baby. She wants Alaska to secede from the union which Alaska, I`m just saying don`t dismiss that out of hand. She also wants to ban controversial books from the library. She loves earmarks. She hates Eskimos. It goes on and on and on.

We`ll talk about how many of those are true in a minute. Here`s a hint; none of them. But in the meantime, just think how ironic it would be if Barack Obama would lose this election because of smears circulated by a technology invented by Al Gore. I`m just saying.

Vivica Novak is the deputy director of the nonpartisan Website that tries to actually correct the record of lies and distortions in the campaign; factcheck.org.

Vivica, nonpartisan; you`re not here for an opinion at all, you`re just here for the facts.

VIVICA NOVAK DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FACTCHECK.ORG: You`re right. We hope we`re here for one of the good things you can find on the Internet.

BECK: You know what, I have to tell you, I use factcheck all the time because I know I can check trust you guys.

That`s why we wanted to call you today. We wanted to get a couple of things. First of all, the thing that is going around that she banned books from the library. She fired a librarian when she couldn`t ban them. True or false?

NOVAK: Well, she did not ban any books from the library. She did raise with the librarian three times how she would react if Palin did ask her to remove some books from the library.

BECK: Any idea the context of that?

NOVAK: All three times it was simply a hypothetical. What would you do if -- one of them was during a city council meeting.

And she did fire the librarian. Although she said it was because she didn`t feel like she had the librarian`s full support. The librarian had supported actually Palin`s opponent in the previous election.

BECK: Vivica, I understand this story that she did not fire the librarian after she talked about the banning, she fired the librarian four days before and then rehired her the next day because it was a, what do you call it, it was kind of one of those things where they fire everybody and then rehire the ones they want?

NOVAK: Well, let me straighten out the chronology a second. She did ask for the resignations of the department heads when she took office. She did not accept any of them. She then had several discussions with the librarian in the ensuing couple of months about what would she do if.

And then in January, about three months later, she did fire the librarian and the police chief. And there were protests by a number of citizens of Wasilla, the town where Palin was mayor, and she rehired the librarian the next day. She never intimated it had anything to do with the librarian`s response to her questions about censorship.

BECK: Real quick because now I`m being told we only have two minutes, so real quick, creationism. She wants it taught in school?

NOVAK: She said in a debate while she was running for governor that she would like to see both taught. But then she never pursued it. When she was governor, she did not pursue it at all. And she said she didn`t see that it had to be part of the curriculum.

BECK: Cut funding for special ed?

NOVAK: That is absolutely false. The claim is that she cut funding 62 percent for special needs students. She actually tripled it over the next three years. It`s going to triple from $27,000 per student to about $74,000 per student.

BECK: She was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party which wants Alaska to secede from the Union?

NOVAK: She never was. Her husband was for seven years, until 2002. But she`s been a registered Republican since 1982.

BECK: So her husband is saying let`s keep all the oil for ourselves.

The endorsement of Pat Buchanan; she endorsed Pat Buchanan.

NOVAK: She wore a Pat Buchanan button once when he was visiting her town. But she supported Steve Forbes in that election.

BECK: Ok. Vivica, thank you for the work that you do. And really, sincerely, thank you for the work that you do. It`s hard to trust anybody anymore on what the facts are. Thank you for doing what you do at factcheck.org.

If an election were like a trial -- and I really wish they were because there`s a lot of politicians I`d like to put on trial -- one of the most important people that would be called to the witness stand would be somebody that could be a character witness.

You know, what are these people really like in private? How do they treat their friends, their family? How do they make decisions?

So, your honor, I`d like to call Kaylene Johnson, author of "Sarah - How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska`s Politics Upside Down." She joins me on the phone from Alaska. Do you have studios up in Alaska?

KAYLENE JOHNSON, AUTHOR "SARAH": Oh, sure.

BECK: Well, let`s start with this, Kaylene. Tell me who she is as a mom.

JOHNSON: Well, when you talk to Sarah Palin, you have the sense that what you see is what you get. You don`t have the sense of pretense or a sense that there`s something different about her public persona and the person she is in private. I think that was one of the things that struck me when I spoke with her.

As a mom, she`s tremendously devoted. When I spoke to her about her children, she just had such glowing things to say about each one of them as individuals and how they`re making their way and growing up in the world. That was a real pleasure. You could tell that it was a pleasure for her to talk about that.

BECK: Go ahead.

JOHNSON: I just had the sense she was a very devoted mother.

BECK: A lot of people will say that, while she can`t be that great, I mean, gosh, her daughter is pregnant now. You know, how good of a mom could she possibly be?

JOHNSON: Well, I think that those kinds of speculations are just that. They`re speculation, and every family has its challenges. And Palin`s are no different.

BECK: I read a story today, let me see if I have the headline here. What`s the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Answer, lipstick. That`s the headline today. Basically the article goes on to say, she`s just a crazy, Fundamentalist Christian.

JOHNSON: Well, I think we`re all going to enjoy hearing from her in person about that subject. When I spoke to her about her faith, she was really quite private about that. She was happy to say that yes, she was a woman of faith. That she was a Christian and she spoke about how she was baptized in the Wasilla Assembly of God church.

But beyond that, she wanted to talk about the policies and the future of Alaska. And so that was something that was -- that I didn`t have a sense that she was some sort of rabid, or fundamentalist in any way. I had a sense that she was -- it was just a way that she steers her life. And that`s through her faith.

BECK: Is your book available now nationwide?

JOHNSON: It will be this week. I believe it`s being --

BECK: Oh. I mean, you realize you arrived in like a pot of gold here, right?

JOHNSON: Well, the time has been pretty amazing.

BECK: Amazing.

JOHNSON: Yes, it has.

BECK: Real quick. Foreign policy. Does she have a clue at all on foreign policy?

JOHNSON: Well, she certainly has her homework cut out for her. But don`t underestimate her, she`s a smart woman. And one of the things her opponents have always done since the beginning was claim she was too young and too inexperienced for the job. And she stepped up to the plate pretty much every time.

BECK: Okay. Kaylene, thanks a lot.

That`s "The Real Story" tonight.

Coming up, Congressman Charles Rangel in some hot water over taxes he said, I didn`t know I had to pay that; this from the guy responsible for writing our country`s tax code. Why the media is not all over this story, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Let me give you some of my favorite oxymorons; there`s silent alarm, jumbo shrimp, and political ethics.

Been thinking about the last one lately when I think of Charlie Rangel; congressman who seems to have forgotten to pay income taxes on the income earned from his beachfront villa in the Dominican Republic. Honestly, nitpick, nitpick. Can you be positive you`ve paid your taxes on your tropical villa? Really.

Speaker Pelosi supports a new investigation by the House Ethics Committee -- another contradiction in terms -- in addition to the one that is expected to conduct into Rangel`s renting of four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem. Oh, and also he used his congressional stationery to solicit donations for an academic center that was going to be named after him.

Here`s a fun fact. Congressman Rangel is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the folks in Washington responsible for writing our tax law. Mark Hemingway is a reporter for the National Review Online.

You know what, Mark, let me ask you this question. Where the heck is the media on this story?

MARK HEMINGWAY, REPORTER, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: That`s a really good question. You know, obviously the media would probably offer up as a defense that everyone cares about the presidential campaign right now. So they`re not so much focused on Rangel even though he`s one of the most important members of Congress.

But this is an ongoing story. Remember Nancy Pelosi came in with the new Democratic Congress promising the most ethical Congress ever, were her exact words.

And yet, since then, what do we have? William Jefferson who is still in office, even though he commandeered National Guard resources in the middle of Hurricane Katrina to rescue $90,000 in cash from his freezer. We have John Murtha who`s turned his entire district into one shady recipient of federal pork.

We have, you know, the chief of staff for house majority leader Steny Hoyer, a former lobbyist known for giving large open-ended loans of tens of thousands of dollars to other congressmen. This has been going on for years now.

BECK: But see, here`s what really bothers me. Here is Congressman Rangel, a guy who`s always saying, we need to give more because the poor are so needy. And he`s taken rent stabilized apartments, and he`s rented four of them.

That`s against the law. I believe you and I would go to jail for that. He has taken four of these apartments. Then his tropical villa -- by the way, how is your tropical villa? Is it good?

MARK HEMINGWAY: Oh, yes, it`s fantastic.

BECK: And he actually has the cajones, which we should all learn, because we`ll be speaking Spanish soon, to say, my wife does the income tax thing. He`s the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and no one is talking about it.

Is this less important than Mark Foley was during the last election? Is this less important than, what`s his name, the guy who was going for gay sex in the bathroom?

HEMINGWAY: No. It`s not by a long shot. By the way, I love the fact that he uses his "my wife does my taxes." He can afford Lanny Davis as an attorney but he can`t afford an accountant, which is just preposterous.

You`re exactly right. Charles Rangel called for a $1.3 trillion tax increase last year. And here he is out here siphoning resources that were supposedly meant for the poor. You know, I just don`t know where he gets off with this. Certainly I hope that the media continues to press him on it. But so far, it`s --

BECK: The media`s not pressing him on it. What media? Really? What media is pressing him on this?

HEMINGWAY: I never credit them, but I will say this, the "New York Times" have stayed on top of this story. But other than that, there`s been totally radio silence from the national political media.

BECK: This is exactly the change we need. This is what the Republicans got in Sarah Palin in Alaska. If Barack Obama would come out and really mean it, and hold this guy`s feet to the fire, it would be the best thing he could do for his own polling numbers. Hold your own party`s feet to the fire. But they`re not going to do it. It`s going to be swept under the rug.

Mark, thanks a lot. We`ve got to go.

We`ve got to do our "Real America" brought to you by CSX.

It took 60 years for the veterans of the Second World War to get a memorial marking their service to this country. Now it`s one man`s mission to make sure that every single one of them that is left with us gets to see it in person.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EARL MORSE, FOUNDER, HONOR FLIGHT: If this nation felt it was important for these veterans to have a memorial, we feel it`s important that they actually get to come here. All the veterans we brought out here had given up all hope of ever seeing their memorial.

BECK: Earl Morse is the founder of Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization that takes World War II veterans to see their memorial in Washington, D.C.

MORSE: Do you know what an honor it is to have you out here to see your memorial?

BECK: Morse, a former Air Force pilot, started honor flights by personally flying veterans to the memorial.

MORSE: Being a private pilot, we started flying them out. We recruited about a dozen pilots and we brought them out ten planes at a time, then 12 planes at a time. We were flying 24 veterans a month. We`re getting 95 applications every month.

BECK: That was in 2005 and Honor Flight has grown quickly. Now flying veterans from 30 states, Morse uses both commercial and charter flights. And this year he expects to get 12,000 World War II veterans to their memorial.

MORSE: We will not always have the greatest generation. So there`s a very narrow window of opportunity here to make this happen. And I cannot think of a greater cause.

BECK: With 1,200 World War II veterans dying each and every day, Morse sees his mission as a race against time.

MORSE: The World War II veterans, they come out here for two reasons. Reason number one is, they want to see how this nation is going to remember their service and their accomplishments. The second reason is, because they want to know how their friends are going to be remembered.

JAMES ACHESON, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: All the friends I lost, I`ll never get to see them again. This is in honor of them.

JOHN SURPRENANP, WORL WAR II VETERAN: I think my heart skipped a beat. It was so wonderful and heart breaking because I lost so many of my friends there.

GEORGE KOLAJ, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Very emotional seeing all of this because I lost my best friend in France. That`s about all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody`s saying it`s an honor of us. But it was my honor to serve this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: The greatest generation for a reason. It`s amazing we`re losing 1,200 of them every day.

Honor Flight is supported by private donations. It doesn`t charge a single veteran for the trip. In addition to World War II vets, Morse takes Korean and Vietnam vets with terminal illnesses to their memorials.

If you`d like to see more stories like this one go to cnn.com/glenn and look for our "Real America" section.

Tonight`s "Real America" is sponsored by CSX; it`s how tomorrow moves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: As we enter the election home stretch and into the holidays, I have a quick programming note for you. In the next 55 days, we`ll continue to cover the election with the 14th best political team on television. And that is a promise to you.

Actually, I`m hyping that a little bit. We just fell behind HGTV`s coverage which I think was ahead of the Food Network for the time being.

Afterwards, as we approach the holidays, I have written a new book. It`s called "The Christmas Sweater." It is released or drops as the kids say nowadays in mid-November. It is something very different than what many of you expect from me, because there just hasn`t been time in a TV setting to cover what`s going on in the world, explore what`s really important and what`s not in politics. It is family, spirituality and redemption.

I have had my good and bad moments throughout my whole life, and this book is about my own personal childhood story fictionalized -- at least a little -- it`s about the last Christmas with my mother.

It will be my very first fiction book ever and believe me, the bookstores could care less that we`ve had the nonfiction book. They don`t believe for a second that I`ll sell more than seven copies of "The Christmas Sweater." And you know something? They may be right.

And I`ll be going up against best-selling fiction author, Stephen King. He`s the guy who called me Satan`s mentally challenged younger brother. Yes, it`s me Stephen.

But regardless, it is a message that brought me through the toughest times of my life and I want to share it with you. Whether you like it or not, Stephen, it`s coming.

I`ll be traveling all over America, even to a lot of small towns where people are just to busy clinging to God and their guns to bother coming to a book signing. But I would love to meet you. We`ll have details on that very soon.

Bur for now, you can go to glennbeck.com and preorder your copy of "The Christmas Sweater." I`m autographing all of the pre-ordered copies and it`s also available in a really classy leather gift box. It will make a great gift. I mean, the book, but the box is really nice.

Also, for the pre-order copies only, and I have arranged for the book company, if you order two, we are going to send one copy free of charge to a soldier and their family on your behalf. They`ll have it in plenty of time for Christmas, plus you`ll get two autographed copies.

You can get the details now by going to glennbeck.com. It`s a great story I would love to share it with you. "The Christmas Sweater" at glennbeck.com

From Los Angeles, good night, America.

END