GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

GLENN: From Radio City in Midtown Manhattan, this is the third most listened to show in all of America. I am so glad that you have tuned in today. My name is Glenn Beck. We have Ann Coulter with us. Ann is the author of many books, one of them, the latest is If Democrats Had Any Brains, They Would Be Republicans, and, let me start here. Do you think maybe the subtitle should be, if Republicans had any brains, they would be conservatives?

COULTER: Yes, not bad.

GLENN: I mean, I don't know. You know, jeez. As much as I love to -- as much as I love to bash the left and as easy as it is, I think quite honestly we need to start bashing the Republicans a little bit because I don't think they've learned their lesson.

COULTER: No, I know, I know. My contempt and hatred for moderate Republicans goes way back but, you know, that's part of the point of Chapter 1, to have these guys buck up a little. I think a lot of them are still living in 1973 when the mainstream media could casually destroy reputations up to and through actually Judge Bork. This used to be just a sport for the mainstream media. They have certainly tried to do so with me, but that's why I go through ten years of my allegedly career-ending statements and even if Washington politicians currently there can't learn, perhaps some young right wingers will. It's not the world it used to be. There are a lot of other outlets, and if you haven't said anything wrong, it's going to resonate with the American people. They will be able to find out what you really said and not the twisted version of what you said. And as Ronald Reagan said, you can always trust the American people.

GLENN: Yeah, but you know what, Ann? I'm not so sure we even see the truth the same anymore. I think you're right, and I want to believe in those things that people will go out and seek them out, but I don't think so. I think there is -- I think people are starting to split so much, and it's being done intentionally by these parties, both sides, intentionally pushing us to the fringes that we no longer, we don't know who to trust. And so we go to these -- we go to these places that are on the far edges and we don't believe the good in the other side.

COULTER: There's something to that, but it is certainly striking to me how people, and lots of people, not just you and me who -- you know, people who really want to know if we're quoting someone accurately. You know, the nut websites get discredited and don't have many viewers pretty quickly and, in fact --

GLENN: Well, I mean, let's go here. Moveon.org. Moveon.org, they increased their numbers for fundraising, et cetera, et cetera, when they went after General Petraeus.

COULTER: Yes, well, that's sort of the theme of the title here. There is a segment that you cannot get through to, the truth does not matter, and in fact, I mean, the thing with the General Petraeus ad is it's not the words that were used. I have a chapter on the language police. It's not a particular word, I think, that a general has betrayed us. I think General Petraeus is man enough to take that. What is offensive is the substance of it. There is a percentage of Americans who root against this their own country, something I wrote about in Treason. Most Americans are just baffled by this how people could hate their own country. Well, this is now manifested in moveon.org. General Petraeus is betraying them because they're rooting for the other side.

GLENN: Well, you know what, Ann? I mean, you couldn't have brought this up on a better day. Today there was a new poll out that shows 19% of Democrats have answered this question. Stu, do you happen to have that question handy? Do you have the exact wording of the question? They've answered this question, and I don't want to screw it up because, you know, people are calling up saying, oh, I'd like to see how it's worded. This is how this question is worded. Listen carefully.

STU: Do you personally think the world would be better off if the United States loses the war in Iraq.

GLENN: 19% of Democrats answer that question yes. Now, here's my theory, Ann. There is always a segment of the population, and I talked about it five years ago, that it's about 11% of the population that are anarchists that are, you know, just hate America, that they are the workers world party and, you know, international answer freaks and everything else.

COULTER: Right.

GLENN: But that's happened is they have -- and I believe it's because the Democrats thought they were using these people for fuel.

COULTER: Yes.

GLENN: But it's the other way around.

COULTER: Yes.

GLENN: They have infiltrated the Democratic party.

COULTER: Yes, I think you are exactly right. They have this band of lunatics in order to attack Republicans and they don't realize that their moveon.org Looneys in the orange hats, you know, Howard Dean supporters are not just going to be loyal border guards for the Democratic party and the New York Times editorial page. Those, the Nazi block watchers are coming back and attacking the Democrats now if they're not crazy enough.

GLENN: So how do you get -- I mean, because my, my family, they were Democrats. My father wasn't, my mother wasn't but my grandparents were. They were Democrats. But they were --

COULTER: They were a principal party back then.

GLENN: Yes, they were. And I remember my grandfather, he wouldn't vote for Reagan because he was like, oh, all Republicans are evil. I'm like, grandpa, Reagan is different. The parties have changed.

COULTER: Right.

GLENN: How do you get those Republicans -- those Democrats who are right-thinking, love the country, don't want to see it fail, we disagree on policies but not principles. How do you get those people to wake up and see they have been hijacked by socialists?

COULTER: Yes, yes. No, that's an incredibly important question and you see it all the time. You see it with an entire race. With blacks, the Democrats do not support their interests. I mean, if they realized what the Democratic party was up to half the time, they would flee the building. Blacks are not promoted by Democrats. If they nominate, you know, Obama, that could be their one shot of putting a black in importance in a Democratic administration because they don't appoint blacks to important positions but see George Bush who appointed the first black Secretary of State and then the first female black Secretary of State, his closest advisor. And meanwhile the closest, the closest black woman to Bill Clinton was Betty Curry, you know, pencilling in of Monica Lewinsky on Clinton's camp calendar.

GLENN: I don't believe Donna Shalala does -- I believe she was black. Hello?

COULTER: Hello?

GLENN: I believe, wasn't Donna Shalala black? And still remains black?

COULTER: Okay, fine. Ruin my joke.

GLENN: No, that was a great joke and everything but I just wanted to point out. All right, let me --

COULTER: She was the first black female Secretary of State. No, but this -- I mean, there is -- I mean, I see it with people all the time and I've asked them why do you keep voting for this party that's against you, or why did it take you so long to become a Republican and they've all told me it's part of your identity. It would be like waking up one day and instead of being a man, you are a woman. Instead of going to, you know, Princeton, you went to Rutgers. Instead of living in New York, you live in Boise. It's just, it's so much a part of your identity. But the Democratic party is kind of getting crazy enough that you do see these transformations. You do see people moving. I think Bill Clinton had a lot to do with a lot of Democrats leaving the Democratic party, one of the most prominent examples being Pat Gudell who ran George McGovern's campaign, got that Jimmy Carter elected and was totally appalled by Bill Clinton and the fact they was defending Bill Clinton. The Florida election and the tantrum about the Florida election. 9/11, again the most prominent example and again there are many others, is Dennis Miller. I think the Duke lacrosse case got people questioning the Democratic party, though it wasn't specifically Democratic but this nut prosecutor was being defended by a liberal mainstream media.

I don't see any examples like that of people leaving the Republican party other than people who lie and call into radio stations and claim to have been a lifelong Republican who just left because, I don't know, bush cut taxes or something.

GLENN: Well, gee, hmmm. Then I guess I'd be a liar because I voted for a Republican almost my whole life and I gotta tell ya I'm not voting for a Democrat. I don't know who I'm going to vote for. I don't think these guys --

COULTER: Maybe you don't get these calls, but I hear them on radio all the time where someone calls in and claims to be a lifelong Republican appalled by something that is, you know, the essence of the Republican party.

GLENN: Right. Yeah, no, no, no, but I haven't seen the essence of the Republican party in quite some time. You've got a Republican party. I mean, you know, for George Bush to come out and say that, you know, he's for fiscal responsibility now is laughable.

COULTER: You are not going to get a disagreement from me on that.

GLENN: So tell me, if you want to vote and you want to be excited and you want to go out and vote for a conservative and you want to say, okay, I want to trust the Republican party, unless they step to the plate and say, whew, am I a spending alcoholic and I'm powerless over my spending, so --

COULTER: Right, right.

GLENN: How do you do it? Where is the Republican party that I and Ronald Reagan would want to vote for?

COULTER: There are some. I mean, the adage is there are a lot of bad Republicans; there are no good Democrats. And I think, you know, it's up to people like you and me to make the environment more favorable. For one thing, for the weak Republicans not being weak and for the strong Republicans to emerge. As, for example, by getting rid of campaign finance reform. I mean, I was looking at, you know, our field -- actually both fields of presidential candidates and thinking this is not a stellar lineup. There are some I like. And I think part of the reason of that is it's so difficult to collect the money to run for office. You have to go to 17 rubber chicken dinners per day. So unless you are already independently wealthy -- and that's really limiting the pool of people you are choosing from, or you have some sort of psychotic personality and enjoy going to 17 rubber chicken dinners per day to raise money in these little checks. But if you look back, if you take it in the reverse direction, how did we get someone like Ronald Reagan? Well, but he first ran for governor of California, you know, three or four rich guys, millionaires, and that used to be rich, got behind them and said, this guy's fantastic; let's make him governor. And they supported his campaign, they made him governor. Once he was governor of California, yes, campaign finance restrictions existed but it didn't really matter anymore. He was governor. He was already sitting in a prime position to run for President. Now it's very hard for the top talent to run for President.

GLENN: Well, they have even made it worse now by collapsing the primary season down so far. Unless you have a big name, unless you have lots of money, how are you going to win?

COULTER: Yes, yes.

GLENN: I mean, it's -- who are you supporting at this time? Who do you think, that's probably the person?

COULTER: That's probably the person or who's my ideal candidate? My ideal candidate is --

GLENN: No, who is the person you see out there, who is the person that you see out there that you say, that person, I hope that person wins?

COULTER: Duncan Hunter would be my ideal candidate but he is coming from a small pond. He reminds me of Pete DuPont this way. Another presidential candidate I absolutely adored but he was governor of a teeny, tiny little state, Delaware, and he could never really get off the ground because he was coming from a small pond. It wasn't like being governor of California. I think the Republicans, we have a choice between Rudy Giuliani and Romney, and with Giuliani struggling to get to the right of Hillary on the social issues, I certainly have a preference there.

GLENN: Yeah. So tell me what you think of Ron Paul.

COULTER: Well, I love him on domestic policy but his Neville Chamberlain foreign policy has me a little scared.

GLENN: It's a nightmare. It's nightmare. Are you amazed -- we talked about this yesterday. $5 million he's raised and I think that's just discontent. I think that's people saying, I just can't vote for a damn Republican.

COULTER: Yeah, I think it's a little bit of the Howard Dean effect. There's just something sort of whacky enough about him -- and I love him on domestic policy, but it's terrifying what he says about foreign policy, at least right now. And by the way, I'd be with him on foreign policy, or at least a lot of it, but for 9/11.

GLENN: Yeah.

COULTER: I was with Pat Buchanan on foreign policy until 9/11. But you do have that sort of colt status of some of these candidates.

GLENN: When do you think we're going to start listening to France? All the left, the left keeps telling us, for years they've told us, listen to France, listen to France, listen to France. I'm willing to listen to France now. This he seem to get it.

COULTER: Yes, yes. We may end up in the odd situation of, you know, Democrat being elected President and Republicans leaving for France.

GLENN: That would be -- that would be wild. I think we're 1976, Ann. I think what's going to happen is we are going to -- the Republican party is in the same kind of condition that it was in Nixon, or it's just lost its soul, lost its way, doesn't know what to do because it just hasn't been returned to its real core yet. Hillary Clinton is a frickin' juggernaut that makes blood shoot out of my eyes, and the Democrats are just so hungry to win, they will listen to socialists. I've never seen a time, never seen a time where you can't get people -- you know energy is a problem and the big solution is to conserve and higher taxes, except for 1976.

COULTER: Right.

GLENN: I've never seen a time where taxes are talked about openly and the sheep that are the American people are saying, yeah, that's -- yeah, we probably have to do that. And nobody's talking about foreign policy. I think we're -- you know, and maybe Romney is Reagan 1976. I don't know. But I think we're headed towards the time here where we're going to get four years of Hillary Clinton and nightmares.

COULTER: Okay, I'm going to hit my snooze button for five years. I'm actually not as pessimistic as you are. I get a little pessimistic about our candidates and then I look at their candidates. I don't think I'd want to be running Hillary Clinton. And apparently the Democrats aren't, either, which is why they are all grasping on to this 14-year-old, B. Hussein Obama. The accomplishment which was being born half black, what else does this guy have going for him? He has even less going for him, less of a record, less experience than John Edwards.

GLENN: I think what America sees in him is -- I mean, his policy is all screwed up, but what America sees in him is someone not part of the system. Someone who is willing to say, yeah, I did cocaine, boy, I screwed up, and seems to be a normal person. We're so tired of these robots.

COULTER: I guess that's right, but there is -- I mean, if all they want is someone who is a normal person, I think we got probably at least 290 million of them. How about you, Glenn Beck? I'll vote for you over B. Hussein Obama. The idea that he's promoting now of, oh, you don't want one of those cobwebs, robotic politicians. It's not that we want cobwebs. What we want is a record. It's one thing to go out and give a speech about audacity and being audacious, but what did you do when the rubber hit the road? What did you do when your constituents were on one side and you thought that was the wrong thing to do? What did you do when your constituents were divided? Where's the profile and courage? Just saying you're audacious and brave does not mean you were audacious and brave. And you see that in the records of Romney and Giuliani. And Anne Thompson, I might ad.

GLENN: Ann Coulter, the name of the book is, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They Would Be Republicans. I'd like to add, and if Republicans had brains, they would be conservative. Thanks, Ann.

COULTER: Thank you. Bye-bye.

GLENN: Best of luck, bye-bye. 

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