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This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 5, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: Our top story: a preview of our fall election coverage. A very important aspect of Obama's campaign is how close he is to the radical left MoveOn.org organization heavily financed by George Soros. This connection has been largely ignored by the media.

But joining us now from Washington is Doug Heye, who writes for the National Review, a conservative concern that has been following MoveOn.

In 2004, I guess the director of MoveOn said, and I'm paraphrasing now, we own the Democratic Party. OK? Now, a lot of people went whoa. In the past four years, MoveOn has gotten more powerful and has gotten wealthier and more influential inside the Democratic Party, right?

DOUG HEYE, NATIONAL REVIEW: Absolutely. There's no question about it. They have become the liberal base of the Democratic Party, and it's why Barack Obama is absolutely beholden to their interests.

O'REILLY: Now, when you say that, beholden, what does that mean? Define that.

HEYE: Well, you look at the issue of Iraq. Senator Obama made a big deal about his trip there, and as a voter, I'm glad that he finally went to Iraq. But he still is not able to admit the reality on the ground.

Americans overwhelmingly believe, even if they don't support the war, even if they think the war was a mistake, they believe that the surge has worked and that the situation on the ground is better than it was two years ago. Barack Obama has not, cannot, and will not say that.

A major part of that is because if he does, MoveOn.com or MoveOn.org, Daily Kos and all the liberal net roots, but especially MoveOn, which gave him a critical endorsement in early February in the primary, will absolutely condemn him on it.

O'REILLY: OK. So you're saying that Barack Obama is afraid of MoveOn? Do you have anything to back that up?

HEYE: Well, I don't think afraid is the word. They've been key supporters for him. They're the reason that he's the nominee.

O'REILLY: Well, they're raising enormous amount of money for him. Can you tell us how they do that?

HEYE: Well, they do it online. They send e-mails to their supporters. They have hundreds of thousands of supporters. And a great example is, again, back in February, right before or right after Super Tuesday, they send an e-mail out that said Barack Obama needs your support, we need you to raise money for Barack Obama. Got $300,000 in one evening. That's not a bad night's take.

O'REILLY: All right. So they are a very powerful fund-raising arm for not only Barack Obama, but a lot of the Democratic candidates.

HEYE: Sure.

O'REILLY: And you believe — see, I believe it, too, but I can't nail it down. I can't nail it down that MoveOn tells these people what to do. I have no testimony, direct testimony. I have nobody who's heard that. It's implied.

It's troubling though that an organization this radical left financed in part by George Soros, who's a complete loon, would have sway and influence on the president of the United States. But there are a lot of people on the right and the Republican Party who have taken money from the oil companies, big business. Dick Cheney was tied in with a lot of Halliburton and a lot of these companies. What's the difference?

HEYE: Well, you know who Exxon is. You know who — the Democrats love to use the term big oil or big pharma. Well, you know who the drug companies are. Everything that they do is fully disclosed. You don't necessarily know that with MoveOn.

And take the money out of the equation. The reality is they're also very effective in mobilizing voters on the ground. You take a key primary state like Colorado, they're going to be organized in Denver. They're going to have the college campuses throughout Colorado organized. They'll even be in a small town like Yore, Colorado, that most Americans have never heard of. They will have people there knocking on doors, making phone calls to get the vote out for Barack Obama.

O'REILLY: Who's calling the shots at this MoveOn? Who's calling the shots?

HEYE: Well, their COO's name is Eli Pariser. I'm going to — if I mispronounce the name, I certainly apologize. He's the one who said back in early 2005, I believe, that they bought the Democratic Party, that they own the Democratic Party.

O'REILLY: No, he's still there. And he's the big kahuna, this Eli Pariser guy?

HEYE: I believe so. I believe so. I've not followed their…

O'REILLY: See, it's hard to get. I can't find out. I'm going to, but it's hard to get.

HEYE: They don't want you to.

O'REILLY: No, absolutely. These aren't guys who are on chat shows every night. They operate largely in the shadows.

HEYE: And remember, the words FOX News are bad words over there. So they don't want you to find out. They don't want anybody to find out but certainly not "The Factor."

O'REILLY: All right. But I don't think we can say to this point that Barack Obama, you know, is in their pocket. But certainly we need to have clarification of how powerful these people are vis-a-vis Obama.

HEYE: And remember, Bill, the irony is this is an organization that was founded to save Bill Clinton from impeachment. And it's also the organization that cost Hillary Clinton the nomination. So if Barack Obama loses, the Clintonistas, they will have a field day and I told you so that will be reminiscent of the ending of the movie "The Godfather."

O'REILLY: OK, Doug, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it.

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