The Ordeal of Sandy Berger

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.

The ordeal of Sandy Berger (search), that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." If you watch The Factor often, you know we try to be fair and give everybody a hearing. And we rarely speculate. So I put off analyzing the Sandy Berger deal because I simply didn't know what was going on. Thus, I couldn't give you anything worthwhile last night.

Now we know a bit more.  Here is the story. Mr. Berger was a national security adviser to Bill Clinton and was required to tell the 9/11 Commission (search) what he knew about terrorism.  So Berger was allowed to review classified documents and notes at the National Archives to refresh his memory.  And we all understand that.

But somehow Berger took some of the classified stuff out of the  archives and home.  He admits doing it. And Berger says he's very, very sorry, but what he doesn't say is why he took the stuff.  And that's the key question here.

Mr. Berger, why did you take classified information out of the room?

Very simple question. So far, no public answer.

Now some Republicans are drawing very nasty conclusions. They believe Berger was up to no good.  And all kinds of speculation's flying around.

Some Democrats, like Bill Clinton, are defending Berger, saying it was all an accident, but how does Mr. Clinton know? He wasn't there. The DNC has even filed a Freedom of Information request to divert attention from the situation.  Democrats want to know what Bush and Cheney told the Department of Justice about the Sandy Berger investigation.

Was there a leak?

Now last night on cable and talk radio, everybody was hollering, but nobody could answer the key question -- why did Berger take the stuff?  So we called Berger's office today and asked him.  He sent us a statement which said, in part, "I inadvertently took a few documents from the archives."  What does that mean?  Nobody takes stuff inadvertently.  You have to grab it and place it somewhere.

Some of the National Archives' people say Berger put the stuff in his socks.  We don't know if that's true, but if the Archive people saw him do that, why didn't they stop him?

There is no wider issue at this point.  Berger took copies, so the government still maintained the records. And if he broke the law, then the Martha Stewart (search) team should swing into action.

"Talking Points" is somewhat amused by all the partisan speculation, but in the end, we  really need to know one thing above all.

Why did you take the stuff, Sandy?

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

There are some reports that the "Radio Factor" was beaten in the New York City ratings by one of our enemies. That report is false. We beat Stuart Smalley (search) handily in total audience, according to the Arbitron people.  Now, these things continue to happen because of the deceit that has become ingrained in the media.

But here's a challenge.  If anyone disputes what I am saying, I have a $25,000 wager to make.  And when I win, I'll donate the money to Habitat for Humanity (search). So all you Smalley fans out there, please e-mail us and have Stuart do the same. Ridiculous -- it is unending.

And on that note, more than 100,000 of you voted on the billoreilly.com poll question asking about offensive pundits.  So now, we have to have a runoff. The new billoreilly.com poll question is, who's worse: Moore or Franken?  Who's worse: Moore or Franken?  That's a tough one.  Let us know what you think.