David Letterman, John Edwards and Homeless Vets

David Letterman, John Edwards and homeless vets. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

Continuing his road show of deception, John Edwards took his desperate campaign to the "David Letterman" program last night. We'll play you a clip of that in a moment, but first some background.

A few months ago, Mr. Edwards began using homeless veterans in his economic "two Americas" propaganda pitch. According to Edwards, the U.S. economy is forcing veterans to live under bridges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EDWARDS: You see very few Americans getting wealthier and wealthier. You see the biggest corporations in America's profits through the roof. ExxonMobil just made $40 billion, record profits. Tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America and served this country honorably will go to sleep under bridges and on grates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now that, of course, is nonsense. There's no linkage between the economy and the veterans. According to Joseph Califano, perhaps America's best expert on substance abuse, up to 90 percent of homeless vets are addicted or mentally ill. The economy, again, has nothing to do with it.

This year the government will spend about $37 billion on health care for vets, a record amount. The VA's homeless programs constitute the largest homeless relief effort in the country. Every night, as many as 150,000 beds are available. John Edwards should know that, but I believe he doesn't really care. Here's what he said on "Letterman" last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN: Tell me a little bit about your feud with Bill O'Reilly. Now there's a tough guy. He's been on the show a couple of times. And he's a tough guy. What's going on there? What's at the core of the feud?

JOHN EDWARDS: Well, the core of the feud is I've been talking about homeless veterans and the fact that we have a couple hundred thousand homeless veterans who have no place to sleep at night. They're either in shelters...

LETTERMAN: It's embarrassing, isn't it?

EDWARDS: It's incredibly embarrassing for America. Huge moral issue facing the country. And he kind of went on his show and said that I was exaggerating, making it up. And I think he got a lot of correspondence, a lot of homeless veterans have been calling in.

LETTERMAN: Well, you know what I've noticed about Bill O'Reilly — and he's a marvelous communicator. But he's not — he doesn't really care much about telling the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

As Laura Ingraham might say, tedious. Edwards and Letterman could not care less about the truth unless it fits into their far-left vision of the world. Using homeless veterans to make a dishonest political point is wrong. That's one of the reasons Edwards is going nowhere in his campaign. The man simply cannot be trusted.

If Edwards is at all concerned about the veterans or the truth, all he has to do is call the VA. Here's what homeless vet boss Peter Doherty said today on "The Radio Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER DOHERTY, HOMELESS PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPT. OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: In most places, if you are a homeless veteran and you're in contact with us, we will help you find a place to stay, both an emergency sort of to get you off the street if you need to be off the street, but more importantly for us into a program that is designed to address the underlying health needs that you have to get you out of homelessness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, "Talking Points" believes troubled vets should get all the help we can provide, but using these people for political gain is unacceptable. The spin stops here. Edwards and Letterman don't know what they're talking about. And Edwards should have no place in an honest election.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

On Monday we brought you two Texas guys who said they saw UFOs. Well it turns out there was plenty of activity over Stephenville that night. At least 10 military jets from Ft. Worth were flying training missions in the area.

Now, that doesn't explain the strange lights, but it does tell us that Steve Allen and James Hughes, the guys who were on the program, were telling the truth, so they are patriots.

On the pinhead front, the nation's worst newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, says Canada is wrong to take the USA off a list of torture nations.

Under the leadership of publisher Roger Oglesby, the paper insists America is a big torture country and should be condemned all over the world. Oglesby is beyond a pinhead, but that description will have to fit for now.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads and Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com