>> bill: say goodbye to former illinois governor robb blagojevich, is he going to prison. megyn kelly with the inside story. caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone, the factor begins right now. captions by closed captioning services >> bill: hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. the iowa vote four weeks away. that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. those four weeks are going to fly by, christmas, new years on the horizon. so, let us assess this evening where we are in iowa. a new des moines register poll revealing. the register asked iowans is your mind made up. 27% say they are solid in their support of a republic contender. 60% of iowans say they their minds are oopen. 11% no choice. and then second poll asks about the candidate and their viability. which candidate is the most negative? ron paul 19%, perry 16%, bachmann 9. which candidate is best able to bring about real change, newt gingrich 27. ron paul 18, mitt romney 14%. which candidate is most electable in the general election? romney 38, gingrich 22, perry 10. which is best able to turn the economy around, gingrich 22, romney 20%, ron paul 17%. anything is up in the air. that is good thing as republic candidates will have to get very specific to earn votes in iowa. this time around problem-solving not ideology should be in the forefront. president obama is wobbling right now, chances are he will get stronger as the economy is likely to pick up some in 2012. if the republic party wants to challenge the president must do two things clearly define how mr. obama failed in economic vision but most importantly solving complicated problems like national debt and immigration. talking points is lookinged for spirited debate in iowa and then in new hampshire. as we said 2012 will be the most important election in our life times. nancy pelosi threatening newt gingrich. you may remember mr. gingrich was embarrassed when a video of him and nancy pelosi sitting on a couch talking about global warming surfaced. apparentlyhat didn't warm up ms. pelosi much toward mr. gingrich. this week she told a web site she knows a whole bunch about gingrich and ethical problems investigated in the 1990s. that obvious threat did not sit too well with the speaker. >> if she is suggesting she is going to use material that she developed while sheet was on the ethics committee. that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the house and i would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. i think it tells you how capriciously political that committee was she was on it. tells you how tainted that committee was the outcome was she was on it. >> bill: reprimand $300,000 fund because he used a political action committee to help teach some college courses low level beef to be sure. with us now our barack and hard place duo monica crowley and alan colmes. how do you see this threat thing here? >> what is she polywalnuts pelosi. trying to do this to -- this is speaker vs. speaker. remember spy vs. spy? this is speaker vs. speaker. actually i do metaphorically politically. >> bill: it was pretty nasty though. >> polywalnut. so here is what i think is going on. first of all, he yes, would she like to take out newt gingrich? of course, she hated his guts. a t of people in congress really loathed newt gingrich when he was speaker. that includes republicans who have serious problems with him and his leadership. what i think is more important here, this is sort of the subtext of what she is doing. she is trying to resurrect the wars of the 1990s where gingrich is right in the center. he was a hot rod of controversy. this was the war surroundings the clintons, the wars in congress. contract with america and so on o. she thinks by doing this even though she had to back off of it because under the ethics rules she can't present anything in the public domain. she is trying to remind voters, look. do you really want this guy? this guy is so tainted he had all of these issues. >> bill: you don't disagree with that right? >> everything on the show so far i agree with. >> bill: you disagree with everything? you don't think pelosi is trying to divert attention back to the 1990s. >> she is doing what anybody would have done in a political situation. talking about publicly available information. furthermore although you minimize it. >> bill: hold it, colmes, you are not allowed to do this on this program. close the mouth and i will tell you what she said. all right? >> i will close my mouth. she said that she, nancy pelosi, at a time to be designated later, would reveal things that she, nancy pelosi, learned. >> yes. >> bill: in an undisclosed location. >> she didn't say undisclosed. >> bill: yes she did. >> she was not revealing information that was not already made public however. although you minimized it, the other part he was confused and convicted of by this bipartisan ethics committee for which he had to pay $300,000 is lying to congress about it it's up to the voters to decide with f. what happened then was relevant. it isn't just that he used against federal law moneys he shouldn't have used but he lied about it. >> bill: the threat was lodged by ms. pelosi. look, these people don't like each other, we all know that very rarely do you get people at this level threatening each other. >> wait a minute. >> bill: that threat was lodged like i know stuff that isn't in the public domain and at a time down the road i'm going to tell you. >> it was made clear, although the next day or a few hours later by her spokesperson she is talking about stuff in the public domain. >> bill: that's not what she said. they can revise it later on. >> she did not indicate it was private information. let's blame the messenger. do we go and blame pelosi because newt may or may not have done something? >> bill: i'm not blaming anybody. i'm saying this was a direct threat. i think monica is correct. it's being used now to remind people that oh he didn't have a real good time. >> bill: you think if a democrat ran for office and there was a ethical problem in the past would republicans ever bring that up in the course of their campaign? of course they will. >> bill: wouldn't do it in this way. >> that's a point where nancy pelosi's comments inappropriate? yeah. former speaker and minority leader inappropriate for her to do. this politics -- especially presidential politics. newt gingrich and mitt romney are the two leaders. they better be prepared for all manner of attacks including ones like this. they better be prepared. if they can't take -- >> bill: gingrich -- the advantage for gingrich is this, if he is set up a fight with nancy pelosi, he wins in the republic precincts. you know that so, for gingrich, he was right. this is an early christmas gift. >> absolutely. better that it happened now for somebody like nancy pelosi. prepared and got the thick skin. god knows what obama and axelrod and plouffe. >> he knows he is run fog president got up to the top tier this stuff was clearly going to come out. >> it's all old stuff. >> it's not old stuff. >> 20 years ago. >> you know we never talked about what obama did, community organizer, who he went to church with. who he went to coffee with. >> that stuff was never investigated. >> this stuff happens. >> it was talked about for years. are you kidding me? that's all we talked about during the entire presidential campaign who his preacher was. whose house he went to for coffee. come on. >> if this is all that the democrats have on newt gingrich stuff that happened 20 years ago he is in pretty good shape. >> $300,000 fine for lying to congress and misusing funds, fine, that's up to the public if they feel that is someone they can elect as president of the united states. it's all out there. >> the other thing about this race is that the republicans should not get sucked into these kind of conversations. this election next year is about barack obama. not about the republic candidate. >> bill: barack obama will have to make it not about him and the economy. that's why i think they would rather run against gingrich than romney because if they can run against gingrich, you already see it's going to get real personal and a lot of this stuff back and for the. that is what is going to happen. romney is a harder target, would you agree with that? >> yeah. keeps moving. >> for conservatives too, right away. >> he has more positions than a suture. >> i don't know what that is. >> sure, o'reilly. >> bill: next on the run down marc lamont hill on president obama and the black vote. is there some trouble in those precincts. later quarterback tim tebow devoted christian, causing trouble on the field in the name of jesus. coming right back. oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip us real dairy crm. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. simple relief is here. introducing robitussin® nasal relief pills. the right relief for nasal congestion...in a pill. ♪ ne from robitussin®. relief made simple. urney across america,sin®. i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. bell bill our pal marc lamont hill recently wrote a column saying that newt gingrich is an intellectual heavyweight that may hurt him in his run for president. please explain this in terms even i can understand. i read the claim. i didn't quite grasp it but you cede he is smart guy. >> very smart guy. >> understands policy and how the government runs. >> every debate. >> bill: you recognize his frame of reference is solid. >> absolutely. >> bill: then you say republicans don't like that? >> no, newt gingrich has been around for decades. republicans don't pick the smart guy. >> bill: how come he is leading in the polls then. >> they are deeply frustrated with romney because he he is as liberal as i am at least in his history. romney inflamed out. rick perry can't debate. he is the best option they have. >> bill: how did you arrive at the conclusion that republics are antiintellectual? >> because every time someone comes up who congugates a verb properly. they beat up on perry for speaking french and -- whenever someone speaks intelligent and nuances to argument they say he is not good enough. republicans want a cowboy. >> bill: you came to the conclusion by doing what, a national poll? i don't think you know a republic. i don't think you do. >> some of my best friends are republic, bill. i have even had them in high house. >> bill: not one republic at columbia university. >> some of my best friends are republic. bunch of poor white guys who vote republic. >> bill: so you -- how did you arrive at this conclusion because people don't like john kerry? >> i didn't like john kerry. that's not enough of an argument. look at republic nominees are the ones who people like. they like people who are down to earth. the guy you can grab a beer with. >> bill: that's the democratic party, too is it not. >> we tend to nominate smart people. barack obama was a law professor. we have people like john kerry very smart. even bill clinton was smart. the way he was able to endear himself to the right playing the bubba role. >> bill: bush was a harvard school grad and yale undergrad, okay? what are you laughing about? better than colombia. >> that was white people's affirmative action. he was a legacy. >> bill: did okay there though. maybe he got in by the strings but he didn't get booted out. >> two standard deviations below the norm. that means he was two spots lower on average than the average. >> bill: not in grad school he went to yale. >> that's a pretty big deal. >> bill: he was doing cheerleading and diverted from his studies. republicans like dumb people? >> that's cheap, bill. i didn't say republicans like dumb people. they like people who don't intellectual in public places. >> bill: there are republicans like me and you don't become more intellectual and this "the o'reilly factor." that dashes your theory. there is is outreach i don't know what that means by the obama administration to african-americans. what does that entail? are they going to be on soul train? >> oh, you know you are going to be on media matters for that one right now. soul train? >> bill: what's the vehicle -- soul train is a poop larr program. >> no, it's not? when in 1964. >> bill: syndicated isn't it? isn't soul train still on. >> cancelled. >> bill: i must be watching the reruns, i really like it. so what's the outreach? what is it? where are they going? >> reaching out to where black people are. >> bill: how? >> community centers. meeting with african-american leaders. there was a big leader with african-american leadership about three weeks ago. >> bill: yeah. >> where i couldn't make it i was invited but couldn't make it talked about reaching out it voters. talking about major -- >> bill: calling the black leaders to the white house and having lunch with them? is that what what he is doing. >> the actual meeting was people in president obama's administration. people connecting. >> bill: intellectuals? >> every day people who are doing policy work. >> bill: so obama's guys and gals are now inviting selected african-american leaders to come to washington. >> that's one piece o it. but also going into communities and actually talking to every day people to find out what their key issues are and to make sure the people are registered to vote and come out to vote and understand the issues at stake. >> bill: that won't matter this year though because republicans are blocking the votes by asking for i.d.s at the polling places. >> i know it's tongue and cheek to you. voter suppression. do you have an i.d. >> you have to an i.d. to buy wine. republic beverage suppression? you have to have an i.d. to buy beer. you don't want an i.d. to vote. >> it's not necessary. it's not voter suppression. whether or not felons can vote. >> bill: felons can't vote. >> that's very untrue. most states felons can vote. most states it's a very short window. that type of misinformation is what keeps poor people out and black and brown people out. >> bill: are you saying most felons are black and brown is that what you are saying? that's outrageous. media matters, hello, did you just hear that. >> most people incarcerated are black and brown, that's a fact. people targeted tend to be poor black and brown people. coming up a serious point that the obama administration is making an attempt to contact local black leaders to get them in to get the vote out. >> among other groups. >> are you sure soul train is not the on anymore. >> i love that harold mehlman and blue notes. >> i'm impressed. you seem more like an elvis guy. i think you are overrated white people. >> i like elvis and smoky robinson, too. don't give me that jazz. >> directly ahead. letters, bill,. >> i can read. directly ahead, tim tebow praising god. later on more bad stuff surrounding the federal fast and furious gun scandal coming right back. [ male announcer ] talking a big game about your engine is one thing. having a proven history that can back it all up is a whole other story. unsurpassed torque. incredible towing. legendary cummins engines. which engine do you want powering your truck? guts. glory. ram. ♪ so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. >> bill: personal story segment tonight. as you may know denver broncho quarterback tim tebow believes it is his duty to spread the word of jesus. so many times after a successful football play mr. tebow will praise god on the field. that's causing a lot of controversy. not only among fans but also some players. >> tebow, regardless of whether i wish he would just shut up after a game and go -- teammate. i think he is a winner. i respect that about him and i think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves jesus christ, then i think i will like him a little better. >> i respect, you know, jake's opinion. and i really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. but i feel like any time i get the opportunity, you know, to give the lord some praise, he is due for it. >> bill: with us now former nbc broadcaster lynn behrman author of the book the greatest moment in sports. nice christmas gift. and from chicago, sports torney kelly -- counselor, let me begin with you, you don't think mr. tebow is acting appropriately when he goes down on one knee and says a little prayer? >> no, i don't. excessive celebration is not allowed. i don't think that he should be wasting people's time advancing his beliefs. he should be focusing on football. that's what he is getting paid to do. that's what fans are wanting to see. and i think that he is just propagating his opinion and if he was praising allah, a lot of people would be outraged. i think he needs to focus on the game and that is what he is there for. that is what he is getting paid to do. >> bill: is he not violating any league rules. this doesn't bring him sanction from the nfl. he isn't publicly praising anybody. is he not saying anything. is he just demonstrating. i don't know whether he is facing mecca or not. but it really doesn't matter he is an american even though is he a football player. if he is not violating team or league rules, certainly has a right to do that, does he not? >> whether or not he has a right to do it, does it make it offensive and is that what he is there for? do people want to watch that? do people want to be forced to watch him. >> bill: they don't have to go to the game in the mile high stadium they can go home. >> i apologize for interrupting you. i agree they have the choice to stay home but they also shouldn't be subjected to that we no longer have displays for the national day of prayer because there were lots of people outraged they were advancing our own president won't recognize. >> bill: christianity is not a religion it's a philosophy. now you say it's okay, leonard. >> i'm not a big fan of religion in sports. when they review athletes after game an they praise god i always say god wanted the other team to lose and god has more important things to do than who wins or loses a football game. putting a knee down. a couple weeks ago orchestrated celebration in the end zone where buffalo player was pretending shooting himself in the leg mimicking the other who did shoot himself in the leg. for a guy to simply put his knee down, i think is he genuine, god bless him. >> bill: kelly, what about? you watch football games kelly? >> i do. i'm a huge football fan. >> bill: you know in the end zone, what about that? some people think that's ridiculous and then demeaning to the other team and shaking the booty and all of that. does that bother you? >> absolutely. sometimes it seems very unsportsman like. >> bill: unsportsman like. >> sometimes it's very unsportsman like. >> bill: penalty if you taunt and go overboard in the thing. >> right. >> bill: i'm coming back to the freedom of expression here thing. i don't think it's offensive for tim tebow to do what he is doing to the majority of people. now, if you hate religion, if you really, you know, if it's on your mind, it might be offensive. i think it's just exercising his right to do what he thinks is right. let me ask you this question, lynn. >> i want to see you boogle. >> bill: i could do it but i need a little more area here. tebow's philosophy, not only his phi