"A 6-year-old girl is an American citizen. If that little girl is raped for four years by a 34-year-old criminal and that criminal gets sentenced to 60 days in prison, which is what happened in Vermont, then that little girl's civil rights have been violated as well as the rights of her family. Vermont Judge Edward Cashman must be removed from the bench by the Vermont legislature and at the same time the federal government must look into the civil rights situation. It doesn't matter what color the little girl is. Last year 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford's civil rights were violated in Florida when a cowardly prosecutor would not indict three people who allegedly helped the little girl's accused killer John Couey. The Feds told us they would look into the matter but apparently they've dropped it. That cannot happen again in Vermont. There must be justice in this case or it will be an everlasting stigma on the state of Vermont. America simply cannot have men raping little girls and judges sentencing those men to 60 days in girl. Period. We can't have this. That is not justice, there is no excuse, and every elected official in Vermont should be demanding the removal of Judge Edward Cashman. Once again the Factor calls on all the nation's governors to support mandatory minimum prison terms for child rapists and molesters. Florida's Jessica Law is needed in all 50 states. This country can no longer allow misguided judges like Edward Cashman to violate the rights of children in their courtrooms."

Fox News chief judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano explained the process to impeach Judge Cashman. "In order for him to be impeached, the House of Representatives of the state of Vermont needs a two-thirds vote. And then the Senate will hold a trial and it takes two-thirds to convict. The governor has said he does not believe that this is a basis for impeachment. The Vermont laws say impeachment for bad behavior or for cause. Typically, they don't define bad behavior and they don't define cause, but let me suggest this to you. This judge, when he sentenced this guy, said, 'I don't believe in punishment.' That is a rejection of an essential portion of his job. That is rejecting his duty. I would suggest to you that that is cause for impeachment." The Factor revealed that instead of putting Cashman's future to a vote before the House, Democrats may be working to save him. "The Vermont Speaker of the House, a Democrat, instead of allowing a vote on whether Cashman should resign, put it into committee. That's a dodge, we believe. We are going to give her a little time to explain this, but it looked like she's protecting him."

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Iran says it will ramp up its nuclear program and doesn't really care what anybody thinks about it. Predictably, Europe and the USA reacted with threats, but would the American left, so against the Iraq war, support military action against Iran? Larry Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan, thought that they would. "Iran is a greater threat than Iraq ever was. And if it was in imminent danger, or if it was considered to be militarily feasible, I think people would support it. But if we did it, you have a post-conflict strategy, and you're willing to use all the force that's necessary to achieve your objective. One problem, I think, is that because of the mistakes that were made over Iraq, the credibility of the president makes selling a war on Iran that much harder." Jon Wolfsthal, former nuclear security official under President Clinton, expressed concern over the feasibility of military engagement. "I think the question is, are the American people going to be presented with a real military strategy that has a likelihood for success? I don't currently believe that that set of options exists, and we're left with a set of very poor options to do it." The Factor worried that the mullahs in Iran were using the Iraq chaos to their advantage. "It's a mess, that's for sure. And that's why the mullahs are doing this, because they feel that there's just chaos all over the place. And so they're calling everybody's bluff."

Earlier this week, Harry Belafonte, AARP's Person of the Year, called President Bush the world's greatest terrorist. Now the AARP has issued this statement: "To our dismay, Mr. Belafonte has made reckless and irresponsible statements about the President of the United States which we neither support nor condone." Jerry Barton, the founder of the National Association of Senior Citizens, an alternative to the AARP, talked with the Factor about why people join the AARP. "We did a survey early on and learned that the three main reasons people join AARP is, number one, they think they're supposed to. And that's sort of an automatic thing. I'm reaching 50, so I'm supposed to join AARP. Number two, it's for the travel discounts. Number three, for insurance. And that was not a very sophisticated survey, but was one that we can rely on. And people have generally no idea where their ideology is. They have no idea where." The Factor thought the AARP was putting one over on the folks. "But I'm worried about all the folks in the middle, who just want their discount coupons, their life insurance, that's really what the AARP is selling. They're not selling that ideology. It's kind of stealth ideology."

Black Entertainment Television nominated a number of people for "Person of the Year" honors. On the list were Oprah, Senator Barack Obama, Robert Johnson, the founder of BET, Louis Farrakhan, and the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Farrakhan won the vote. Michael Lewellen, a senior vice president at BET, explained how BET came up with its list of nominees. "The individual is chosen based on his or her body of work from 2005. Our BET.com executives spent a number of weeks poring through the headlines, polling a number of journalists, and a number of other individuals that we deal with about who we could put forth in this ballot." The Factor was incredulous. "I got his body of work in 2005 here. He accuses the U.S. government of consciously destroying the levees in New Orleans. He accuses the Red Cross and FEMA of not acting quickly enough because they don't like blacks. He accuses the United States of organizing terrorism all over the world. In an address at Compton College in Los Angeles he says that the U.S. operation against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was driven by an oil pipeline. This is the body of work you're referring to."

The Factor discussed the possibility of indicting the New York Times reporters who broke the NSA leak story with Harvey Silverglate, a civil rights attorney. Silverglate said, "I have no doubt that the New York Times and the publisher and the editors could be indicted for publishing that story. But they would have to indict this case either in Washington, D.C., or New York City. They're not going to get a jury in either of those two places that are going to vote unanimously to convict the newspaper and the reporters." The Factor argued that, in a time of war, the government might try to send a message. "I agree that it's hard to get a conviction on any of these political cases, but isn't the message being sent that you cannot leak national security documents or information... in a time of war? To send the message that we're in the middle of a war and we can't have our war effort undermined by everybody who doesn't agree with the policy. And I think that's a pretty strong argument."

There is overwhelming evidence based on polling that most college professors, especially in the Ivy League, are liberal thinkers. The Factor believes that, for example, the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics & Public Policy is a cornerstone of the Kennedy School of Government, and now some believe the Center has moved sharply to the left. Senior fellow at the Center and Fox News Analyst Marvin Kalb argued that ideology was not a Factor at the Center. "The Kennedy School is kind of a place that has a lot of diverse opinion, and I think that nobody has ever asked anybody that I know of what their political registration is or anything like that." The Factor attacked the decision to hire John Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times. "You bring in a guy like John Carroll, who's a far left journalist. He got booted out of the L.A. Times because he brought the paper as far left as it ever has been in its history. Brought in Michael Kinsley to run the editorial page. Their circulation plummeted and they had to get them both out of there." Director of the Center, Alex Jones, defended Carroll and offered Bill O'Reilly a fellowship. "He won 13 Pulitzer Prizes. He's a journalist. Now, the point is this. John Carroll is a guy who is a distinguished journalist. He's come to the Shorenstein Center. We're honored to have him. We're honored to have a range of people. As I say honestly, this is not baloney. Come up and be a fellow."

David Eidam, Encinitas, CA: "Soon, the whole world will be watching to see if Vermont has the courage to remove Judge Cashman. It is wrong for a judge to put rehabilitation above justice for the child."

Francis Thornton, Charlotte, VT: "As an attorney here, I have appeared before Judge Cashman and found him to be fair. If you want perfect justice, apply to God. He is the only one who really knows what justice is."

Mike Kellems, La Porte, IN: "Mr. O'Reilly, wow, you were the king of rude tonight! You shouted at the two attorneys who supported the judge."

Keith Ward, Jacksonville, OR: "Bill, have you considered a course in anger management?"

Keith Jeffrey, Dorset, England: "If it's any consolation, we have our share of loony judges over here. The purpose of a justice system is to protect the public. Please tell Judge Cashman."

Dean Ahrendt, Millbrook, AL: "Bill, are you telling me the child rapist will spend less time in prison than Martha Stewart?"