The Factor opened Monday's program with an analysis of President Bush's final appearance in front of the White House press corps, during which he vigorously defended his anti-terror strategies and his presidency. Professor Marc Lamont Hill entered the No Spin Zone and lambasted President Bush. "He's defending the indefensible," Hill said. "He waits until the last day and then he rails at everybody. The man says America hasn't lost its moral standing in the world, but he goes to another country and they're throwing shoes at him." But author Larry Elder leapt to the president's defense. "The defining decision by the Bush administration was the decision to go to war in Iraq. The president was absolutely right and I wish he had defended himself more vigorously a long time ago." The Factor argued that President Bush's weakest legacy is the dismal economy. "We didn't get an exit interview with President Bush because he knew I was going to ask one key question, which is why didn't you guys see this coming? How could the president, the SEC chairman and the treasury secretary not know we were heading toward Armageddon?"

News Link: Video: Bush goes out with a bang

"The far left in America is on a rampage. They're attacking on all fronts - demanding gay marriage, a ban on harsh anti-terror tactics, and many other very liberal policies. But most Americans reject the left wing extremists. For example, the nutty left Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper has announced it's going out of business unless someone buys it over the next few weeks. Other left wing papers like the Boston Globe, L.A. Times and New York Times are all having major economic problems as regular people want news, not fanaticism. The huge mistake the far left continues to make is believing Americans elected Barack Obama for ideological reasons. Obama won because the economy collapsed and John McCain seemed clueless about it. Mr. Obama himself seems to understand that to keep America safe and return us to prosperity, he must walk away from zealotry, even if it comes from his own supporters. He will fail in office if he does not."

News Link: Left-wing Seattle P-I crumbling

The Factor asked FNC analysts Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams whether President Obama will endorse an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing by the Bush administration. "What Obama is clearly signaling," Williams said, "is that he is about being pro-active and looking forward, and all this stuff about going backwards would do nothing but damage Obama politically and damage the country. People are concerned about the safety of the United States and don't want to get involved in finger-pointing." Ham added that Obama has positioned himself as a pragmatist, not an ideologue. "He's throwing bones like a dog catcher to the left, but they remain an afterthought because he's a smart guy. He wants to be a popular president and he doesn't want to be pigeonholed as a guy who's soft on national security."

News Link: Obama won't rule out prosecuting Bush officials

According to a new poll, Americans are evenly split over whether coerced interrogation is justified when dealing with terror suspects. The Factor welcomed author Christopher Hitchens, who explained why he opposes torture. "I strongly believe the intervention in Iraq was just and necessary," Hitchens began, "but I'm very strongly opposed to what happened at Abu Ghraib, which was recreational sadism. And having a base at Guantanamo, on the soil of a foreign country, makes it look like we're trying to evade American and international law. There are two questions - is it moral, and is it of any use?" The Factor told Hitchens that harsh tactics can be effective in exceptional circumstances. "Former CIA boss George Tenet told me that waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed saved tens of thousands of lives. The president should have the authority to order forced interrogation when lives are at stake."

Continuing on her book tour, conservative author Ann Coulter got into a heated dustup with some of the women on "The View." Fox News analyst Ellis Henican criticized both Coulter and her inquisitors. "I didn't like any of them," Hennican proclaimed. "I didn't like the ambush before she came out, but I don't feel sorry for Ann Coulter. What she says is mean and personal and nasty, and she makes charges against often weak people." The Factor criticized the double standard on most network television programs. "If that weasel Al Franken, who did the exact same thing as Ann Coulter, goes on 'The View,' he gets a pass. The extreme of one side of the spectrum is treated one way, and the extreme of the other side is not."

News Link: Video: Coulter tangles with 'The View' ladies

Culture warriors Margaret Hoover and Monica Crowley began with the TV talk show that featured young teens who are pregnant and proud of it. "These girls are victims of their sexuality," Hoover opined. "They're looking for self-esteem in all the wrong places and they haven't learned that they have value other than spreading their legs." Crowley lamented the fact that the girls are, literally, swollen with pride. "It breaks my heart because there is no parental or cultural guidance. They are bombarded with signals such as Jamie Lynn Spears, who is 14 and pregnant. There's nobody in their lives to give them a sense of their future." On another topic, Crowley defended Britain's Prince Harry, who referred to an enemy soldier as a "raghead" while on duty in Afghanistan. "I want soldiers up in the grill of our enemies," Crowley pronounced, "talking like General Patton. They were calling them 'Japs' and 'Krauts' in World War II, and I have no problem with this. I'm sick of the feminization of manhood and warfare."

News Link: Video: Prince Harry faces military inquiry over 'racist' video

"60 Minutes" ran an investigative piece arguing that speculators and traders caused the oil price spike, and The Factor offered this Reality Check: "I told you more than two years ago that it was speculators, not supply and demand, driving up oil prices. For telling you the truth I was scorned in many corners. '60 Minutes' went on to report that brokerage houses like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were deeply involved in the oil speculation, which lit the fuse of the current recession." Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" is raking it in at the box office. The Factor's check: "That movie won't win many awards because it allows that a flawed working-class guy could be noble, and the entertainment pinheads hate that message."

Monday's Patriot: CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who danced up a (very mild) storm with Ellen DeGeneres. And the Pinhead: Lefty actress Janeane Garofalo, who played an FBI agent on "24," then said this about her role: "I was initially very reticent to do it ... And then I thought, 'I'm unemployed.'"

News Link: New stars of '24' denounce Bush 'torture'

Leon Korobow, Great Neck, NY: "Glenn Beck is wrong in asserting that federal spending to avert a recession is inconsistent with the rules of capitalism. Free markets cannot survive massive mismanagement and fraud."

Rebecca Bjelland, Yellowstone, WY: "Glenn is right. The government can't go around saving people. It's called tough love."

Dick Lorette, International Falls, MN: "As a resident here, I have to hang my head that Al Franken even made the race for the Senate close. I swear some Democrats in this state would vote for a brick if it ran on their ticket."

Scott Bittner, Amarillo, TX: "I believe Franken is a patriotic American. Long before he ran for office, he volunteered his time to go to Iraq with the USO."

Javier Baez, Managua, Nicaragua: "O'Reilly, thanks for being one of the few programs that does not incite the masses to hate Israel."