Glenn Beck: The Overton Window

with contributions from

Kevin Balfe, Emily Bestler, and Jack Henderson

© 2010

Special thanks to…

All of the VIEWERS, LISTENERS, AND READERS, including the Glenn Beck INSIDERS. We’re not racist and we’re not violent… we’re just not silent anymore.

All my PARENTS; my wife, TANIA; and my wonderful CHILDREN for their continued love and support, even when I’m up at 3 a.m. working on projects like this one.

CHRIS BALFE, KEVIN BALFE, STU BURGUIERE, JOE KERRY, PAT GRAY, and all of the other remarkable people behind the scenes at MERCURY RADIO ARTS for never laughing at my ideas (at least not to my face).

JACK HENDERSON for pouring his heart and soul into this project. And to Jack’s wife, LORI, for letting him.

EMILY BESTLER, a world-class editor and, more important, a world-class person. Thanks for getting what this is really all about. And to LOUISE BURKE, MITCHELL IVERS, CAROLYN REIDY, LIZ PERL,

ANTHONY ZICCARDI, and everyone else at SIMON & SCHUSTER for continuing to help turn my dreams into reality.

PATRICIA BALFE, for sharing her love of thrillers and mysteries with all of us. I realize I’m no David Baldacci or Robert Parker, but I still hope this book costs you some precious sleep.

Everyone at PREMIERE and CLEAR CHANNEL, including MARK MAYS, JOHN HOGAN, CHARLIE RAHILLY, DAN YUKELSON, JULIE TALBOTT, and DAN METTER, who have helped bring the radio program to more listeners then we’ve ever had before.

All of my friends at FOX NEWS, including ROGER AILES, BILL SHINE, SUZANNE SCOTT, JOEL CHEATWOOD, TIFFANY SIEGEL, BILL O’REILLY, NEIL CAVUTO, along with my extraordinary STAFF that has helped me purchase almost every chalkboard in the greater New York City area.

My agent, GEORGE HILTZIK, who “doesn’t do content” yet still loves to give me his opinion on every piece of content we create.

All of my friends, partners and coworkers who support me both personally and professionally, including KRAIG KITCHIN, BRIAN GLICKLICH, MATTHEW HILTZIK, JOSH RAFFEL, JON HUNTSMAN SR., DUANE WARD, STEVE SCHEFFER, DOM THEODORE, SCOTT BAKER, RICHARD PAUL EVANS, GEORGE LANGE, RUSSELL M. BALLARD, along with ALLEN, CAM, AMY, MARY and the whole team at ISDANER.

EVERYONE ELSE who has fallen victim to my ADD-sorry, I focused on this page for as long as I could.

I’ve been a fan of thrillers for many years. While nonfiction books aim to enlighten, the goal of most thrillers is to entertain. But there is a category of novels that do both: “faction”-completely fictional books with plots rooted in fact, and that is the category I strived for with The Overton Window.

As you become immersed in the story, certain scenes and characters will likely feel familiar to you. That is intentional, as this story takes place during a time in American history very much like the one we find ourselves living in now. But while many of the facts embedded in the plot are true (see the afterword for details), the scenarios I create as a result of those facts, along with the way things are tied together and the conclusions that are drawn, are entirely fictional.

Let’s hope they stay that way.

I know this book will be controversial; anything that causes people to think usually is. In this case, I hope that you are forced not only to think, but also to research, read history, and ask questions outside of your comfort zone. It will ultimately be up to each of us to search out our own truths.

While this may go without saying even once, I feel the need to say it again: This is a work of fiction. As such some of the characters in this book express opinions that I not only disagree with, but vehemently oppose. I included them in the story because these views, like them or not, are part of the current American dialogue. Ignoring them, or pretending that radical ideas don’t exist in society, does all of us a great disservice. Silencing voices or opinions only pushes them to the shadows and darkness, where they can fester and grow even stronger.

You may also notice that the words Republican or Democrat rarely appear in this book, and when they do, it’s in an equally unflattering light. We also never meet the president of the United States or learn what party he or she is affiliated with. Those were conscious decisions, and it reflects the fact that what is happening to our country is not about a political party or a particular person, it is about a course of destruction that we have been pursuing at various speeds for the last century. Every day that we scream “Where were you four years ago?” or “It’s your party’s fault and not mine!” or “I didn’t vote for him!” is a day we move closer to the end of America-or at least the America our Founders envisioned.

As I write this introduction, weeks before this book will even go on sale, I already know that my critics will be fierce and unforgiving. They will accuse me of being every kind of conspiracy theorist they can invent-and they will base it all on the plot of a novel that they likely never even read.

Fortunately, none of this is about me. It never has been. I’ve been called every hateful thing there is to call someone and I can handle it. But when all is said and done and people look back at this time in the history of our great country, there’s only one thing I hope that everyone, critics and fans alike, call me…

Wrong.

Enjoy the book; I hope that it costs you as much sleep reading it as it cost me creating it.

Eli Churchill was a talker. Once he got rolling it was unusual for him to stop and listen, but now a distant noise had him concerned.

“Hold on,” he whispered.

He cradled the pay-phone receiver against his shoulder, glanced down the narrow, rutted Mojave dirt road he’d traveled to get here, and then up the long, dark way in the other direction.

In this much quiet your ears could play tricks on you. He could have sworn that there’d been a sound out of place, like the snap of a stalk of dried grass underfoot, even though no other human being had any business being within twenty miles of where he stood, but he couldn’t be sure.

The moon was bright and his eyes were well adjusted to the darkness. He didn’t see anyone, but with the kind of guys Eli was worried about, you really never do.

When he put the phone back to his ear an automated message was playing; the phone company wanted another payment to allow the call to continue. He worked his last six quarters from their torn paper roll and dropped them one by one into the coin slot.