The softball interview to end all softball interviews, although Beck didn’t have a choice: It sounds like they’re either still under some sort of gag order that prevents them from discussing the case or they’re being tactfully silent while they wait to find out if the Supreme Court will take their appeal. (Almost all of the charges against them were upheld by the Fifth Circuit last summer.) Even so, we are dealing here with two guys convicted in federal court of committing crimes and credibly accused of trying to cover them up. As Andy McCarthy (in)famously said, “Compean and Ramos are bad guys.” Beck treats them as if they were political prisoners, even calling them “the dynamic duo” at one point. Dynamic at what? Generating red meat for blogs and talk radio?

Give him credit, though, for smoothly integrating this story into his running narrative about how alone and powerless Americans feel. The man is always on message.