One of the guests on our show, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, is worried that extremist groups are being energized across the country. Some of this was discussed during our Monday hour.

Whether you buy it or not, it turns out Potok is not alone. The Department of Homeland Security recently circulated a controversial report to law enforcement on the topic. The assessment was unclassified, but was meant to be kept within officialdom. (Steve Aftergood of Secrecy News, a blog through the Federation of American Scientists that functions as a relentless check on government, posted it on Tuesday. That’s the earliest we saw it.)

“[T]he historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization,” the report states.

But one aspect of the government’s threat assessment has drawn strong pushback from some quarters.

Most controversially, the report features a section called “Disgruntled Military Veterans.” It states, “The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.”

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner fired back, calling the veterans section “offensive and unacceptable.” Veterans groups say it feeds a crude stereotype about the millions who have served.

This prompted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to express regret that it seemed to single out former troops. She went on Fox News yesterday to apologize.

Suffice it to say, we probably haven’t heard the last on this one.

Conservative columnist George Will’s career has traced the rise, and what many conservatives now fear is the fall, of the conservative movement in America.

His first column appeared in The Washington Post in 1974. In the Reagan years, his bow tie, polished wit, and penchant for quoting British lords, made him one of the most widely read and seen commentators in the country — on topics from baseball to politics.

Now, George Will is sour on Iraq, sour on John McCain, and watching a moment of deep conservative unease.

This hour, On Point: a conversation with George Will.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

George Will, columnist for The Washington Post and Newsweek and commentator for ABC’s “This Week.” His new book is, “One Man’s America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation.”

William F. Buckley Jr. founded the National Review and is one of the founding fathers of the modern conservative movement.

He died yesterday at the age of 82.

We look at Buckley’s legacy for conservatives today.

Guests:

David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union.

For almost 20 years now, Rush Limbaugh and the royalty of right-wing talk radio have been mighty barons in the GOP — ideological high priests, attack dogs, and megawatt poobahs with a huge base of followers in Republican country. They’ve been kingmakers.

This year, the Limbaugh crew is in despair. Cold fury. They despise John McCain, and John McCain is way out front for the GOP presidential nomination. He’ll destroy the GOP, Limbaugh has warned.

But McCain’s winning.

This hour, On Point: rightwing talk radio and its followers struggle with the rise of John McCain.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online and associate editor of National Review.

Ross Douthat, senior editor and blogger for The Atlantic Monthly, his forthcoming book is “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.”

Brian Maloney, conservative analyst and author of the blog radioequalizer, closely tracking conservative talk radio and the Republican Party.

“Faith doesn’t just influence me,” Mike Huckabee told evangelicals last week. “It defines me.” And then he lost in South Carolina to John McCain.

In Nevada, labor lined up for Barack Obama, then Clinton took the vote. And Latinos carved their own way over political and color lines.

These are big players, speaking for the first time in the weekend’s big votes.

This hour, On Point: voices of Christian conservatism, labor and the Latino West, and their choices in campaign ‘08.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Earl Black, professor of political science at Rice University and co-author of “The Rise of Southern Republicans” and the new book, “Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics.”

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, the South Carolina affiliate of Focus on the Family.

Anjeanette Damon, chief political reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, she writes the blog “Inside Nevada Politics.”

Hilary Haycock, spokesperson of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 17,500 health care and public service employees across Nevada.

Mo Denis, second term assemblyman representing Nevada’s 28th District, in northeast Las Vegas, the largest Hispanic assembly district in the state, representing roughly 60,000 people.

It’s a funny week for Fred Thompson to be odd man out in the scrum of GOP ‘08 presidential contenders. Rudy Giuliani’s got evangelical Christian Pat Robertson blessing his candidacy. Mormon Mitt Romney has the religious right’s Paul Weyrich. Even John McCain has an endorsement from evangelical hero Sam Brownback.

But Fred Thompson — conservative former senator and TV actor who was to be this campaign’s Reagan — is sort of on his own, not conservative or galvanizing in quite the way expected. But could he still be the GOP sleeper?

This hour, On Point: getting Fred Thompson.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Christine Byun, reporter for ABC News covering the Thompson campaign.

Joe Mathews, political reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he wrote a series of articles on Fred Thompson’s early life and career.

John Geer, professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, editor of The Journal of Politics, and author of “In Defense of Negativity: Attack Advertising in Presidential Campaigns” (2006).

Dick Polman, national political columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of the blog “Dick Polman’s American Debate.”