Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Democrat Caller Carl to the newsmaker line to weigh in on Nancy Pelosi’s future as Speaker of the House, her recent comments to athletes regarding the Olympics and China, and elements of the NFL racial discrimination lawsuit.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line, our very good friend Carl, who’s been listening and a longtime caller. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report. Thanks so much for calling in.
Carl: Listen, man, first of all, be careful driving home. Everybody else, be careful. Thank you for the invite.
Leahy: Hey, Carl, some of our listeners may not be familiar with the bet that you and I had. And you stomped me on the bet.
Carl: I did.
Leahy: And I paid it off, didn’t I? (Chuckles)
Carl: Yes, you did. And you were respectful of the time period in which I wanted to take care of it. And we did.
Leahy: The bet that we had when the new President was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, you bet five months before it that it would be Joe Biden and I bet it would be Donald Trump, and the loser would have to pay for a steak dinner at Rafferty’s. I lost and we had a great lunch, didn’t we?
Carl: Absolutely. What a great lunch.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael is here and wants to say hello.
Carmichael: Hey, Carl, how are you doing?
Carl: Good.
Carmichael: Carl, now my question is on behalf of Mike. He doesn’t know I’m doing this, but do you want to place a lunch bet on who will be the next Speaker of the House? Which party?
Carl: No, because I don’t know who will be the Speaker, but if it trends the way they’re supposed to be, the way it always has gone, it will go back to the party that’s out of power, out of the White House, but that’s yet to be seen.
Leahy: Carl, something about the program or something in the news prompted you to call because you’ve got something to say. What is it that prompted you to call in today and what is it you’d like to say?
Carl: I don’t disagree to be disagreeable. I do agree with your take on Nancy Pelosi. I believe that you have to be respectful of being a good guest. I was taught that. I’m pretty sure all parents taught the same thing.
Be a good guest. But still, in the spirit of the Olympics, especially with the precedent of the ’68 Olympics, protest your ass off.
Leahy: (Chuckles) So you disagree with Nancy Pelosi on that?
Carl: Yes, yes, yes. Protest your ass off. Now here’s the thing, though. When I found out the Miami coach was fired, that was shocking.
I was stunned because I thought that if the coaching staff, with the job they did here in Nashville, if he didn’t get the coach of the year, I thought it was going to go to the guy in Miami.
Leahy: I agree with you completely, Brian Flores. I was shocked that he was fired.
Carl: Fired. And then when I listened to the lawsuit, first of all, the lawsuit is long overdue. Very long overdue. That’s number one.
Number two, when I listen to the things that were in it, it’s believable because you don’t fire an up-and-coming young, hot, head coach that turned your team around two years in a row unless you’re pissed at him. And the owner was mad at him for not taking those games and getting a better draft pick a couple of years ago.
Leahy: I saw that in the complaint. And that is obviously inappropriate behavior. And if true, inappropriate. But here’s the big question just on the Miami incident for a moment.
If that’s true, if you tell your coach to tank the games, that’s kind of a violation of some NFL rules. But here’s my big question: how is that evidence of racism?
Carl: That’s just one part of the thing. That’s one part of the suit. Then the other part is the giant thing that’s the most damning – you have this man come in for an interview after you knew you hired someone else. That’s not cool at all.
Leahy: He sued three teams, right? Miami, Denver and Giants. I don’t see the claim of racism in Miami. But let’s go to New York now for a moment. So walk the audience through what you’ve read about that.
Carl: So what happened was his name is Brian. Another former coordinator. Bill Belichick’s named Brian as well. Bill Belichick texted him and thought he was talking to the other Brian and texted him and said, “Hey, congratulations on getting the Giants.”
And Brian was like, well, did you hear something? Because I don’t interview with them until Thursday, two days later. And he was like, oh, well, damn, I made a mistake. Brian then takes it back and says, “Are you talking about me or the other Brian coordinator in Buffalo?”
And then Bill Belichick said, “Man, I f’d up.” This is literally what he said, “I f’d up. My bad.” The lawsuit part of that is valid because he learned about it through Bill Belichick for congratulating the guy.
What is Bill Belichick doing knowing about what’s going on with the New York Giants and that hire in the first place? Number one. And number two, you don’t bring someone in as a token interview when you already hired someone else. At the very least, it’s not cool, right?
Leahy: Yes. I see the line of reasoning there.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed official guest host and Grassroots Engagement Director of Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee Grant Henry in studio to discuss the Democrat’s multi-trillion-dollar spending package and how they have connected moral values to products.
Leahy: Joined in studio by the official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report, Grant Henry. Ben Cunningham has passed the baton to Grant. I think the reason is that he doesn’t like getting up at 3:30 am in the morning.
Why would anybody not like doing that? (Henry chuckles) And you are prepared to get up at 3:30 a.m. in the morning.
Henry: That’s God’s time, man. (Leahy laughs) That’s when the real work gets done. I’m telling you.
Leahy: Grant, we were talking during the break, and there may be some fraying going on among the Democrats in Washington, D.C. Tell us about that.
Henry: Yes. Look, I think y’all the pressure is working. The pressure you’re putting on these Democrats, especially in DC, it’s working specifically as it pertains to this boondoggle of a $3.5 trillion spending package.
We already heard that Democrat Senator Joe Manchin last Sunday said he will not support the three $5 trillion package in its current form. Now, Kyrsten Sinema has also come out, and Politico is reporting that she apparently told Joe Biden, they had a private meeting on Wednesday that “If the House delays it scheduled September 27 vote on this spending ing bill or if it fails, she will also not be backing the reconciliation bill.”
Not just her, Michael. Representative Kurt Straighter over in the House, one of approximately ten moderate House Democrat members is playing hardball with leadership over there. He said that several members of their group are on the same page about this.
Some of the lawmakers have convened and say that the message is that it’s up to chain leadership to convince them that they need to keep these two bills together. And saying, if they delay the vote or if it goes down, then I think you can kiss reconciliation goodbye.
Leahy: I’m glad you said that because I thought you were about to say, kiss something else. (Laughter)
Henry: Maybe that’s what some people are feeling. But if this doesn’t make sense to some of y’all, the reason why this whole idea of keeping them together and keeping it up together. What they mean by that is Nancy Pelosi is taking a big gamble in the House.
She’s trying to satisfy the progressives in the House by saying look. If you pass both of these things together, the one $2 trillion in big air quotes here infrastructure package, at the same time as the three $3.5 trillion boondoggle bill, then the progressives will be satisfied.
The moderates in the House are saying, look, I’m not for this nonsensical three $5 trillion spending. The parliamentarian in Senate just said that you can’t include amnesty on the Senate side. So you’re pushing stuff in there that has nothing to do with spending.
Leahy: And from Breitbart News, I’ll read the story. The Senate parliamentarian ruling Sunday effectively kills any chance of illegal alien amnesty through 2024. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s rule that the Democrats plan to slip a massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens into a bill does not comply with the Byrd rule.
That’s a former majority leader, Robert Byrd, regarding budgetary reconciliation. Democrats hope they could use their $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill to pass an amnesty.
MacDonough said Democrat lawmakers could not use reconciliation, which primarily relates to spending changes to the budget. To make sure such a drastic policy change as granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.
Henry: Here’s the calculation as far as Politico sees it. They think it’s a progressive think that if they band together and threatened to kill this infrastructure bill, the $1.2 trillion, it will convince moderate members to go along with the larger reconciliation package.
But multiple sources, including a senior Democrat aid and several in the decenters camp are telling Politico that the left is misreading their colleagues. If Nancy Pelosi gambles here it is to keep these two ridiculous things together, $4.7 trillion worth of spending to keep them together to satisfy the progressives, the moderates are saying we’ll kill all of it.
We’re not going to risk our reputation of $4.7 trillion worth of nonsense spending that will hit the people least able to afford it. So here’s how I think we win as Republicans. visit. stopthespendingspree.com. Sign that letter.
I think if we continually push this message that $4.7 trillion is wasted spending with historic tax increases that would lower worker wages and crush small businesses. Massive energy taxes and California-style mandates will add hundreds of dollars to your energy bills and it’ll put the government in more control over your health care.
Michael, this bill has nearly half a trillion dollars in healthcare spending. That’s one and a half times more than it was in the entirety of Obamacare.
These types of messages will force Nancy Pelosi to make a distinction between the two bills, possibly separate them, or have moderates kill the entirety of all of them. It’s encouraging for me. I think we keep the pressure on.
Leahy: Grant, we need encouragement. And I’m glad you’re encouraged because if you’re encouraged, I’m encouraged. And our listening audience, which really needs encouragement, is encouraged as well.
Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee was also encouraged. He tweeted this out yesterday. He said the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian has ruled that Democrats’ mass amnesty plan cannot be included in a budget bill.
Their tax and spend spree remains dangerous for our economy. But on immigration, Democrats will now focus hopefully on the massive border crisis they’ve created and ignored. I think hopefully was the active word there Grant.
Henry: Yes. The immigration situation is something that needs a full-on look. Republicans continue to believe that immigration is still good, but our system is broken especially in times of unprecedented economic challenge.
Republicans, we stand behind the idea that we welcome immigrants who are motivated to improve their lives and contribute to society that will enrich American lives.
Many immigrants or entrepreneurs who start businesses create jobs, generate demand for other goods and services, which in turn requires businesses to hire more people. It works out better for all of us!
However, Democrats in this administration need to acknowledge that Americans are feeling unsafe about their health and are feeling anxious about their economic future, and may feel threatened because of that.
They also need to acknowledge that there is an unprecedented crisis going on at the border and we simply cannot afford to kick this issue along extreme party lines anymore.
We’re dealing with real situations here that have real effects on real lives. This is no longer theoretical, Michael. We need to build a better immigration system for the long term.
We also need to focus on fixing the broken system immediately. I feel like what Democrats are doing is trying to cram something in an alleged spending bill that does not do service to what we really need to focus on here in this country.
Leahy: Democrats also want to do this, I’d be delighted to hear your reaction to this. They plan a $12,500 tax credit for pricey electric car purchases. This is at The Tennessee Star. Tennesseestar.com. House Republicans are arguing against a Democratic proposal to increase the $7,500 taxpayer-funded credit for electric car purchases to as much as $12,500, arguing that it would disproportionately help wealthy Americans who can afford to buy pricey electric vehicles.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have proposed increasing the credit as part of their party’s filibuster-proof $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill which includes new social programs and billions for electric vehicle infrastructure. Your thoughts Grant.
Henry: Go some research on the amount of energy it takes to create one of those cars versus the amount of energy that you’re saving out of it. What kind of metals do you need to get those batteries? What is going on?
Leahy: I think it’s Lithium.
Henry: What’s the human cost involved?
Leahy: That’s pretty darn high from what I can tell. It’s interesting because when you look at what the Democrats on the left have done is they have attached moral values to products.
So an electric car is a moral good. A car powered by gasoline is a moral, bad. That’s the simplicity of it. But the reality of it is if you look at the power and the impact on the environment, to me, I think that the evidence is that electric vehicles have a more destructive impact on the environment.
If you go all the way back to the key factor, which is lithium batteries, the mining of lithium is extraordinarily destructive from what I’ve read.
Henry: No, exactly. There’s a human toll involved as well. There’s child labor, possibly in some of the situations going on to mine some of this stuff out.
Leahy: It comes from third-world countries.
Henry: And I think you hit it on the head when you add a moral component to pushing some of this in the guise of, I don’t know, doing something to say, save the world or carbon tax credits or a Green New Deal or anything that you’re really trying to push through an ulterior motive, you get a problem because you’re pushing something you don’t fully understand.
You’re pushing something to win in PR points but not understanding what the policy might actually be doing to our country.
If we really want to have a conversation about energy, I don’t know why nuclear is not brought up every single time. But no one ever brings that up anymore. I don’t know. Maybe for reasons I don’t fully understand.
Leahy: Nuclear is interesting because it was for a period of time, morally bad. Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas in the China Syndrome movie, morally bad. But now they don’t know what to do because it doesn’t have bad emissions on it.
But, you know, way back when, 40 years ago, the left and Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas and Jack Lemon all said it was bad. Personally, I think the idea of Adam Smith’s idea of the marketplace working, that is a way to go.
We’re moving more towards the government working and telling everybody what’s a good product, what’s a bad product. I say it’s none of their business.
Listen to the third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and senior editor-at-large at The Epoch Times, Roger Simon, in-studio to weigh in on Liz Cheney’s anti-Republican actions siding with Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats Wednesday.
(Jim Jordan clip plays)
Leahy: That’s Jim Jordan and Jim is at the center of this kind of controversy. I mean, it’s all to be expected. The regime of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, wants to do an investigation or cover-up, shall we say, with what happened on January six.
Lots of questions here. Tucker Carlson last night talked about it. Roger, what’s your take on this? Queen Nancy, the Despot, who is the speaker of the House, basically elected Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana as members of this, the word really is going to be a Kafkaesque propaganda event.
Simon: Straight out of an Alice in Wonderland kind of thing with Liz Cheney as the titular Republican.
Leahy: Liz Cheney. I saw a clip of her talking on Tucker Carlson’s show last night. I couldn’t believe that this was a Republican.
She said, well, I’m totally supportive of Speaker Pelosi. The minority leader is just totally wrong at the head of her party, by the way.
And, you know, these guys are, well, you can’t have somebody who’s a potential witness be on and so I agree with the Speaker. What is going on with Liz Cheney?
Simon: All right. I see Liz Cheney in a slightly different manner than everybody else. Let’s say, a different angle. And it’s purely psychological.
And what we are looking at with Liz Cheney is what old Sigmund Freud used to call a very severe Electra complex.
Leahy: Okay, now elaborate for those who are psychiatrists.
Simon: Right. An Electra complex is sort of the polar opposite of the Oedipus complex. And it’s a young woman who is not so young anymore. Let’s say a middle-aged woman who has a thing for her Dad.
Leahy: She’s trying to Curry favor with her dad. That’s a polite way to put it.
Simon: It’s kind of a love affair with the father anyway, and not consummated, of course, I’m talking about psychologically. And as we know, I interviewed both. I interviewed Dick Cheney.
Leahy: Oh. When did you interview Dick Cheney?
Simon: I interviewed Dick Cheney just after, I guess, after Obama first came in.
Leahy: Where was this interview?
Simon: It was at the Reagan Library.
Leahy: In-person?
Simon: Yes. It was a very fancy interview physically because you set up a camera above the Air Force One that they have in the regular library.
So you’re looking down at Air Force. And I’m sort of at that point in awe of Dick Cheney because I agreed, sadly and incorrectly, with some of his policies.
Simon: He’s a bright man, though. There’s no question about it. And in with Dick walked Liz because they were always inseparable.
And, in fact, I hadn’t known that Liz would come there. But I became friendly and talked with her and all. And it was very clear that she was the sidekick to her father and his policy.
And, of course, his most famous policy was the Iraq War. Which many of us favored in those days. I don’t know where you were on it.
I was for it. And I was wrong. And Dick Cheney in a more important manner. But now roll forward many years.
Leahy: Let me just go back to that interview. What was it like interviewing Dick Cheney?
Simon: It was not a good interview on my end. Dick Cheney was fine. My interview didn’t probe very much because I wanted to interview the vice president and that’s a very big deal.
Leahy: It is a big deal. And perceptions of Dick Cheney – of Cheney dramatically…
Simon: Absolutely.
Leahy: Since he left office, his star has not declined quite as much as George W. Bush’s because he himself has been silent about a lot of things.
Simon: True.
Leahy: George W. Bush has just jabbered on like an idiot on immigration.
Simon: Well, it was always said that Dick Cheney was the brains of that administration. And it’s probably true.
Leahy: You look at George W. Bush talking today and you say, how did we elect that guy president? Not the brightest bulb.
Simon: Not the brightest bulb. But Cheney was a smart guy. He just made a very bad decision, which happens. And in any case, it was something that everybody learned.
We all thought maybe that if you win a war in Iraq, they’ll turn it to Denmark. But somehow it didn’t.
Leahy: Gee. Now that’s a funny line, because Iraqis, Danish people, they’re a little different. Culture, a little different.
Simon: To say the least. Anyways, what Liz Cheney is trying to do at all costs is to preserve the reputation of her dad. And that’s what we’re watching, and it’s destroying everything. I mean, she’s nuts. (Chuckles)
Leahy: She really is. And it’s a sad thing to watch. And thankfully, she’s gonna be gone. And once she loses her position in Congress, no one’s gonna pay attention to her.
Leahy: I got one person who might pay attention to her. You ready?
Simon: Go for it.
Leahy: Jeff Bezos, because, you know, he gave $100 million to Van Jones to do civility. Van Jones. Mr. I-love-Critical-Race-Theory Van Jones. That guy.
Simon: Jeff Bezos can afford to do anything he wants, but I don’t think Liz Cheney is good enough on TV and radio to preserve, frankly.
Leahy: (Laughter) So now let me explore your theory a little bit more. She’s there. How is she preserving her father’s legacy by siding with Nancy Pelosi and against the leader of the Republicans in the House? Explain that?
Simon: Okay, here it is. Donald Trump trashed her father and trashed the Iraq war all the time. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
The Republican Party is now Trump. Let’s be real. And she hates him. He trashed her father. I’m talking really primitive stuff.
Leahy: That’s an explanation that makes sense. I think from what I’ve read, that her father does despise Donald Trump.
Simon: Oh yeah.
Leahy: But in a defensive way. If we were having a private conversation with Dick Cheney right now, and if he was being honest, he would say that. I’m sure he would say that.
Simon: Oh, I’m sure he would. And now he doesn’t have to say it publicly because he’s got his daughter doing it for him.
Leahy: And it’s not serving her well.
Simon: It’s serving Nancy Pelosi.
Leahy: And it’s not serving her father.
Simon: Not really.
Leahy: But he’s like 80 or something like that?
Simon: When I interviewed him, the most interesting part of the interview was when he was showing all his heart maintenance things. He’s had several operations, and he opened them up for us on camera.
Leahy: No kidding.
Simon: Yeah, it was interesting. That part was actually medically interesting. He was treated with the most modern equipment.
Leahy: So he’s not in sufficient robust health to go out and be very active. He’s in maintenance mode.
Simon: This is some time ago, that interview. I mean, he’s done very well physically, actually.
Leahy: Considering everything. But still, he’s a behind-the-scenes guy right now, but he clearly hates Donald Trump. And his daughter hates Donald Trump. And she cares nothing about anything but that.
Simon: Yeah, because he’s trashed her father.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Dick Cheney” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Congressman Tim Burchett (TN-02) to the newsmakers line to discuss the out of control power trip of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changing mask mandates, and the elusive role of John Kerry.
Leahy: We are delighted to welcome back to our microphones, the voice of sanity (Burchett chuckles) in Washington, D.C., Representative Tim Burchett from Knox County. Welcome back to The Tennessee Star Report Congressman Burchett.
Burchett: Thanks for having me on, brother. I really appreciate it.
Leahy: I don’t know how you guys do it up there right now with Nancy Pelosi running the House of Representatives like it’s her own little dictatorial club. How do you stand it?
Burchett: You pray a lot, honestly. There is no rhyme or reason and even our own party or parties and shambles. They’re on us about an election for the person who literally just schedules our meetings and at the end of the Republican Party. But dadgum, look at them.
We can’t even have a meeting during the day on a Zoom call because she scheduled three at the exact same time and we don’t have the bandwidth to do it. They are always collapsing. We were on with Secretary Buttigieg a few weeks back and I asked the chair lady, why does he keep freezing?
Why can’t we have this testimony? And she said, well, there are three other meetings going on at the same time. And that is just a small sample of a bigger problem. I think she and the President, their day is come and gone and the country is not being well served by them and all the radical agenda.
Gas lines, who would have thought we had gas lines in 2021? Inflation is rising, of course, at an alarming rate. The border is overflowing. There’s trouble in the Middle East. And all they’re concerned about is making sure that the media over there is taken care of.
And the media should know better and put their headquarters where Hamas headquarters are or where there are missiles being launched. And it’s just beyond belief. I think our priorities are completely out of whack with this bunch. We’re spending a one trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.
Then it went to a one-point three then two. Now it’s a three. And five percent of it, I think, goes to roads and bridges, traditional infrastructure. The rest is Green New Deal and virtue signaling. The midterm elections could not get here soon enough.
Leahy: I’m with you on that. How different is it under the Pelosi speakership now than it was previously when they actually had somewhat normal operations?
Burchett: This year, it’s just kind of gone. I’ve always been under her reign of terror so to speak (Leahy laughs) when I came in. But just in the last year, under COVID, she’s lost any resemblance of leadership. Then there is the mask mandate.
Everybody’s saying, well, take the mask off. And now I read early this morning that the reverse in that they’re saying, well, maybe we went too fast on that. She’s allowed unelected bureaucrats to dictate to us American citizens what we can and cannot do and to me, that’s that is wrong.
And she is wrong as she could be. I know there’s plenty of edited versions of her speaking but just go watch some of the unedited versions. It’s just unbelievable. It’s unbearable really is what it is.
Leahy: Yeah, that’s a good term. Unbearable.
Burchett: The Democrats know it. If you talk to any of them off the record, the vast majority of them, they’re just waiting their turn. It’s all they’re doing right now.
Leahy: Now you talked about the mask mandate. This is so very confusing. The confusion starts with the CDC, but also, I don’t know if you call it confusion more dictatorial anti-science policy in the House of Representatives itself.
I saw last week the CDC said you don’t need to wear masks if you’ve been vaccinated. Then on Saturday, they said, oh, but yes, school kids have to wear masks or they recommend you should. Now Nancy Pelosi there was a little bit of a brouhaha about this. One of your colleagues, I think it was Brian Mast from Florida who appeared on the House floor.
And even after the CDC said, you don’t have to wear a mask if you’ve been vaccinated, she set the little dictatorial rule that you’ve got to wear a mask on the floor. So Brian Mast from Florida went into the House and dramatically ripped his mask off.
When last I saw this, she said, you’re going to be fined $500. a day. And then thereafter $1,000. a day. Where does maskgate stand now in the House of Representatives?
Burchett: I’m sure she’ll make us wear it until the end of the year or something. It’s just more of her just showing her power. And it’s ridiculous because if you look on the floor and if the media would ever show it, the Democrats are always huddled over there and a very un-social distancing manner.
And they come over there and tell us to separate. We got to wear our masks. The Sergeant at Arms is threatening to fine us. And it’s just like the metal detectors, which is another ridiculous rule that she’s done. She waves it for herself.
She walks right through it. Don’t forget, she brought somebody there that was COVID positive to vote for her because it was a very close vote on the House floor.
Leahy: I remember that.
Burchett: The national media sort of forgot that. I mean, it was just a bogus deal all the way around. It’s just a power kick for them. And we all know it and it’s ridiculous, but we got to live under it because she is the Speaker.
Leahy: The Speaker does get to set the rules of behavior in the House of Representatives. But if the Speaker said, everybody has to hop on one foot before they speak, would that be a legitimate rule?
Burchett: I would say about half the people in there would start hopping on one foot. (Leahy laughs) The Republican Party would not because there are some others that think that she’s just the greatest thing in the world.
You know, something else I don’t get is how can a Catholic be just wide open on pro-choice? And if a baby is born alive, if a doctor is allowed to kill that baby, how can she get by with that? I question that. That makes me very angry. Her agenda is clearly for her and not for anybody else and not for the wellbeing of the country.
Leahy: Congressman Burchett, why do the Democrats go in lockstep along with this sort of dictatorial approach of Nancy Pelosi? Why is no one there of independent mind or courage or spirit on the Democratic side?
Burchett: I would say the Democrats use the carrot of the stick pretty much. If you act up, they give you the stick. If you don’t, they give you a carrot. Jim Cooper, your representative from right there voted against Pelosi a couple of times, and I guess he ended up in the closet for an office. But they punish pretty well.
They do a pretty good job of that. And we don’t. I don’t know that we should, but they sure do. They sure do punish their people. They get out of line like the girl with the throuple or whatever her name was in California, she was a wild card. And then, surprisingly, if something got leaked to the press.
Leahy: Surprisingly. (Laughs)
Burchett: I doubt that that was any Republicans that leaked it. But they just figured she was too much of a wild card and they took care of her. If I was a Democrat, I would fear other Democrats before I would fear Republicans because they’re a pretty vicious bunch. Everybody down there is trying to get to that Speaker’s office somehow. Everybody thinks that they got a shot at it.
Leahy: They want to be the Speaker. They want the power.
Burchett: I just want to make sure I get home to my wife and daughter.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Tim Burchett” by Congressman Tim Burchett.
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star National Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line who outlined the levers of power in the House of Representatives and gave different scenarios of how strategies are playing out for Pelosi, McCarthy, and Cheney.
Leahy: We are joined now by the great Neil McCabe who is the National and Washington Correspondent for The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Neil, every time I turn around national news publications want to talk to the Washington Correspondent for The Tennessee Star. The New York Times was knocking on your door, and you gave them a quote. (McCabe chuckles)
McCabe: A great bunch of kids at The Times. They, of course, were doing a hit piece on a place that I enjoyed working at One American News, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only positive quote that made it into that article. (Leahy chuckles) So I think I’m going to call that a win.
Leahy: Yes. All the mainstream media news outlets want to hear from The Tennessee Star’s Washington Correspondent Neil McCabe. And I want to hear from you, Neil about the impact on Biden’s legislative agenda of the Derek Chauvin guilty verdicts in the death of George Floyd.
McCabe: Well, I think, as they say on Wall Street, I think a lot of this verdict was already baked in and the lines are already drawn. So nothing is really going to change. I think the most significant thing, which is sort of ancillary to the Chauvin trial is what happened with Maxine Waters being scolded by the judge and giving Kevin McCarthy a chance to put some numbers on the board and force that vote.
The Democrats were able to defeat the motion to censor Waters, but it was 216 to 210. And basically, every Democrat voted the party line, which is a very scary thing for Pelosi. And if I can go into that, Pelosi runs her caucus very well. She is a brilliant vote counter, and she is able to garrison and heard and shepherd her votes. And the main tool that she uses is she goes to 218 to get a simple majority in the House.
And so basically you go around and you secure more than you need. You get like, 220 or 225 and you go around to your people, depending on how many you have. Once you’ve locked down your majority, what you tell people is there are people who are going to say, Nancy, I can’t go with you this time it’ll kill me in the district.
And Pelosi will say if I can get you out of it, I will. And so once she has her simple majority, she can then go around to people and say, I’m going to let you off the hook. And so you’ll see a number of votes going back to when Pelosi’s been Speaker, and then even with this majority leader and whatnot that she has allowed Democrats to vote against Democratic legislation and the Democratic motions as part of the deal.
It’s like if I let you off the hook on this gun vote when the abortion vote comes up, I’m going to need you. And that’s part of the way she cuts a deal. She was not able to let anybody off the hook this time because if she let this person off the hook, she’d have to let somebody else off the hook. So basically, they all had to go down together. And that shows you just how tight things are. If you saw 10 Democrats voting with Republicans, that would show you that Nancy Pelosi is confident and has control of her Chamber.
But if she’s got to lock everybody down, that means that they’re strapped to the max. And it’s not a good sign for Pelosi. It’s a good sign for McCarthy, who is very good when things are safe and the Democrats make a mistake. McCarthy is very good at sort of scooping up the ball. Where McCarthy is very bad is that there actually is no Republican agenda.
You never hear McCarthy talking about gun rights unless he’s trying to restrict guns and gun rights. You never hear him talking about immigration unless he’s trying to expand immigration. You never hear him talking about building the wall. So if McCarthy has the juice to get this Waters thing to the House floor, there’s a ton of bills that McCarthy could have been bringing to the House floor, he’s not going to do it. And that’s just the way it is.
He’s a passive reactive guy. And if that continues, it could jeopardize the red wave that is going to be coming and everybody smells it which is exactly why Biden is playing smash and grab with these executive actions and executive decisions. They just decided to make all school lunches is free. They just decided that they’re going to start restricting nicotine and tobacco. They’re talking about auto emissions. They’re cutting deals with Iran.
They’re cutting deals with China. They’re moving on NATO. It’s like Biden is in a hurry because the Democrats know they are supposed to lose the House in 2022. The only thing that’s going to stop the Republicans from taking the House is McCarthy sort of dampening voter enthusiasm as he continues to support people who voted to impeach Trump and continues to go after and ridicule conservatives and there is no reason to vote for Republicans because all he does is go after Democrats when they stumble.
Carmichael: Neil, let me ask you a question.
McCabe: Sure.
Carmichael: I’m going to take everything that you just said to be gospel to be correct.
McCabe: It is the gospel.
Leahy: The gospel according to Saint Neil. (Laughter)
Carmichael: Amen. Amen. My question is this, is the majority of the Republicans in the House like McCarthy? And if they’re not, if they’re more conservative than McCarthy, then how does McCarthy win his position of minority leader?
McCabe: Well, basically, there are probably 70 or 80 conservatives in the Republican conference. The rest of the guys are these goofballs who are active in the Rotary Club and they own five dealerships or they sold their business and they didn’t know what to do. The Republican Party, especially on the House side, loves to go with these so-called self-financing guys.
So if some rich guy decides he wants to run for Congress the Republican Party will back him because they don’t have to do any work. He can raise his own money. And so these guys get in and they are just good-time Charlies and they want to go along to get along. The reason why McCarthy is still there is that no one else is strong enough to make a run for it.
And so basically, McCarthy is there is the store literally a placeholder because Steve Scalise does not want to make a run for Speaker of the House. We already know that Liz Cheney is going to run for Speaker. She was trying to muster votes to go up against McCarthy for Speaker last time. So, I mean, there are people who want to take McCarthy down, but because nobody has the juice to take him down completely, they’re basically going to leave McCarthy there until they can figure out what they’ll do.
And so it becomes sort of this ghost ship, almost like we saw under Paul Ryan where he skips the bit in April of 2018 and refuses to resign and basically it just becomes this ghost ship. Remember, in 2018, the Republicans lost the House, but they also left 40 seats unchallenged. And McCarthy of course is part of that team.
Carmichael: Geez. There is nothing that I can look at to argue with you. But the clarity of the way that you said it is disappointing…
McCabe: You can’t argue with that. (Leahy laughs)
Carmichael: That’s true.
Leahy: Neil, where does this go? What has to happen? What has to change between now and 2022 for the Republicans to take back the House of Representatives?
McCabe: So basically, it’s McCarthy’s game to lose. You’re going to see some more retirement on the House side. Kevin Brady, rather the very powerful and wonderful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee when the Republicans had control, the ranking member there. He’s announced his retirement. Devin Nunes should be in place to take over that spot. And as you see, the sort of the jockeying around of the senior Republicans, you’re going to see some potential chairman that is going to decide you know what? Maybe I want to be Speaker.
Listen to the third hour here:
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