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 Roger Simon in studio to talk about his new book, American Refugee, and the Republican Party’s speaker election transparency with frequent Caller Carl.
Leahy: In studio, all-star panelist Roger Simon. And I am delighted to welcome to our newsmaker line our good friend Carl. Carl, against whom I lost a bet, and I took him to a steak dinner.
He thought Biden would win the re-election. He was right. And because he’s merciful, he didn’t take me up on a bet as to who would take the Senate over because I would have lost that one, too. Carl, good morning.
Carl: First of all, guys, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, because I don’t think I’ve spoken to you since then.
Leahy: Happy New Year, Carl.
Carl: Thank you.
Leahy: What is on your mind this morning? Do you want to weigh in on what’s going on with the House Speaker race?
Carl: (Inaudible talk) The partisan in me is enjoying this dumpster fire, (Laughter) Rhe commercial for the Democrats themselves to add for the next election. But the 14-year-old freshman in high school who was introduced a little class called civics is horrified, absolutely horrified at what’s taking place daily in our House of Representatives.
This shows a lack of leadership from the Republican Party and proves a point that I’ve been trying to make for decades, that they don’t deserve to govern. They’re very good guys that run elections, and they don’t want to win elections. But this has proven to the American public that they don’t deserve the chance to govern.
Simon: I have a question for you, Carl, just a question. Back in the old days of our country, these debates used to take place in public, but then gradually over the years, they went on behind closed doors. Do you prefer these debates about policy, which is what’s going on in the Republican Party, to go on behind closed doors?
Carl: No. You know what? That’s a great question. I think it ought to be out in the open, just like it is right now. I even believe that Supreme Court cases should be open to public as it’s happening, no secrets. We’re supposed to be a representative republic, a democracy as it were.
Simon: I agree.
Carl: All these things are supposed to be out in the open. No more backroom deals. I understand you have to have your meetings, and you have to do those types of things now that could be kept to each individual party on how they’re going to have their meetings and things like that to decide what they’re going to do. But when it gets to the floor, it should be all on the floor for the public to view.
Leahy: Let me ask you this question. And the partisan in you delights in this.
Carl: I’m loving it. Drinking, drinking of the conservative tears right now with sugar and honey.
Leahy: Now, just put on your analytical hat here right now. Let’s say you get two phone calls. Let’s say Kevin McCarthy calls you up and asks you for advice. And let’s say Andy Ogles, who’s one of the 20 who represents the Fifth Congressional District, he actually may represent you. I don’t know if you live in his district. But what advice would you give to Kevin McCarthy right now?
Carl: I would tell him, sir, you don’t have the vote. Bow out gracefully. Resign because there’s no way in the world he can function in that body with this two-day embarrassment. You don’t have the vote.
The insane have taken over the asylum, and you no longer have control of it.
Simon: That’s the same argument that Lauren Boebert made last night on Sean Hannity, the congresswoman from Colorado.
Carl: Listen, I can count. And when Jeffries is getting more votes than you are, you don’t have the vote.
Simon: This is my original analysis is this shows that the Democratic Party is approaching a Communist Party because they all vote in unison. They can’t possibly all agree with each other, but they do.
Carl: I have a response to that. There was an old saying, I think it was, and I can’t remember who it was. They said that I don’t belong to a functional party as a Democrat. For the first time in my lifetime.
That’s funny that you’re gaslighting like that because it’s funny because my whole life they always said that being a Democrat is getting things together like herding cats. Now we finally learned how to herd our cats, and now Republicans can’t herd their cats, but now we’re calming this because our cats are hurt.
Leahy: That’s funny. Carl, thanks so much for joining us today on the program. You and I will have another bet. I got to win a bet with you. I haven’t won a bet yet.
Simon: Carl, how do you like your steak?
Leahy: That’s very good. And he’s a very enthusiastic guy.
Simon: Is he a medium rare guy?
Leahy: I don’t know what he had, but he likes his steak. I like steak, too, as it turns out.
Simon: Me too.
Leahy: So let me go to the same to a broader question about 2023. Roger, are you optimistic or pessimistic about 2023?
Simon: I try to be either. But basically, I’m an optimistic guy because I believe that optimism and pessimism are both self-fulfilling prophecies.
Leahy: That’s a very good point.
Simon: And that if you’re a pessimistic person, you’re going to get what you wanted.
Leahy: That’s a very good point.
Simon: An optimistic person may not always get what he wants.
Leahy: I don’t know how much of this you want to share with us, but a little birdie told me that you’re making great progress on your book.
Simon: Yes, well, I am.
Leahy: Tell our listeners the premise of the book.
Simon: The book is about me and a bunch of other people that live here in Tennessee and now other red states. It’s about the people who moved from blue to red states, of which I think our listeners now are many. And probably many are listening over the last few years, and the flow is continuing.
I’ve checked this, actually. You would think with the bad economic times we’re going through, it would have stopped. But it hasn’t stopped. It’s kind of interesting. People are so much wanting to get the hell out of LA. (Laughter) It’s called American Refugee, and it’s about how we’re all refugees, and what we are within our own country.
Leahy: You’re a refugee from California.
Simon: I’m a refugee from California.
Leahy: And you came to the free state of Tennessee.
Simon: It’s about New York and the other blue states and what effect that it has on states like Tennessee and what Tennessee’s effect on us is. Because, like, all refugees like refugees that came from Italy and China and all the other places that refugees made this country great. Refugees had changed them and they changed the country. And the same thing is happening now in Nashville.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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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.
