Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffys Corner: Confessions Of Congressman X

Episode Date: July 9, 2016

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Get moving at real estate agents. I trust.com. You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. Broke through with a book called Confessions of Congressman X. And Robert joins us here on the broadcast today. And Robert, we kind of broke down a little bit of the book a few weeks ago and found it. I find it fascinating. When you were putting this together, do you have the impression that X is in the majority?

Oh, absolutely. Do you mean as far as the comments he makes in the book? Yes. Yes, very much so. And what he says crosses both party lines for both Republicans and Democrats. He is a Democrat, as you know, although he admits he's a closet moderate, but he won't dare admit it for fear the liberals in Congress would drum them out. How many times did you hear some of these before you took to writing them down for history? history. Well, first of all, you should know that back, way back in the 1970s, I was on Capitol Hill

for 10 years as the chief of staff and also the press secretary to two members of Congress. They were Democrats from Maryland, but they were the blue dogs of their day. Back then, they called them bowl weevils, and they switched to slow dogs, but they were conservative Democrats. And so I got an inside feel of Congress for that period of time. And I can tell you, it was totally different than this today. I still stay in touch with one of those members. One has died. The other is still alive.

I've been up to Capitol Hill with her on many occasions. And it's just totally changing the stories you hear from members. It kind of curls your toes a little bit. It's very disturbing. There are a lot of unhappy people up there, but they're not doing anything to change the system. Well, we've been told, just as a side note, outside of this broadcast, I work on the Glenn Beck radio program as well. And we were talking to a number of people. I should say, we have talked to a number of people that are inside the Beltway.

And they claim that you don't know what it's like here. You don't know what it's like. I mean, it's bad. Yes, it is. It's bad. And that's a shame to hear. It's almost kind of frightening to hear. It is.

As a matter of fact, as you know, in the book, Congressman X even says he feels disconnected from reality. I mean, he said, you know, he said it's just like, you know, the Wizard of Oz, pull back the curtain, and, you know, there's Congress. Right. Not much really there. What do you hope people get out of this? So we'll go through the book a little bit.

I found it, I mean, it's a quick read. It's fascinating, and it brought so many of the chapters as I was going through them. I'm like, yeah. Right. Yeah. And? Well, you know, his goal, and I'm talking about X, his goal was really to call attention to all the corruptive practices that are occurring up on Capitol Hill. and he hopes that people would use it as a starting point to start talking about it

and then kind of forcing their members of Congress to start making some changes. Although later in the book he admits that it's, and it's really kind of sad to say this, but he almost feels that it's too late. There's maybe no road out of this. Well, I mean, the title of the last chapter, I'm not hopeful about the future kind of gives you that idea. But he does give some plans that would seem to at least put the boat in the right direction. Yes, he does.

And that is kind of, it's very interesting. There's a book. You can see a lot of arrogance and hubris and brashness and so forth. But at the same time, I kind of got the feeling that he was embarrassed by it all himself, and he was kind of seeking forgiveness. And this was the way he was going to do it, write this book and say, okay, I admit it. We do all these things, but here is, if it's wrong,

and here's what you can do about it. And obviously the key one was doing something about this dialing for dollars, madness that all members go through. They spend one-half to two-thirds of their time doing nothing but shaking the tree for money rather than doing the job they were elected to do. So that's the first thing he's talking about is how do we go about that? How do we stop lobbyists from raising money, you know, for those they lobby? That should be completely against the law.

Yes, no question. And he's talking about publicly financed elections. I know that, you know, courts show that out, but the fact is he said there's got to be some way to control the money here because if you, you know, it's so obvious that special interests are controlling the votes in Congress, agenda in Congress, and the guy, you know, the average guy in the street has no impact at all. Well, and again, I mean, if you turn that around a little bit and look at some of the, for lack of a better term, rage in the country right now and even around the world, you know, people seem to be maybe getting a little tired of that,

but I don't know that they know exactly what they want to make it better. No, I agree with you. And the other problem is, as he points out, he blames a lot of this. on the electorate. He's saying that they are pretty ignorant about what goes on in Washington, what Congress is all about, with the role of their member of Congress is, and so forth. And he said, because people are so into themselves today that they're kind of ignoring, they've kind of thrown up their hands as it were saying, we can't do anything. So we'll just let them do what they do and we'll do. Well, it's just getting worse and worse as a result of that.

Yeah, sooner or later something has to give. No question about that. While you were going through Confessions of Congressman X, what's your favorite part? Is there a favorite part? Well, no, my favorite's not quite the word. I mean, I always tell people, when I give them a copy of the book, I say, you know, I don't want to say enjoy this because it's very depressing.

And I think when you finish the whole book, because I've seen it with people around here, you finish the book and you say, what the hell can I do? How can I change? This is terrible. And there's suddenly an interest of one kind or another. I kind of like the idea that Congressman X had. I really think it probably is the only solution. He is saying that there should be insurrection at the polls.

and what he's saying is primarily that during primaries, most people aren't going to change their party because they're afraid of what the other guy's going to do. So he's saying to start at the primary level, find someone to run against the incumbent that's already in there that has some solutions to the problems in Washington. And this way you can kick out the incumbent and still stay with your own party. Right. Well, I mean, they've talked a number of, you know, for several years anyway, is the way to get that back is at the, you know, the primary level, you know, just to get that out. But then you also have to have people realize that, look, that's what it's supposed to be about, right?

You're supposed to have, hey, this person feels the way I do. So I'm going to, you know, put this, I'm going, I want this person in office. Right. And then you get like-minded people around that person and get them into office. That's the whole point of the system. Well, I think most people vote, you know, they don't know much about who they've elected. That's very basic. You know, who's the governor, who's my delegate, who's my senator.

And people generally vote for that letter after the name, you know, the R or the D. Right, because it's easy. It's easy. And they know, well, generally, those people, you know, they share my kind of thinking. And you drive around your, drive around your city and, you know, the one with the most signs that are, ramming it in your head every day. When you go there, oh, yeah, Wilson. Yeah, I remember that guy.

I remember that sign a thousand times in my head. He must be good. It's a she. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. It's a she. I mean, it's so unbelievable. All right. So, after all the years, all the tears,

what's left for you? Are you hoping that maybe we create that fishbowl, Washington, D.C., that we so would like to have? That's the hope, of course, because, you know, I think it's kind of interesting his last three words, God help us. Because, as you may recall, that last chapter, he makes all these suggestions. And then he suddenly says,

I don't know why I'm bringing this up, we're talking about it, because he said, it's just not going to happen. Congress is too polarized to have it happen, and the electric is too polarized. So he honestly thinks that, you know, But, as he said, he's not hopeful about the future and people taking an interest in trying to change things. People have kind of given up. Although I agree with you, isn't it interesting that this particular election cycle, a presidential cycle, election, that you're seeing people like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and Brexit and all that kind of.

Right. There is this momentum that's building up, you know, and it is. You're absolutely right. It's anger. There's a complete disintegration of confidence in government these days. And everyone agrees that, as he said, it is presumptuous. It's wasteful. It's hard.

It's, you know, look, it's frustrating for everyone to look and say, you know, that's just not right. I mean, it's just, you know, one of the chapters he talks about just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's morally right. Well, guess what? You know, that's true. But, you know, how many times have we heard, well, that's the law, and that's the way it is. And that's what's so frustrating. And that's why I think, as, you know, you just mentioned, people are frustrated and mad and angry, but they really don't know what to do.

Well, it's kind of sad when you hear people say, you know, a politician will tell us. a lie here and a lie there and so they go. And the standard response is, well, you know, politicians lie. That's just the way they are. Right. And all that kind of nonsense. Well, that isn't that cute.

That's just the charm of those people, you know. Of course, of course. It's the primaries. Of course they lie. Yep. Of course we're going to hear their lies. They all say that. Yes, they do.

Oh, my gosh. It's absolutely agonizing. Absolutely. Okay, so, Congressman X, we're going to we'll set aside the confessions of congressman acts a little bit and we'll go to Robert Atkinson, uh, uh, political pundit. I don't know about that. What do you?

Oh, come on now. Former chief of staff, press secretary for a couple members of Congress, uh, traveled the world. What do you see happening in this presidential election happening here in the United States of America right now? I think it's going to be very, very close. I think there's a feeling right now that assuming that Donald Trump remains Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton remains the Democrat nominee. And I can't be sure both because, you know, the whole email thing might come up in Biter

at the very end. But let's presume it's those two. But unlike what the polls are currently showing, I think it's just going to be neck and neck. And I don't think you're really going to know until early in the morning on election night the next day. I think it's that close. Right. I think ironically, this book, it was totally unintentional because I have the two of them because a few reporters brought up. And they say, well, isn't this really what this book's all about, you know, Donald Trump, you know, how he feels?

And he said, my God, that wasn't my purpose of doing it at all. But I think the book has unintentionally kind of captured the whole populist message that's been out there, this campaign here for not only Trump, but for Sanders. Oh, sure. And because it kind of shows that how pathetic Washington is, you know, how little gets done, and the government is terribly wasteful. And we know all these things again, I get back to nobody's doing anything about it. I mean, you see papers at the Washington Post. They're so happy with a column on giving Pinocchioes. Nobody cares.

They all know. Oh, they're all right. So what's the big deal? I find it fascinating. I don't know if you have watched House of Cards or not on Netflix with Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood. But so many times throughout the book, I could actually, I mean, I could envision it. One of the cool things about the show, if those of you listening aren't familiar with it, a lot of times, Spacey as Frank Underwood will right in the middle of

whatever's going on. We'll stop and just look at the camera and talk to you, which first of all is a great idea and what sets that show apart in the beginning. But so many times, like, for example, one part in your book, it says nobody here gives a rat's ass about the future and who's going to pay for all this stuff we vote for. That's the next generation's problem. It's all about media publicity, getting credit now, looking good for the upcoming

election. Isn't that true? And I can, I mean, I could just, so many times I see Frank Underwood staring at the camera, telling people that on Netflix, and I'm thinking, but that's that's not real, it's not real, that's just a story, right? It's not real.

Oh, this is real. I know. And as a matter of fact, one of the things when, I had, in the forward, I kind of lay out how this is based on a series of conversations over many years, a little over 15 years. And then I had taken notes and never told them about it, but I thought one day he might want to do a tell-all.

And then when I finally mentioned to him that I had these notes, who's obviously very upset. And I said, don't worry. I said, I've told a soul, I never will. And I gave him the notes and said, take a look at these. And I didn't hear from them for a good part of a year. and then he contacted me. We met again, and he said, he'd going over the notes, and he said, you know, he said everything you say is true,

but he said, it sounds so harsh. Can we get rid of the X, you know, the curse words and everything? And I said, hell no. X, look around. That's the way it is. That's what you said, and that's why the book is so powerful. Yeah. Is that it just you're sitting down and you're just spilling all this out.

As you said, like looking at the camera and saying, it's really the way it is. Yeah. I'll tell you one cute story. I kind of reminds you. Who knew that it was actually going on in the 1970s behind the scenes, very little like today. But there's a TV studio on the House side and Senate side where members can go and do a weekly program for maybe a local station in their district. And I was down there with a congresswoman one time. We were waiting in this fellow, and I won't say who we was, but it's some.

Pennsylvania. He was in the studio, and he had, uh, wasn't running for reelection. And this is, I think the last program he had. And he was, so he,

this is you're looking at the camera. So right behind it, what is it set up as a desk, and right behind it, there's this window and there's the capital dome, like everyone looks out of the capital dome. And so he gets up and he goes, this place he said is a giant farce.

Look at this. And he turned around him. And he puts his fist through the capital dome. And it's just over. whole backstop just tell. And I thought to myself, well, that's kind of what this book's about here. Yeah, that's exactly what the book is about. The whole thing is just a facade.

Okay, so before I let you go, and before you want to make, you know, big news here on the Jeff Fisher show, on the Blaze Radio Network, tell people how they can get the book. They can get the book, obviously through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. All the usual places. What's that? All the usual places. All the usual places.

All the usual places, and all you have to do, go to something like Amazon and type in either Congressman X or Confessions of Congressman X. It'll take you there, give you reviews of the book. And I don't want to. And I'll tell you a little secret is that it's if you have the free Kindle app, you can get a pretty good price online too. Very good price. That's what I paid the good price for it online. And I know I'd already bought it, already started reading it, and I saw it and I will thank you for the copy. I saw that you send me a download.

Thank you very much. but I'd already spent my hard-earned money for you, Robert Atkinson. I appreciate that. Okay, so I'm going to give you your chance here to set yourself free and make big news right here on the Jeff Fisher Show on the Blaze Radio Network. Who is Congressman X? Ah, that we will never know because that is the only reason I was selected to write the book is because I used to have a profession where I had to maintain anonymity. That's just you and me, though. Come on.

I will never reveal it. I will tell you that he's a Democrat. We know that. He may still be in Congress or he may have retired or lost the election. How's that for a prediction? Just between you and me, though, who is he? Robert. He's married to Y.

Robert Atkinson, Confessions of Congressman X. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you for having me. In the next 19 seconds, you could sell your home. Okay, I mean, it's not going to sell your home. I mean, this, but you'll, you'll, you're going to take a big step toward getting it sold.

Go to real estate agents.itrust.com and find an agent selected by my team, a professional who shares your values and speaks the truth. Sell your home fast and for the most money. Get moving at real estate agents. I trust.com.