Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome the next Vice President of the United States, Jim.
Speaker 3: Wall being introduced by the current Vice President of the
Speaker 3: United States, Kamala Harris. Good evening. I am Ben Parker,
Speaker 3: and I'm filling in for Dan Ray. Let's do a
Speaker 3: quick background check here before we get started, because some
Speaker 3: may not be aware of what I normally do here
Speaker 3: at w BZ, which is news in the afternoon from
Speaker 3: two until six o'clock. You can hear me every weekday
Speaker 3: afternoon here on WBZ. I occasionally fill in for Dan
Speaker 3: Ray on night Side, another four hour shift. Thank you
Speaker 3: very much, and I have actually filled in on the
Speaker 3: radio for the person that I am about to introduce
Speaker 3: as my first guest tonight. I am kind of calling
Speaker 3: this this first hour, by the way, in case you're interested,
Speaker 3: the Ben Parker Rolodex Hour, because a couple of special
Speaker 3: guests are joining me who are inlight Rolodex by chance,
Speaker 3: and the first one comes to us via New York State, Albany,
Speaker 3: New York. In fact, however, you will recognize this person
Speaker 3: not only from radio in Boston, but also television in Boston.
Speaker 3: He's written a book. He is a world renowned celebrity.
Speaker 3: Not right, it made that part up, but you do
Speaker 3: know who he is, Doug Goudi, otherwise known to some
Speaker 3: Bostonians as VB. Good evening, Sir.
Speaker 4: Benjamin Parker, how are you, my friend?
Speaker 3: I am very well, and of course a Massachusetts native
Speaker 3: you are, and you've shuffled off to well, not Buffalo,
Speaker 3: but halfway there, I guess, as you are doing mornings
Speaker 3: on wg Y, which I can say because it's also
Speaker 3: an iHeartRadio station, of which we are one as well,
Speaker 3: and you do a lot of political commentary there, and
Speaker 3: that's part of the reason that I wanted to get
Speaker 3: you on tonight. But first of all, I want to
Speaker 3: kind of give you a chance to throw out your
Speaker 3: good will wishes to the Bostonians who perhaps miss you
Speaker 3: on the radio and television here.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, three letter radio stations are where
Speaker 4: it's at, as you a WBZ no. So we're doing
Speaker 4: WGY out of here, New York's first radio station, by
Speaker 4: the way, and we both celebrated our hundredth in the
Speaker 4: same year as you well recall, so a couple of
Speaker 4: legacy stations. That's number one, Number two I can't tell you, Parker,
Speaker 4: how many times somebody says to me or I get
Speaker 4: an email or a text or something that says, hey,
Speaker 4: I love hearing you do my pillow on WBZ.
Speaker 5: Everybody's listening to BZ all over and everybody's.
Speaker 4: Talking about it. So yes, indeed, get your MyPillow products
Speaker 4: and a great sale going on right now. But I
Speaker 4: love being on BZ with that because it's great to
Speaker 4: stay connected to the old home town.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where people that's where people hear you on WBZ.
Speaker 3: What a great connection you have with the with the masses,
Speaker 3: so to speak, as they later.
Speaker 4: I don't want to get you sidetracked here, Parker, in
Speaker 4: any way to give you an outsiders observation of Massachusetts.
Speaker 6: Of course you can.
Speaker 4: So I was there over the weekend my son had
Speaker 4: a hockey tournament, and a little south of the city,
Speaker 4: we were down and mostly in Rockland, a little bit
Speaker 4: in Dedham. But I was amazed at not one, not two,
Speaker 4: but three different overpasses on two separate highways. Did I
Speaker 4: see people standing over on the bridge like from Stem
Speaker 4: to Stern on the overpass with free Karen Reid signs
Speaker 4: and from a new Yorker's perspective. I've been reading, I've
Speaker 4: been following the case a little bit. I understand it
Speaker 4: was national whatever, but I guess I didn't really understand
Speaker 4: just how big and how passionate people are about it
Speaker 4: there until I was there last weekend with the thing
Speaker 4: not even going on. And I've never seen that before,
Speaker 4: where people are up over overpasses with free whoever it is.
Speaker 4: We got a bunch of national cases here in New
Speaker 4: York sivin since i've I've never seen anything like that.
Speaker 3: Maybe the people in New York on is good at
Speaker 3: making signs. Did you ever think about that?
Speaker 4: I don't think that. Whatever it is, I was like, wow,
Speaker 4: look at how what I know. People are dug in
Speaker 4: and they're on whatever side they're on there and whatever.
Speaker 4: That's cool. But I've never seen people holding signs up
Speaker 4: while there wasn't a trial going on.
Speaker 6: Yeah there is.
Speaker 4: People are out on like a ninety five degree dead
Speaker 4: sun Saturday, sweating their butts off making sure that the
Speaker 4: message got out.
Speaker 3: There is a court hearing on Friday in this particular case.
Speaker 3: And by the way, there's a couple of things about that. Well, one,
Speaker 3: there was a mistrial as everyone knows, and they're going
Speaker 3: to see if they're going to throw out the case
Speaker 3: or not throw out the case. The probably not anyway,
Speaker 3: so they'll go to trial again. So this will be
Speaker 3: going on and on and on. Here's the one thing
Speaker 3: that I find funny about the free Karen Read people
Speaker 3: is she is free right now. And I always kind
Speaker 3: of say, you know, maybe that's the wrong verbage right
Speaker 3: now because she's not locked up. You know, when you
Speaker 3: say free somebody, they're usually locked up. She's not because
Speaker 3: she's awaiting another trial. But anyway, glad, that's what you
Speaker 3: picked up on when you came to Massachusetts.
Speaker 6: That's fantastic.
Speaker 4: I've never seen it before.
Speaker 3: Ever, you may never see it again. Let's get to
Speaker 3: what we did have you on for tonight. Outside of
Speaker 3: the fact that you're a wonderful human being, I know
Speaker 3: you do a lot of the political talk when you
Speaker 3: do the morning show, and clearly the big political talk today,
Speaker 3: tomorrow and going forward will be that Kamala Harris has
Speaker 3: now picked her running mate. There was a lot of
Speaker 3: speculation who it might be or it wouldn't be, and
Speaker 3: today Tim Walls, which, by the way, if you're a
Speaker 3: conservative organization I've got the great headline.
Speaker 4: For you tomorrow, right, I'm waiting.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Okay, here you go.
Speaker 3: Democrats putting up walls not bad, you see, That's right,
Speaker 3: that's good, right. I mean, that's that's what you would
Speaker 3: use if you wanted to make the dem sound back anyway.
Speaker 6: I digress. A lot of people don't know a lot
Speaker 6: about him.
Speaker 3: In fact, there's a recent poll I'll guess to that
Speaker 3: number in a few minutes where where most people don't
Speaker 3: know who this guy is Minnesota's Governor's not exactly unless
Speaker 3: you're Jesse Ventura doesn't usually get a lot of play
Speaker 3: in the media. Should we know more about this guy?
Speaker 3: And what do we know? And what a you sensing
Speaker 3: by who Kamala picked?
Speaker 4: Huh? All right, let's go through it one by one.
Speaker 4: I mean, first of all, a pretty safe pick, pretty
Speaker 4: don't want to ruffle too many feathers pick. I mean,
Speaker 4: Shapiro was going to be the governor Pennsylvania, was gonna
Speaker 4: be the one that said, Wow, she's gonna be a
Speaker 4: little bolder here, She's gonna take a leadership position. She's
Speaker 4: gonna say no, this is who I want, and I'm
Speaker 4: staying firm. She didn't do that, and then they threw
Speaker 4: him the bone today, Hey will you introduce us? Like,
Speaker 4: oh wow, that's great. Nothing like getting the runner up
Speaker 4: and having to introduce the person who's got the gig
Speaker 4: you wanted. But he had to do that in Philly.
Speaker 4: The interesting thing about that, and I think it's much
Speaker 4: more interesting who wasn't pick than who was right now.
Speaker 4: But they quickly got a story out, or there is
Speaker 4: a story out. Whether they got it out or not,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but that the story goes that she
Speaker 4: didn't pick Shapiro because they thought that Shapiro was a
Speaker 4: little too ambitious and he might try to outshine her.
Speaker 4: And I thought, well, that's funny, because first of all,
Speaker 4: she just was part of a thing to push the
Speaker 4: guy that was ahead of her out so that she
Speaker 4: could get the nomination. That's number one, number two. It's
Speaker 4: an interesting story, except that there's another story out there
Speaker 4: that says they didn't pick him because he's Jewish and
Speaker 4: they had to play to the very very far left,
Speaker 4: pro Palestinian anti israel As Van Jones on CNN Today said,
Speaker 4: the very dark side, anti Semitic growing side of the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party, and it does look like That's what they did.
Speaker 4: Everybody on the inside told anybody who would listen that
Speaker 4: Shapiro was the right choice, and they went with Walls.
Speaker 4: The guy is in a state that they don't have
Speaker 4: to worry about at all. When Pennsylvania's won, they very
Speaker 4: much have to worry about. So it's a little bit
Speaker 4: curious that way, but it safe. I mean, he's not
Speaker 4: He's not gonna get them into too much trouble. Is
Speaker 4: he very liberal? Of course he is. Was he, you know,
Speaker 4: very placating and very left during the riots in Minneapolis?
Speaker 4: Of course he was. Did he put tampon's in high
Speaker 4: school boys' bathrooms? You read that a thousand times already
Speaker 4: since he got the nomination. I don't think that bothers
Speaker 4: the base of the Democratic Party, though, so I think
Speaker 4: there is a general rule happy with it. And again
Speaker 4: the bar is so low because all they keep thinking
Speaker 4: is we couldn't win with Biden Marris. At least theris
Speaker 4: Walls gives us a chance, yea.
Speaker 3: And he probably does give them a chance. And we'll
Speaker 3: have to see how it plays out. And obviously the
Speaker 3: Trump and Van's campaign's already going after the pair. I
Speaker 3: want to play this we're gonna go to a break shortly.
Speaker 3: Vb At Doug Goudy joins us this evening to talk
Speaker 3: about the pick of Tim Walls as Kamala Harris's vice
Speaker 3: presidential running bay. But this is Walls. He's from Minnesota,
Speaker 3: or he lives in Minnesota. Now he came from Nebraska.
Speaker 6: But here he is.
Speaker 3: This is CUTT number sixty, and he is talking about
Speaker 3: basically where he came from.
Speaker 6: Cut sixteen.
Speaker 7: Minnesota's strength comes from our values, our commitment to working together,
Speaker 7: to seeing past our differences, to always being willing to
Speaker 7: lend a helping hand. Those are the same values I
Speaker 7: learned on the family farm and tried to instill in
Speaker 7: my students. I took it to Congress and of the
Speaker 7: state capitol, and now Vice President Harris and I are
Speaker 7: running to take those very values to the White House.
Speaker 3: By the way, is anything more American than working on
Speaker 3: the farm. I was working on the farm. I mean,
Speaker 3: he came from a farm. He was a high school
Speaker 3: of coach and a teacher, and served in the military,
Speaker 3: which of course God bless him.
Speaker 6: So it's just kind.
Speaker 3: Of weird right out. I get my values from working
Speaker 3: on the farm. Just kind of strange, isn't it.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, pretty soon he's going to have a
Speaker 4: sicker Minnesota accent than he already does. He's going to
Speaker 4: do that Fargo thing, you bet you and all that.
Speaker 4: But listen, he had the camouflage hat on during the
Speaker 4: alleged call from Kamala. You saw that story they put
Speaker 4: out to that he didn't answer the first time she
Speaker 4: called this morning because it said no caller, no caller
Speaker 4: ID so he didn't know who it was, so he
Speaker 4: didn't answer it. Mmm. Sure, but he's just that folksy
Speaker 4: and just that regular that gosh darn it, I'm not
Speaker 4: going to answer that call because I don't know who
Speaker 4: it is. So she had to call a second time. Sure,
Speaker 4: and then he answered it for some reason, even though
Speaker 4: it said the same thing, which is kind of weird.
Speaker 3: Right, didn't say no caller idea and it's say potential
Speaker 3: spam because maybe you know that that would scare somebody.
Speaker 4: Right. Let me tell you. If the stories about Kamala
Speaker 4: are true and the reason why her staff quit the
Speaker 4: record pass because they don't like her, she wouldn't have
Speaker 4: called a third time. Shapiro would have got that call.
Speaker 3: By the way, there was I think it was political
Speaker 3: who had the story they said, And when you talk
Speaker 3: about Shapiro, and obviously I've heard all the things that
Speaker 3: you've already mentioned, but that he said, I don't want
Speaker 3: to do this, he didn't want to be the vice
Speaker 3: president because of whatever the pressure, or he wanted to
Speaker 3: stay in Pennsylvania I think was actually the story. So
Speaker 3: that actually sounds like the best of all of them.
Speaker 3: He's too excitable, he's Jewish, I mean, wanting to stay
Speaker 3: in his home state and do some good there.
Speaker 6: I mean, I almost you almost want to pat him
Speaker 6: on the back.
Speaker 4: If that's the truth, it would kind of run counter
Speaker 4: to the fact that the mayor of Philadelphia accidentally put
Speaker 4: out that congratulations video a week ago because they set
Speaker 4: it to run but put the wrong date in. Always
Speaker 4: nice when that happened, But somebody told them it was
Speaker 4: going to be him, And my guess is it probably
Speaker 4: was going to be him at that time, and so
Speaker 4: that happened. So if he really didn't want it, that
Speaker 4: seems your heart game pretty late, because he was lobbying
Speaker 4: right up unto the end for it went. He was
Speaker 4: with her on Sunday, So like, when did he decide
Speaker 4: he didn't want to do it because there was no
Speaker 4: indication of that before.
Speaker 3: And of course it was the celebration tonight. The rally
Speaker 3: was in a Penncyila, and so that was where everybody
Speaker 3: was thinking too that you know, if she's doing this
Speaker 3: event in Pennsylvania, if she's going to Pennsylvania, if she's
Speaker 3: gonna hang out in Pennsylvania, it's got to be someone
Speaker 3: from Pennsylvania. And then well, maybe she just didn't want
Speaker 3: to go to Minnesota for a rally.
Speaker 6: That's possible.
Speaker 4: I remember Amy Klobashar doing her launch for president in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty in Minnesota. Remember it was a driving blizzard
Speaker 4: in the snow was gathering on her coat and she
Speaker 4: looked like Jack Nicholson at the end of the shining.
Speaker 4: To use a dated reference, it was so cold and
Speaker 4: so ridiculous. That's probably put those off for like fifty years.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: Let's not run the risk. Forget it. It could be
Speaker 4: snowing there.
Speaker 3: Uh VB otherwise known as Doug Gotti's joining us here.
Speaker 3: He is hosting a morning show in Albany, New York
Speaker 3: at WGY, another three call letter radio station, and we'll
Speaker 3: continue with him talk about Kamala Harris's pick for vice
Speaker 3: president today, Tim Walls from Minnesota. We got an action
Speaker 3: packed night tonight, not that it's not usually action packed
Speaker 3: on night's side, but we'll continue along. End of course,
Speaker 3: we'll always take phone calls from you as well if
Speaker 3: we want to sneak a few in here, So don't
Speaker 3: forget to pick up that telephone and dial. Well, you
Speaker 3: can just sit back and relax and listen to the show.
Speaker 3: Six one, seven, four, ten, thirty is always the way
Speaker 3: to join the conversation. It's Ben Parker in for Dan
Speaker 3: Ray on nightsott on WZ.
Speaker 1: Now Bent to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 7: I know a little something about that commitment to people.
Speaker 7: I was born in West Point, Nebraska. I lived in Butte,
Speaker 7: a small town of four hundred where community was a
Speaker 7: way alive. Growing up, I spent the summers working on
Speaker 7: the family farm.
Speaker 3: There's Tim Wallas. He's the pick fify Kamala Harris to
Speaker 3: be her running mate as the vice presidential candidate for
Speaker 3: the Democrats. They held a rally today in Philadelphia. Getting
Speaker 3: a little bit excited, I gotta say and and VB.
Speaker 3: Doug Gouty is with us. You probably know his name
Speaker 3: from Boston Television and he works out of Albany in
Speaker 3: New York. Now also for an iheard radio station. I
Speaker 3: gotta say, because he's from Minnesota and obviously there's there's
Speaker 3: people there. Is it safe to say this may be
Speaker 3: the biggest audience he's ever spoken in front of that
Speaker 3: one time.
Speaker 4: Probably yeah, and something like coming close to it anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 4: he seems, by the way, has a long history of
Speaker 4: people on the ticket but not actually get to the
Speaker 4: finish line. So you go all the way back to Humphrey,
Speaker 4: but they've got a number. It's kind of like Massachusetts,
Speaker 4: like how many times are you gonna go back to
Speaker 4: this well and not have it pay off for you?
Speaker 4: But they've got it. They Minnesota and Massachusetts very similar.
Speaker 4: If you remember all the way back in the Reagan election,
Speaker 4: Massachusetts was hanging in until the very end of eighty
Speaker 4: four and then finally went Reagan. Minnesota didn't have dung
Speaker 4: in there for Mondale, but those two states have a
Speaker 4: very similar political history when you look at it.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I don't know a
Speaker 3: ton about Tim Wallas. I mean I knew who he
Speaker 3: was before he got picked, and I know I mean
Speaker 3: a little bit about him, but I'm a historian of
Speaker 3: Kim Wall, so we'll learn a lot about him. The
Speaker 3: one thing I noticed in the rally today, and I
Speaker 3: don't know if this is him or him trying to
Speaker 3: be very excited. He had that the bubblehead thing going on.
Speaker 3: He was Bumpa's head up and down quite a bit,
Speaker 3: and he seemed very as he should be. He's been
Speaker 3: picked to me with the vice president, right, but he
Speaker 3: seemed very excited. He was doing an awful lot of
Speaker 3: clap and smile and laughing, and he laughed at times
Speaker 3: when I didn't think it necessarily required it.
Speaker 4: Tim and Kamala got that in common, don't they.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nervous laughter. Maybe, I don't know. I was that
Speaker 3: was one of the things that I noticed. And of
Speaker 3: course you don't always know what someone's thinking when you're
Speaker 3: seeing that, but that was That was kind of what
Speaker 3: I thought, and I said, boy, he's really excited to
Speaker 3: be up on that stage, which he should be.
Speaker 4: None of us know that much about him, but we
Speaker 4: have already heard. Oh, he was a high school teacher.
Speaker 4: He was a football coach, looks like a guy who
Speaker 4: probably ran a pep rally or two and stays mister
Speaker 4: positive through the halls. How are we doing, Timmy, we're
Speaker 4: going to get that grade in his class? You know
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff when you bump into the guys.
Speaker 4: So he gives off that vibe. The question is did
Speaker 4: people grow tired of that very quickly? But apparently when
Speaker 4: he shakes hands with you, he goes, here's five good
Speaker 4: ones for you. Like and see a little of that
Speaker 4: goes a long way for me. If that guy's with
Speaker 4: me in the office, I'm like, oh, he's in there
Speaker 4: getting coffee. I think I'll wait because I can only
Speaker 4: do the If I was any better, they'd be two
Speaker 4: of me. I can only do so much of that.
Speaker 5: That's me.
Speaker 4: I don't know how that plays nationally.
Speaker 6: Well, we'll see.
Speaker 3: And of course politicians are known for when they go
Speaker 3: out of the stump right saying the same things over
Speaker 3: and over again anyway, so we'll see if Tim Walls
Speaker 3: tells the same dad jokes over and over again when
Speaker 3: he's son, he's out there on the stump, listen before
Speaker 3: we let you go, and I appreciate you joining me.
Speaker 3: We have a couple of people who I think want
Speaker 3: to say hello to you, because they probably don't want
Speaker 3: to say hello to me. So let's take a couple
Speaker 3: quick phone calls. Here, We've got Bill and Dan versus. Bill,
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Night's side.
Speaker 4: How are you good?
Speaker 5: Good? I do know a little bit about well during
Speaker 5: the COVID deal. So I mean, you look at it,
Speaker 5: the guy. You want to say, the deep blue state,
Speaker 5: but there are some congressional districts. There's a few Republicans,
Speaker 5: particularly up north because it's changed over time. They have
Speaker 5: a lot of natural resources, the Iron Range up there,
Speaker 5: which Trump let him do some mining, but again Biden
Speaker 5: shut him down. Waltz is also in favor of that,
Speaker 5: so he's decimated part of his state. They hold on
Speaker 5: the power because they adventure Palitan area in the Twin Cities,
Speaker 5: like a lot of blue states. But the two big
Speaker 5: things that it was probably a test for the guy
Speaker 5: was COVID, and to me, I think he failed and
Speaker 5: he was super locked down and destroyed a lot of businesses,
Speaker 5: and like a lot of deep blue run states, he
Speaker 5: was one of those real followers, Troupe believes. And the
Speaker 5: other one was the riots. I mean he did nothing
Speaker 5: for a week. And basically, I mean a lot of
Speaker 5: small to medium businesses and decent people got burned out.
Speaker 5: They did nothing about it. I didn't see a lot
Speaker 5: of guys go to jail, So I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's fairful with the country stone to think that the
Speaker 5: country is going to go for that ticket. At least
Speaker 5: it's scary times, you know, now, well, I mean.
Speaker 3: And you mentioned, you know, the things he did in
Speaker 3: Minnesota during it after the COVID pandemic. But he won
Speaker 3: reelection in twenty twenty two, which was smacked out in
Speaker 3: the middle pretty much by about eight points over a doctor,
Speaker 3: a physician, and a vaccine skeptic.
Speaker 6: So I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe the people in Minnesota clearly like him enough to
Speaker 3: elect them and then elect them again.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, and that's fine, I mean that you look
Speaker 5: at it. I don't think it worked out too.
Speaker 4: And this is.
Speaker 5: Another thing that's happening too. If you look at the
Speaker 5: census of the overall in COVID sped this up, and
Speaker 5: of course with the boomers retiring, that also throws it
Speaker 5: in there. But the bluer areas are just getting bluwer.
Speaker 5: You know, people are segregating themselves. The ready areas are
Speaker 5: getting red of so you know it's hard to find
Speaker 5: these purple estates or down the middle. So you know,
Speaker 5: you got some people that think that great. But I mean,
Speaker 5: if you if you're looking at it from you know,
Speaker 5: I'm a pro. You know, rise in timeh lifts all boats.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: JFK had it right.
Speaker 4: Too bad.
Speaker 5: You won't find those guys anymore. Uh, you know type
Speaker 5: of guy and Dan knows me. I usually call up
Speaker 5: and that's fine. They re elected it, so they supported
Speaker 5: those policies. And if you look at it with the
Speaker 5: tax and the penalties and stuff, I mean, and they've
Speaker 5: had population loss, like a lot of the bluest states.
Speaker 5: Massachusetts is experience that. I think it's eleven hundred a
Speaker 5: week where every two weeks to look at the latest
Speaker 5: thumbus whatever they've said out of the state house. Ye
Speaker 5: and uh so, uh you know that's basically the story.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not like, you know, if you were
Speaker 5: looking at the top places for research development, what the
Speaker 5: latest things happened in job growth? What are they doing
Speaker 5: there or whatever? There's nothing in Minnesota other than may
Speaker 5: be some tourism sometimes to hear that you would point
Speaker 5: that and say, hey, you know that's a place that
Speaker 5: we want to you know what I mean, Emil aid
Speaker 5: or see. You know it's just not damn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm in a little of along, Billie. Do
Speaker 3: you appreciate the call? Thanks for calling in. By the way,
Speaker 3: they have a great plowing industry in Minnesota.
Speaker 6: I think so. I've heard Doug goutis with us.
Speaker 3: You want to follow up on anything he said about
Speaker 3: Tim Walls.
Speaker 4: Well, during COVID he did. Do you know in New
Speaker 4: York were get a big thing with Andrew Cromo. We're
Speaker 4: still trying to get a review of the COVID nursing
Speaker 4: home issue. Wall did the exact same thing and later
Speaker 4: said it wasn't a mistake to send nursing home patients
Speaker 4: back in after they'd had COVID at the hospital. You know,
Speaker 4: not pretty in any way, shape or form, for sure.
Speaker 4: But listen, Trump said this the other day when he
Speaker 4: was at the NABJ. He said, the vice presidency doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: Nobody votes for the vice president. It doesn't affect any way,
Speaker 4: shape or form. There's a couple of days of excitement,
Speaker 4: people get all worked up, then it dies down and
Speaker 4: nobody cares that's true here. I mean, does anybody who
Speaker 4: is voting for either Vance or Walls. Nobody. So we
Speaker 4: do this and we'll get worked up about it, and
Speaker 4: we'll talk about it for a couple of days, and
Speaker 4: when they have their debate, we'll get worked up about
Speaker 4: it and we'll talk about that too. But in the end,
Speaker 4: people are voting for either Trump or Harris, or really
Speaker 4: they're voting for Trump or not Trump. And that's how
Speaker 4: it's going to be. And these two guys are going
Speaker 4: to be just joining a long, long list of people
Speaker 4: that figured out what John nance Garner meant back in
Speaker 4: the nineteen thirties when he said the Vice bresident, he's
Speaker 4: not worth a bucket of warm wiz. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: that's been a fact our whole lives.
Speaker 3: Before I say goodbye, let's get Jane and Shrewsbury on
Speaker 3: real quickly. Do you want to say hello to VB?
Speaker 3: Or do you have a comment about Walls?
Speaker 8: I guess both?
Speaker 6: Oh good, Well, go ahead and do both.
Speaker 8: Well. I only know who VB is from the commercials
Speaker 8: for the Mipellar commercials.
Speaker 6: Well he likes that then, but I don't.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, then I'll tell you I'm a little bit
Speaker 8: upset because he's obviously conservative and you're talking about the Democrats,
Speaker 8: and he's not really going to say anything nice about
Speaker 8: the Democrats. So but I do have a couple of thoughts.
Speaker 6: All right, I hate to rush you against it, Go ahead.
Speaker 8: Tim Walls is from a conservative district and he served
Speaker 8: like six terms as in Congress in a red district.
Speaker 8: And when Trump is now saying the vice president doesn't matter,
Speaker 8: that's because JB. Vance isn't really striking it rich with everybody.
Speaker 8: And we have to think about Trump's age. You know,
Speaker 8: everyone's talking about Biden's age, but Trump, unfortunately is an
Speaker 8: old man also, so people are concerned about who's vice president.
Speaker 8: So I guess I'm kind of disagreeing with everything. And
Speaker 8: also as far as laughing, Donald Trump never laughs unless
Speaker 8: he's making fun of somebody else. So who do you
Speaker 8: want to have a beer with? Someone who can actually
Speaker 8: laugh or somebody who's just mocking everybody.
Speaker 3: I would have a beer with whoever's paying for the beer.
Speaker 3: That's who I want to have a peer with.
Speaker 4: Well, you're not going to have a beer with Trump
Speaker 4: because he doesn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had to let Jane go because we are
Speaker 3: up against the clock and we have another guest coming on,
Speaker 3: who actually is is again from my rolodex and from
Speaker 3: your neck of the woods. So why don't you tune
Speaker 3: in on the iHeartRadio app and listen, vvloy listen.
Speaker 6: It's a pleasure.
Speaker 3: And I know because you came on, I owe you
Speaker 3: some some skybars or something, so we'll get them to.
Speaker 4: I'm about a box, dude. I think they come twelve too.
Speaker 4: A box. Let's go step it up.
Speaker 3: Half a box. I'll buy a box and take half
Speaker 3: of me. All right, my friend, Thanks Doug. All right,
Speaker 3: I'll see you later. All right, there's there's Doug Gotty.
Speaker 3: He's a VB and of course you may know him
Speaker 3: from his RKAO days or on Fox twenty five or
Speaker 3: from w g Y. Maybe you listen on the iHeart
Speaker 3: Radio app. He's part of the family. Big hug for him,
Speaker 3: thanks for joining us. He does a morning show in Albany,
Speaker 3: New York. And we'll have another guest coming up as
Speaker 3: we'll continue to talk about this pick by Vice President
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris picking her vice presidential nominee who she wants
Speaker 3: to be the sidekick in twenty twenty four and on
Speaker 3: the ballot. And we'll have that continuing as we go
Speaker 3: along here on a evening with Ben Parker filling in
Speaker 3: for Dan Ray on Night Side.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 3: We're back Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray. I
Speaker 3: love to hear from you if you'd like to chime
Speaker 3: in and talk about the pick today. Tim Walls, the
Speaker 3: Minnesota governor chosen by Kamala Harris as the vice presidential
Speaker 3: running mate for her campaign. She officially yesterday got the
Speaker 3: number of votes needed from delegates in order to be
Speaker 3: the presidential nominee by the Democrats. So Kamala Harris officially
Speaker 3: and we knew that anyway. Obviously from the Democratic side,
Speaker 3: there's lots of support for this pick, as you would expect.
Speaker 3: I mean, most diehard Democrats are going to vote for
Speaker 3: whoever Kamala Harris picked. And as VP pointed out when
Speaker 3: we spoke to him in the last half hour, people
Speaker 3: aren't voting generally for the vice presidential candidate, right, They're
Speaker 3: voting for the candidate for president. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 3: here is the vice presidential candidate. So you know if
Speaker 3: you like if you like the p and running, then
Speaker 3: you'll like the person who's running with her.
Speaker 6: That's kind of the philosophy. But you can always give
Speaker 6: us a call here at WBZ and.
Speaker 3: Enjoy the conversation six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
Speaker 3: I did mention that I do the news in the
Speaker 3: afternoon here on w BZ, but I've also filled in
Speaker 3: for Dan Ray, and I've also filled in for Doug
Speaker 3: Douty at WGY in Albany. And that, by the way,
Speaker 3: is where I met our first guest. And there is
Speaker 3: a second guest, they should say, because Doug was our
Speaker 3: first guest. But there's a backstory to this, and I
Speaker 3: want to tell it.
Speaker 6: First.
Speaker 3: I told you this was Ben Parker's Rolodex hour. He's
Speaker 3: in my rolodex. That's how we got to this guy.
Speaker 3: But really, in all seriousness, last time I filled in
Speaker 3: for Doug in New York, I had on the show
Speaker 3: with me a state Senator from New York, Peter Oberacker,
Speaker 3: and I told him next time I filled in, Mah
Speaker 3: he would have to be the co host. And then
Speaker 3: I didn't fill in again in Albany, and so here
Speaker 3: I am in Boston, and I said, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm going to call Senator Obaacker and see if he
Speaker 3: wants to come in, because there's a couple of reasons why.
Speaker 3: So first of all, Senator Obraracker, I never back out
Speaker 3: on a promise.
Speaker 6: And so here you are back with me again. Welcome
Speaker 6: to the show, Welcome to Boston.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. And Ben, I thought maybe I did
Speaker 2: something to run you out of Albany, but apparently now
Speaker 2: that's always.
Speaker 4: A good thing.
Speaker 3: Apparently I did something to run me out of Albany.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's what happened. You are You are a
Speaker 3: senator in New York State, senator, and I want people
Speaker 3: to understand that because one of the things that I
Speaker 3: find interesting about you, and not you, but you're your legislator, legislator,
Speaker 3: is you're a lot like Massachusetts. You're you're a Republican,
Speaker 3: and you're in a democratically controlled state, and therefore it
Speaker 3: must make things a little harder for you to get
Speaker 3: any kind of traction unless it's something so uh unanimously
Speaker 3: approved by everybody.
Speaker 6: Is that as a senator?
Speaker 3: Uh, did you go home at night and hit your
Speaker 3: head against the wall and go ho, Am I going
Speaker 3: to crack this open.
Speaker 6: What's going on?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Well, well number one, Ben, great, great to be back
Speaker 2: talking with you, and thank you for the chance to
Speaker 2: allow right on that. You know, my wife said to
Speaker 2: me one time then she says, you're really not not
Speaker 2: too smart. And because you are running for the state
Speaker 2: Senate in a democratically, you know, controlled state, so there
Speaker 2: may be some credence to that. But I'm also going
Speaker 2: to put it to you this way. You know, I
Speaker 2: was a business made up until actually December, which I
Speaker 2: retired out of a company i'd started in December. And
Speaker 2: I have learned. I have learned to work with those
Speaker 2: who you wouldn't maybe normally go afterwards and have a
Speaker 2: beer with right or maybe sit down for dinner with
Speaker 2: because the ultimate goal is to is to try to
Speaker 2: get something completed in a positive way, in a positive
Speaker 2: fashion that that probably really kind of kind of puts
Speaker 2: politics the atmosphere in Albany. I have worked across the aisle,
Speaker 2: tried to work across the isle with with with all
Speaker 2: of those, some better than others, but I was actually
Speaker 2: very happy with the number of bills that I was
Speaker 2: able to pass this last session in New York.
Speaker 3: I want to ask you this, Senator before we get
Speaker 3: on to Vice President Harris's pick of Tim Walls today.
Speaker 3: You look at politics, you see it, and you've got
Speaker 3: the Democrats, and you've got the Republicans, and you've got
Speaker 3: a Democratic governor. And you look, you listen to the
Speaker 3: radio and watch TV. You see the atmosphere that we're
Speaker 3: living in here.
Speaker 6: When you as a.
Speaker 3: Lawmaker, it's got to make you, I don't know it
Speaker 3: is to make you sad, make you mad, make you crazy.
Speaker 3: I mean, something's got to give here so that we
Speaker 3: can get back to doing the business of all Americans,
Speaker 3: by all Americans, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: You know, you know, Ben, I have the fifty percent
Speaker 2: district which I represent, which is all over parts of
Speaker 2: seven counties, almost the size, almost the size of the
Speaker 2: state of Connecticut. And you know, being from a very
Speaker 2: rural background and rule upbringing, we have kind of like
Speaker 2: a country with them, if you will, and I'll equate
Speaker 2: it to this. There's an old saying up here where
Speaker 2: I'm from. It says, be sure to taste your words
Speaker 2: before you spit them out. And I wish we would
Speaker 2: do more of that in Albany. It seems sometimes that
Speaker 2: you know, we're looking for the gotcha moment, We're looking
Speaker 2: for that little sharp you know, retort to a debate
Speaker 2: or something of that nature, when in reality you're right.
Speaker 2: We may disagree, and believe me, I do. I disagreemently
Speaker 2: with my colleagues from across the aisle, but I do
Speaker 2: it respectfully. I do it respectfully, and I really think
Speaker 2: that that's something that we need to bring back to
Speaker 2: politics as a whole, is to remember that, yeah, I
Speaker 2: may not go have a beer with you, and I
Speaker 2: may not even you know, give you a birthday card,
Speaker 2: but by golly, we need to spind some commonality, some
Speaker 2: common ground to work out these issues for those that
Speaker 2: I represent in my district.
Speaker 3: A house divided against itself cannot stand. Those are pretty famous.
Speaker 6: Words, are we.
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at I'm gonna have you step
Speaker 3: outside of New York a little bit. Look all across
Speaker 3: this great land of ours? Are we in danger of
Speaker 3: not standing? Because we are a house so divided against ourselves?
Speaker 2: I think so, I really do, and you know I
Speaker 2: can maybe maybe I'll quit it to you this way too.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you've noticed with President Trump, I mean,
Speaker 2: he could basically say he could and he could basically
Speaker 2: say have a nice day, and you know, no problem.
Speaker 2: But if he was also you know, to say enjoy
Speaker 2: the next twenty four hours and not sound vaguely threatening.
Speaker 2: Do you see what I'm saying. I mean, it's kind
Speaker 2: of the way you can say something, you can put
Speaker 2: it forth. It's not the way it's intended. But man,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, lately, it seems like these scenes get twisted,
Speaker 2: these things get converted, These things get put through this
Speaker 2: meat grinder. And I'm a sausage maker, if you remember
Speaker 2: by trades, so I know that very well. But it
Speaker 2: gets put through that meat grinder, and it's there strictly
Speaker 2: to divide us. It is strictly there to divide us,
Speaker 2: not to unite us.
Speaker 3: So now we have so now we have Tim Walls
Speaker 3: being picked by Kamala Harris to be her running bait
Speaker 3: uh and obviously some some grenades have already been launched
Speaker 3: in that direction by Republicans and some will be launched back.
Speaker 3: And we know Walls and Harris called Vance weird, and
Speaker 3: so we've got all this again, pseudo name calling, which
Speaker 3: is kind of what politics is to a degree, but
Speaker 3: how I guess how do we go forward here? And
Speaker 3: I'll have you kind of twofold here, how do we
Speaker 3: go forward and stop having everybody just make you know, names,
Speaker 3: call names of each other. And what's your take on,
Speaker 3: uh Tim Walls because you mentioned, you know, you're in
Speaker 3: kind of farming country and here's a guy who comes
Speaker 3: from farming country.
Speaker 2: Right right. Well, you know the interesting thing, you know,
Speaker 2: we we had had a very busy day by the way,
Speaker 2: in my Senate district, and so you know I heard
Speaker 2: late that uh who who the pick was for Kamalaw
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, I'll be honest with you, I
Speaker 2: didn't know much about him really to start with. I mean,
Speaker 2: I knew, you know, where he's from, and I knew
Speaker 2: some parts of it, like you know, like you just said,
Speaker 2: the farmer. But basically what I've heard and what I've
Speaker 2: I've been able to determine is that I believe he's
Speaker 2: even farther extreme left than than she is. And it's
Speaker 2: just an interesting diconomy that uh Shapiro, you know, from
Speaker 2: from from Pennsylvania wasn't pick for it. All along, we've
Speaker 2: kind of been hearing that he was in the forefront
Speaker 2: in the forerunning for this, so I'll accredit this way.
Speaker 2: The chess board has been set right, the uh, the
Speaker 2: pieces are in play. It's unfortunate that this has turned
Speaker 2: into these bombs throwing incidents back and forth. I would
Speaker 2: like to see us get back to being an adult,
Speaker 2: or we're more appropriately been, back to being a politician
Speaker 2: and the I have a friend of mine from Ireland,
Speaker 2: love him. His name is Marcus Mallan, and he says
Speaker 2: to me one day, he says, Peter, he says, if
Speaker 2: you want to be a great politician, you need to
Speaker 2: tell someone to go to hell and them look forward
Speaker 2: to the journey. And that's kind of where we're at.
Speaker 2: We need to get back to ye. You know, even
Speaker 2: with Reagan, who are absolutely adored, he had a way
Speaker 2: of kind of in a tug and cheek kind of
Speaker 2: way to throw a little fun at or throw these
Speaker 2: little jabs at. But they were mostly done with humor,
Speaker 2: and there's none of that anymore. It's strictly venom, it's
Speaker 2: strictly pointed, and it's there to definitely divide us.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of people talk about a couple
Speaker 3: of people you mentioned Reagan, but one of our locals
Speaker 3: from around here. Tip O'Neil, who was the speaker for
Speaker 3: so long, and he had a way and during the
Speaker 3: Reagan era too, with being able to reach across the
Speaker 3: aisle disagree without being disagreeable, which is a huge thing.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if there's maybe there needs to
Speaker 3: be a course for politicians where they learn how to
Speaker 3: be that way.
Speaker 6: And I know plenty of people.
Speaker 3: Look, I know plenty of people who don't like Reagan
Speaker 3: and like Tip O'Neil or vice versa.
Speaker 6: But they understood that these two guys who.
Speaker 3: Were basically sitting on the opposite side of the aisle
Speaker 3: throwing things, you know, at each other, their opponents, but
Speaker 3: at the same time they were able to sit down
Speaker 3: and go, Okay, how do we work this out? And
Speaker 3: I wish we could get there again.
Speaker 2: There is, you know, then there is there is. I
Speaker 2: believe in my heart of hearts that if one requirement,
Speaker 2: one one requirement to be a legislator at any level
Speaker 2: is at some point in your life you have either
Speaker 2: tried or did run a business. Because I'm gonna tell you, guys,
Speaker 2: I go back to it. Business is always about, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to find that common ground right that commonality. Again,
Speaker 2: I may not particularly like this individual, but hey, you're
Speaker 2: going to purchase my waar is you're gonna do this? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 2: I benefit you benefit you know. That's the basis for everything.
Speaker 2: I believe that if we were all either businessmen and
Speaker 2: or women. I'm telling you, I think things would change in.
Speaker 3: Our Peter Robacker is a senator from the Great State
Speaker 3: of New York or state Senator. I met here when
Speaker 3: I filled in on wg Y in Albany, New York,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad that he's joined us tonight. We're gonna
Speaker 3: have a few more minutes to talk to him, so
Speaker 3: we'll bring him back. We've got to take a break
Speaker 3: here nightside with Dan Ray. Dan is not here. I
Speaker 3: am Ben Parker. I normally do afternoon news here on
Speaker 3: WBZ from two to six in the afternoon. By all means,
Speaker 3: feel free to tune in if you don't. And I
Speaker 3: should tell you that if you ever want to listen
Speaker 3: to us wherever you are not able to hear us
Speaker 3: on the radio, you can download the iHeartRadio app and
Speaker 3: there we will be coming right out of your device
Speaker 3: easy as that. We'll be right back. Stay with us
Speaker 3: Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray line from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: Dan Ray is not here by any windows or otherwise.
Speaker 3: He is on vacation on assignment. We'll say that sounds
Speaker 3: so much better. Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray.
Speaker 3: We've got lots of stuff coming up later on tonight.
Speaker 3: We are going to talk to a local Olympic hero
Speaker 3: as we talk about the Olympics coming up at the
Speaker 3: ten o'clock hours, So stay with us for that. But
Speaker 3: we had a lot of stuff going on between now
Speaker 3: and then. And joining me this evening for about five
Speaker 3: six minutes more is Peter Oberacker. He is a state
Speaker 3: senator out of the Great State of New York, and
Speaker 3: we used to talk when I was filling in for
Speaker 3: Doug Goudie on wg Y and Albany and made a
Speaker 3: point to reach out to him because I owed him
Speaker 3: another appearance. I told him we were going to have
Speaker 3: him on again, and then I didn't fill in again
Speaker 3: in Albany. And so thanks for joining us. I really
Speaker 3: do appreciate it, Senator, and I want to ask you this.
Speaker 3: We're talking a little bit about general politics. But the
Speaker 3: pick today by Kamala Harris of Tim Walls.
Speaker 6: As as vice presidential candidate.
Speaker 3: Doug mentioned this, and I think there is obviously truth
Speaker 3: to this, that people vote for the presidential candidate, not
Speaker 3: usually so much for the vice president. It might help
Speaker 3: in a tie, but it really isn't the case. You
Speaker 3: have on one side the pick today of Tim Walls
Speaker 3: from Minnesota, and he is by all accounts a liberal,
Speaker 3: he's progressive, and of course he is matching up with
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris.
Speaker 6: You have JD.
Speaker 3: Vance on the other side, who by all accounts is
Speaker 3: pretty conservative, and he matches up with Donald Trump both
Speaker 3: if you look at him. They're both fairly young, I mean,
Speaker 3: younger than some of the antiquity, you know, the antiquated
Speaker 3: people we've had run for president in the past. So
Speaker 3: they're both relatively young. Walls is older, but they both
Speaker 3: served in the military. They both buy all accounts of
Speaker 3: the people who talk to them, they're fine people. Walls
Speaker 3: a coach to a sports and was a teacher and
Speaker 3: the heck of a guy. And Vance's from all accounts
Speaker 3: a heck of a guy. Both like the hunt. I guess,
Speaker 3: so there's really there's nothing there that really outside of
Speaker 3: the politics of it that makes you go, well, he's
Speaker 3: a jerk, I don't want to vote for him, or
Speaker 3: he's a jerk, so I'm not going to vote for
Speaker 3: Kamalo or.
Speaker 6: Whatever the case is.
Speaker 3: So this this really is going to come down to
Speaker 3: politics with a little thin line in the middle of
Speaker 3: people who maybe don't like either or like both equally.
Speaker 2: You know, Ben, that's probably the best analogy I've heard
Speaker 2: of what we have coming up in the extremely long time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what's interesting, I've you know, spoke to my
Speaker 2: colleagues from across the Aisle uh and and granted, you know,
Speaker 2: we're we're in the chamber, we're debating, you know, we're
Speaker 2: going back and forth on policy, and you know they're
Speaker 2: point our point, back and forth. It goes to a vote.
Speaker 2: They have a super majority, so it goes through afterwards
Speaker 2: in the hallways. You know, we'll sit back and my
Speaker 2: looking and I say, you know, you that that bill
Speaker 2: was terrible, right, I mean, and they're like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't the best. And so again, you know, there's
Speaker 2: there's the theater of politics. There's the theater of politics,
Speaker 2: and then there's there's there's politics, you know in the hallway,
Speaker 2: if you will where those type of things this this
Speaker 2: you know by then if you really look at it
Speaker 2: like you just said, uh, Vance and and Walts are
Speaker 2: our fairly similar except for their political ideology. Uh you know,
Speaker 2: maybe they maybe they would go out hunting together.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 2: I mean I've met some really great people up here
Speaker 2: in my rural district, uh, going out to hunt and
Speaker 2: have something like that in common. We definitely got to
Speaker 2: try to get back to that. As I've said before,
Speaker 2: we got to get back to it where where where
Speaker 2: we are? So we're looking for that gotcha moment. We're
Speaker 2: looking for that uh you know, little little snippet, you know,
Speaker 2: the weird right, they're weird, you know kind of the thing.
Speaker 2: Now that's it's just it's unfortunate. Uh, it's where we're at.
Speaker 2: You know, there was a there was a little saying,
Speaker 2: you know, people come up to you but refuse to
Speaker 2: descend a single step to them. I think we really
Speaker 2: would would be well served to get back to that
Speaker 2: type of mentality. And I'll be honest with you, I
Speaker 2: tried to do that. I try to live that. I
Speaker 2: try to bring that back to Albany in our Democratic
Speaker 2: majority state.
Speaker 3: I wish I could keep you longer. We could probably
Speaker 3: solve all the world's problems by midnight to night. I
Speaker 3: think I bet.
Speaker 2: You we could. No, I don't bet you.
Speaker 4: I know we could.
Speaker 3: Senator Oberacker, is always a pleasure to talk to you,
Speaker 3: and we will hopefully do it again. I don't want
Speaker 3: to promise you again because I promised last time. I'd
Speaker 3: run around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Speaker 3: But always a pleasure of my friend.
Speaker 2: Same here and listen, you kept your promise, your aces
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 6: All right. I can run for president someday. Then I
Speaker 6: keep my promises.
Speaker 2: I'll be your running mate.
Speaker 6: All right, my friend, you got it.
Speaker 3: If I run for president, you're my running may All right, thanks,
Speaker 3: that's Senator Peter Obaracker of New York. I'm not running
Speaker 3: for president, so I don't have to stand by that promise.
Speaker 3: But nonetheless, Ben Parker filling it for Dan Ray. We've
Speaker 3: got a lot more to come. We'll bring you back
Speaker 3: after the top of the hour in the news right
Speaker 3: here on WBSD.