David Pakman: Mike Papantonio, attorney and host of "Ring of Fire Radio", is here joining
us. You know, Mike, I've been following the Republican primary race very closely; I'm
starting to question whether Republican insiders should be scared, no matter who is going to
end up being the nominee, just the mere involvement of people like Sarah Palin, Donald Trump when
he was in it, this has to be scaring Republican insiders quite a bit, doesn't it?
Mike Papantonio: Well, it does, because the ticket all flows from the top. I mean, what
happens to the undercard matters because of what happens at the top. You know, this movie--
I know you know the movie classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", there's a scene where
the lunatics are bouncing off the wall, David. I mean, they're running around the institution,
they're making monkey noises, they're dangerously unstable, and Nurse Ratchet makes the statement
now, everybody calm down, the best thing we can do is return to our daily routine.
But the daily routine for the GOP is exactly what's creating the lunatic house. I mean,
that's what's exactly happening around the GOP institution. The lunatics are in charge.
Michele Bachmann is a product of that GOP lunatic crazy-house. If you followed her,
even rank and file Republicans are thrilled that Bachmann might really be a presidential
candidate.
David: Well, it's funny because I hear... I read some editorials from people saying
this is all the same cycle, we see, '92, Clinton's elected, and then, '94, Republicans do well,
and so on, and so on, it's always all the same. But this actually does seem different
to me, number one, because of these just bizarre Republican candidates that are affecting the
race, but also because a lot of the standard criticisms of Democratic candidates, like
for example, Democratic presidents will not use military force, they will hesitate to
do that, or they will not be strong on wars.
Papantonio: Right.
David: Barack Obama falls outside of the box on all of those things.
Papantonio: Yeah. One thing that... one thing you see happening in a cycle like this where
they know their chances of success are very, very slim, it's not... it's not the race that
matters, David, it's the message. And so what you do is, for an entire, you know, year and
a half, you have people delivering the message, and all they are is vehicles.
Bachmann is just nothing but a tool. Palin is nothing more than a tool. So is Romney.
All of them are simply the... kind of the organ-grinder monkey that's out there delivering
all of these conservative notions. And, you know, at the top, they don't really care whether
these people are elected. They just want to keep sending the message...
David: Who is at the time? That's a question, though, who is actually at the top?
Papantonio: The top are people that are... that back these people. I mean, you know,
with Clinton, it was Wall Street. You know, Wall Street was the money. It was... back
then, it was Goldman Sachs, it was the Citicorp, it was the people that you'll always see them
developing the next person. They're doing it right now.
I mean, for example, they don't really care much about this cycle, but they're developing
the candidates for the next cycle. You might've heard Haley Barbour come out maybe a couple
of weeks ago, and he says well, we have some people... basically comes out and says we
have some people we're developing, doesn't put it like that, but that's the essence of
what he's saying.
And so what he knows is these are all throwaways. I mean, look, you know, Pawlenty is like watching...
it's like watching it rain. Pawlenty, you know, you have to decide, well, do I want
to go listen to Pawlenty's speech or do I want to... do I want to watch paint dry?
Mitt Romney, he's dead on arrival. He'll never play in the South. The problem with him is
he's a Mormon, and in the South, that is... that's a cult. In the South, it's regarded
as a cult. Well, Republicans, they have to have the South. You can't... they can't live
without the South.
Just go down the line. Palin, nobody's serious about Palin. I mean, really, there's not...
David: Palin's not even serious about Palin.
Papantonio: No, no, she's not even serious about Palin. Newt Gingrich, he'll never overcome
the fact that, you know, he went to his wife on her... after surgery, after cancer surgery,
and on that day, tells her that he's leaving her for a younger woman. Then he tells that
younger woman years later that he's leaving her for a younger woman. They'll never figure
the fact that he did the-- unprecedented in the history of Congress, he had been fined
the highest amount that any congressman had ever been fined because of his conduct, his
unethical conduct, his use of money for his personal life, the siphoning off of his...
off his PAC for his personal life. The stories went on and on and on.
So I mean, so he's not a contender. So you go down this list, and you say well, where
does it end? Well, it doesn't end. You know, Howard Cain, [sic] I mean, are you kidding
me? He looks like a character out of a Madea movie, I mean...
David: Herman Cain.
Papantonio: Huh?
David: Herman Cain, not Howard.
Papantonio: What'd I say? I meant Herman Cain.
David: Yeah.
Papantonio: Herman Cain. But I mean, he's not a serious contender. So I mean, let's
call it what it is. So the next question is do they even have time to put a serious contender
in there, and of course not. I mean, you don't throw a surprise candidate up there right
now and say gee, this guy's going to run.
Huntsman. Well, Huntsman's too smart for them. I mean, they're not going to take him seriously,
because he believes in things like global climate change. He knows that the Earth isn't,
you know, isn't 6000 years old. He realizes that it's 4 billion years old. He doesn't
believe in all the crazy Evangelical nut-talk that you have to believe in in the South to
be a Republican.
David: Hey, speaking of nut-talk, though, last time you were on, we had a little bit
of a discussion about the Tea Party and the future of the Tea Party. And I just read the
Tea Party now is saying they will endorse whoever is the Republican nominee. And is
this not another indication that the Tea Party will either disappear altogether or become
indistinguishable from the Republican Party, which they claim to have nothing to do with?
Papantonio: David, you've been talking about this since they emerged, as I have. The Tea
Party is nothing but... look, it was a way... it was a way to redefine the crazy, crazy
part of the Republican Party. That's where it started. And then what they did is they
gobbled up the identity of the Republican Party. It's the same thing. They're interchangeable.
The same crazy people who are dressed up like Paul Revere and Martha Washington holding
up signs of Obama as a monkey, those are the same people who've always been Republicans.
There's no difference. If I were to go to a Tea Party rally here in the South, they're
the same people who used to go to Republican rallies. Hell, they're the same people who
used to go to David Duke rallies. So there's... nothing has changed here.
They don't... look, they don't really change much, all they do is split the vote on, you
know, smaller races, they split the vote. And so the Republicans have a problem with
the Tea Party. The Tea Party's never going to be a... is never going to be the kind of
force that moves the political agenda in this country. Maybe discussion, but they're not
going to move with any meaningful force.
David: Real quick before we go, who... is there a serious candidate on the Republican
side? Who do you think is going to be at the top of that ticket?
Papantonio: Well, I think they have to go with... I think they have to go with Mitt
Romney even though he's not going to win. I mean, look, Mitt Romney, what, it was a
million dollars per... was it a million dollars per delegate vote that it cost him in the
last election? That's not going to change. But they've gotta go with him. They have to
go with somebody that doesn't look like a damned fool. You know, at least he presents
well. At least he has a narrative that sounds like something more than an eighth-grade education.
So they have to go with somebody that at least can project that, and that would be my bet.
I mean, that's...
David: And the other problem he's going to have, which we're already seeing, is here
in Massachusetts, where I am, he put in a health care plan that then he opposed when
Obama put it out there, and his explanation is I'm fine if the states decide on it, which
is still... he's OK with socialism. If that's what he's calling it at the federal level,
he's OK with it as long as it's state socialism.
Papantonio: Yeah. But I... again, it doesn't matter to them. They don't really care at
this point, David. This is not about winning the election, this is about having those talking
points out there and simply getting ready for the next cycle.
David: All right. Host of "Ring of Fire Radio" and attorney Mike Papantonio. Thanks for joining
us, Mike.
Papantonio: Thank you, David.
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