Hitt Breaks His Silence And The Pope Gives His Blessing (Hour 1)

From the Civic Media Radio Network, moving Wisconsin forward, one joke at a time.

This is As Goes Wisconsin with Kristen Brott, now building in for the new mom, here's Jane

Matt Nair. Good, good morning and welcome to As Goes Wisconsin. We are coming to you live from

our studio in beautiful downtown. Walk ashaw so happy to have you along with us Greg Bach with

me in studio. Kelvin is on the board and it is our last day that we are being joined by the one

the only our friend and colleague, the fantastic Todd, all the how are you sir?

It's bittersweet, bittersweet I'll be honest, but Jane, Greg Kelvin, a fine Monday morning to you.

It just makes me warm. It's my heart. It gets me in the holiday spirit to be with you three lovely

people who have a spirit of the holiday season. Well, next Monday is Christmas, next Monday is

Christmas Day and then the Monday after that is New Year's Day. And so I cannot thank you enough

Todd for having joined us and joined the show while. Look at that outside. It is snowing.

It's snowing. Yes, it's like in blowing like crazy. I'd say it's frightful.

The weather outside. It is frightful or just annoying. But anyway, I really appreciate you joining us

all these months in the blast. Well, Kristen has been gone. It's really been a lot of fun and

it was great to see you at our holiday bash over the weekend. How late did you stay up?

I think you outlasted me. Did I? Because because William Walter and and Jane and I were chatting

and then and then Jane went to take shots at the bar or something. I don't know why.

Jane more more Todd give us more. There may have been shots involved.

I really didn't know that Jane had an internet. I mean, once she got on top, I was dancing on the

bar. I mean, it was Katie bar the door. That was quite the spectacle. No, no, but no, there's

no dancing. But no, I think I think I excuse myself and I think maybe you and your husband,

I mean, you were you were holding down the four with Brian Kelly and some of these other folks.

Chris Casper, who was dressed up as buddy, the elf, which was wonderful. Yes. And I know Rebecca

was one of the late night ones. I finally went to bed around two. My husband didn't get back into

the room until three. So I don't know what Brian Kelly and buddy, the elf and those, those

rabble rosters did with my husband. But it was they were always rebels and a good time was

had by all. Thanks to CEO and owner safe while for putting all that on. I mean, I mean,

zoom meetings are fine. Get information out. But I don't think that it replaces that human

contact, you know, just talking to someone in person and all being together. So it was just a,

it speaks largely of what this company is about to have a unified mission moving into 2024.

Yeah, most definitely, most definitely. And you're right. Thank you, Sage, while and civic

media for foot in the bill for all of that. All right. We're going to start off with the fake

electors scheme in Wisconsin. And the former GOP chairman Andrew Hitt and one of the so-called

face fake electors was on up front on WISN over the weekend with Matt Smith, Matt Smith,

rather. And essentially says that they were duped and it was a trick and they, you know, feel bad now.

Well, sure. And by the way, I know there was some stuff in the background here. I'm going to

try to meet myself and I'm not talking. But here's the deal. There, we, the world headquarters

of civic is on the second floor on state street. The bottom floor, there used to be an associated

bank and they're jackhammering the vault out right now. Oh my god. So so I'm sitting here right above

this constant vibration and noise. Quite frankly, I'm enjoying it. Anyway, I'm going to, I'm going to,

if you hear something in the background, that's what's going on. So I apologize.

Can't hear the jackhammering so far. And in the basement, in the basement of that building,

the lovely comedy club on stage run by wonderful individuals. Please book me.

Thank you. I'll speak it of jokes. How about Andrew hit the former party chairman to the, to

the point of this story? Uh, and, and here's the interesting thing. All things lead back to

Richland Center's six, just like Kevin Bacon, six degrees of separation of Richland Center.

Andrew Hitt and I, uh, grew up in the same town Richland Center. I had his dad for high school

algebra. His mom used to babysit me and we went to the same church piece on Methodist Church.

So I know this guy pretty well. And, and here's the thing. I think the, the great reporting

over there, over the weekend, they're on upfront, uh, in conjunction with, with politics.

Look, I don't know what Andrew hit well well. It means I'm a friend or anything. Right.

Certainly acquaintance. I don't know his family. He's an attorney in a prominent law firm, Delight

or whatever the hell is called. Uh, and, and he was, what have discovered, Governor Scott Walker's

attorneys. So the guy is not intellectually stupid, right? And so what basically what he said

over the weekend was, oh, we were tricked. The fake electorate, if we had only known, we were

let us stray. I don't believe that for a second. But here's the thing I do believe that Andrew

Hitt and all these other people, well, at least Andrew Hitt and a couple others, they did know what

they're doing. And now under oath, what their own rear ends are on the line, they are telling the

truth. And I think that that is critical to, to keep in mind here. And the fact that, you know,

he's saying that Kenneth Chesbro, Trump's former attorney was in the room. I mean, Andrew Hitt may

end up testifying in the Trump trial with, with Jack Smith as the prosecutor here. He also says,

he's like, I hit says he's going to cooperate. He says that he is not. I thought those, this

was interesting. Has not talked to anybody in the state. So we'll see if the attorney general

Josh call his investigation or not. And then finally, he says, quote, under no circumstances,

unquote, would he vote for Trump? Nor will he go into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee

if Trump is the nominee. So now we have Andrew Hitt, the former Republican party chairman,

saying that he will not endorse Trump nor attend the convention of Trump as the nominee,

as well as former Republican Speaker of the House from Jamesville, Wisconsin, Paul Ryan,

calling him an authoritarian narcissist, Trump, and saying that he will not. So I mean,

if you're Brian shimming in the current chair of the Republican Party, if you're Derek Van

Orton, if you're scoffous, Gerald, if you're Glenn Grossman, you're either with Andrew Hitt

and Paul Ryan, or you're with Trump. You can't be with both. Well, but a rinse prime,

Ryan's previous over the weekend. I like, I call him rinse. It's not rinse. It's Ryan's.

Um, Ryan's previous, Ryan's and repeats. Yeah, Ryan's and repeat. Oh,

Ryan's, Ryan's previous was on, I think MSNBC or one of their CNN over the weekend, singing

the, I mean, he loves Trump. He's all, he's all in, he's all in, man. And I don't know,

Todd, if it's Paul, does, does, does Trump Republicans don't respect Paul Ryan?

Well, that's the thing. I think that Trump leadership,

MAGA leadership don't no longer respect Paul Ryan, but here's the thing. All across Wisconsin

in small towns, rural and in some large towns, there are more fiscal type conservative Republicans

that still do respect Paul Ryan. And I think the fact that Paul Ryan and now Andrew Hitt

stalwarts, these are not, you know, quote unquote snowflakes lefties. These are conservative people

who are now coming out and telling the truth and saying, look, this guy is dangerous. And

I think that does still matter to some mainstream Republicans who aren't part of the MAGA movement.

You make a good point. We do have a clip from Andrew Hitt appearing on WISN

upfront with Matt Smith. Let's talk about the settlement that you just reached. We walk

through some of the details of that. You've also agreed to fully cooperate with any federal

DOJ investigations. I'm curious from your perspective, what did you admit in this settlement?

You know, settlement negotiations were actually went very well. The things we agreed to,

we just viewed as true, Joe Biden won this election. It's pretty clear now that we didn't know that

there was this ulterior motive, this different plan. And it's clear now too that, you know,

those documents were used on January 6th to at least, at the very least, help create the chaos

of that day. Let's talk about the day itself. December 14th, it's going to be three years ago,

this past week. In that moment, when you walked into that room, what did you and the other

electors think you were doing? Well, you know, we had been very careful to talk to our lawyers here

in Wisconsin. Long time Republican Party of Wisconsin lawyers. We didn't talk to the Trump

campaign lawyers. We didn't talk to Rudy Giuliani. We didn't talk to lawyers who we didn't know

or didn't trust. We talked to our RPW longtime outside counsel. He independently looked at this issue

and said, you guys have to meet. If the Trump campaign wins a lawsuit in Wisconsin and you don't

meet, we will have completely forfeited the president winning Wisconsin. So we viewed what we were

doing as simply a contingency plan. The documents we signed would have no meaning unless a court gave

them meaning. Okay, that that was Andrew Hitt speaking to Matt Smith, NWI, a sent-in the upfront

program over the weekend. That seems really disingenuous to me. I think it's again someone who

and I've never really been in a room with Andrew Hitt where he was quote unquote working or showing

his illegal prowess. From what I know, I think he's probably a good attorney and knows the law really

well. I can tell you as a former Republican who left the party in 2011, they have some really great

attorneys at their disposal. That response to me sounded like something they had been practiced

a hundred times in a room with attorneys so that he could come across as sounding sounding,

you know, look, he didn't stumble there. He was he probably said that a hundred times behind closed

doors, but they have parsed that out to make sure that he's not incriminating himself in a potential

criminal trial while still not lying under oath in a civil trial. So this is legal parlance,

somebody like Matt Flynn and Maggie Dawn can probably speak to it better. Sure. But that to me

sounded like something that was very, very well parsed out. I think you make a great point. Yeah,

I mean, he goes on the Sunday shows, he's going to say that over and over and over and over and over

again, but it's not going to make him sound any less dumb because that's the thing is Todd,

you say that you know him. You know that he's not intellectually stupid. But when you say,

but when you get on television, you say we were duped, we were horn swaddled, then it makes

you sound dumb because it makes you most people aren't going to believe it to your point. But I

just saying that that's part of his legal defense, right? I mean, and this is to to both your points,

this whole thing that look, we had to do this to preserve our right. This is not something

that's unique to Wisconsin. We've seen this played out in Georgia, in Pennsylvania,

and Michigan. This is a national narrative for these folks, and their defense is we were trying

to protect our constitutional right. We don't have time to get all the details, but basically what

they were trying to do is run out the clock, delay pens, and the Congress was certifying the election,

in hopes that it would go to the US Supreme Court, where there's a Trump majority, and they could

quote, quote, win or overturn the election that way. Yep, absolutely. Stay with us. Todd Alba is

here from the Todd Alba show. You can catch it across the civic media network from noon to two

Monday through Friday. When we return, wow, consequences in Florida, at least the beginning

of consequences. Yes, we'll have all the details coming up. Stay with us. You're listening to

Asgo's Wisconsin. This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome to Asgo's Wisconsin. Hello,

Wassau. Listening on WXCO bull falls radio. Thank you so much for joining us today. Jane

Matinee, int for Kristen Brie, Greg Bach with me in studio Calvin on the board and Todd Alba,

the Todd father, joining us for the last Monday appearance on Asgo's Wisconsin. So glad to have

you a long time and go ahead. It's like a sign. It's like, you know, what basically my last appearance

on this Monday show is like a crocus in the winter snow. Because you know a crocus because you

know the summer that spring is coming. And with my final appearance, you know where one step closer

to the return of Kristen Brie. Absolutely. Kristen is going to be back in January and we're all very,

very excited about that and ready and ready to have her back. What's what? The snow, the crocus on

the snow. Oh, there's a crocus in the snow, which brings better days. Not to say that the two of you

have been winter, I'm just saying. I don't even wish upon you, warmer dreams than wishes.

The dark days when when Kristen was gone, that's, that's fine, Todd. Yeah, that's done it all.

It's a myth that WBA for an award. Best downers in radio.

We just, the whole goal was never, we just didn't want to crash the show while she was gone. Anyway,

been great. Moving along, um, consequences in Florida. Pretty remarkably. You will remember,

of course, that the Florida GOP party chairman Christian Ziegler and his wife, one of the co-founders

of Moms for Liberty, work caught, engaging in a three way sex thing. And then he allegedly raped

the woman who was involved in their three way. And I saw originally over the weekend that he

was trying to get them to pay him off. Yes. To what? It was like two million. He wanted. Christian

Ziegler wanted two million dollars in order to go away. He was called out in social. I believe in

a newspaper as well, the quote from the source saying that Christian Ziegler asked in an email

for two million dollars from Republican fundraisers to go or donors to go away. And he had the

audacity to say, no, that's not true at all. That's, that's fake news. I asked for two and a half

million dollars. Did he really, that's how he clarified it? It basically, yeah. Look, I know my

words. That's how crazy this is. Boy, and that doesn't, doesn't that just speak though to the

overarching confidence in his own behavior and his overarching confidence that there will be no,

there will be no ramifications. There will be no consequences for this. Yeah. I mean, audacity,

the arrogance, the narcissistic attitude. I mean, it fits into the MAGA profile, right? And,

and again, his, his, his wife, who sits on a school board in Florida, the only person that can

actually throw her off is DeSantis, governor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who he's calling out

the Christian, the chair of the party, Sadie should step down, but he won't get rid of the wife

who sits on the school board. That's fascinating, right? But the, the Ziegler's, the Christian and his

wife, from what I have been reading. Bridget, I think. Bridget, thank you.

Yeah, brings a bad name to Bridget's everywhere. They're, uh, they're very influential in

Republican Florida circles, right? Absolutely. Super, super influential, huge and fundraising.

It's, it's really actually bled over and really hurting Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign.

What's left of it? Yeah. Yeah. You know, uh, not there's, there's a whole lot left, but it is

a complete crap show down there in, in Florida right now, politically for Republicans.

I saw over the weekend, uh, there was a great cut of a former student. I don't quote,

I guess the Sarasota school board, but, uh, that, that Bridget sits on.

I saw this. But if this former student steps up at one of these school board meetings and

basically a paraphrase, he goes, you know what, you know, you, you should not be fired for having

a consensual three way, you know, because that's what you're trying to do to us with ban

books and, and I mean, you know, you should be fired because you're really awful at your job.

Yeah. And I thought that was spot on. I, I thought that was great.

That's a great video clip. And the thing is, it's like two things. One, Florida, now's your chance.

If you want us to see, just go ahead. We buy. But also, here's the question. You know,

you've got Rhonda Sances' campaign in the dumpster. You've got, you know, what effects will

that have on him as governor for a reelection in a couple of years? But more importantly, then,

how do the Democrats in Florida utilize this and to their advantage? Can they, you know,

they have some time to find candidates, run them in various elections and really build up

some sort of movement? Will they do it? Will they take this opportunity and run with it? That's

the question I have because I mean, he's just, it's just, Rhonda Sances is apparently his boots

don't have lifts in them. They just have banana peels in them because that's all he's doing.

And there's got to be someone here is going to take advantage of it. Well, it will be interesting

to see what happens in Florida because also a lot of things that I've been reading about,

property insurance and home insurance rates are out of control.

Insurance companies won't even, won't even, insure, insure because of all the problems in,

in Florida. So, but I'm just wondering if the Democratic Party is going to try and capitalize

on this. What slogan do they use exactly? Actually, actually, we're pro three way. I mean, how is

that going to play out? I think that there may need to be some message massaging before the,

let's just have a massage. But not as a twice. That's right. We're pro-manage, the three of us,

of course. Shane Gregg and I are pro-manage, the freedom. So, oh, I'm just having Kelvin to

the mix. That's a group fantastic. He's here to, he's here to turn the cameras on.

He's all right. All right. So over the weekend, Christian Ziegler, the, the Florida Republican

Party chairman pleaded with the 40 members of the executive committee to save his job. Every

statewide elected official calling for his resignation. Ziegler remained defiant. But eventually,

they ousted him. Oh, oh, oh, oh, who? Oh, Ziegler. Well, he can claim to his job for now with

no power. They stripped his finance. Yeah, I mean, he has no money, right? They stripped his

salary pretty much. So he's, he's a figurehead right now with no purpose and no value.

I think the, the takeaway for me is, I said this a bit last week, the serious part of this is,

here are people in positions of power over others or making decisions that affect others,

condemning particularly young people who are exploring their sexuality, who are trying to find out

who they are. And these people behind closed doors are doing exactly what they're condemning

others for. Meanwhile, kids and suicide teen rates are going through the road. Yes. And these

people have the audacity to live different lives. And look, if people have consensual whatever

relationships behind closed doors, I'm cool with that. But what I'm not cool with is hypocrisy.

And I'm certainly not cool with the accusations against Christian Ziegler of rape against a woman

like that. And it's just, it's certainly a comedy bit to this. But there's also just a really

sad tragic side to it as well. Absolutely. 844-967-2789 Joe McLear. With a comment on the live stream,

the Florida GOP's morning prayer today, dear Lord, please give us the strength to find a way to

incorporate three thumbs and extortion into our Christian belief systems. Give it time, Joe.

We got text from the 920 WGBW Jim from Appleton. I keep on forgetting this. Thank you for reminding me.

And that is that Ronda Sanchez cannot run for another term. I believe it's two terms done. You

can run again, but you can't run again. All right. Stay close. When we return, big news out of the

Vatican this morning, some very, very surprising news coming from Pope Francis. You're listening

to Asgos, Wisconsin. Stick around. This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome to Asgos, Wisconsin. So happy to have you along with this chain

nightmare. In for Kristen Rye, Greg Bach with me and studio Calvin's on the board.

Todd Alba joining us for his final Monday while Kristen has been on maternity leave and you can

always join us call or text at 844-967-2789-844-96 party. Or if you're watching on the live stream on

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, you can always leave a comment there as well. Before we move on to

the news coming out of the Vatican wants to wrap things up talking about Christian Ziegler,

the former head of the Republican Party in Florida in some trouble after now being accused of rape

and having a three way sexual relationship. The motion was made to censure Ziegler over the weekend.

And then they cut his salary to a buck, stripped him of all authority to act on behalf of the party

and deny reimbursements for him. What are they? Why are they letting him hang around? What is the point?

Didn't he also like tape? It's really that he taped the rapes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he gets.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know why. Why wouldn't you just kick him out? I mean, he no longer has an

authority, has any authority. Why keep him as the ostensible figurehead of the Republican Party

in Florida? It makes absolutely no sense. It's goofy to me because I'm not, obviously,

don't know the bylaws there, but I haven't got a four member of the Republican party. I believe

the executive committee of Republican Party Wisconsin hires the executive director,

but the chairman is voted on by a larger contingent. So it could be that they perhaps, I don't know

this. The one possibility is they would have to get somebody delegates in a quorum and all that

kind of stuff. Maybe he can't be actually voted out until the state convention. I don't know.

Interesting. Stephen from Green Bay has been waiting very patiently on the phone. Good morning,

Stephen. Thank you for joining us. Goes Wisconsin.

Good morning, guys. I was actually hoping to talk to you about with the pope. So if you guys,

why don't I go over that? Yeah, absolutely. Sure. A big news this morning out of the Vatican.

Essentially, Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless

same-sex couples and out with a new document explaining a change in policies,

insisting that people seeking God's love and mercy should not be subject to an exhaustive moral

analysis. However, Todd, from what I understand, this is not giving approval to same-sex marriages.

This is giving approval to blessing same-sex couples, provided it's completely separate from

marriage. Is that the way you see it, Stephen? I'm going to start off by saying that.

It has been an exhausting period and time to be a progressive Catholic.

And the fact that this is coming out from the pope, he's going to take heat from the far-right

people in the Catholic Church for it. There's time. Have nasty things to say about him.

But and it's not blessing same-sex marriages. You're correct on that.

But it's a step in the right direction. The Catholic Church is far behind the times on this issue

and the fact that the figurehead of the Catholic Church is coming out and saying to priests

that you can bless same-sex couples, it's not the end goal, but it's a step in the right direction.

And as a progressive Catholic, it's a day for celebration for me because it means that my

religious beliefs and the beliefs that I have because the Catholic faith is a very beautiful

faith if you get outside the politics of it. But they're starting to move in the right direction.

And it's a very positive thing for me being a Catholic. I'm going to tell my wife this,

and my wife will be very happy about it as she's been a Catholic her whole life.

You know, thank God for this news.

Well, and I certainly hear what you're saying, Steven. I mean, this is a big move.

It really, I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic grade school and this is a huge, huge move.

But as you also pointed out, there's going to be a lot of outrage by some within the church

because Pope Francis is not necessarily all that popular, is he?

No, I mean, Pope Francis isn't that popular because you still have to understand there's a

still a large number of traditional Catholics that are far right and entrenched in their beliefs.

And to them, this is Pope Francis saying this is going to be completely beyond the pale to them.

But what you also have to understand is there's a new wave of Catholics coming about

that are more progressive. And I think Pope Francis knows this and he knows that if he does not

do some of these things, he's going to lose all the younger people that are joining the Catholic

Church. And that is the future of the Catholic Church. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Steven.

This is Todd. I think it's a great call because I know young people in my life who grew up

Catholic and like you, they're like, we just, we don't feel comfortable anymore going because it

just goes against what we believe and acceptance and loving one another. And I think Steven's absolutely

right. I think this is, let's just boil it down for a second. This is about money as much as

anything. Because if you lose people getting into going into the Catholic Church, like

other, whether it's Protestant or any other religion, a lot of a lot of denominational religion

are moving or faiths are are losing membership because young people just don't go along with

this. So I think it's a money thing. But I also think that Pope Francis has shown he's just a more

progressive thinker. And, you know, again, all roads lead back to Richland Center. One of these

schmucks who was really throwing a fly at the ointment, Cardinal Robert Burke, one of the most

big conservative guys that was thrown out of his apartment, by the way, in the Vatican, by

fantastic. Real recently too. Yeah. And Cardinal Burke, originally from Richland Center, Wisconsin.

There you go. A little trivia for you. No kidding. Yeah. Well, the actually this comes on the hills,

two of the Vatican court convicted a former advisor of financial crimes. So it seems like,

you know, you can't, it's interesting what's happening here. And I'm as we discussed before we

went on, before we came on the air, these are suggestions. These are, these are allowing the

priests to do it, whether or not they actually do it as a whole other thing. If, and I bring that up

because I think I told you the story is I went to a Catholic Mass months ago. And I was very shocked

to see how hard rights, how very unlike I had been used to going to church in the days, like,

it just felt very uncomfortable. He was very much about like praising the word of Jesus or you

can be condemned. Like I never felt that in church before. And I spoke to a friend of mine who

had been in Catholic ministry. We went to high school together. He went 12 years of school together.

And 20 years of ministry together. And I asked him, he said, yes, the priests are starting to reflect

a more hardened right approach to their homilies, to their scripture choices because they

are vying for audience. And the audience in those Christian churches are starting to go more hard

right. So the idea that the Pope would come out and say, it's okay to bless same sex marriages.

I just wonder how the priests are taking this now. And honestly, I'm surprised the Pope is still,

when I say around, I mean, still Pope, not alive. I just, right, right. Greg, I grew a methodist.

I, you know, I'm not just like I left through a public party. I left a method. I'm an independent

both politically and religiously. But I'm still, but I'm still a person of faith. But I find this

fascinating to your point, Greg, do you think that it's these older people in Catholic congregations

who are the biggest financiers who want these more conservative homilies at the expense of

bringing in new younger people who want a more broader approach and inclusive approach?

I couldn't tell you that. All I could tell you is the priest who was giving the scripture reading

in the homily was not much older than me if maybe the same age. 844-967-2789-844-966-Party talking

about the new is coming out of the Vatican this morning that Pope Francis has told the clergy that

they can now bless same sex couples not marry same sex couples and not do it within the umbrella of

marriage, but they are allowed to bless same sex couples. Geoma clear being a little snarky people

will be very unhappy with the Pope. I propose he counters with a doctrine of I'm Pope and you're not.

If you're a priest, you can go to a forest. You could say good job you two. And that's it. Go home.

Well, and in the grand scheme of things, and again, I was raised Catholic and like you,

Ted, I am now unaffiliated, I would say. But it was always my understanding that the new testament

was about forgiveness and turning the other cheek and loving thy neighbor as thyself and all the

smite them and the smiting and the smoting and all of that was pretty much Old Testament stuff

and Christ Jesus came along with a new message that was kinder and gentler. Do you want me to

sound a little bit more like you right now? Okay. Which is the Old Testament was about the original

recipe, the New Testament is rebranding. I disagree. Well, it certainly was rebranded. Yeah, it's

taking this figure, the God, and making it a little gentler, a little nicer and presenting that

message of gentler nicer through a character. It's like when the energy is introduced kind of

that all over under the Brady bunch. You got a new person in there and they're going to bring

a new message and bring some cuteness and some fluff. And people are like, we don't like this.

I think, I don't know, like, so I grew up in the Methodist Church and I wouldn't say our family

was super conservative, but certainly religion was a huge part of faith. Again, I'm a still person

of faith. And someone who also happens to be gay, I will tell you that I believe I stayed in the

closet until 38. Well, certainly my 20s, largely because of my faith, largely because I felt that

the church would not accept someone quote unquote like me. I can't tell you how long I prayed.

I mean, I was born with a cleft palate, a speech impediment. I was a goofy, awkward kid.

You know, sure, let's add being gay is one more thing to ostracize me and make me, you know,

so it wasn't, you know, I tell people, it wasn't a choice. And you struggle with who you are,

but you also can be someone of faith at the same time. And not to go under the theology tour,

but finally, I just boiled it down to, I believe the most important commandment of Christ is,

love the Lord of your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul and love your

neighbor as yourself. And I think that if you live your person of faith and you do your best

while living others or by helping others, I think that's what it boils down to. And that's

where I had to begin to love myself. And you know what? I don't think God makes mistakes. And so

he created me as goofy and as flawed as I am, but he still created me. And I think this,

the point is that this step by Pope Francis, okay, so you can't have an actual marriage,

you can't even have a civil marriage, you have a blessing. But you know what? If you're a kid

in Catholic school, you at least look up to the leader of your church and you say, you know what,

he doesn't hate me. And I think that's a really huge step for young people in the Catholic faith.

Well, and I think it's important to recognize that considering the timeline of the Catholic

church getting to this point really happened really speedily considering it took the Catholic church

over 200 years to forgive Galileo for correctly identifying that the earth revolves around,

you know, the sun and not the other way around. So this moved like lightning speed.

I mean, I'm hoping, you know, I don't know of any because I don't go to any, but like,

what you just, to what you're saying, Todd, as far as like a kid sitting in, in, in school and

seeing the Pope as a figure who says, I understand and I, and I love you because God loves you and Jesus

loves you. I hope there are schools. I hope there are teachers who reflect those teachings

because, you know, we're talking a lot about this. Being a young gay kid in, in these private schools

can be a scary situation. And I just hope they find some comfort and some safety in that because

it's important. I always like to add to these discussions, if you or someone else are facing

mental health issues, just pick up the phone, dial 988. Yes, there's always somebody standing by,

thanks to our great US Senator Tammy Baldwin and others, 988 24 hours, seven days a week.

Absolutely. All right, stick around. Coming up, by the way, after 11 o'clock, Dan Lentz from

law forward, very excited to have him. He's going to be joining us to talk about the redistricting

case going before our Wisconsin Supreme Court. So that will be coming up when we return, though.

Oh, what a painful, painful day. It was Packer Sunday. We'll do a recap. And up here, Joe

Barry has to die. So it's taking a turn on. And goes, I'm just repeating what I'm seeing.

Stay with us. Figure a totally speed. Of course, this is as goes Wisconsin on the civic media radio network.

Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love. This És anytime. Love it. Love.

Love it. stuff. Love it.

Okay.

This morning,

welcome to Pazgos, Wisconsin. Thank you so very much for joining us. Jane

Matt in there in for Kristen Brie. Greg Bach with me and studio Kelvin on the

board. Not all about joining us on the stream. And you can always call or

text at 844-967-2789. Or if you're watching on the stream on Facebook,

YouTube and or Twitter, you can leave a comment there as well. I always

love to hear from you. Packers fans, not very happy after yesterday's 3420

loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And all I'm seeing all over social media is

how mad everybody is a defensive coordinator, Joe Barry. It was not a good game

to watch.

I'm a granddad used to say no fun, no fun to talk.

It just wouldn't know. It wasn't with a lot to like no fun. No fun. He was,

he was old farmer, Jerry farmer from Southwest Wisconsin. See how great.

Granddad had some saves wisdom. He'd say it like it was. But no, it and I think,

you know, most people and a lot of people, I should say, really were done at

Joe Barry after last week's loss. And it just adds up. And look, I couldn't go

out there and be the defensive coordinator and do a better job. But I think

there are other people out there. And, you know, is it going to be Jimmy Leonard

making a return? I mean, he was offered this job a couple of years ago and turned

it down to go to state Wisconsin. And then of course, that whole program got

blowing up. And, and, you know, he finds himself as a special consultant for

Brett Bealman down in Illinois right now. But he still lives. Jimmy Leonard does

in a cross planes Wisconsin just outside of the, outside of Madison. So do

the Packers go back after the season and try to get Jimmy Leonard to come back

and take care of the, the defense for the Packers. I don't know. A head coach

of the Packers, Matt Leflur, wasn't going there yesterday. And if you're in

his position, I mean, you get it, right? I mean, what are you, what are you going

to do? Stay, you know, stay it up there and say, yes, I made a terrible mistake.

But keep him around. He's gone. I mean, you're not going to fire the guy in front

of everybody. And I'm not sure at this point, the season, whether it matters,

whether he does or doesn't. But I think this is not a new problem. If you, if you

look at the Packers defense, this has been something that's kind of been

progressively getting worse over the last two or three seasons. I can't

imagine how they bring Joe Barry, Joe Barry back for another season.

Well, Greg brought this up off the air just about how interesting it is that

Joe Barry is the one getting all the heat. Yeah, they're not calling for the firing

of Matt Leflur, which is usually when football teams are, or any team, I mean,

look at the, look at the bucks. The bucks, what aren't doing as perfectly as

the fans want. So they're calling for the head coach before like it just seems

to me that it's interesting. It's interesting that Matt Leflur isn't the one

being offered to the chopping block.

I would, and again, like I'm no Mike Clemens, but, but I would say looking at

the history of the Packers, that if you look at, you know, I think people

would associate Matt Leflur more with his offense, right? And of course, you

know, what he did when he had air rogers, of course, rogers was a large part

of that. But now, even this year, with Jordan Love, there have certainly been

times the offense is looks spectacular. And, and, and Jordan Love has had great

games. So I think, you know, I can't speak for all Packer fans, but maybe the

set of it, Greg, to your point is, look, we're willing with a quarterback

change, the, the factor have been some bright moments this year in an offense.

We're willing to kind of give Leflur another season here to see how he and

Love kind of gel and develop together versus again, the defense, this ain't

something that just happened last six games. This has been two, three seasons.

I mean, there were people that wanted him gone a couple of years ago. Yeah.

And they kind of, you were differential and said, well, he's got to get some

more of his own guys and blah, blah, blah on the draft. It just hasn't been

consistent. And it just breaks down too often. And I think the sense is, I, I

heard this on the, uh, Placker, Placker Packer playback on, uh, I was

listening to, uh, uh, WRC, Omar Schlenz, that are one of our civic media

affiliates that carry the Packers and great caller. This, this caller should

have been an analyst. And, and he added it up. It was like the last 20

some games that the Packers lost by a touchdown that if you just had

water to other players, the Packers would be in a much better position over

the last season and a half to two seasons. So maybe in the thinking is,

you're a player or two away on, on offense. And if you just do a couple of

guys on defense and get a different system, you're in. Alright, we're talking

about yesterday's Packers loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was painful.

It was 34 to 20 and all the calls now focusing on getting rid of a

defensive coordinator, Joe Berry. I'm pretty sure we've talked about this

before. And with some of our sports reporters who have been on, I've

always heard the adage, especially when the Packers finally won that first

Super Bowl with underbred far from the 90s, that defense is what wins

Super Bowls. I mean, obviously you have to be able to get points on the board

and, and that's, you know, critical. But it's the defense being able to hold

a line and, and, and getting some sense and getting some getting some right

interceptions and stuff. Reggie White, the minister of defense, right?

Yes. I mean, yeah, Gilbert Brown, the grave digger who was on with Earl

this morning. I mean, you're right. I mean, you know, I mean, these guys

that could really just tackle and go after people, it makes, it takes a

lot of pressure both mentally and physically off of your offense. If you

could hold the, the opposition down. So yeah, defense is usually important.

By the way, you probably didn't have a chance to hear this, Todd, but when,

when Earl was talking to Gilbert Brown earlier this morning, no, just a

reminder for remind folks that Gilbert and Earl had made a bet about the Packers

Lions game and Earl lost the bets. And what Gilbert wanted them to do was to

die as hair black girl Earl had gray hair. And he actually thanked Gilbert

this morning for losing the bet because at the Christmas party over the weekend,

all everyone did was complimented. I know. Oh, young. It looks good. He looks

the man. I'm not making this up. The man looks fan. He's not getting on 70

years old and he does not look 70. Oh, my God. He looks in his 40s. Yes, a

hundred percent. He was, he was dressed. I mean, he had a fly jacket on as the

kids say, Calvin to the kids. To the kids say that, Calvin, Todd, they said that

when we were kids, um, he had, he had Riz, right? Calvin, he had Riz. Oh,

Riz, is that it? His trip had Riz. Yes, he had Riz for sure. All right. It was

slap. What is coming up on the top of a program this afternoon? Um, you know,

we got a state Senator Kelter Royce is going to be joining us live in the 12 o'clock

hour and doing a little year in review on women's reproductive rights. And what

could be ahead in 2024? Then tomorrow, a special two hours show we have

Brigadier General David May from Wisconsin Air National Guard. And in a very

rare and exclusive time, he is going to be taking callers. He will call in

tomorrow during the show. Your chance to ask Brigadier General David May,

anything is on your mind about Wisconsin Air National Guard. So a couple of

great days coming up. My first question would be spelled Brigadier fast. Now,

it's been such a pleasure. Thank you. So very, very, very much. Well,

thank you guys. The last couple of months, stick around. Thanks for putting up a

appreciate it and have a great show. You as well. News is coming up next. Stay

close. This is Asgos, Wisconsin. You're on the Civic Media Radio Network.