March 6, 2026 • 21 mins
Exclusive interview with former Congressional Chief of Staff Andy Parrish provides underground insight.
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Washington, d C. Is crazy, So I thought, we need
to talk to somebody who's lived there, been in the
middle of all that craziness and can give us some
inside scoop. I love inside scoop. Joining us right now.
He is a political strategist, a former chief of staff
for Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, and a man of impeccable character.
(00:23):
Andy Parrish joins us on the Chris Bakers Show. How
you doing, Andy, Chris?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hearing you on the radio is as natural as breathing air. Wow,
I'm glad you're back.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
All right? So Andy, you know, you and I we've talked.
I've known Andy for many, many years, so the audience understands.
And a friend of mine took a position in d C.
And you and I were talking about it and you
said something that I thought was it was It kind
of stunned me for a second. But what you said
(00:55):
was that in Washington, d C, sex is currents. Can you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know? And I'm gonna bring up from this. I'm
gonna bring up some examples for you. But you know,
look at look at Bob Packwood for a minute. You know,
let's go back to Bob Packwood, remember him. He got
during the whole Clinton stuff, Republican out of Oregon for
like twenty years. This guy, I don't know the exact
number of years, is a long time. More than just
a one off deal. This guy had been accused of
many very inappropriate things, and yet we didn't hear about
(01:27):
any of that until the Clinton stuff came out. And
it's it's an accepted fact of life. I would say
there that you know, it's currency. So I always tell
people in campaigns, if we were living in sim City,
our money would be data. Well, in DC, it's it's sex, alcohol,
and power. Those three things, those are the only three
(01:48):
things that matter out there. And it's, like I said,
an accepted form of it. It's a way to get
ahead in most offices. Not mine. Mine was never that way.
A lot of offices aren't. But it's not a hidden secret.
It's very well known. You know.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was talking with the Danny Delay, Tom DeLay's daughter,
and she was this was many years ago. I think
I've even brought this up to you. She said that
if you're a single woman in Washington, d c. If
you're going to date, you're most likely going to date
a married guy. Is that how you saw them.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I mean yeah, I mean, look, most of my colleagues.
When I talk colleagues, I talk fellow members, fellow chiefs
of staff. I would say easily, Chris, it's not an exaggeration.
Fifty percent of them are either alcoholics or divorced or
some combination of the two. You know, and and and
what your friend said is right. And I'm not going
(02:46):
to name names of this person, but I have the
chance to talk to this young lady that you know,
and and I you know, I told her this. I said,
the first thing you got to do is go find
yourself a church outside of the Beltway. Go find yourself
a church that you know you can go to just
to get grounded at least once a week, right, so
(03:07):
that you're not getting involved in these things. Because once
you open that door, and we can go into the
slush fund and all that stuff, But once you open
that door, Chris, you're owned. Somebody owns you, and you
can't be unowned at that point, right, Which is part
of the reason for the slush fund is now we've
got a bunch of votes. We own you know, if
you're in leadership, we now own you, and you're gonna
(03:30):
vote the way we tell you to, You're gonna campaign
the way we tell you too, you're gonna do that.
It's almost, man, I mean, I hate to say it,
but it's almost set up in a way, Chris, where
people are made to fail, at least morally in that way.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, you know what's interesting is that it's all of
the temptations that we are warned about in the Bible.
It has to do with character. But I mean, I
can remember because I used to go to DC quite
a bit on radio business, and I can remember. I
can't I can't think of the name of the bar,
(04:04):
but it's attached to a big hotel, and I remember
one night being in there and I saw Denny Hastard,
the big roly Polly. I don't know how old that
guy was, and he was driving to the hoop with
this girl who was probably in her mid twenties. And
that kind of struck me. And that's when I said
(04:26):
something to you about it, and you said, that's that's normal.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, and look at Denny. Look at how Danny ended up. Right,
Danny ended up playing paint out blackmail to somebody, you know,
and the FBI found him, but found it because he
was taking withdrawals over ten thousand dollars. Now that was
prior to his Congress. But look, that's the that's the
environment this attracts. And how easily you are forgotten once
you leave, unless they have something on you, Unless you know,
(04:54):
whoever's in leadership has that knowledge of you. Once you leave,
you're nobody. Like great example, two thousand and six, House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill English came out to
campaign for us, and we had him around. Most powerful
guy in Washington, right, House Ways and Means. Remember he
loses that seat out of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a
(05:15):
fifty to fifty district he loses in two thousand and six.
That was the absolute blood bath it was. It was
Bush's last couple of years. We had the smallest incoming
freshman class of any group of Republicans, and he was
out right about five years later, I see him at
the Capitol Hill Club and there he is eating a
hamburger all by himself. Rewind five years when I was
(05:38):
out there, you know, right when we got elected, right
when he was campaigning. It was probably right before the election.
That guy couldn't walk three feet without thirty people telling
him how great he was here. We are just five
short years later. Five years later, the guy was eating alone.
Nobody cared, nobody knew who he was. Nobody cared. Wow,
and you know a lot of the reason why you
(05:59):
see the revolt door. This is my opinion. I wish
I had more backs to back this up, but it'll
make sense more I think more over. The reason we
have the revolving door where people go and they're a
consultant because they can't lobby, but they can be a
consultant to a lobbyist firm. The reason leadership puts those
people in different places, Chris, for a reason because now
(06:21):
they're owned. But they're owned. Now, they own an agency.
Now they own an entire lobbying apparatus. Right, so then
they just go to that member it was paid out
from the splash bond, he's now a consultants or whatnot,
and saying, hey, I need ten grand over to this candidate.
I need you know, fifteen to five over to this candidate.
You're owned. And that's what I was trying to convey
to the young lady you had me talk to. Don't
(06:42):
fall for this, all right, you are highly intelligent. God's
designed for sex is meant for marriage. It's not meant
to be used as a weapon against somebody for votes
or for future money. But it's gross, Chris, I had
to start bringing I was chucked. Was Chuck Colson, No,
not Chuck Coulfs and Chuck Swindall. I was listening to
(07:04):
Chuck Swindall one day and he said he traveled a lot.
And he said the first thing he did was he
packed a picture of his family and brought it to
the hotel with him and put it right on top
of the television every time he traveled. And I thought,
that's a hell of an idea. Not that I've been
in the point where I'm you know, have put myself
in a situation that way, but I started doing that
to protect myself. Even I've seen some of the most
(07:25):
morally grounded people be corrupted out there.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, it's not hard. All it takes is you know,
it goes by inches. Andy parrishes our guest Washington big
shot former chief of staff for Michelle Bachman political strategist. Also,
I want you before we get out of here, I
want you to tell people where they can get you know,
your podcast and stuff. Are there people in DC that
(07:51):
have women that they send out like a like a
missile to go get somebody and try to get them
under their control. In other words, are there girls that
they get paid to go out and seduce scary looking,
fat ugly men.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I don't think on you, Chris. I'll tell you this
from at least from the house side, leadership side. I
don't see that now. That said, I don't put that
past you know, the intelligence community to do anything like that.
I don't. I certainly don't put it past the Massade
or I don't put it past China or any of
those books. I mean, we saw it with Eric Solwell, right,
(08:28):
there's the rep who was with a Chinese spy. Unknowingly,
that is very that that is that's just a that's
an intelligence trick of the trade. And I'm not going
to talk about intelligence today. But that's a trick of
the trade. And that's a separate issue we could discuss.
But with what happens in DC, I mean, Chris, it's
like college on steroids. You get four hundred and thirty
(08:51):
five narcissists together that have some sort of parent issues,
right because now they need to be loved by everybody.
And then you add in that each of those has
sixteen staff members who are also on narcissists at some level.
Before you're talking thousands of people. Then we're not even
on the Senate side yet. And yet you really rarely
(09:11):
hear about you very rarely hear about sexual harassment and
other things on the Capitol. And that's you know, I
heard you yesterday talking about the slush fund that they
pay people out in and the MACE vote. I don't
know how I feel about that vote because I read it.
Moving moving forward, everything needs to be open, right, Yeah,
(09:34):
for retro actively, we've cut deals with victims, real legitimate
victims where their names have been kept quiet. They've been
you know, there's been settlements in NBA's I don't see
any way to go back and reopen those, but I
do think moving forward, we have every single right to
know and need to know. Yeah, what our members are
(09:54):
doing in their free time.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I agree. Now you said slush fund and what I
want to take quick break and come back and let's
talk a little bit about slush funds and other kind
of things that go on that people just you know,
those of us out here working hard, we don't even
know about. So we'll get in with we'll get in
more into this with our good friend Andy Parrish, great guy,
(10:19):
uh and strong, My friend Andy Parrish, who is truly, uh,
just a great example of character. He's spent many years
in DC. He was chief of staff from Michelle Bach
when he's a political strategist and knows just about everybody.
Andy is with us here on the Chris Baker Show.
(10:40):
Who by the way, you're charging your car?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I was charging it yet, don't worry Christ him my
pickup truck.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
We're good, all right, good, okay, all right, all is
forgiven anyway, all right, so let's talk slush funds Andy.
We of course we've heard about this sex harassment slush fund.
How does one gain access to it? And are there
other slush funds we may not know about.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, the first thing you need to know about is
how we talk about money in Washington. When we make
estimates for what. When you hear that there's the CBO
has estimated that the fiscal note on this is X
amount of money if anything is fifty million or under.
And I'm going to repeat that fifty million or under.
(11:28):
We round that down to zero. What, all right? Let
that sink in when we give estimates on what aficial
note is going to cost or how much a piece
of legislation is. If there's a line item that is
under fifty million dollars, we just round it down to zero.
And so that's the mindset that you're working with to
(11:53):
begin with. So you know, when you hear that there's
two and a half three million over here, form, that's
that's literally. And so where they all reside, they all
eventually will go through the Leader. They'll all go through
the Speaker's office eventually, so that's where they go. But
they would they would probably start in the Ethics Committee,
(12:13):
which that whole process needs to be opened up so
that we have more transparency there. There's there's not nearly
enough in that process, but it'll start there, a settlement
will get made. Usually the House Legal Counsel will get
involved or the Sergeant's office will and things will go
through there, and then eventually it gets signed off by
the Speaker.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Wow, and they don't do any haggling. They don't say, well,
you know this amount of money, is that's a little
too much or not? Or did they just say how
much cutter machek, let's get this out of the way.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No, there's normally there's there's from my understanding, and this
is how quiet it is. I was never involved in
one of these, but you know it's showing on right,
but and you know what's happening. But no, they almost
always have lawyers involved. And when lawyers get involved, of course,
the price tag just goes up, and so they wanted
to go away. And you know, I'm not saying it's
(13:10):
always And here's what people need to understand. It's not
the members all the time. It's also staff at senior level,
staff that are taking advantage of a situation where we
talk about currency, where somebody is looking to get promoted
or move off to a committee, maybe a committee staffer
or something else. That's usually what those are, not a
(13:31):
lot of members. I mean, we hear about Tony Gonzalez, right,
I mean that guy I can't even believe he ran
in the primary. Yeah, down in Texas. But then you
know it's staff too. I mean, it's a mess, Chris.
It's gotten so out of control at this point that
it's kind of taken out a life of itself. It's
almost like its own little entity. At this point. It's
(13:54):
got to stop. It has to stop because look, look,
I'm a dad of two girls. All right, you're a
you're a dad. You got dads listening to you, all right.
I don't ever want my daughters to think that it
is normal to use their body as currency to get
ahead in this world. Right ever, And and and if
(14:16):
they look out, who do they look to? They look
at people they see on the news. They looked also,
they looked to me. They looked at Jesus. And they
look and see what they see on the news, and
they're seeing that this is what's normal, or this is
what should happen. Uh, you know, and it shouldn't. In fact,
it's just it shouldn't. I don't even you should. I
don't eve think you should serve. I don't even think
(14:37):
these people should serve if they're accused of this, don't
ever put yourself in a situation to be accused of it.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So, Andy, we know about this sex slush fund. Are
there any other slush funds we don't know about?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, I don't want to call them that. They allocate
money for expenses they know they're going to have, and
some of that is legal money. I mean, you wouldn't
believe what Congress gets sued for I mean, it's remarkable
some of the handwritten affidavits that I've seen through Caucus
that people have written in cursive and mailed in on
doing Satan and other people, which I'm all for. But
(15:20):
the reality is, with three hundred and eighty million people
in this country or whatever we're at now, you're gonna
get sued all the time, right, And so they do
have they do have full time staff and all of that,
and they have budgets and they've got to watch them.
Works like any other corporate law office.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Wow. So theoretically, could a person smart enough just keep
filing little lawsuits and keep getting paid as long as
it's easy, Chris.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Honestly, Chris, I would love to figure out a way
to audit all of this. Unfortunately, unfortunately it's not all
subject open records laws. You know, everything in the executive
branch is for the most part, but it's a legislative branch,
it becomes a lot more difficult. But I'd love to
audit this because I have no doubt Chris, that there
(16:13):
are stams as you mentioned, happening where people are getting
money because it's just easier to write the check to
have things go away. I do believe that, and I
would like to know about that. My concern with the
Nancy Mace vote that happened yesterday. I love Nancy. Nancy's
probably one of the only good conservatives we have now
(16:34):
that we lost MGT and now that people are going
after Massy and all of that. But again I go
back to I got to look, I've got daughters. I look,
there are real victims here, and if they weren't real victims,
settled a real suit in the past, and part of
that was a confidentiality and other agreements. We need to
(16:54):
honor and respect that. So I don't think going back
does us any good. I think going forward does us
all the good in the world. And if they can
set it up in a way where people will still
report what happens, you know, because we don't want it
also to be public to where women don't come forward
and these bad guys keep continuing, you know. But if
(17:16):
they're a member of Congress and they get accused, if
there would, then there is no way to shield the
victim in this case, then then it's got to go public.
I just I just get a little queasy about making
it all public, because we do have that victim aspect right,
and if we could find a way to protect that
victim and expose the member or the staff member, I'm
(17:39):
one million percent behind it. But my mind goes right
to that victim.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So Andy, I'm wrapping up here. I want to ask
you this question. Then I want you to pimp your podcast.
Where can people get your podcast? That's that's very important.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah. The main thing is just follow me on Facebook, Andy,
just google Andy Parrish. I come out. I got the
blue chech marks and all that, and then also on Twitter,
I usually post them on there. I am very horrible
at trying to figure out a way to monetize this thing.
I know I got thousands of people who listen, but
I don't try to do any ads or anything. What
I try to do, Chris, is get real information out,
(18:16):
like I am with you. Yeah, that's the other thing
that people. I just I hope all your listeners hear
one thing. Your members of Congress intentionally use big language
and legislative language purposefully. They're taught that and it's purposeful.
And the reason why it's purposeful is we are conditioned
from birth till death to look up to our elders
(18:39):
and to learn and imitate from people smarter than us.
That's how schools are. So when they start talking brilliance,
we shut up, stop asking questions and listen and figure
the smart people are taking care of it. I call
the I call out that, and I explain things in
a way that people can understand and memorable, like for instance,
(19:03):
that drives me nuts. But we always blame the Senate,
the Senate parliamentarian for not allowing things to happen. All right,
people don't know this. The Senate Parliamentarian is an honorary role.
There's no official role for Senate parliamentarian. They have no vote,
they have no authority. There is an advisory role. And
(19:27):
so when the big beautiful bill came, they looked at
polling Republicans did and they looked. They're like, okay, you
know what. Yep, we can ban planned parenthood abortion funding
for one year, but let's make sure it's funded the
second year so we have something to campaign on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Oh it's the game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So and so the Senate parliamentarian, I mean, think of
the idiocy behind this. We had a ten year ban
on funding planned parenthood. The Senate parliamentarian quote says, you
can only do it for a year. What I'm funding
all sorts of parts of government for ten years and
you're telling me planned paranod I can only do it
for what and you have no authority? Like all John
(20:05):
Thung had to say, well, hey, thanks for your advice,
have a good day.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ah. So it gave them an escape.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
No, but but they will tell you got to get
past the Senate parliamentarian. No. And then of course our
spinaliss Republicans. The Senate parliamentary in that office I think
was invented in roughly nineteen three somewhere in there. Do
you know how many times the Republicans have fired the
(20:31):
Democrat appointed Senate parliamentarian and hired their own in that
entire time, no idea once Bob Dole, that was it.
So the Senate parneymentarian that John Suone tapped was appointed
by Truck Schumer.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And they have no authority. So it sounds an advisory war.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
It sounds to me like they'll use something that like
that as an excuse. You know, we can't do this
the Chris Yeah, oh that's goofy. All right, Andy, I'm
all out of time. In this segment, we have to
play commercials and news and watch the weather and stuff.
Love to have you on the show again. And that's
Andy Parrish, Washington insider, political strategist and a man of
(21:19):
enormous character. That's the best part. Andy. God bless you man,
and thank you very much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Thank you too. Everybody in Nebraska. Stay safe, do all
you can to win seat five. Chris, we didn't even
talk about my election prediction or seat one. That is
in Don Vacon's seat seat two. Sorry, yeah, in Astraska
second District it's minus five, but we have to have
that seat. There's no way to keep this story without Nebraska,
(21:46):
So get ready for your airwaves to get run.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Excellent, All right, Andy, we'll talk again soon. Take care
of my friend.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Thanks Chris.
Washington, d C. Is crazy, So I thought, we need
to talk to somebody who's lived there, been in the
middle of all that craziness and can give us some
inside scoop. I love inside scoop. Joining us right now.
He is a political strategist, a former chief of staff
for Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, and a man of impeccable character.
(00:23):
Andy Parrish joins us on the Chris Bakers Show. How
you doing, Andy, Chris?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hearing you on the radio is as natural as breathing air. Wow,
I'm glad you're back.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
All right? So Andy, you know, you and I we've talked.
I've known Andy for many, many years, so the audience understands.
And a friend of mine took a position in d C.
And you and I were talking about it and you
said something that I thought was it was It kind
of stunned me for a second. But what you said
(00:55):
was that in Washington, d C, sex is currents. Can you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know? And I'm gonna bring up from this. I'm
gonna bring up some examples for you. But you know,
look at look at Bob Packwood for a minute. You know,
let's go back to Bob Packwood, remember him. He got
during the whole Clinton stuff, Republican out of Oregon for
like twenty years. This guy, I don't know the exact
number of years, is a long time. More than just
a one off deal. This guy had been accused of
many very inappropriate things, and yet we didn't hear about
(01:27):
any of that until the Clinton stuff came out. And
it's it's an accepted fact of life. I would say
there that you know, it's currency. So I always tell
people in campaigns, if we were living in sim City,
our money would be data. Well, in DC, it's it's sex, alcohol,
and power. Those three things, those are the only three
(01:48):
things that matter out there. And it's, like I said,
an accepted form of it. It's a way to get
ahead in most offices. Not mine. Mine was never that way.
A lot of offices aren't. But it's not a hidden secret.
It's very well known. You know.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was talking with the Danny Delay, Tom DeLay's daughter,
and she was this was many years ago. I think
I've even brought this up to you. She said that
if you're a single woman in Washington, d c. If
you're going to date, you're most likely going to date
a married guy. Is that how you saw them.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I mean yeah, I mean, look, most of my colleagues.
When I talk colleagues, I talk fellow members, fellow chiefs
of staff. I would say easily, Chris, it's not an exaggeration.
Fifty percent of them are either alcoholics or divorced or
some combination of the two. You know, and and and
what your friend said is right. And I'm not going
(02:46):
to name names of this person, but I have the
chance to talk to this young lady that you know,
and and I you know, I told her this. I said,
the first thing you got to do is go find
yourself a church outside of the Beltway. Go find yourself
a church that you know you can go to just
to get grounded at least once a week, right, so
(03:07):
that you're not getting involved in these things. Because once
you open that door, and we can go into the
slush fund and all that stuff, But once you open
that door, Chris, you're owned. Somebody owns you, and you
can't be unowned at that point, right, Which is part
of the reason for the slush fund is now we've
got a bunch of votes. We own you know, if
you're in leadership, we now own you, and you're gonna
(03:30):
vote the way we tell you to, You're gonna campaign
the way we tell you too, you're gonna do that.
It's almost, man, I mean, I hate to say it,
but it's almost set up in a way, Chris, where
people are made to fail, at least morally in that way.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, you know what's interesting is that it's all of
the temptations that we are warned about in the Bible.
It has to do with character. But I mean, I
can remember because I used to go to DC quite
a bit on radio business, and I can remember. I
can't I can't think of the name of the bar,
(04:04):
but it's attached to a big hotel, and I remember
one night being in there and I saw Denny Hastard,
the big roly Polly. I don't know how old that
guy was, and he was driving to the hoop with
this girl who was probably in her mid twenties. And
that kind of struck me. And that's when I said
(04:26):
something to you about it, and you said, that's that's normal.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, and look at Denny. Look at how Danny ended up. Right,
Danny ended up playing paint out blackmail to somebody, you know,
and the FBI found him, but found it because he
was taking withdrawals over ten thousand dollars. Now that was
prior to his Congress. But look, that's the that's the
environment this attracts. And how easily you are forgotten once
you leave, unless they have something on you, Unless you know,
(04:54):
whoever's in leadership has that knowledge of you. Once you leave,
you're nobody. Like great example, two thousand and six, House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill English came out to
campaign for us, and we had him around. Most powerful
guy in Washington, right, House Ways and Means. Remember he
loses that seat out of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a
(05:15):
fifty to fifty district he loses in two thousand and six.
That was the absolute blood bath it was. It was
Bush's last couple of years. We had the smallest incoming
freshman class of any group of Republicans, and he was
out right about five years later, I see him at
the Capitol Hill Club and there he is eating a
hamburger all by himself. Rewind five years when I was
(05:38):
out there, you know, right when we got elected, right
when he was campaigning. It was probably right before the election.
That guy couldn't walk three feet without thirty people telling
him how great he was here. We are just five
short years later. Five years later, the guy was eating alone.
Nobody cared, nobody knew who he was. Nobody cared. Wow,
and you know a lot of the reason why you
(05:59):
see the revolt door. This is my opinion. I wish
I had more backs to back this up, but it'll
make sense more I think more over. The reason we
have the revolving door where people go and they're a
consultant because they can't lobby, but they can be a
consultant to a lobbyist firm. The reason leadership puts those
people in different places, Chris, for a reason because now
(06:21):
they're owned. But they're owned. Now, they own an agency.
Now they own an entire lobbying apparatus. Right, so then
they just go to that member it was paid out
from the splash bond, he's now a consultants or whatnot,
and saying, hey, I need ten grand over to this candidate.
I need you know, fifteen to five over to this candidate.
You're owned. And that's what I was trying to convey
to the young lady you had me talk to. Don't
(06:42):
fall for this, all right, you are highly intelligent. God's
designed for sex is meant for marriage. It's not meant
to be used as a weapon against somebody for votes
or for future money. But it's gross, Chris, I had
to start bringing I was chucked. Was Chuck Colson, No,
not Chuck Coulfs and Chuck Swindall. I was listening to
(07:04):
Chuck Swindall one day and he said he traveled a lot.
And he said the first thing he did was he
packed a picture of his family and brought it to
the hotel with him and put it right on top
of the television every time he traveled. And I thought,
that's a hell of an idea. Not that I've been
in the point where I'm you know, have put myself
in a situation that way, but I started doing that
to protect myself. Even I've seen some of the most
(07:25):
morally grounded people be corrupted out there.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, it's not hard. All it takes is you know,
it goes by inches. Andy parrishes our guest Washington big
shot former chief of staff for Michelle Bachman political strategist. Also,
I want you before we get out of here, I
want you to tell people where they can get you know,
your podcast and stuff. Are there people in DC that
(07:51):
have women that they send out like a like a
missile to go get somebody and try to get them
under their control. In other words, are there girls that
they get paid to go out and seduce scary looking,
fat ugly men.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I don't think on you, Chris. I'll tell you this
from at least from the house side, leadership side. I
don't see that now. That said, I don't put that
past you know, the intelligence community to do anything like that.
I don't. I certainly don't put it past the Massade
or I don't put it past China or any of
those books. I mean, we saw it with Eric Solwell, right,
(08:28):
there's the rep who was with a Chinese spy. Unknowingly,
that is very that that is that's just a that's
an intelligence trick of the trade. And I'm not going
to talk about intelligence today. But that's a trick of
the trade. And that's a separate issue we could discuss.
But with what happens in DC, I mean, Chris, it's
like college on steroids. You get four hundred and thirty
(08:51):
five narcissists together that have some sort of parent issues,
right because now they need to be loved by everybody.
And then you add in that each of those has
sixteen staff members who are also on narcissists at some level.
Before you're talking thousands of people. Then we're not even
on the Senate side yet. And yet you really rarely
(09:11):
hear about you very rarely hear about sexual harassment and
other things on the Capitol. And that's you know, I
heard you yesterday talking about the slush fund that they
pay people out in and the MACE vote. I don't
know how I feel about that vote because I read it.
Moving moving forward, everything needs to be open, right, Yeah,
(09:34):
for retro actively, we've cut deals with victims, real legitimate
victims where their names have been kept quiet. They've been
you know, there's been settlements in NBA's I don't see
any way to go back and reopen those, but I
do think moving forward, we have every single right to
know and need to know. Yeah, what our members are
(09:54):
doing in their free time.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I agree. Now you said slush fund and what I
want to take quick break and come back and let's
talk a little bit about slush funds and other kind
of things that go on that people just you know,
those of us out here working hard, we don't even
know about. So we'll get in with we'll get in
more into this with our good friend Andy Parrish, great guy,
(10:19):
uh and strong, My friend Andy Parrish, who is truly, uh,
just a great example of character. He's spent many years
in DC. He was chief of staff from Michelle Bach
when he's a political strategist and knows just about everybody.
Andy is with us here on the Chris Baker Show.
(10:40):
Who by the way, you're charging your car?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I was charging it yet, don't worry Christ him my
pickup truck.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
We're good, all right, good, okay, all right, all is
forgiven anyway, all right, so let's talk slush funds Andy.
We of course we've heard about this sex harassment slush fund.
How does one gain access to it? And are there
other slush funds we may not know about.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, the first thing you need to know about is
how we talk about money in Washington. When we make
estimates for what. When you hear that there's the CBO
has estimated that the fiscal note on this is X
amount of money if anything is fifty million or under.
And I'm going to repeat that fifty million or under.
(11:28):
We round that down to zero. What, all right? Let
that sink in when we give estimates on what aficial
note is going to cost or how much a piece
of legislation is. If there's a line item that is
under fifty million dollars, we just round it down to zero.
And so that's the mindset that you're working with to
(11:53):
begin with. So you know, when you hear that there's
two and a half three million over here, form, that's
that's literally. And so where they all reside, they all
eventually will go through the Leader. They'll all go through
the Speaker's office eventually, so that's where they go. But
they would they would probably start in the Ethics Committee,
(12:13):
which that whole process needs to be opened up so
that we have more transparency there. There's there's not nearly
enough in that process, but it'll start there, a settlement
will get made. Usually the House Legal Counsel will get
involved or the Sergeant's office will and things will go
through there, and then eventually it gets signed off by
the Speaker.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Wow, and they don't do any haggling. They don't say, well,
you know this amount of money, is that's a little
too much or not? Or did they just say how
much cutter machek, let's get this out of the way.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
No, there's normally there's there's from my understanding, and this
is how quiet it is. I was never involved in
one of these, but you know it's showing on right,
but and you know what's happening. But no, they almost
always have lawyers involved. And when lawyers get involved, of course,
the price tag just goes up, and so they wanted
to go away. And you know, I'm not saying it's
(13:10):
always And here's what people need to understand. It's not
the members all the time. It's also staff at senior level,
staff that are taking advantage of a situation where we
talk about currency, where somebody is looking to get promoted
or move off to a committee, maybe a committee staffer
or something else. That's usually what those are, not a
(13:31):
lot of members. I mean, we hear about Tony Gonzalez, right,
I mean that guy I can't even believe he ran
in the primary. Yeah, down in Texas. But then you
know it's staff too. I mean, it's a mess, Chris.
It's gotten so out of control at this point that
it's kind of taken out a life of itself. It's
almost like its own little entity. At this point. It's
(13:54):
got to stop. It has to stop because look, look,
I'm a dad of two girls. All right, you're a
you're a dad. You got dads listening to you, all right.
I don't ever want my daughters to think that it
is normal to use their body as currency to get
ahead in this world. Right ever, And and and if
(14:16):
they look out, who do they look to? They look
at people they see on the news. They looked also,
they looked to me. They looked at Jesus. And they
look and see what they see on the news, and
they're seeing that this is what's normal, or this is
what should happen. Uh, you know, and it shouldn't. In fact,
it's just it shouldn't. I don't even you should. I
don't eve think you should serve. I don't even think
(14:37):
these people should serve if they're accused of this, don't
ever put yourself in a situation to be accused of it.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
So, Andy, we know about this sex slush fund. Are
there any other slush funds we don't know about?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, I don't want to call them that. They allocate
money for expenses they know they're going to have, and
some of that is legal money. I mean, you wouldn't
believe what Congress gets sued for I mean, it's remarkable
some of the handwritten affidavits that I've seen through Caucus
that people have written in cursive and mailed in on
doing Satan and other people, which I'm all for. But
(15:20):
the reality is, with three hundred and eighty million people
in this country or whatever we're at now, you're gonna
get sued all the time, right, And so they do
have they do have full time staff and all of that,
and they have budgets and they've got to watch them.
Works like any other corporate law office.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Wow. So theoretically, could a person smart enough just keep
filing little lawsuits and keep getting paid as long as
it's easy, Chris.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Honestly, Chris, I would love to figure out a way
to audit all of this. Unfortunately, unfortunately it's not all
subject open records laws. You know, everything in the executive
branch is for the most part, but it's a legislative branch,
it becomes a lot more difficult. But I'd love to
audit this because I have no doubt Chris, that there
(16:13):
are stams as you mentioned, happening where people are getting
money because it's just easier to write the check to
have things go away. I do believe that, and I
would like to know about that. My concern with the
Nancy Mace vote that happened yesterday. I love Nancy. Nancy's
probably one of the only good conservatives we have now
(16:34):
that we lost MGT and now that people are going
after Massy and all of that. But again I go
back to I got to look, I've got daughters. I look,
there are real victims here, and if they weren't real victims,
settled a real suit in the past, and part of
that was a confidentiality and other agreements. We need to
(16:54):
honor and respect that. So I don't think going back
does us any good. I think going forward does us
all the good in the world. And if they can
set it up in a way where people will still
report what happens, you know, because we don't want it
also to be public to where women don't come forward
and these bad guys keep continuing, you know. But if
(17:16):
they're a member of Congress and they get accused, if
there would, then there is no way to shield the
victim in this case, then then it's got to go public.
I just I just get a little queasy about making
it all public, because we do have that victim aspect right,
and if we could find a way to protect that
victim and expose the member or the staff member, I'm
(17:39):
one million percent behind it. But my mind goes right
to that victim.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So Andy, I'm wrapping up here. I want to ask
you this question. Then I want you to pimp your podcast.
Where can people get your podcast? That's that's very important.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah. The main thing is just follow me on Facebook, Andy,
just google Andy Parrish. I come out. I got the
blue chech marks and all that, and then also on Twitter,
I usually post them on there. I am very horrible
at trying to figure out a way to monetize this thing.
I know I got thousands of people who listen, but
I don't try to do any ads or anything. What
I try to do, Chris, is get real information out,
(18:16):
like I am with you. Yeah, that's the other thing
that people. I just I hope all your listeners hear
one thing. Your members of Congress intentionally use big language
and legislative language purposefully. They're taught that and it's purposeful.
And the reason why it's purposeful is we are conditioned
from birth till death to look up to our elders
(18:39):
and to learn and imitate from people smarter than us.
That's how schools are. So when they start talking brilliance,
we shut up, stop asking questions and listen and figure
the smart people are taking care of it. I call
the I call out that, and I explain things in
a way that people can understand and memorable, like for instance,
(19:03):
that drives me nuts. But we always blame the Senate,
the Senate parliamentarian for not allowing things to happen. All right,
people don't know this. The Senate Parliamentarian is an honorary role.
There's no official role for Senate parliamentarian. They have no vote,
they have no authority. There is an advisory role. And
(19:27):
so when the big beautiful bill came, they looked at
polling Republicans did and they looked. They're like, okay, you
know what. Yep, we can ban planned parenthood abortion funding
for one year, but let's make sure it's funded the
second year so we have something to campaign on.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Oh it's the game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So and so the Senate parliamentarian, I mean, think of
the idiocy behind this. We had a ten year ban
on funding planned parenthood. The Senate parliamentarian quote says, you
can only do it for a year. What I'm funding
all sorts of parts of government for ten years and
you're telling me planned paranod I can only do it
for what and you have no authority? Like all John
(20:05):
Thung had to say, well, hey, thanks for your advice,
have a good day.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ah. So it gave them an escape.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
No, but but they will tell you got to get
past the Senate parliamentarian. No. And then of course our
spinaliss Republicans. The Senate parliamentary in that office I think
was invented in roughly nineteen three somewhere in there. Do
you know how many times the Republicans have fired the
(20:31):
Democrat appointed Senate parliamentarian and hired their own in that
entire time, no idea once Bob Dole, that was it.
So the Senate parneymentarian that John Suone tapped was appointed
by Truck Schumer.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
And they have no authority. So it sounds an advisory war.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
It sounds to me like they'll use something that like
that as an excuse. You know, we can't do this
the Chris Yeah, oh that's goofy. All right, Andy, I'm
all out of time. In this segment, we have to
play commercials and news and watch the weather and stuff.
Love to have you on the show again. And that's
Andy Parrish, Washington insider, political strategist and a man of
(21:19):
enormous character. That's the best part. Andy. God bless you man,
and thank you very much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Thank you too. Everybody in Nebraska. Stay safe, do all
you can to win seat five. Chris, we didn't even
talk about my election prediction or seat one. That is
in Don Vacon's seat seat two. Sorry, yeah, in Astraska
second District it's minus five, but we have to have
that seat. There's no way to keep this story without Nebraska,
(21:46):
So get ready for your airwaves to get run.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Excellent, All right, Andy, we'll talk again soon. Take care
of my friend.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Thanks Chris.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Clifford Show
The Clifford Show with Clifford Taylor IV blends humor, culture, and behind-the-scenes sports talk with real conversations featuring athletes, creators, and personalities—spotlighting the grind, the growth, and the opportunities shaping the next generation of sports and culture.