October 30, 2025 • 29 mins
Join Jim and Greg for the Thursday 3 Martini Lunch as they assess the GOP's improving poll numbers during the shutdown, distinctly different poll numbers in Virginia, and Bill Kristol disgracing himself to the point of endorsing Zohran Mamdani.
First, they're pleasantly surprised to see poll numbers showing Americans think better of Republicans and the GOP in Congress right now than they did before the shutdown. Independents are more bullish on Republicans too. With a simple message and many more ways for voters to get their news, the old strategies aren't working for Democrats anymore.
Next, they dig into poll numbers showing a 10-point lead for Democrat Abigail Spanberger over Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears in the Virginia governor's race. Meanwhile, GOP Attorney General Jason Miyares leads by eight points. Are there really that many ticket splitters in Virginia? They also wonder why Sears has not spoken much about what she and Gov. Glenn Youngkin accomplished over the past four years, when Youngkin remains a popular governor.
Finally, they shake their heads as former Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol completes his transformation from supposed conservative to leftist lapdog as he endorses Mamdani for mayor. Jim and Greg explain how some conservatives who dislike Trump kept their conservative policy positions while others, like Kristol, abandoned everything they ever claimed to believe in hopes of being embraced by the left.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money at https://RocketMoney.com/MARTINI
Build your fall sanctuary of comfort with Boll and Branch. Save 20% plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://BollAndBranch.com/THREEMARTINI —offer ends soon, exclusions apply.
First, they're pleasantly surprised to see poll numbers showing Americans think better of Republicans and the GOP in Congress right now than they did before the shutdown. Independents are more bullish on Republicans too. With a simple message and many more ways for voters to get their news, the old strategies aren't working for Democrats anymore.
Next, they dig into poll numbers showing a 10-point lead for Democrat Abigail Spanberger over Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears in the Virginia governor's race. Meanwhile, GOP Attorney General Jason Miyares leads by eight points. Are there really that many ticket splitters in Virginia? They also wonder why Sears has not spoken much about what she and Gov. Glenn Youngkin accomplished over the past four years, when Youngkin remains a popular governor.
Finally, they shake their heads as former Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol completes his transformation from supposed conservative to leftist lapdog as he endorses Mamdani for mayor. Jim and Greg explain how some conservatives who dislike Trump kept their conservative policy positions while others, like Kristol, abandoned everything they ever claimed to believe in hopes of being embraced by the left.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money at https://RocketMoney.com/MARTINI
Build your fall sanctuary of comfort with Boll and Branch. Save 20% plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://BollAndBranch.com/THREEMARTINI —offer ends soon, exclusions apply.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garritty of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
So go ahad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the Three Martini Lunch. It's kind of a cold,
drizzly day here in Washington, d C. But we've definitely
got some hot topics to talk about today. We'll be
talking about the epic leap dash, whatever noun you want
to use for Bill Crystal surging to the left. He's
now endorsing so Ron Tony in New York City. We'll
(00:36):
also be taking a look at some of the latest
polling numbers out of Virginia, which are a little bit
different than some of the other polls, and so if
these are correct, it'll mark a very different shift in
Virginia than we've seen the last few election cycles. But
we start with how the public is looking at the shutdown. Yesterday,
John Thune actually raised his voice on the Senate floor,
(00:59):
which had a lot of his own party off guard
because he's apparently a very mild mannered guy almost all
of the time, but screaming at the Democrats pretty much
that for thirteen straight attempts they've refused to open the government,
and more and more people they're going to be suffering
as a result of that in the clean cr Usually
when there's a government shutdown, regardless of who controls what
(01:20):
or what the different arguments are, Republicans take an absolute
beating in public opinion polls. That is not happening this time.
Harry Enton over at CNN explaining what the reaction really is.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, you might think, given that the Republicans are in
charge of both the House and the Senate, that a
government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand, but in
fact it hasn't. If anything, it's been helped a little bit.
Take a look here the shift in net popularity versus
pre shutdown among the g When we're looking at the
Republican Party overall, that brand actually up two points.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That's within the.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Margin verb but clearly it hasn't dropped. Come over this
side of the screen, look at the net approval ratings
for Republicans in Congress. It's actually up five points since
pre shutdown.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So what we're seeing here is.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The Republican brand in Congress has actually improved somewhat compared
to where we were pre shutdown, despite the fact the
Republicans control. And that's the mat that John Thune and
Mike Johnson are looking at, is Hey, why should we
give an electorally speaking when our brand has actually improved
a little bit now we say their position is getting
better with whom, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, with whom?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So I think it's two groups that it's so important
to keep an eye out on, all right, Changing the
Republican Congresses net approval rating versus pre shutdown. It's rallying
the base, for sure. Look at this, the net approval
rating up twelve points versus pre shutdown. But it's not
just with the base, it's also with the middle of
the electorate. Look at this among independents it's up eight
points as well.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And so this is so different, Jim, from most other cycles.
Harry Enton certainly bringing the energy as he brings the
numbers there as well. And so it's kind of like
we talked about yesterday. Republicans have the simpler argument, We're
just going to keep spending at the same level we
have been, and the Democrat our argument of well, actually
they shut it down or you can't open it up
(03:02):
until we have to do this. It's not working. They're
flailing and the public is not falling for at this time.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Greg, I should begin by saying, I like Harry Enton.
I think he is good for CNN. I think he's
willing to tell left of center viewers things they don't
want to hear, things that surprise the other anchors there.
I think he calls him as he sees them, and
I just want to point out in these surveys he's
pointing to one pole that showed a two point shift
and another pole that showed a five point shift, and
(03:29):
he's got the enthusiasm that I have after a Jets win.
He makes crazy Eddy sound like he's on klay Ludes.
That's how enthusiastic Harry Enton is about. But I think
his point is very much an accurate one that like,
all right, this isn't a huge just a change from
previous polls, but it certainly indicates that there's no dramatic
drop in Republican support in the public. Also, amongst independence,
(03:50):
you could argue, oh, okay, in a government shutdown fight,
the Republican base is always going to be supportive of Republicans,
but it's not supposed to be that way amongst independence,
and that to me suggests that either A the Independents
are hearing the Democratic message and reject it, don't find
it plausible, don't believe that, you know, Republicans are the
ones who are responsible for the shutdown, or B they're just.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Not paying attention to it.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I don't know they want to say this is
people paying more attention to the World Series. I don't
know if you want to say this is people paying
more attention to stuff about the economy. You know, most
Americans don't interact with the federal government on a daily basis.
This is why the air traffic controllers matters more, because like,
that's something that a bunch of people do. You know,
if not every day people fly pretty regularly, there are
(04:36):
big delays. People notice that, you know, I suspect when,
if and when snap the food stamps get shut off
on November first, Well, then a whole bunch of people
who probably weren't paying too much attention will start paying
close attention to all this and maybe you'll see some
movement there. It's one of the reasons why there should
be some shift on this, and there hasn't. I also
know it in the USA. Today, there's a column making
(04:57):
the argument, don't Republicans care about their own constient they're
going to be hurt by the food stamp stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, again, if.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Four Senate Democrats said, Okay, we're gonna end the filibuster,
you could pass CR in twenty minutes. And I know
it's only until November twenty first, Mike Johnson could get
the House in session and they can get a new
CR passed in like a day, right, maybe even less
than that, depending on whether people are in town or not.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Right, So you could get one till the end of December.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You could get one into twenty twenty se you know,
we could resolve this really really fast. The moment Democrats
stopped the filibuster. The thing is they have it. It's
thirteen times. That's why John Boon is not only raising
his voice, he's having facial expressions. That's how mad he is. So,
you know, like again, so is it a good martini?
But if nothing else are neutral, Like, like, you know,
(05:44):
this is a good martini if we all have the
enthusiasm of Harry Entin. If nothing else, it's a neutral martini.
And just kind of observing that, like this, this whole
thing is predicated by the Democrats on the idea, we're
gonna make this argument, Republicans are gonna look like they
don't support Obamacare, they don't support healthcare, and we'll get this.
They'll make this big concession and we get this big win.
And this hasn't happened yet, and I don't see too
(06:04):
many signs that is going to change out that way.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Again. We'll see if food.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Stamps get cut off, maybe the calculus changes. But the
question is do Democrats want to do this for their constituents,
And I think it's an open question at this point.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I wish there had been some Democratic numbers on that too.
I'm guessing the base is probably happy to some extent
that that's the case. But obviously with independence, I would
guess if it's plus eight for Republicans, they're not too
happy about that because you know, ultimately there's a piece
of legislation that can end this, and you keep voting no.
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(08:08):
So that's some polling on the shutdown. Let's now look
at some polling as we're now just five days away
from election day in different parts of the country, including
where we live in Virginia, got the big governor's race
Lieutenant governor, which almost nobody's talking about, as well as
the Attorney general race, which not many were talking about
until the Jay Jones texting scandal exploded. Polling's been a
(08:29):
little bit varied in the governor's race. The one consistency, unfortunately,
is the Abigail Spanburger is always ahead. Trafalgar's got it
as close as about two and a half points, I
think in their latest survey. I want to say it
was Christopher Newport that had at Spanburger plus seven, and
now Roanoke College has it at Spanburger plus ten fifty
one forty one. But all these races are very different,
(08:50):
which is odd because the last time that it wasn't
a clean sweep for one party, and all three of
these races two thousand and five, they've been clean sweeps
two thousand and nine and ever since. And so you
got the ten point laid for Spanburger, then the lieutenant
governor's race the Democrats up by two points, and then
in the attorney General's race, the current Republican Attorney General
Jason Miarras is ahead forty six to thirty eight, which,
(09:12):
if accurate, means that j Jones basically has the very
core of the Democratic base and any folks in the
middle have kind of drifted away. If you're Jason Miaris,
you like the eight point margin. You don't like the
fact that you're four points south of fifty percent, still
less than a week away from election day. But one
other thing we want to add in here, Jim, is
that they ask people what they think of the current governor,
(09:34):
Glen Youngkin, who can't run for reelection. Approve fifty percent,
disapprove thirty six percent, which is pretty much where Glen
Youngkin's spend for most of his time as governor. He's
always been above water. And most of the time he's
spent at ward, in some cases well above fifty percent.
And so the weird thing in this campaign, Jim, is
how little Winsome Seers has tied herself as the Lieutenant
(09:56):
governor of this state to the record of Glenn Young.
We just got rebate checks in the mail because of
a government surplus. She could have put a bunch of
stuff out about trying to kill the car tax, which
Glenn Younkin wanted to do, but the Democratic Legislature said no.
She could talk about how they stood up for parents
against you know, radical school boards during the masking debates
and so forth. Virtually none of that. She's got one
(10:19):
little line on some of her yard signs that says,
let's keep a good thing going without really specifying what
that is. And so if these numbers are accurate at
ten point, deficit's going to be pretty hard to overcome,
especially when the Democrats are in the legislature in the
special session in the last few days trying to move
a redistricting plan forward and yank it away from an
independent commission, which means that wins Seers had to be
(10:39):
in the legislature and not on the campaign trail while
that happened. But weird to see the big split between
the governor and Attorney general's races, and just bizarre throughout
this campaign that Glenn Younkin has been an afterthought. It
best for Winsome series.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, look, you know, you and I are both in
Northern Virginia, and I kind of feel like trying to
cover the governor's race from where we are is like
trying to cover a burning building while being inside the building.
And maybe people outside have a clearer perspective, or you know,
maybe the perspective in Northern Virginia is very different from
(11:16):
the perspective throughout the rest of the state. I continue
to say, I feel like I don't see win some
Seers ads anywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And the thing is, it's not like.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Going and the one thing, Oh, okay, you're in Northern Virginia.
There's a lot more Democrat advertising the Republic. I feel
like I see Jason Mira's ads a whole bunch of places,
and they're you know, like, part of it's that you've
got this really obvious issue with Jay Jones that I
think resonates in you know, the nice, pleasant, easygoing, uh
Northern Virginia suburbs the whole much. People might be Democrats,
but they generally don't support saying you want to see
(11:47):
your opponent's children murdered. And Okay, here's the thing before
we go any further, Greg, as far as we know,
Jay Jones has not murdered any children. As far as
we know, he's only expressed a desire to see it happen,
and he doesn't want to do it himself. He wants
someone else to murder the children of Republican lawmakers. And
he's not saying that he that he would take pleasure
(12:10):
in it. He's just saying that Republicans would learn valuable
lessons if their children's are so like I am seeing
Jay Jones ads and the generally they're in the theme
of j Jones elective Attorney General, and nobody gets hurt.
Just do as he says, Just don't don't provoke him,
don't make them angry. You know, we have no idea
what this crazy guy is going to do, and he's
exactly the guy you want in charge of enforcing the
state's laws. There's some tungue in cheek exaggerations there, but
(12:32):
you get the sense of that. So I look at
this new poll and the idea of Miires being up,
you know, a nice solid eight percentage points.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'd love to see that. I want to believe.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
As the old poster on Fox Mulder's wall in the
X File said, you know, most polling has had Mires
ahead of Jones by a couple of points, not a lot,
usually right around the margin of error. And when you
see that number over and over again, that feels right
to me, you know, not where you'd like to be.
Jay Jones deserves be closer to zero percent. But fine, okay,
(13:02):
this is you know, the odds of Miaras winning are
looking pretty good right now. Not a lock, not a guarantee. Also,
I've seen a couple ones that show John Reid and
Gazala Hashimi, the Hashmi the Democrat in the Lieutenant govertors
very close these last couple of times.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now, as you.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Said, generally Virginia, it's it's a straight ticket that you
don't see a lot of variations, at least in the
last couple of cycles. Maybe this is a year that happens,
but on win some seers. I feel like I've seen
a million Abigail Spanberger ads and I saw a headline
in the Economist, saying that she's running a very wonky campaign,
meaning detail and policy focused. Now, Greg, you and I
(13:40):
are not Abigail Spanberger fans to begin with, But like,
do you feel like her campaign is wonky and heavily
focused on policy details?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Now?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Not at all.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I feel like almost every ad I have seen has
emphasized that Abigail Spanburger used to be in law enforcement,
used to be in the intelligence community.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And her father's very proud of her.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And I'm going to say fact check true on all
of those, and like, yo, those are all good things
to have, but they're really soft focus, walking with her family,
walking with kids, you know. At one point, she says,
I believe in stronger schools.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I think it was James Carvill who once said the
difference between a positive AD and a negative AD is
that a negative ad has a fact in it. Because
I support all of us support stronger schools. Right, It's
all about what how do you want to get there?
What's your idea and your eyes? I want stronger schools
by doing whatever the teacher's union wants. Well, then you're
not really going to end up with stronger schools, now,
(14:36):
are you? And so like this was a huge issue
in the last cuberatorial election. I'm a little frustrated Republicans
can't use.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That same issue again.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And looking at Glenn Youngkin's approval rating now he has
taped an ad for Sears. You know, like it's not
he's been completely invisible. But like, if you've got a
Republican governor who's fifteen approval was fifteen percentage points higher
than his disapproval, this guy should be everywhere all over
the States saying you need win some Seers to be
the next governor of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
It's not quite that he's on the side of a
milk carton, but I just don't feel like the Seers
campaign really wants him front and center. And I can
understand you want to be your own candidate, and also
but like you've got an asset here, particularly in a
place like northern Virginia and Fairfax County where I.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Live, Why are you not doing this?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
The other thing is when I talking about these soft
focused ads for Spanberger Sears is a I would say
former marine. There's no such thing as an ex marine.
She's an immigrant, right like this, You know, this is
the classic American success story. I don't feel like I've
seen any biographical ads on sears. And again, maybe they're
not running them on my TV markets. Maybe I'm not
watching TV at the right time, maybe it's not on
the right YouTube channels. Like there could be the fact
(15:44):
that I'm not seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist.
But if you know, unfortunately it comes to the past.
But like the Democrat wins this race, I kind of
wonder if we're gonna look at this and say, well,
there was some missed opportunities here. And also, as the
usual caveat, when the Republicans control the White House, the
Democrats usually win the governor's race and vice versa. Trump
has never like he did it was much closer than
(16:05):
usual last time around, but he's never been popular in
Northern Virginia. And I just feel like the Spamberger campaign
is very you know, serious, is too loyal to Trump.
I'm a proud Democrat. I'm going to protect abortion rights.
It's very cookie cutter. It's very generic Democrat and even
when the wins against you, you want to make the other
(16:26):
side work for it. And I don't necessarily feel like
that's happening, you know, serious campaign.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Please prove me wrong. Please please.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Hopefully we are watching this at our End of the
Year awards, we will make fun of this podcast and say, ah,
you know, you know, I would love freezing Cold takes
to point to this podcast, but just doesn't feel like
the funny thing is you're seeing some of this in
the lower races. It just don't seem to be happening
in the governor's race.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah. No, I would love to see her win. I
think she'd be a good governor, but the campaign has
definitely had struggles. They're way behind in money. That's part
of it. The only ads I've seen are on social media,
and they've all been about in a transgender bathroom policy,
and Abigail Spanburger is terrible reaction in the debate to
the j Jones story, and that's pretty much it. There's
(17:11):
a lot to run from the past four years, but
she just won't embrace it. I don't know if she
thinks that'll keep her in Glenn Younkin's shadow, and it's
pretty big shadowy sixty seven. But I would be running
very aggressively on how I was part of that successful administration,
but I guess that's not part of the strategy. All right, Well,
you know who else loves Abigail Spanburger, Bill Crystal. We'll
(17:31):
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Speaker 3 (19:47):
So why do you mention Bill Crystal with Abigail Spanberger. Well,
as we mentioned at the top, Bill Crystal is actually
endorsing zo Ron I'm Donnie in the New York City
mayor's race. He did an interview with the CMC Forum
and he said, you know, in the primary, I might
not even have ranked mom Donnie in the choices, certainly
would not have voted for Cuomo. It's no mention of
Sliva whatsoever here. But those who are too young to remember.
(20:09):
Bill Crystal was chief of staff to Vice President Dan
Quail from nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety three, co
founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, which was considered
one of the major conservative magazines, certainly in the nineties
and throughout the first decade of this century. And then
he lost his mind in twenty sixteen, his I'll just
say it for him, TDS just went nuts. And the
(20:33):
thing with the never trumpers is you've got the people
who can't stand Trump but are still conservatives to stand
by their principals, stand by the party for the most part,
and candidates they still like, and the issues positions that
they've always held. And then there are the people that
hate Trump so much they just abandoned all of it,
and all they do is love Democrats and love the
far left position. And that's where Bill Crystal is on
(20:54):
any number of things. I mean, there are people on
the who used to be on the ride to all
of a sudden, hated tax cuts, hated the idea of
moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and just
anything else they champion for the last decade or two.
All of a sudden was a horrible idea because Trump.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Was doing it.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
But nonetheless, Bill Crystal weighing in on New York. Somebody
asked him any names in democratic politics that stand out
to He says, well, I live in Virginia, so Abigail Spanberger,
who's really excellent. It might be Mikey Cheryl in New
Jersey excellent, and so part of my core praise for
Mom Donnie has been that, you know what, if we
elect three Democrats who win in November, the three big
(21:30):
races really and it's Spanburger or Cheryl and Mum Donnie.
That's okay. You know, New York City gets to have
a left wing mayor. It's not the first time, and
it's different from the rest of the country. I wish
they were a little less, you know, tolerant of certain
things on Israel and so against Israel and all that.
But some of the economic stuff, I think it's just silly.
I don't think it's going to matter. He says, maybe
they'll open a couple of government on grocery stores. They'll fail,
(21:53):
no big deal. But m'm donnie is such a captivating politician. Jim.
If you introduced Bill Crystal of nineteen ninety five, say
to Bill Crystal of twenty twenty five, do you think
he'd recognize him other than a physical resemblance.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
He would get into a fistfight with him. I've only
talked to Crystal a couple of times, seemed to be
on relatively good terms with him. Applied for a job
at the Weekly Standard, was told DA had a hiring freeze.
Didn't go anywhere. But like, you know, like you know,
saw the same Bill Crystal. Everybody else had seen liked
him back in the good old days when he was
antagonizing the left of center panelists on ABC News This
(22:28):
Week and stuff like that, and yeah, you know, he
was a guy who was very anti Trump, and like
a bunch of the folks over at the Bulwark, when
they say they're conserving conservatism, it's very hard to see
what what conservatism they're conserving, particularly now that they're endorsing.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Mom Donni, Mom Donnie. By the way, and but.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Like Candice Owens recently contended that if you cut was
it elon musk so somebody she said, if you cut them,
they would not bleed blood. This was very much the
lizard people theory. We also have the back in the
nineteen eighties we order like their robots or something like that.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I had been very skeptical of these theories.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But Bill Crystal saying you go to vote from Mandanni Mamdanni,
that's like a pretty strong argument for pod people that
that kind of indicates that at some point Crystal went
to bed, you know where, like he was very anti
Trump and much less you know, supportive of a Republican
or general conservative goals and drifting left. But at some
(23:31):
point there was this like vegetable alien pod thing, and
out of it came out this version of him was like,
oh yeah, who was willing to say of Mom donni,
I really should adopt the Curtis Sliwa pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Of it zo Ron, mom donni. Right.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
You know, it's always like five syllables and each one
gets louder as you go, So Ron, mom donnie in
the phrase, I wish they were a little less you know,
tolerant of certain things on Israel and you know, against Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And all that Israel and all that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
I remind you that Bill Crystal formed the Emergency Committee
to defend Israel back during the Obama days. Right now,
Mom donnie makes Obama look like an orthodox Jew, right.
I mean, it's one of those things in terms of
like we thought the Democratic Party was anti Israel back
during the Obama administration. Those were the good old days
(24:23):
compared to what we're seeing these days. Mom donni has
no particular perspective on the future of Hamas, but he
promises he will arrest bb netan Yahoo the Momentahu steps
sets foot in New York never mind whether he's violated
in a law in New York City. Oh yeah, and
this little thing called diplomatic community and all that stuff.
Since this interview came out in my circles and folks
(24:45):
have been emailing and texting and this thing like what what.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Happened to him?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
You know, I don't buy into the idea, other than
the pod people theory. I don't buy into the idea
that William Crystal was always a liberal progressive in disguise
and that this was all all an exceptionally long con.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
If so, man, was this a long con?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
This is like, you know, several decades just to get
or the trust of Sunny Crockett. Wasn't undercovered this law
right by the way Miami drug yills. Didn't it ever
dawn on you that everybody who ever worked with Sunny
Crockett got arrested. Didn't seem ever suspicious to you? Some
of this is anti trump Ism. I suspect seeing Trump
(25:29):
not just you know, the nominated of Republicans twenty sixteen,
renominated in twenty twenty, no serious primary challenge in twenty twenty,
and then January sixth, and then seeing the Republican Party
picked Trump again, it's not surprising that Crystal said, Okay,
I guess I'm not a Republican anymore. I don't align
with this party anymore. But to go like, there's that,
(25:51):
and then there's jumping over to the Democratic side. You
could say, I am a disgruntal and traditional conservative and
I don't feel like, you know, maga Republicans really represent
my interests on a whole host of issues. That's kind
of where I am these days. But that doesn't mean
you then have to say hooray Democrats. It doesn't mean
you have to say you have to say hooray to
like whatever's left of centrist Democrats. They're probably very few
(26:13):
and far between. Fetterman might be like, you know, one
of the better examples of that these days. And Mom, Donnie,
like the reason this is getting so much excitement is
this sense that, like, whatever your perception of the left
wing of the Democratic Party. For a long time, Bernie
Sanders was kind of like the marker there. Then along
came AOC and I think now it's going to be Mom, Donnie,
(26:33):
and that's like that's pushing the outer edge of the
Overton window to the left, and William Crystal no longer
opposes that. So I you know, if you're right of center,
you got every reason to be. You know, what, what
the heck is he thinking, what the heck is he doing?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And he's free.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
You know, it's a free country. You can vote for
whoever you want. You can have whatever political transformation you want.
But to go from the guy who thought that Obama
was unacceptedly anti Israel to finding a way to make
your peace with Mondani, that's that is a stunning transformation,
and it strongly suggests that Crystal should be in the
NFL concussion protocol.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
He's also the guy who I think was in the
late nineties wrote an editorial for The Weekly Standard.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That talked about why Roe V.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Wade needed to be overturned, and so when it was,
of course he thought it was a horrible idea because
now he was, you know, on the left, and now
that he's on the left, you can't possibly hold that
position anymore. It was just rubin any principle.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Other folks who have written whole books about why they
left left the Republican Party and by the way. I
kind of feel like, you know, if you do make
that kind of change and you've been in a public role,
and if you've been in a leadership position of the
conservative movement, yeah, you probably should explain all this. I
don't find many of these explanations. I can get the
frustration with Trump, I can't, you know, because like this
(27:50):
is more populous, this is more protectionists, this is more isolations.
There are changes in the modern Republican Party that are
different from the Reagan era. And if you still believe
the stuff from the Reagan era, okay, I get you.
If you reject all the stuff from the Reagan era too, dude,
what happened?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Who are you? You know?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Like I mean, I suppose you could say they transitioned.
It's an identity crisis almost, Who are you? What do
you stand for? Adamial Stockdale asked those very tough questions
to us, and we still struggle with that today.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I think there's a little bit of a Lincoln Project
effect here. I don't know if those guys were ever principled.
They just saw Republicans as the way to make a
buck potentially, and so then once Trump was in there,
there was there was no room for them on the right,
and so they decided to fleece the donors on the left.
And maybe Bill Crystal said, well, I'm not going to
have any influence in this version of the Republican Party,
so let me go somewhere where I might have a
(28:38):
little more. That's the only explanation I've got. But when
you completely I remember Britt Hume on election night, when
when Trump had been basically declared the winner this last time,
and they're talking about winners and losers, and he's like,
what about these some of these never drump people, people
have abandoned everything they ever believed. Yeah, like Bill Crystal.
It called him out specifically.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
And Rick Hume was a contributor to The Weekly Standard,
by the way. You know who else was a contributor
to the Weekly Standard and by the way, a brilliant
writer way back in the day. Tucker Carlson.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
They love each other now, Tucker Bill Crystal, which is
never would have predicted that a quarter century ago. But anyway, Jim,
fascinating to discuss. We'll see what Friday brings us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
See then see you tomorrow, Greg, Jim.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks
so much for being with us today. Please be sure
to subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Podcast. If you
don't already, tell your friends about us as well. We'd
love to have them listening. Thanks also for your five
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Get us on your home devices. All you have to
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on X He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Greg Corumbus.
(29:39):
Have a great Thursday. Join us again Friday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garritty of National Review.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
So go ahad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the Three Martini Lunch. It's kind of a cold,
drizzly day here in Washington, d C. But we've definitely
got some hot topics to talk about today. We'll be
talking about the epic leap dash, whatever noun you want
to use for Bill Crystal surging to the left. He's
now endorsing so Ron Tony in New York City. We'll
(00:36):
also be taking a look at some of the latest
polling numbers out of Virginia, which are a little bit
different than some of the other polls, and so if
these are correct, it'll mark a very different shift in
Virginia than we've seen the last few election cycles. But
we start with how the public is looking at the shutdown. Yesterday,
John Thune actually raised his voice on the Senate floor,
(00:59):
which had a lot of his own party off guard
because he's apparently a very mild mannered guy almost all
of the time, but screaming at the Democrats pretty much
that for thirteen straight attempts they've refused to open the government,
and more and more people they're going to be suffering
as a result of that in the clean cr Usually
when there's a government shutdown, regardless of who controls what
(01:20):
or what the different arguments are, Republicans take an absolute
beating in public opinion polls. That is not happening this time.
Harry Enton over at CNN explaining what the reaction really is.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, you might think, given that the Republicans are in
charge of both the House and the Senate, that a
government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand, but in
fact it hasn't. If anything, it's been helped a little bit.
Take a look here the shift in net popularity versus
pre shutdown among the g When we're looking at the
Republican Party overall, that brand actually up two points.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That's within the.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Margin verb but clearly it hasn't dropped. Come over this
side of the screen, look at the net approval ratings
for Republicans in Congress. It's actually up five points since
pre shutdown.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So what we're seeing here is.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The Republican brand in Congress has actually improved somewhat compared
to where we were pre shutdown, despite the fact the
Republicans control. And that's the mat that John Thune and
Mike Johnson are looking at, is Hey, why should we
give an electorally speaking when our brand has actually improved
a little bit now we say their position is getting
better with whom, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, with whom?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So I think it's two groups that it's so important
to keep an eye out on, all right, Changing the
Republican Congresses net approval rating versus pre shutdown. It's rallying
the base, for sure. Look at this, the net approval
rating up twelve points versus pre shutdown. But it's not
just with the base, it's also with the middle of
the electorate. Look at this among independents it's up eight
points as well.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And so this is so different, Jim, from most other cycles.
Harry Enton certainly bringing the energy as he brings the
numbers there as well. And so it's kind of like
we talked about yesterday. Republicans have the simpler argument, We're
just going to keep spending at the same level we
have been, and the Democrat our argument of well, actually
they shut it down or you can't open it up
(03:02):
until we have to do this. It's not working. They're
flailing and the public is not falling for at this time.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Greg, I should begin by saying, I like Harry Enton.
I think he is good for CNN. I think he's
willing to tell left of center viewers things they don't
want to hear, things that surprise the other anchors there.
I think he calls him as he sees them, and
I just want to point out in these surveys he's
pointing to one pole that showed a two point shift
and another pole that showed a five point shift, and
(03:29):
he's got the enthusiasm that I have after a Jets win.
He makes crazy Eddy sound like he's on klay Ludes.
That's how enthusiastic Harry Enton is about. But I think
his point is very much an accurate one that like,
all right, this isn't a huge just a change from
previous polls, but it certainly indicates that there's no dramatic
drop in Republican support in the public. Also, amongst independence,
(03:50):
you could argue, oh, okay, in a government shutdown fight,
the Republican base is always going to be supportive of Republicans,
but it's not supposed to be that way amongst independence,
and that to me suggests that either A the Independents
are hearing the Democratic message and reject it, don't find
it plausible, don't believe that, you know, Republicans are the
ones who are responsible for the shutdown, or B they're just.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Not paying attention to it.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I don't know they want to say this is
people paying more attention to the World Series. I don't
know if you want to say this is people paying
more attention to stuff about the economy. You know, most
Americans don't interact with the federal government on a daily basis.
This is why the air traffic controllers matters more, because like,
that's something that a bunch of people do. You know,
if not every day people fly pretty regularly, there are
(04:36):
big delays. People notice that, you know, I suspect when,
if and when snap the food stamps get shut off
on November first, Well, then a whole bunch of people
who probably weren't paying too much attention will start paying
close attention to all this and maybe you'll see some
movement there. It's one of the reasons why there should
be some shift on this, and there hasn't. I also
know it in the USA. Today, there's a column making
(04:57):
the argument, don't Republicans care about their own constient they're
going to be hurt by the food stamp stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, again, if.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Four Senate Democrats said, Okay, we're gonna end the filibuster,
you could pass CR in twenty minutes. And I know
it's only until November twenty first, Mike Johnson could get
the House in session and they can get a new
CR passed in like a day, right, maybe even less
than that, depending on whether people are in town or not.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Right, So you could get one till the end of December.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You could get one into twenty twenty se you know,
we could resolve this really really fast. The moment Democrats
stopped the filibuster. The thing is they have it. It's
thirteen times. That's why John Boon is not only raising
his voice, he's having facial expressions. That's how mad he is. So,
you know, like again, so is it a good martini?
But if nothing else are neutral, Like, like, you know,
(05:44):
this is a good martini if we all have the
enthusiasm of Harry Entin. If nothing else, it's a neutral martini.
And just kind of observing that, like this, this whole
thing is predicated by the Democrats on the idea, we're
gonna make this argument, Republicans are gonna look like they
don't support Obamacare, they don't support healthcare, and we'll get this.
They'll make this big concession and we get this big win.
And this hasn't happened yet, and I don't see too
(06:04):
many signs that is going to change out that way.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Again. We'll see if food.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Stamps get cut off, maybe the calculus changes. But the
question is do Democrats want to do this for their constituents,
And I think it's an open question at this point.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I wish there had been some Democratic numbers on that too.
I'm guessing the base is probably happy to some extent
that that's the case. But obviously with independence, I would
guess if it's plus eight for Republicans, they're not too
happy about that because you know, ultimately there's a piece
of legislation that can end this, and you keep voting no.
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Greg Our podcast is primarily about politics, a little bit
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(08:08):
So that's some polling on the shutdown. Let's now look
at some polling as we're now just five days away
from election day in different parts of the country, including
where we live in Virginia, got the big governor's race
Lieutenant governor, which almost nobody's talking about, as well as
the Attorney general race, which not many were talking about
until the Jay Jones texting scandal exploded. Polling's been a
(08:29):
little bit varied in the governor's race. The one consistency, unfortunately,
is the Abigail Spanburger is always ahead. Trafalgar's got it
as close as about two and a half points, I
think in their latest survey. I want to say it
was Christopher Newport that had at Spanburger plus seven, and
now Roanoke College has it at Spanburger plus ten fifty
one forty one. But all these races are very different,
(08:50):
which is odd because the last time that it wasn't
a clean sweep for one party, and all three of
these races two thousand and five, they've been clean sweeps
two thousand and nine and ever since. And so you
got the ten point laid for Spanburger, then the lieutenant
governor's race the Democrats up by two points, and then
in the attorney General's race, the current Republican Attorney General
Jason Miarras is ahead forty six to thirty eight, which,
(09:12):
if accurate, means that j Jones basically has the very
core of the Democratic base and any folks in the
middle have kind of drifted away. If you're Jason Miaris,
you like the eight point margin. You don't like the
fact that you're four points south of fifty percent, still
less than a week away from election day. But one
other thing we want to add in here, Jim, is
that they ask people what they think of the current governor,
(09:34):
Glen Youngkin, who can't run for reelection. Approve fifty percent,
disapprove thirty six percent, which is pretty much where Glen
Youngkin's spend for most of his time as governor. He's
always been above water. And most of the time he's
spent at ward, in some cases well above fifty percent.
And so the weird thing in this campaign, Jim, is
how little Winsome Seers has tied herself as the Lieutenant
(09:56):
governor of this state to the record of Glenn Young.
We just got rebate checks in the mail because of
a government surplus. She could have put a bunch of
stuff out about trying to kill the car tax, which
Glenn Younkin wanted to do, but the Democratic Legislature said no.
She could talk about how they stood up for parents
against you know, radical school boards during the masking debates
and so forth. Virtually none of that. She's got one
(10:19):
little line on some of her yard signs that says,
let's keep a good thing going without really specifying what
that is. And so if these numbers are accurate at
ten point, deficit's going to be pretty hard to overcome,
especially when the Democrats are in the legislature in the
special session in the last few days trying to move
a redistricting plan forward and yank it away from an
independent commission, which means that wins Seers had to be
(10:39):
in the legislature and not on the campaign trail while
that happened. But weird to see the big split between
the governor and Attorney general's races, and just bizarre throughout
this campaign that Glenn Younkin has been an afterthought. It
best for Winsome series.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, look, you know, you and I are both in
Northern Virginia, and I kind of feel like trying to
cover the governor's race from where we are is like
trying to cover a burning building while being inside the building.
And maybe people outside have a clearer perspective, or you know,
maybe the perspective in Northern Virginia is very different from
(11:16):
the perspective throughout the rest of the state. I continue
to say, I feel like I don't see win some
Seers ads anywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And the thing is, it's not like.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Going and the one thing, Oh, okay, you're in Northern Virginia.
There's a lot more Democrat advertising the Republic. I feel
like I see Jason Mira's ads a whole bunch of places,
and they're you know, like, part of it's that you've
got this really obvious issue with Jay Jones that I
think resonates in you know, the nice, pleasant, easygoing, uh
Northern Virginia suburbs the whole much. People might be Democrats,
but they generally don't support saying you want to see
(11:47):
your opponent's children murdered. And Okay, here's the thing before
we go any further, Greg, as far as we know,
Jay Jones has not murdered any children. As far as
we know, he's only expressed a desire to see it happen,
and he doesn't want to do it himself. He wants
someone else to murder the children of Republican lawmakers. And
he's not saying that he that he would take pleasure
(12:10):
in it. He's just saying that Republicans would learn valuable
lessons if their children's are so like I am seeing
Jay Jones ads and the generally they're in the theme
of j Jones elective Attorney General, and nobody gets hurt.
Just do as he says, Just don't don't provoke him,
don't make them angry. You know, we have no idea
what this crazy guy is going to do, and he's
exactly the guy you want in charge of enforcing the
state's laws. There's some tungue in cheek exaggerations there, but
(12:32):
you get the sense of that. So I look at
this new poll and the idea of Miires being up,
you know, a nice solid eight percentage points.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'd love to see that. I want to believe.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
As the old poster on Fox Mulder's wall in the
X File said, you know, most polling has had Mires
ahead of Jones by a couple of points, not a lot,
usually right around the margin of error. And when you
see that number over and over again, that feels right
to me, you know, not where you'd like to be.
Jay Jones deserves be closer to zero percent. But fine, okay,
(13:02):
this is you know, the odds of Miaras winning are
looking pretty good right now. Not a lock, not a guarantee. Also,
I've seen a couple ones that show John Reid and
Gazala Hashimi, the Hashmi the Democrat in the Lieutenant govertors
very close these last couple of times.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now, as you.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Said, generally Virginia, it's it's a straight ticket that you
don't see a lot of variations, at least in the
last couple of cycles. Maybe this is a year that happens,
but on win some seers. I feel like I've seen
a million Abigail Spanberger ads and I saw a headline
in the Economist, saying that she's running a very wonky campaign,
meaning detail and policy focused. Now, Greg, you and I
(13:40):
are not Abigail Spanberger fans to begin with, But like,
do you feel like her campaign is wonky and heavily
focused on policy details?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Now?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Not at all.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I feel like almost every ad I have seen has
emphasized that Abigail Spanburger used to be in law enforcement,
used to be in the intelligence community.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And her father's very proud of her.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And I'm going to say fact check true on all
of those, and like, yo, those are all good things
to have, but they're really soft focus, walking with her family,
walking with kids, you know. At one point, she says,
I believe in stronger schools.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I think it was James Carvill who once said the
difference between a positive AD and a negative AD is
that a negative ad has a fact in it. Because
I support all of us support stronger schools. Right, It's
all about what how do you want to get there?
What's your idea and your eyes? I want stronger schools
by doing whatever the teacher's union wants. Well, then you're
not really going to end up with stronger schools, now,
(14:36):
are you? And so like this was a huge issue
in the last cuberatorial election. I'm a little frustrated Republicans
can't use.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
That same issue again.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And looking at Glenn Youngkin's approval rating now he has
taped an ad for Sears. You know, like it's not
he's been completely invisible. But like, if you've got a
Republican governor who's fifteen approval was fifteen percentage points higher
than his disapproval, this guy should be everywhere all over
the States saying you need win some Seers to be
the next governor of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
It's not quite that he's on the side of a
milk carton, but I just don't feel like the Seers
campaign really wants him front and center. And I can
understand you want to be your own candidate, and also
but like you've got an asset here, particularly in a
place like northern Virginia and Fairfax County where I.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Live, Why are you not doing this?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
The other thing is when I talking about these soft
focused ads for Spanberger Sears is a I would say
former marine. There's no such thing as an ex marine.
She's an immigrant, right like this, You know, this is
the classic American success story. I don't feel like I've
seen any biographical ads on sears. And again, maybe they're
not running them on my TV markets. Maybe I'm not
watching TV at the right time, maybe it's not on
the right YouTube channels. Like there could be the fact
(15:44):
that I'm not seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist.
But if you know, unfortunately it comes to the past.
But like the Democrat wins this race, I kind of
wonder if we're gonna look at this and say, well,
there was some missed opportunities here. And also, as the
usual caveat, when the Republicans control the White House, the
Democrats usually win the governor's race and vice versa. Trump
has never like he did it was much closer than
(16:05):
usual last time around, but he's never been popular in
Northern Virginia. And I just feel like the Spamberger campaign
is very you know, serious, is too loyal to Trump.
I'm a proud Democrat. I'm going to protect abortion rights.
It's very cookie cutter. It's very generic Democrat and even
when the wins against you, you want to make the other
(16:26):
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that's happening, you know, serious campaign.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Please prove me wrong. Please please.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Hopefully we are watching this at our End of the
Year awards, we will make fun of this podcast and say, ah,
you know, you know, I would love freezing Cold takes
to point to this podcast, but just doesn't feel like
the funny thing is you're seeing some of this in
the lower races. It just don't seem to be happening
in the governor's race.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah. No, I would love to see her win. I
think she'd be a good governor, but the campaign has
definitely had struggles. They're way behind in money. That's part
of it. The only ads I've seen are on social media,
and they've all been about in a transgender bathroom policy,
and Abigail Spanburger is terrible reaction in the debate to
the j Jones story, and that's pretty much it. There's
(17:11):
a lot to run from the past four years, but
she just won't embrace it. I don't know if she
thinks that'll keep her in Glenn Younkin's shadow, and it's
pretty big shadowy sixty seven. But I would be running
very aggressively on how I was part of that successful administration,
but I guess that's not part of the strategy. All right, Well,
you know who else loves Abigail Spanburger, Bill Crystal. We'll
(17:31):
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(19:41):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
So why do you mention Bill Crystal with Abigail Spanberger. Well,
as we mentioned at the top, Bill Crystal is actually
endorsing zo Ron I'm Donnie in the New York City
mayor's race. He did an interview with the CMC Forum
and he said, you know, in the primary, I might
not even have ranked mom Donnie in the choices, certainly
would not have voted for Cuomo. It's no mention of
Sliva whatsoever here. But those who are too young to remember.
(20:09):
Bill Crystal was chief of staff to Vice President Dan
Quail from nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety three, co
founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, which was considered
one of the major conservative magazines, certainly in the nineties
and throughout the first decade of this century. And then
he lost his mind in twenty sixteen, his I'll just
say it for him, TDS just went nuts. And the
(20:33):
thing with the never trumpers is you've got the people
who can't stand Trump but are still conservatives to stand
by their principals, stand by the party for the most part,
and candidates they still like, and the issues positions that
they've always held. And then there are the people that
hate Trump so much they just abandoned all of it,
and all they do is love Democrats and love the
far left position. And that's where Bill Crystal is on
(20:54):
any number of things. I mean, there are people on
the who used to be on the ride to all
of a sudden, hated tax cuts, hated the idea of
moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and just
anything else they champion for the last decade or two.
All of a sudden was a horrible idea because Trump.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Was doing it.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
But nonetheless, Bill Crystal weighing in on New York. Somebody
asked him any names in democratic politics that stand out
to He says, well, I live in Virginia, so Abigail Spanberger,
who's really excellent. It might be Mikey Cheryl in New
Jersey excellent, and so part of my core praise for
Mom Donnie has been that, you know what, if we
elect three Democrats who win in November, the three big
(21:30):
races really and it's Spanburger or Cheryl and Mum Donnie.
That's okay. You know, New York City gets to have
a left wing mayor. It's not the first time, and
it's different from the rest of the country. I wish
they were a little less, you know, tolerant of certain
things on Israel and so against Israel and all that.
But some of the economic stuff, I think it's just silly.
I don't think it's going to matter. He says, maybe
they'll open a couple of government on grocery stores. They'll fail,
(21:53):
no big deal. But m'm donnie is such a captivating politician. Jim.
If you introduced Bill Crystal of nineteen ninety five, say
to Bill Crystal of twenty twenty five, do you think
he'd recognize him other than a physical resemblance.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
He would get into a fistfight with him. I've only
talked to Crystal a couple of times, seemed to be
on relatively good terms with him. Applied for a job
at the Weekly Standard, was told DA had a hiring freeze.
Didn't go anywhere. But like, you know, like you know,
saw the same Bill Crystal. Everybody else had seen liked
him back in the good old days when he was
antagonizing the left of center panelists on ABC News This
(22:28):
Week and stuff like that, and yeah, you know, he
was a guy who was very anti Trump, and like
a bunch of the folks over at the Bulwark, when
they say they're conserving conservatism, it's very hard to see
what what conservatism they're conserving, particularly now that they're endorsing.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Mom Donni, Mom Donnie. By the way, and but.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Like Candice Owens recently contended that if you cut was
it elon musk so somebody she said, if you cut them,
they would not bleed blood. This was very much the
lizard people theory. We also have the back in the
nineteen eighties we order like their robots or something like that.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I had been very skeptical of these theories.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But Bill Crystal saying you go to vote from Mandanni Mamdanni,
that's like a pretty strong argument for pod people that
that kind of indicates that at some point Crystal went
to bed, you know where, like he was very anti
Trump and much less you know, supportive of a Republican
or general conservative goals and drifting left. But at some
(23:31):
point there was this like vegetable alien pod thing, and
out of it came out this version of him was like,
oh yeah, who was willing to say of Mom donni,
I really should adopt the Curtis Sliwa pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Of it zo Ron, mom donni. Right.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
You know, it's always like five syllables and each one
gets louder as you go, So Ron, mom donnie in
the phrase, I wish they were a little less you know,
tolerant of certain things on Israel and you know, against Israel.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And all that Israel and all that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
I remind you that Bill Crystal formed the Emergency Committee
to defend Israel back during the Obama days. Right now,
Mom donnie makes Obama look like an orthodox Jew, right.
I mean, it's one of those things in terms of
like we thought the Democratic Party was anti Israel back
during the Obama administration. Those were the good old days
(24:23):
compared to what we're seeing these days. Mom donni has
no particular perspective on the future of Hamas, but he
promises he will arrest bb netan Yahoo the Momentahu steps
sets foot in New York never mind whether he's violated
in a law in New York City. Oh yeah, and
this little thing called diplomatic community and all that stuff.
Since this interview came out in my circles and folks
(24:45):
have been emailing and texting and this thing like what what.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Happened to him?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
You know, I don't buy into the idea, other than
the pod people theory. I don't buy into the idea
that William Crystal was always a liberal progressive in disguise
and that this was all all an exceptionally long con.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
If so, man, was this a long con?
Speaker 4 (25:08):
This is like, you know, several decades just to get
or the trust of Sunny Crockett. Wasn't undercovered this law
right by the way Miami drug yills. Didn't it ever
dawn on you that everybody who ever worked with Sunny
Crockett got arrested. Didn't seem ever suspicious to you? Some
of this is anti trump Ism. I suspect seeing Trump
(25:29):
not just you know, the nominated of Republicans twenty sixteen,
renominated in twenty twenty, no serious primary challenge in twenty twenty,
and then January sixth, and then seeing the Republican Party
picked Trump again, it's not surprising that Crystal said, Okay,
I guess I'm not a Republican anymore. I don't align
with this party anymore. But to go like, there's that,
(25:51):
and then there's jumping over to the Democratic side. You
could say, I am a disgruntal and traditional conservative and
I don't feel like, you know, maga Republicans really represent
my interests on a whole host of issues. That's kind
of where I am these days. But that doesn't mean
you then have to say hooray Democrats. It doesn't mean
you have to say you have to say hooray to
like whatever's left of centrist Democrats. They're probably very few
(26:13):
and far between. Fetterman might be like, you know, one
of the better examples of that these days. And Mom, Donnie,
like the reason this is getting so much excitement is
this sense that, like, whatever your perception of the left
wing of the Democratic Party. For a long time, Bernie
Sanders was kind of like the marker there. Then along
came AOC and I think now it's going to be Mom, Donnie,
(26:33):
and that's like that's pushing the outer edge of the
Overton window to the left, and William Crystal no longer
opposes that. So I you know, if you're right of center,
you got every reason to be. You know, what, what
the heck is he thinking, what the heck is he doing?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And he's free.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
You know, it's a free country. You can vote for
whoever you want. You can have whatever political transformation you want.
But to go from the guy who thought that Obama
was unacceptedly anti Israel to finding a way to make
your peace with Mondani, that's that is a stunning transformation,
and it strongly suggests that Crystal should be in the
NFL concussion protocol.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
He's also the guy who I think was in the
late nineties wrote an editorial for The Weekly Standard.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That talked about why Roe V.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Wade needed to be overturned, and so when it was,
of course he thought it was a horrible idea because
now he was, you know, on the left, and now
that he's on the left, you can't possibly hold that
position anymore. It was just rubin any principle.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Other folks who have written whole books about why they
left left the Republican Party and by the way. I
kind of feel like, you know, if you do make
that kind of change and you've been in a public role,
and if you've been in a leadership position of the
conservative movement, yeah, you probably should explain all this. I
don't find many of these explanations. I can get the
frustration with Trump, I can't, you know, because like this
(27:50):
is more populous, this is more protectionists, this is more isolations.
There are changes in the modern Republican Party that are
different from the Reagan era. And if you still believe
the stuff from the Reagan era, okay, I get you.
If you reject all the stuff from the Reagan era too, dude,
what happened?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Who are you? You know?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Like I mean, I suppose you could say they transitioned.
It's an identity crisis almost, Who are you? What do
you stand for? Adamial Stockdale asked those very tough questions
to us, and we still struggle with that today.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I think there's a little bit of a Lincoln Project
effect here. I don't know if those guys were ever principled.
They just saw Republicans as the way to make a
buck potentially, and so then once Trump was in there,
there was there was no room for them on the right,
and so they decided to fleece the donors on the left.
And maybe Bill Crystal said, well, I'm not going to
have any influence in this version of the Republican Party,
so let me go somewhere where I might have a
(28:38):
little more. That's the only explanation I've got. But when
you completely I remember Britt Hume on election night, when
when Trump had been basically declared the winner this last time,
and they're talking about winners and losers, and he's like,
what about these some of these never drump people, people
have abandoned everything they ever believed. Yeah, like Bill Crystal.
It called him out specifically.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
And Rick Hume was a contributor to The Weekly Standard,
by the way. You know who else was a contributor
to the Weekly Standard and by the way, a brilliant
writer way back in the day. Tucker Carlson.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
They love each other now, Tucker Bill Crystal, which is
never would have predicted that a quarter century ago. But anyway, Jim,
fascinating to discuss. We'll see what Friday brings us.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
See then see you tomorrow, Greg, Jim.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks
so much for being with us today. Please be sure
to subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Podcast. If you
don't already, tell your friends about us as well. We'd
love to have them listening. Thanks also for your five
star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
Get us on your home devices. All you have to
say is play Three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow us both
on X He's at Jim Garritty, I'm at Greg Corumbus.
(29:39):
Have a great Thursday. Join us again Friday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
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