WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. We're talking about voter ID legislation last year. Eight states passed these laws laws that are branded as a Republican ploy to disenfranchise minorities and older voters. So how is it that left leaning Rhode Island approved voter I.D. last year. It's a question that reporter David Scharffen Berger has been trying to answer is muckraking uncovers a political whodunit that involves a quiet truce at a providence restaurant. Frantic phone calls from D.C. and intrigue in the governor's office. There's an old saying that bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote. What about the politicians who keep the good people from voting. But first we check anyway. Our political insiders Arnie Arnesen and Fergus Cullen for their take on the local and national political races. Up next from blocking the vote to. Rocking the boat. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi Singh. Reports of clashes are

emerging from the side of a standoff at an airport in the Libyan capital that's been under siege for several hours now. Local security is quoted saying the gunmen stormed the Tripoli building to protest the arrest of a commander who they believe is being detained at the airport. The BBC's Rana Jawad describes seeing military vehicles and weapons on the tarmac at the tarmac road does some think that cropped apart and under each one of them there's a pickup truck with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on it from members of the committee. Shot at occupying the part marked as crazy family underneath the BBC's Ronna Jawad in the Libyan capital the incident is the latest in a string of confrontations underscoring the central government's struggle to assert its authority over armed militias in the months since the revolution toppled the Moammar Gadhafi regime. The Supreme Court is siding with the Secret Service in the U.S. which was sued by a man they arrested following a confrontation in 2006 with then Vice President Dick Cheney. In an age as they were ruling the justices said the agents who arrested Steven

Howards as he was expressing his anti-war views were protected by law. But the high court rejected a request by the agents and the Obama administration to grant broad protection against claims of retaliatory arrests. Orders to U.S. factories fell in April according to data from the U.S. Commerce Department today. NPR's John it's t says it's further evidence of weakening in the U.S. economy. Factory orders fell six tenths of a percent in April the third decline in four months. Core capital goods like heavy machinery and computers dropped 2.1 percent after an even larger decline in March orders for core capital goods are a signal of business investment plans. The declines suggest that companies are worried about future growth and are nervous about adding capacity factory orders are up almost 40 percent from the recession lows. But the European crisis and concerns about slowing growth in China India and the U.S. have halted the

improvement. John did steal NPR News Washington. It's been 23 years since the massacre in tenement Square where the Chinese military led a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing today. Huge crowds massed in a downtown park in Hong Kong for a candlelight vigil in memory of those killed during the confrontation. The anniversary is giving many residents pause for another reason this day. The Shanghai Composite Index fell sixty four point eight nine points. Coincidentally matching the date of the tenement crackdown as a result China's censors have blocked access to the term Shanghai stock market on popular microblog. Here's the latest from Wall Street Dow's down 58 points nearly half a percentage twelve thousand sixty one. This is NPR. Good afternoon from the WGBH radio newsroom in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with some of the local stories we're following. Cambridge police continue their investigation of the city's first homicide this year.

Authorities say 16 year old Charlene Holmes was killed and a 17 year old girl was hurt when they were shot on a front porch last night. The second girl is in critical condition her name has not been released. Massachusetts residents are seeing more relief at the neighborhood gas station. Southern New England reports that self-serve regular has dropped a nickel in the past week to an average of 356 per gallon. It's the seventh consecutive week of lower prices which are now 33 cents and 33 cents below where they were at their peak on April 16th. Rhode Islanders who need the right to ident who need the right identification to vote in the fall elections have an opportunity to get free voter I.D. cards. Secretary of State Ralph Mola says officials plan to provide IDs during a visit today to Atria Lincoln place in Lincoln. And you state law asks voters to show government issued identification at the polls. Occupy Providence is seizing on what it calls the debacle involving former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's now troubled video gaming company. The protest group says the states recklessly gambled on 38 Studios which was lured to Rhode Island from

Massachusetts in 2010 with a 75 million dollar loan guarantee from the Economic Development Corp.. Occupy Providence is planning a four day sidewalk occupation to coincide with the Net Roots Nation conference being staged in Rhode Island's capital starting Thursday. We have a coastal flood advisory in effect until 2:00 p.m. this afternoon in a coastal flood warning in effect from 10:00 p.m. this evening until 5:00 a.m. Tuesday. This afternoon we can expect showers and patchy fog with a near steady temperature in the mid 50s right now it's 52 degrees in Boston with a light drizzle mist 51 in Wester with light rain and light rain mist in Providence at 52 degrees. Support for NPR comes from the Pew Charitable Trusts working to protect the health of the world's oceans and the coastal communities that depend on them. Pew Trust's dog org. Good afternoon. I'm Kelly Crossley and this is the Kelly Crossley Show his answer.

Is to talk about my family and how I grew up. Well I must say this. If that's all you've got Scott Brown. I'm ready. That's the victorious Elizabeth Warren addressing her supporters after a sweeping win at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention this past weekend. She and Senator Scott Brown are now the only two in this race. They want to. They both want to represent the seat at one time held by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Joining me to talk about. This contest and other political races are New Hampshire insiders. Arnie Arneson and Fergus Cullen Welcome back you to. It's a pleasure. Oh. So respond if you would to now finally Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown face off the national face off really even though it's being held in Massachusetts. Well I don't know if you've seen it today at Fergus but this definitely is a national story this is not a U.S. Senate race this is a national Senate race. I'm looking Cali at the opinion page

of The Concord Monitor this is Monday June 4th and here is the Concord Monitor opinion editorial ancestry isn't the issue in Reverend Wright. So the story everyone is paying attention to and everybody is paying attention to the race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren. And in part because it's also a story about the sort of financial collapse of it. It states because of you know how Scott Brown won when he won it just a couple of years ago and then Elizabeth Warren who was so involved in creating that Consumer Protection Division of course did not get the head it looking at the meltdown of Wall Street. So this is really a story about what is the narrative in 2000 and 12 and how are we going to look at the economy. How are we going to look at the investment banking community and and really what are the choices for voters not just in the state of Massachusetts but I think the country is watching this race because it's a real predictor of what will happen. I think even in the presidential race I think there is a a cause and effect here

and people are seriously seeing their narrative being tied to how Scott Brown is going to play out and how Elizabeth Warren is going to play in the Democratic. This democratic republic election So Fergus Do you agree with the reasons why people are paying attention to this as a national race or does it also have something to do with the personalities of both Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren to today. I'm curious. We know why we're interested in it here in Massachusetts. But as you look even close by one of the things that are driving such national and intense national interest in this race. Oh absolutely it is a national race and you know just like the election in Wisconsin tomorrow with Governor Scott Walker Scott Walker has a national race. This Massachusetts race is a national one too. You know Elizabeth Warren's problem isn't that she's a 130 second part Indian especially 31 parts left wing liberal and the Democrats in Massachusetts put together a candidate who is so used to classify as a real left wing if you log across issues and

that's what it's going to be like with those independent voters. And look this election ought to be a way up for Massachusetts Democrats. This race should be over. Scott Brown is a very appealing candidate. He's likable but nonetheless he's running in Massachusetts. And if they had put up a less flawed candidate this race would really already be in the bag. But she's not I mean that's the problem for a guess is is that you can call her a left wing you can call it a Harvard professor. You can you know talk about the fact that she served in the Kremlin on the Charles whatever it is that people say is often a National Journal. But. Sense is is that everybody looks at the stain with what happened with the bat of Wall Street was that the financial community looked at what happened to consumer protection really happened in the mortgage markets but the derivatives did to this country. They see Elizabeth Warren as speaking out historically on these issues and these are issues that go to people's pocketbooks it goes to their future. It goes to their lives. When you hear a tally that for the first time ever corporate America is sitting on 10 percent of the gross domestic

product in this country is represented by profits of corporations. That's never been the case before. And those profits are not being used to invest in workers. Those profits are not being used to invest in the future. Those profits are being sat on. And then we barrel street. You look at Scott Brown and you say what is he to do with the problem of the past. They had to repeat it. What is Elizabeth trying to do Elizabeth Warren. She's trying to change the conversation change the dialogue and make sure the public interest is served. This is about the public and not the special interests. Well one of the things that to Fergus's point about this should be a lay up if you're a Democrat in Massachusetts and she isn't by the way she captured the Democratic nomination with close to 100 percent of delegate support even though she had a very you know reasonably strong contender for a place on the ballot challenging her who came up with the 15 percent that was needed to be a part of that convention conversation.

But we have Scott Brown who is touting his bipartisan record and he's been very Some say clever. Others say. Good to his promise of saying that he was going to work both sides of the aisle. He seems to be able to point to it in ways that make people feel comfortable with him Fergus. Well yeah absolutely and he's doing a great job in terms politically and I think in terms of policy as well. But that doesn't change the fact that you know in a in a regular year this election should not be closed. And I'm not here saying that he got elected as a fluke but you know it is true that even with all the flaws last time the Democratic nominee the attorney general he still should not have won that race and he shouldn't be in a position to get reelected now but he is. And of course I would personally be supporting him. But you know this is a real conundrum for people on the left especially logs on the left. It appears that Elizabeth Warren used her supposed ethnic heritage

and minority status for personal gain when it suited her. And that Penn and Harvard were you know perfectly happy to go along with this. I mean Dr. quit King's request was that we be judged by the content of our character vior skills our talents or abilities not by the color of our skin or our bloodline. And Elizabeth Warren did something that millions of Massachusetts residents wouldn't do which is trying gain some kind of advantage or a leg up over other people if he did on the grounds. And that resonates with regular people. Franco let me share a story. Michael Goldman who I think you probably know Cali and or political consultant. Word for Democrats for years. He was on the radio with me a couple of weeks back and he reminded me of something that was very familiar is that said you know our family we all have stories we have stories about our origin we have stories about relatives of the past we have stories we never never question those stories. And here you have Elizabeth Warren crying up in Oklahoma being told that there were about that that there were Native Americans in her family. Would you say to your mom Mama

you taught me the truth. To me the birth certificate. I knew lying to me mom. You would assume that the family story was true. You don't make it up. You don't why you use it as part of your story line because it is your history and your heritage. It would never occur to you to question it. And when you go on to higher education and they ask you questions like What is your heritage. You included. If you don't include it are you lying. If you do include it are you using it to your advantage. Are you being accurate with what you think you know it wasn't until someone found out that maybe she could not in fact find the geological illogical record that this was the case. Then you suddenly realize that some families have stories that have become so a part of who they are that whether they're true or not has become true. And you believe them. And when you look at whether she used it to her advantage. Show me Spartacus just because she said she was piped this that she got hired because somehow they were hiring her for her Native

American status and not for her incredible accomplishments across the board and you've seen that accomplishment all over and over again including in Washington which is why she is so robbed and beloved and why the Democrats gave her 96 percent of the vote in the Democratic convention in Massachusetts. It had nothing to do with her being a Native American and everything to do with her ability or talent and her portfolio. I think it's fair to say that however Arnie that the way that she responded to what you know what some call a trumped up controversy what others say a real issue is is the problem. And there in is something that's going to dog her and it could be back to Ferguson's point that you know this is brought more attention to her in a way that. This is not helpful in trying to propel her campaign for what made a mistake. I think she handled it absolutely horrifically. I think she marginalized it without recognizing how important it was. She

discredited the person who was asking her not knowing that this would be used to her advantage. She showed that she was somewhat of a political novice. But it is so common in Cali for people to basically run something off without recognizing the gravity of the potential question. And when the Republicans were looking for some flaw in her character he handed it to them because she was not able to respond effectively. She had to do is say exactly what I said. I was told that it never occurred to me to question it. I've always assumed it was true. I never did a LexisNexis check on my family history. Maybe I should've but I didn't. That being said I don't think we've heard the end of that as some might have might wish. I think it's probably going to come back up when the debates are coming though she's as she is you heard her in her clip from her speech ready to do the good fight. So that's going to be important. Somebody else who's ready to do the good fight I think is Governor Deval Patrick who came out swinging at the Democratic

convention and I just want to play a clip of developed a trick sounding quite feisty indeed Here he is delivering some tough love at the Massachusetts Democratic convention. If we want to. In elections in 2012 if we want to keep Barack Obama in the White House win back our Senate seat and move our country forward. If we want to earn the privilege to lead. Then it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. That's pretty powerful given in light of what you know we're going to it's going to be happening in this Senate race and Fergus your your reference to the battleground that's happening in Wisconsin which is also turning into a national contest. It is and you know people on the right have been arguing this to you know those Republicans those conservatives who think that John McCain was defeated four years ago because he wasn't conservative enough he was trying to be too wishy washy and move to the middle. You know that gave rise to the

Tea Party and we remember Howard Dean you know some 10 years ago saying I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. And I think of that comment when you hear Governor Patrick making those kinds of comments too. There are lots of partisans who want to fight who don't want this to be about moderation or being in the middle or being in the sensible reasonable center. They want to have a big fight that's on bold colors not pale pastels. And so in this sense both far left is very much politically like the same Tea Party activists that they disparage so. We're going to get that because you know now we have Mark Leibovich in the New York Times talking about how alike both Romney and President Obama are are so are we resigned to the pale colors. I mean I think there's a lot of disappointment on the left. You know Barack Obama hasn't been strong enough you know on health care he didn't go for single payer. He didn't you know he could have gone further you know those same people if you believe him when they said we would you know get out of get glucagon automobile that we would and all U.S. presence in the Middle East

they have to be disappointed today. And so maybe the left is saying look you know our own president has a background on the backbone on the kinds of things that we voted for him for but you just have to remember that. I mean think about it what are you saying about Scott Brown he's been bipartisan he's voted this way and he was the Tea Party darling. I mean what got him there was the Tea Party and the Peabody are strident they don't like the term bipartisan that's where we're bipartisan. They wanted you to rock. I wanted to do the top. And so again this is the real dilemma. Where do people want their candidate land. And when they can use them in their primary or they embrace them and suddenly they need to then get them arrested they need to govern. It's not easy to govern from the extreme. It never ever is. But we have forgotten to remind people about the value of compromise and the value of dialogue. I think what's interesting though about the cop. The idea of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama being very similar is that to a large extent they are. They are people of privilege in the sense of where they went to school. They are very supportive of Ross Street

take a look at Barack Obama take a look at Barack Obama's team. It's made up of the Goldman Sachs heroes Jamie Diamond until a couple weeks ago. I mean you know it's ironic that we see so much similarity is when you run you want to somehow create this rouge and that we are so different when in reality that actually backed into each other. All right we're talking about the political races that are heating up in New England we're also looking at the impact of these races in the fight between Mitt Romney and President Obama. I'm speaking with New Hampshire insiders Arnie Arnesen a radio and TV commentator and Fergus Cullen a pup. Affairs consultant and editorial page columnist with The New Hampshire Union Leader. The conversation continues on eighty nine point seven. WGBH Boston Public Radio. At the. WGBH programs exist because of you.

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If this president had Mitt Romney's job record they'd be holding a carnival celebrating their successes but they failed so badly that they want us to believe that we're not living on Earth and that the president isn't the president and all of these things that are going wrong have nothing to do with Barack Obama. That was RNC chair rush Priebus talking to Bill Sheaffer yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation. Joining me to talk about this and other political headlines are New Hampshire insiders radio and TV commentator Arnie Arnesen and Fergus Cullen a public affairs consultant and editorial page columnist with The New Hampshire Union Leader. Now when Wright Priebus was talking specifically to Bob Schieffer in that moment he was referencing a kind of mishmash at the state house last week where David Axelrod one of President Obama's chief strategists and Surrogates was standing us at the State House making a statement about the lack of economic

progress and success on the part of Mitt Romney when he was governor and he was booed down shouted down by a lot of Mitt Romney supporters. But on Friday the economic jobs statistics came out and they weren't good they're going to the wrong direction. Now M. oberlé but it's just enough for a lot of. Folks who who study this to say wow this is an issue and it's just enough also for both sides to now claim that the direction that they want to go in is the best way to go. So Arnie your response to Rice Priebus and also right now how the president's campaign is responding to the economic numbers. Well you know we have to remember that that United States is not an economic island. I mean the fact is that we are so international in scope we depend on imports and exports. And you and I know that if you read the story about what's going on in the EU you want to cry. You're not even sure the EU is going to exist two years from now that it might financially

implode and you've seen the effect of deficit reduction. And austerity in places like Greece and Spain a bare Khana means growing. Are they coming back. I did buy more goods from Germany. No they're not there. Instead what they're doing is they're shrinking and they're dying and the fact is what's happening in the EU is going to impact what happens in business. I just told you that statistic about corporations sitting on more profits than they've ever sat on before. They're not hurt they're just not spending they're not investing and it's not because of what rushing to is or isn't doing. It's because it's an economic calamity and it's your ride and the question is what needs to change for people to run the risk and government needs to be part of that and I think that's in part what proper Bamma has been saying and he made a wonderful point when he was talking about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital and the financial world in the investment world. You say you don't rip Bain Capital cared about was not job creation. It cared about profit and bringing money back to its investors. But government isn't in that business. It doesn't look at

profit. It doesn't want to bring money back to investors. What it needs to do is invest in the public good and the public opportunity and make a difference for the future. You can't do what business does and be good at governing because it's not the same thing. And isn't it ironic that you have Mitt Romney constantly pointing to what he did at Bain. But the thing that he did best. He did with health care and Massachusetts and Cali. He runs away from that and that's the part that I think makes me crazy when you begin to realize that 98 percent of the population of Massachusetts is now insured or and their children have the highest rate of insurance of any state in the nation. He can't even point to his governing success because he wants to repeal that for the nation that Mitt Romney's problem. It is international and it goes to his time as governor. He's asked that has now become his liability. Well go ahead Ferguson let you get

over the fact that the unemployment rate crept up last week and was plague that at that point two percent. And when Barack Obama passed the stimulus plan three years ago now it was what they promised. But the unemployment rate would not go above 8 percent. It's now been there for a think 38 consecutive months. And now listen I am someone who sees the limits in what government can do. I am not willing to blame a president for a high unemployment rate thinking that they or their policies can change it unilaterally nor am I willing to give credit to it. President of either party won an unemployment rate thinks. But this idea that this President Barack Obama has over promised and under-delivered but he wasn't up to the job. But he's really floundering when it comes to making the kinds of economic choices that might encourage job creation in this country. That's his problem. And you hear people like his deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter is from Massachusetts continuing to blame the Bush administration which left office three and a half years ago for today's economic trouble. That's a real problem. And

so I agree that actually with Mitt Romney Mitt Romney has a positive story to tell when it comes to health care I think that's going to be an important issue nationally nationally when the U.S. Supreme Court decision comes down in the next couple of weeks. But is his credibility as a candidate has been based on a weak economy and that he knows more about economics and job creation than President Obama does and you know you we've tried him he's had his chance he's failed and now it's time to leave out somebody else and let's remember right he failed and why he is is that in order to accommodate the Republicans in the House and Senate he needed to downplay and rather what he was able to do in the right investment I always used this analogy Calley and that is you have to run for you want to create you have to bring the bread up 10 feet in order for it to spare over the top. But what you do is you get the weather up to 9 feet. Well guess what. You got high rather. You just didn't get that damn right. And that's exactly what happened to Brock Obama. So he never got what he needed.

But you're absolutely right. He promised never recognizing take a stand on the economic hemorrhage that was left to him by Bush and the extent of the economic hemorrhage that would continue to increase because of represent happening. Where are the pride. Don't tell me for August that what's going on in Europe and to some extent even in China today is not impacting what is happening in job creation here. Corporations are not hurting poppies. They're sitting on cash. They're just not spending it. And the question is they're not spending it not because of Washington because their weapon at the rope stage and they're saying they want something sell something and make us something. Who's going to buy it. Well the bottom line of this is is that in this moment in time and certainly into the fall all of these facts and figures that are very reasonable and on both sides and for people to consider as they're voting become political footballs. And so it boils down to people's

perception or faith or confidence and who they believe is equipped to sort of pull keep pulling us out of this morass even if it's you know to take you back down to 8.1 percent. There were sixty nine thousand jobs that were created last month but it should be a hundred fifty thousand. And at the same time. It's become at issue is whether it is Mitt Romney's reputation in and around bank. Now we've seen Cory Booker mayor of Newark get slapped down for saying he didn't want to see a lot of negativity about Mitt Romney's record with Bain he would rather see that focused on his record as a governor. Other issues but not that. And this past week we now see President Clinton stepping up essentially to say the same kind of thing I want to play the clip this is President Clinton defending Mitt Romney's track record last week on CNN. I don't think that we ought to get to the position where we say this is bad

work this is good work. There's no question that terms of getting up going to the office and you know. Basically performing the essential functions of the office. A man who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the quality. For a show. So now Arnie it's you know this is President Clinton I love it. He's the master politician. So it's not you know people said with Cory Booker OK when he stepped out there you know he's talking about and had to come back as a surrogate president Clint's pretty savvy about when to say and what to say. Now of course he went on that conversation to say there is much to criticize about Mitt Romney's economic record in Massachusetts as a way of looking at him as a governor. But he thought that fundamentally going after his work at Bain was not the way to do it. Well I'm going to be a bad person right now because I'm going to remind everyone about Bill Clinton. It was on Clinton's watch that were repealed Glass-Steagall. It was on da Clinton's watch that many of the Goldman Sachs people became so part and parcel of the United States Treasury Department it was under Bill

Clinton that we deregulated derivatives. And when you look at the economic meltdown of 2008 of so much of that can be attributed to William Clinton. When you look at William Clinton when he left office within two months of leaving he was offered one hundred twenty five thousand dollars to give two speeches one to Credit Suisse and I think the other one was to either Goldman Sachs or one other. If you look at the millions he has made since leaving office. You can point directly to Wall Street his daughter gets hired by a hedge fund group. I mean I hate to say this but Bill Clinton is so wedded and said protective of restraint because it was what buttered his bread when he was president. It will continue to butter his bread as an EX-PRES. And so is he going to say anything bad about Bane or restaurant know that he needs another 80 million but how does that play out exactly. And that and that is a problem because Clinton remember Clinton is a liar we. I just remind everyone Clinton is a liar we love I mean go back to Elizabeth Warren going to hate me Cally but Elizabeth Warren you know screwed up by not acknowledging that she thought her

family history was correct. We would really like Bill Clinton or he slept with everybody knowing that he lied to everybody. So we got to put rice in perspective we also have to look at his financial agenda accomplished for the financial markets something that no Republican can do. Unfortunately it happened under my label as a Democrat. And are you surprised that Barack Obama now is defending Wall Street. It's what he's good at and what he's always done. The problem is. Take a look at what happened to the economic meltdown and so much of it can be attributed to him. He never helped fix it. He just helped it implode. He doesn't help Barack Obama by defending thing. He forgets to remind people that what Bain does is not what government does. That's what that should be doing. He isn't helping the country and he isn't helping Obama. All right Fergus You must be. Just gleeful about this you know to imagine I couldn't. It's hard for me to step in front of that but I Can we talk a little bit about a liar who's getting no

political love this week and that's the former House majority leader in New Hampshire. Absolutely. Absolutely yeah. So for those who didn't hear the story so New Hampshire is a young majority leader in the legislature a young man named D.J. Betancourt who about 10 days ago was abruptly forced to resign when it became public that he had lied about whether he had done and externship poor credit that he needed to graduate from you NH as law school. This is a young man who is serving his third term in the legislature he had become a law student some three years ago and it was after that after his first year and a half in fact and law school that the Republicans found themselves in the majority and elected this young man as their majority leader. So use trying to balance going to law school and serving as majority leader at the same time. A tall task for anybody. And he wasn't able to pull it off. The problem is that he lied

about it. He didn't get it why he cheated he did to arrange for it. He arranged for an internship or an xterm ship in the sole practitioner or a law office of a fellow state rep and then the e didn't show up. And you graduated from the law school at least walked in the graduation a couple weeks ago and the state rep who had allegedly you know hired him for this internship sees a picture of it on Facebook and says That's funny I thought he needed my internship in order to graduate so he had this with a fellow Republican. He had the courage to contact you NH law school and say hey what was up with that coursework and they basically said well you know submitted his reports and so there you go and he says well I want to see the report. They've been made up he has tended you know. Public hearings that hadn't been to you know talk to witnesses and gone to court they said he hadn't actually gone to admitted the whole thing up that his world came crashing in on him very very quickly forced to

resign. And it's been a big scandal and after that. Let me let me just follow up on that because as someone who went to law school and sort of finishing in three years Cali it took me four and a half. There's no requirement that you finish in three. You finish. That's the goal. If there was so much on the poor young deejays played as majority leader and he could not provide the leadership for the house and still finish his law degree he could have said to the law school I need some time off I cannot complete it. He didn't. He thought he could do what he's always done which is fabricate because he has a history of fabricating when he was majority leader. What did he do not only did he claim that he completed the internship but to go into detail of what he did. He only worked one hour as an intern. He fabricated one hundred and sixty five hours. Working with incredible detail so much detail Calley that he could have completed his internship and spent all that time doing it. Instead he didn't and then when he was exposed he then gave some

sort of lame excuse for leaving the office without explaining with little more detail than he had done something wrong and that's why he was stepping down so he could have actually moved it over pretty quickly he continued to fabricate because he doesn't have a moral compass and that's his problem and this poor young man not only is probably never going to get a law degree he's never going to finish school. He got married this weekend can you imagine getting married. Oh my drawers is imploding around you and on top of that this is the same individual the Republican majority leader referred to the Bishop of Manchester as a pedophile pimp. This is the same Republican majority leader who when asked whether the speaker of the house had actually probably harassed and attacked a state representative another Republican from Orange said oh no the speaker never did. And then a number of other people have to be present a room that we think that the majority leader is in correct is that did happen. What B.J. Betancourt has not only done is. His career in forever but he's begun to hurt the speaker

of the house because for the first time ever you have everything from the very conservative Manchester Union Leader to the president papers to the Concord Monitor to the Nashua Todd Graff raising questions not just about the majority leader but the speaker of the house. Because there have been so many problems when it comes to ethics and judgment on the part of the speaker that there needs to be a question about the Republican leadership that's now controlling New Hampshire. So the immediate response of course is that he had to resign but what is the fallout from this and and where do you go from here. Well you know the timing of course also couldn't be worse in the New Hampshire legislative session this week. So the last two weeks of its session you know were key decisions are being made has of course been completely overshadowed by this internal mess. You know they've swapped out a new majority leader and self is only been in the legislature for three years and they're trying to complete some really important business including passage of a constitutional amendment to solve the education funding issue in the final and permanent way we

would hope. So all sorts of things are going to fall by the wayside because of this and as Arnie points out it's given fodder to those who oppose the speaker of the New Hampshire House of man named Bill O'Brien who has exercised job with an authority that we have not seen in New Hampshire before over the last year and a half and inside of it does just about you know I mean that's I mean that's And here's the interesting message. Peace because this is important I think. Fergus for the for the listeners to understand that Speaker O'Brien used to be a law partner with you as former speaker Speaker center and you know this you know essentially club style and center and so you know the man returned some of his leadership skills from someone in Massachusetts who's been so discredited in fact just this week he stepped down from the RKO in his position as a morning drive time host and has lots of questions about his character and his ability to lead and this is our speaker. So yes there has been problems for a year and a half.

It is sitting an incredible roller point with the majority leader being forced to resign because of so many other issues. And it is going to raise questions not only about the speaker of the house but there are two Republicans that are running for governor we too have a September primary and the issue will be where does they draw the line from how they behave how they will lead where they will exercise their compas versus how the Speaker and his leadership team have sailed I think both their party and their state are voters. Like up in arms Fergus. Well you know for most of the past year I have been pooh poohing the Democrats attempt to sort of link everything to the speaker of the house and try and tear it down. But I have changed my mind in that I think it is actually starting to get some critical mass that regular people people are not political junkies and activists are tuning in and paying attention to this. And this later latest scandal I'm afraid is going to have some way IGS and people will be able to connect the dots and they won't have to draw the line very long in order to do it. So it's good definitely going to be an issue I think in fall campaigns I think it will be

overshadowed by things like unemployment the direction of the economy the presidential election. You have sure as the swing states the only one of the northeast those could be that is expected to be a competitive election of the year. But but every candidate for state rep is going to either party is going to have to ask answer that question from voters you know are you for or against the speaker if he runs for re-election will you support him in that position or will you not. Republicans in primaries are going to have to answer that question. So it has become definitely become part of the debate here. I just did. But what would be the advantage of saying you support him at this point. I mean he may not even make you Kally speak up. We have 400 legislators from mind everyone they get paid $100 a year their districts are the size of peanuts you know and I'm not even sure that speaker O'Brien will win re-election in his teeny tiny district because there is so much anger embarrassment and anxiety about it. So it is going to be problematic for speaker O'Brien. But if the Republican Party doesn't

recognize that the fish rots from the head down and that there's something really wrong with the speaker and this leadership team it becomes a problem for Republicans when the Catholic Church step out to act on the pedophile scandals that became a problem not just for the Cardinals and the bishops that failed to act. It became a problem for the Catholic Church. The same thing is now going on on a very micro scale with the Republicans in New Hampshire. If they fail to recognize what is wrong and rotten here it will impact them and it will affect the 2012 election. OK last word on that subject for the moment. I'm Kelli Crossley we've been talking about politics with radio and TV commentator Arnie Arneson. And. Fergus Cullen a public affairs consultant and editorial page columnist with The New Hampshire Union Leader the political conversation continues. We're going to explore a political whodunit that involves a truce at a restaurant in Providence Rhode Island. Frantic calls from Washington and intrigue and Governor Lincoln Chafee his office.

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Local issues local talk outside planet officials and citizens are concerned that pilgrim is the same make and model as three reactors that experienced fires and explosion and the 9.7 WGBH Boston Public Radio. Welcome back to the Calla Crossley Show we're talking about voter ID laws. These are laws that are typically branded as a Republican tactic to disenfranchise minorities and elderly voters. A year ago however left leaning Rhode Island passed voter ID laws. It was a move that had many people wondering how it was that a blue state signed off on historically Republican legislation. My guest reporter Peter Schaeffer is getting to the bottom of this. David Sheff and her getting to the bottom of this his discoveries are in a recent piece for the Providence Phoenix who passed voter ID. David welcome. Thanks for having me. So again let's just to put the context is that there are eight voter ID laws passed in the country. Most of them with primarily

Republican support and even having Republican governors to sign off on them. So here we have Rhode Island which stands alone and by the way as I've talked about this I've mentioned it to people and it always puzzles them. Yes it puzzles me for about a year until I started digging into it so yes as you say there were eight states that passed voter ID laws last year. Some of the governors who signed are some of our bigger Republican superstars Scott Walker in Wisconsin Nikki Haley in South Carolina Rick Perry down in Texas and then here was a little old Rhode Island passing this law and I think a lot of people were caught off guard both locally and out of Washington too. So we have. Democrats supporting it. The last Democrat supporting it I just want to be clear and we by the way we've done that story with some of those supporters on this show. But I don't understand all the behind the scenes stuff until I read your piece essentially from reading your piece it sounds like. If we can say it politics as usual a lot a back handing in back rooms and compromising and you know you hold my hand on this one

and I'll hole yours in another one. Yeah that certainly played a role here. I think you know as outsiders you tend to look at these from a policy perspective and say How could such a democratic state passes and it is a bit of a head scratcher here but yeah I mean is a couple different elements here one of which you've just alluded to. It's the sort of conservative Democrat out of one socket by name of John Breen who is sort of on the outs with the House leadership and was looking to get back in and he kind of made peace over dinner a flaming steak house in Providence Rhode Island with the speaker of the house. As I chronicle in the story and that sort of paved the way for his re-entry into the leadership team and I'm blown past it the speaker of the house is an openly gay. Yeah no only ok with one Cape Verdean parent so he's a minority as well meaning Providence Democrat continue apparently looking to kind of shore up his coalition in what was then a relatively new speakership for him.

And so the two of them make their peace and then John bring this conservative Democrat you know makes it clear that this is his top priority and that played a crucial role. You know I think that gets at one of the larger elements of the story which is you know a lot of people look at Rhode Island and assume it's sort of a smaller version of Massachusetts but it's really got this kind of deep social conservative streak there. And the Democratic Party really dominates the state. But you have some conservative folks who run as Democrats because if you ran as a Republican you'd have virtually no shot there so you get a guy like this John Breen who would you know really be a Republican in just about any other state. He's very conservative pro-life has pushed measures kind of cracking down on illegal immigration heavily involved with Alec the business backed conservative advocacy organizations gotten a lot of press a lot of controversy. And but he's dead. You know so that's an element of the party that I think people from outside of Rhode Island don't quite understand. What also became clear in your piece is the power of the personal story if it's coming

from a legislator or who has a vote and is influenced by that particular experience because a number of the unlikely suspects in your piece who one would not have thought would have supported it came around to it by saying they had experienced what they perceive to be voter fraud. Now I need to say that this is in complete contrast to every study every survey every every. What you would call a credible report that there is virtually no voter fraud in any of these states so you're putting in laws that are not addressing what the fraud the fraud that exists right. Right. And there's some concern that if there is any fraud you know it could potentially be through the mail and ballot process and that's not even addressed by this bill. That's another issue. Well yes as you say there's there's no evidence in Rhode Island or really anywhere around the country that voter impersonation fraud which is what this law aims to cut down on is a problem. But you had some

legislators notably some black and Latino legislators who told some personal stories of what they believed to be personal you know voter impersonation fraud whether it be showing up at the polls and when legislators case I'm being told that she'd already voted when in fact she hadn't. She tells also kind of a convoluted tale of how of an illegal immigrant to use her name falsely and was involved himself in in a voter impersonation fraud ring. You know it's hard to verify any of this stuff but for them it was clear to me this was a very you know real concern. And their stories carried a lot of weight. I mean if you have a handful of minority legislators coming out in favor of this bill it really takes a lot of the pressure off those who are not minority legislators who might be kind of predisposed to it anyhow. And you know that whole kind of personal anecdote thing also gets at another element of this which is that elections are very personal for these legislators. And you know we're talking small districts in a small state. They can be swung by a dozen votes here or there. And if they believe rightly or wrongly that there is voter fraud going

on they have a very personal stake in you know cracking down on. Such a thing. So two of the things to point out from your piece that you know certainly deserve highlighting and I like to get you to respond to and one is that there was some mentioning of some potential tension between African American legislators who watch their demographic demographic in terms of numbers decreasing while watching the Latino increasing and and this maybe was a way for to gain some power back by cooperating with some of the as we say not usual suspects. And the second thing was that even if you had legislators going forward with this it still only goes into law if the if the governor signs it. And so people felt they had some confidence that Lincoln Chafee would not sign such legislation. And yet he did. Right. And in the end it appears that he hid behind some would say this crassly. This led the black legislators as they the minority people said they needed it so I signed it right.

So you don't respond right. All right yes a couple different issues here so the first is this. Suspicion of kind of a black-Latino Fisher. And there are a lot of Latino activists in particular who said you know look with lots of immigration the Latino vote is on the rise. And indeed in a state that's really kind of stagnating in terms of population that's the one real growth area particularly in South Providence which is kind of a low income part of the city weather which has traditionally been a bashing of black political power and just the previous fall before this bill passed you had a couple of seats one of the city council had been held by an African-American woman for a quarter century which was taken by a Latino city councilman and a seat in the in the house as well been held by Cape Verdean black Cape Verdean which was taken by Latino legislator. So there that was in the air. You know if you ask these black legislators if that was what was behind their move they will of course say no.

And in fairness it is complicated a bit by a couple of Latino legislators who came out in favor of this bill. This is not just black legislators. And one of the central legislatures Anastasia Williams. Considers herself both black and Panamanian American and she came out so that complicates the story a bit for sure but that was definitely a piece of the conversation here. And then as you say Lincoln Chafee kind of a left leaning Independent. He had been a a an old Yankee Republican U.S. senator kind of a moderate Republican one of that dying breed. He was turned out by Sheldon Whitehouse back in 2006 came out and lashed out against George W. Bush's presidency left the Republican Party. There's been speculation recently that he might even become a Democrat at some point but but for the moment he's an independent and kind of a left leaning one and had been voted into office with some support from Latino advocacy groups that they were a very key constituency actually. And has those kind of

Yankee good government instincts of folks thought those might come in on their side as well. The expectation even among the supporters of this bill was that he would veto it but he had this kind of sit down meeting with supporters including this couple of black legislators who told their stories and very personal terms he was apparently quite swayed by that and or knew he could hide it right I may have suggested right and they're right and he's a pretty in Link's defense he's a pretty upfront guy. I have no reason to doubt that he was swayed by these stories whether he should have been is another question I mean that's a question here should he be should he and the legislators have been paying more attention to the data and less to a couple of personal stories. Here's the thing. As you pointed out in your piece lots of people there are not understanding the impact nationally this is a national story. We knew it when we did it here. Right that Rhode Island was going to be a national story and the fact that Rhode Island being with all the differences that you've highlighted being as it is it provides a lot of folk in other parts of the country saying hey they did it in Rhode Island and like it. Lincoln Chafee signed it so this must be good legislation.

Absolutely and folks in the Democratic Party recognize that even before this thing passed it one of the things I reported on in the story is some last minute lobbying by at least one member of the Rhode Island congressional delegation David Sicilian who faces his own re-election fight there and might have cause for concern in terms of getting all the voters he needs out to the polls but he lobbied his good personal friend the speaker of the house in the waning days didn't have much luck. And then as I reported the story Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who's a Florida Democrat head of the Democratic National Committee made a last minute call to the speaker of the house herself urging him to spike this bill even brought up President Obama's name so the president the United States does not want this to pass. So there was actually some last minute tension there wondering whether President Obama himself might call the Speaker of the house in Rhode Island as perhaps LBJ might have done decades ago to kill this bill he didn't. But from from an early or from early on national Democrats those with a national view knew what this would do to their kind of story line about this being a

GOP ploy to disenfranchise voters. And on it and it's done it absolutely gut. Van spun KOSKY of the Heritage Foundation sort of the de facto spokesman for these laws numerous appearances including one before Congress you know pointing to the road out example to say look this is not a Republican ploy so it's. It's had that effect for sure. Right Adam will be on the lips of a lot of folks around the country. Thank you very much for this really interesting story. Thank you. We've been talking about voter I.D. and how these laws were passed in Rhode Island. I've been speaking with reporter David Scharffen Berger writer for the Providence Phoenix. You can find a link to his piece who passed voter ID on our website WGBH dot org slash Cal across Lee. You can follow us on Twitter or become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook today show was engineered by Alan Mathis produced by Chelsea mergers will Rose live and Abbey Ruzicka the Kelly Crossley Show is a production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.