The Blue Slip Blues

Your whole neighborhood goes black in seconds. Except your house. The Patriot Power Generator 2,200X from Four Patriots keeps your lights on when the grid goes down. It's the most powerful generator Four Patriots has ever built. Four Patriots gives you backup power without gas, fumes, or a loud engine. Just lights, a cold fridge, and peace of mind when the power fails. Right now, save $500 and get two solar panels free. That means you can recharge twice as fast, but only while supplies last. Keep your lights on, your food cold, and your family calm when the grid goes down. Don't wait for the next blackout. Visit 4Patriots.com today. That's the number 4, P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S dot com. And see why families trust four Patriots to stay ready. How can one of the most qualified men to ever serve as U.S. attorney here in Wisconsin be out of a job next week? Because Tammy Baldwin doesn't like him. Welcome to the Dan O'Donnell Show as we dive into the Blue Slip Blues on the Tuesday edition of the program. Without any further ado, let's dive right into it. Top stories that we are following right now. Brad Schimel will leave his position as interim U.S. attorney when his temporary appointment expires next week. We will explain why and why the process for appointments need some serious reform. That is coming up in just a second. It is an election year tradition. A statewide election is coming up and... Tommy Thompson is yet again letting it be known that he is very interested in running. Plus, what are the betting markets saying about who Democrats will pluck out of the clown car to be their nominee? That story coming up at 325. The Milwaukee School Board approves a plan to cut 260 non-teaching jobs, but we actually crunched the numbers and found a whole lot more fat in MPS that could be cut. Our exclusive analysis is coming up. at 5.06. Coming off at about 406, it is the daily Trump date as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gives an update on the war with Iran. 10 days in, this campaign has been a resounding success thus far, and America's warriors are winning this important fight at an even faster pace than we anticipated. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, also providing an update today. We will hear from both of them coming up in the 4 o'clock hour. And the Save America Act appears to be stalled in the Senate because Majority Leader John Thune says he cannot get enough senators on board with getting rid of the standing filibuster. We will get into that throughout much of the 4 o'clock hour here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. If you would like to join us, just give us a call. Shoot us at text, 414-799. 1130 is our admet knows.com talk and text line. You can also email me, DoD at iHeartMedia.com. Find us on social media at Dan O'Donnell Show on X, on Facebook, on Instagram. We are streaming live via the Dan O'CAM. You can watch the show on social media or on our YouTube channel. Just search for the Dan O'Donnell Show should pop right up. As the kids say, smash that like button and be sure to follow new episodes every single weekday.

And if you stand with Dan, if you are a proud member of Dan Nation, best way to show your support is to subscribe to the Dan O'Donnell Show podcast on IHeart Radio. Just go to your IHeart Radio app. Find the Dan O'Donnell Show podcast and be sure to subscribe. Listen every day. It is a great way to show the powers that be at IHeart, just how popular and how influential a talk show this is. Brad Schimel, who served as interim U.S. attorney for the past 110 days plus, is going to be out after a majority of federal judges in the Eastern District of Wisconsin ruled today that they are not going to allow him to stay past the expiration of his interim appointment. According to a release put out by those judges, a majority of judges on the court declines to exercise this permissive authority. In doing so, the court intends no criticism or commentary on the performance or qualifications of the interim United States attorney or any of the attorneys in the United States Attorney's Office. To the credit of that office, from the court's perspective, it has continued to represent the citizens of this district. Well, the court awaits the nomination and confirmation of a full-time United States. States attorney by the president and United States Senate. Now, why has Wisconsin's Eastern District not had a permanent U.S. attorney? Because Tammy Baldwin, United States Senator from this state, Democrat, of course, has refused to return what is known as a blue slip. In other words, she has been able to veto a permanent selection by President Trump that would ever go to the United States Senate for confirmation because she has had an issue with pretty much anybody and everybody that President Trump has potentially looked at. In order to try to get around Baldwin's obstinence and Baldwin's clear politicking, Brad Schimmel. who is a former prosecutor in Waukesha. He is the former Waukesha County District Attorney. He is a former Waukesha County judge. He is the former Attorney General of the state of Wisconsin. He was a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is the real reason that Baldwin despises him. Actually, the real reason is that he dares to be a Republican in public life. And Baldwin is the most craven political creature, quite possibly this state has seen in quite some time. she is going to oppose anybody and everybody that President Trump puts out on either an interim or a permanent basis. Wisconsin has an additional, okay, so to back up to the start, here's how the process works for nominating somebody to serve as a U.S. attorney or as a federal judge. Now, you might think, you might think the Constitution. Might be pretty clear on this that the president makes appointments and the Senate has what is known as the advice and consent power. The Senate confirms the president's nominees. This is rather obviously how it's supposed to go. However, it doesn't.

Because since at least 1917, there has been a process by which the presidency essentially defers to senators from the state where the nominations are going to take place. This is informally known as the blue slip process because the two senators from that state quite literally return a blue printed piece of paper to the head of the Senate's Judiciary Committee. Since 1979, Wisconsin has been unique in that it's not just the home state senators that have a say. There is actually a bipartisan federal nominating commission. It's a six-member commission with three members chosen by each senator. So it will actually solicit applications for a U.S. attorney, for vacancies for federal judge. It actually interviews candidates. It makes recommendations to the two senators. And the senators almost always only support and return positive blue slips for the candidates who come through this commission. Because the commission has become so overtly political under Tammy Baldwin's Democrat nominees, they have simply refused to approve anybody. Democrats would not approve a single U.S. attorney to come through this commission for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, so President Trump had no choice. but to go the interim route to essentially bypass the bipartisan commission. So the way the blue process works is it actually takes away power, not just from the United States Senate as a whole, but also the Senate's judiciary committee, the committee that is supposed to be responsible for this sort of thing. So here's how it happens. The president nominate someone for a position in a specific state, here Wisconsin. The Judiciary Committee chairman, Chuck Grassley in this case, sends each of the state's two senators a blue-colored form. It is literally blue. Senators return it with either a positive response saying, I am okay with this nomination, a negative response saying, I'm not okay, or they'll just withhold a return of the slip entirely, and that's actually the most common way to block a nomination. The chairman will decide what happens next. Under longstanding practice, if there is one negative blue slip returned or if one of the blue slips is not returned from a home state senator, the nomination is dead. The judiciary committee doesn't even bring it before the committee to advance out of committee and then go before the full United States Senate. Things had gotten so bad in 2017, when it became apparent that Democrats were so ticked off that Donald Trump dared to get elected, that Chuck Grassley had no choice but to overhaul the blue slip system. For circuit court judges, the lowest federal judges, not the appellate courts, the district courts, or Supreme Court, obviously. But for circuit court judges, the rule was relaxed. So a negative blue slip or a withheld blue slip no longer blocks a hearing. It no longer stops a nomination cold. But for U.S. attorneys and district court judges, those blue slips are still very important.

Again, this is sort of seen as a senatorial courtesy. It dates back at least 100 years. It's been sort of an informal practice. And the idea was to force the White House to consult with the senators from the state where the person is going to serve. And you would think, just in theory, this makes a heck of a lot of sense, right? That you need to... understand the people who represent the folks that your nominees, that the people are going to serve as U.S. attorneys, that they are actually going to represent, that they're actually going to be serving with and serving for. As you might imagine, Democrats have completely abused this process. As of December, only two of 18 confirmed U.S. attorneys have served in states with a Democrat senator. Think about that for a second. Trump has nominated 18 different U.S. attorneys. We're in a state where there is at least one Democrat senator. So the Democrat senator can withhold the blue slip or say, I don't want this person serving. 16 of 18 times the Democrat has refused to sign off on one of President Trump's picks. Let's go back a little further. During the Obama presidency, There were 20 known nominees who had at least one negative or withheld blue slip from a Republican senator. Going back even further during George W. Bush's presidency, there were 37 who faced blue slip problems. And again, when Trump got elected, Democrats became so obstructionist that Chuck Grassley had no choice but to relax the rules. 27 of 28 circuit nominees had blue slips. What this means is had the rule not been relaxed in 2017 during Trump's first term, every single one of President Trump's federal judicial nominees for the lowest level for the circuit court, Eastern District of Wisconsin and so forth, 27 out of 28. would have been rejected out of hand. They wouldn't have even gotten a hearing in the Senate's Judiciary Committee because Democrats in that state are simply for no reason other than because the nominee is a Republican and because they don't want Republican U.S. attorneys or Republican federal judges to serve in their states, they're handing out the blue slips. Now, there was no question. that Tammy Baldwin was not going to oppose Schimel serving past the expiration of his term next month, which, by the way, is St. Patrick's Day. March 17th, Schimmel is going to leave office as U.S. attorney. Well, on March 4th, last Wednesday, Baldwin issued a press release opposing any sort of extension. She called Schimmel a clearly partisan actor who shouldn't get an extension for this job.

Clearly partisan actor. Are we kidding here? The man was serving as a judge, as a Waukesha County judge. There has never been a case in which his integrity or any sort of decision making was ever called into question in any case he ever served on. He's a Waukesha County District Attorney and got incredibly high marks in that role, got himself elected to two terms as Wisconsin's Attorney General, again received very high marks, except, of course, from Democrats who invented attacks on the rape kits, which, by the way, are being completed as a much slower rate under his successor, Democrat Josh Kual, than they ever were under Schimel. There is no legitimate criticism of Brad Schimel. He's a partisan actor. Give me a break. A clearly partisan actor. Does the name Gregory Honstad mean anything to you? Gregory Honstad. Anything? He's the former United States attorney. He served from 2022 through the end of President Biden's term. previously serving as acting U.S. attorney, 2016 through 2018. He's Democrat, right? He is a Democrat. Ron Johnson filled out a positive blue slip. Before he was acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, had he ever served? As a prosecutor, has he ever served in any sort of capacity in public life? He had not. So he had far less relevant experience than did Brad Schimmel. He was no less a quote unquote partisan. You don't get through this bipartisan nominating commission and approved by Democrats unless you are an about partisan Democrat. So clearly he was a Democrat. He got a hearing. He got confirmed. He served. Yet Brad Schimel, who is prosecuted at the county level, and is prosecuted as the head of the state's entire Department of Justice as Attorney General, because he is a Republican, doesn't get to serve? Folks, as with everything. Democrats are abusing the blue slip process, especially here in Wisconsin, to block clearly qualified actors. Is there anything about Brad Schimel that would put him outside of the mainstream of, say, political or legal thought? He's sort of the definition of a no-nonsense law and order guy. He's not out there like, say, Alina Habba. Alina Habba was President Trump's personal attorney, and she was nominated to be a U.S. attorney in New Jersey. She got blue-slipped because she was seen as, rather obviously, too close to President Trump. Okay, it's his personal attorney. There's a conflict of interest there. I could actually understand the Alina Habba blue slip.

Brad Schimel taking money from the Republican Party? Brad Schimel running as a conservative backed by the Republican Party for state Supreme Court. That's somehow too partisan. Give me a break. Gregory Honstad was far less qualified for the job than Brad Schimel ever was. Yet Honstad sailed right through. Hansstad was just fine. Served 2016 to 2018 before he was eventually replaced by President Trump. No issue there. It's nice and unfortunately a relic of a bygone era that the president is expected to sort of defer to what a home state's senators want. Home state senators who happen to have a D next to their name, they're just never going to fill out a positive blue slip for any of Trump's nominees, or frankly, I don't believe any Republican nominees ever again. Remember, we went through this a generation ago when President George W. Bush could not get any of his federal judges confirmed. They might get positive blue slips and they might actually get a committee hearing, but Democrats resolve that they're not going to nominate a single, they're not going to approve a single Bush judge. Republicans, of course, then said in the early days of the Obama administration, okay, look, we're going to respond in kind because this was so ridiculous. It was so beyond the pale. I'm telling you, folks, everything you think is unique and is new in the era of Trump. Democrats did it. It just wasn't nearly as widely known in the era of George W. Bush because we didn't have social media back then, and people weren't nearly as obsessed. And because we didn't have social media, people weren't online every waking moment and know every single thing that every other person on planet Earth is thinking at any given moment. But they were just as bad. They were just as obstructionist. So Republicans say, okay, turnabouts fair play. President Obama takes control. Republicans retake control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And they say, all right, we're done. Harry Reid evokes the nuclear option. Remember that? To break filibusters on judicial nominees. Every single judicial nominee short of the United States Supreme Court was done. Then, of course, when Democrats, for the first time in the history of this country, for Neil Gorsuch, Neil Gorsuch out of the three Trump nominees was probably the least controversial, he was just a soft-spoken judge, served at the appellate level forever. Democrats filibustered him just because he was nominated by President Trump. That was the only reason they filibustered him. So, of course, Cocaine Mitch, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says, all right, we're going to invoke the nuclear option for all judicial nominees. Well, Democrats lost that power. So they can't just filibuster, and it's all appointees, right? Democrats were so obstructionist that it's now every single. This is why Trump would not have been able to assemble a cabinet.

because there would have been a filibuster of every single one of his nominees, even the ones that are eminently qualified. Marco Rubio at State, Scott Bessent at Treasury, all of the ones who are to forget about Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as good as he has been. Remember, he was just a Fox News host and a drunk when he was up for nomination. They just would not have allowed it, but since they no longer have the power of the filibuster, they're now abusing the blue slip. process in order to try to sync these nominees. You're listening to the Dan O'Donnell show. We are now a week from St. Patrick's Day, and that means it is a very fun tradition here on the show. We play special Celtic punk bumper music for the next week straight ahead to St. Patrick's Day, so be listening for that all show long. Coming up next, the surest sign of spring. Tommy is floating a statewide run for office. Your whole neighborhood goes black in seconds. Except your house. The Patriot Power Generator 2,200X from Four Patriots keeps your lights on when the grid goes down. It's the most powerful generator Four Patriots has ever built. Four Patriots gives you backup power without gas, fumes, or a loud engine. Just lights, a cold fridge, and peace of mind when the power fails. Right now, save $500 and get two solar panels free. That means you can recharge twice as fast, but only while supplies last. Keep your lights on, your food cold, and your family calm when the grid goes down. Don't wait for the next blackout. Visit 4Patriots.com today. That's the number 4, P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S dot com. And see why families trust four Patriots to stay ready. Welcome back to the Dan O'Donnell show, as we are now one week away from St. Patrick's Day, as you could imagine, by the title of this show. Yes, O'Donnell actually is my last name. I don't use a stage name here. We take St. Patrick's Day very seriously. My family is actually from Donnie Gall in Northern Ireland, known as Wee Donnie Gall. We took a group of listeners with our friends at Cruzintur a couple of years ago to the mother country, and I'll tell you, had an absolute blast. And in fact, as you might know, there is an Irish singer who happens to share my name, Daniel O'Donnell. They actually call him Wee Daniel from Wee Donnie Gall. So our tour guide, a guy whose name was actually quite literally John McGuinness. I don't know if it gets much more Irish than that took to calling me Weed Daniel. And it was actually hilarious because we were rolling up with these two big buses. And it said in the window of the buses, you roll up at a hotel in Dublin or in Galway or wherever it was we were. And it would say the Dan O'Donnell Family Adventure, which is what we call the trip, Dan O'Donnell Family Adventure. And crowds would gather around thinking it was this singer.

Wee Daniel from Weed Donigal. He's sort of like the Irish Barry Manilow. It's the way it was described to me. Your grandmother loves Daniel O'Don. He's an incredibly talented guy with an incredibly beautiful voice. But every time, crowds would gather around. I'm talking like 10, 15 people would just stop in the middle of the street and sort of like peer into the windows of this bus to try to see Wee Daniel. Our tour guy, John, had to stop them and say, no, no, it's not him. It's just a radio presenter from the States. And with that, I realized that no matter what I did, I would not be better than we, Daniel. Well, it doesn't feel like it today. But yesterday, boy, did it feel like springtime, huh? The sun shining, the snow melting. Maybe you even saw the very first robin of the spring, but none of those are the real sign of springtime in Wisconsin. No? We got the first real sign of springtime in Wisconsin today when former governor Tommy Thompson let it be known to one and all that he is once again interested in running for statewide office. Stop me if you have heard this one. As much as we love Tommy, and we do love Tommy on this show, he's an incredible guy. He is a true legend. He is the, forget about being the greatest governor in the history of Wisconsin. I think it's one in one A, him and Governor Scott Walker. He's one of the greatest, most consequential state governors in the history of this country. But every year, it seems, since he left the governorship to become Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush, he has come back every single spring. There is a statewide election with an open Republican seat and said he's interested. It started back 20 years ago, May of 2006. Thompson toyed with the idea of a Senate run. Publicly announced, though, a little bit later. He's not going to run. His longtime aide, former secretary of administration, Jim Klauser, confirmed that Thompson gave a Senate run serious consideration, ultimately though his family convinced him not to. And this began an annual springtime tradition, sort of like the groundhog popping his head up and saying it's going to be an early spring. When Tommy pops his head up in the spring, you know. Campaign season has officially begun. March of 2010, Politico, Roll Call, tons of national organizations start to report that Tommy, quote, is eyeing a bid for the United States Senate. Then about a month and a half later, Thompson said, I can't describe how badly I wanted to run, but say it with me.

My family convinced me not to. He also apparently gave some consideration to a comeback bid against incumbent Democrat Diamond Jim Doyle, but the race he was really looking at was the United States Senate. Two years later, he actually did run for the Senate. He won a bruising primary against Eric Hovedy, but then he was completely out of cash. and Tammy Baldwin, who didn't face a primary opponent, was able to just cruise through. Ultimately, Tommy lost to Baldwin by six percentage points, and what turned out to be a big Democrat year, buoyed by the re-election of Barack Obama. For the next 10 years, in the era of Scott Walker and with Ron Johnson as the incumbent Republican senator, there was really nothing to run for. But then, once again, we had the sign of spring. It came early in 2022. January 11th, he gives an interview with WISN Channel 12 saying everything is on the table in terms of whether or not he would run for the governorship of the state. I am physically and mentally capable of doing anything telling multiple outlets he wanted to run. He actually visited President Trump to discuss it and he only decided against it because of, say it with me. His family convincing him not to run. Finally, April 18th, he made the official announcement. He is not going to run saying, I wanted to, but family opposition ultimately prevailed. Now he is out again. Our good friends at Wisconsin right now, reporting that Tommy Thompson is telling people that, yes, he is interested in potentially running for governor. At some point, the people around Tommy have got to do everybody, including Tommy, a very valuable service, and tell him that all of this is completely unbecoming. He is not going to get into this race. He is not going to win this race. And that if anything, the constant will he or won't he, Brett Favre on the tractor routine, is only serving to harm his legacy. And his legacy is a towering one. As one of the greatest most revolutionary conservatives at the state level in, again, American history. Forget about Wisconsin history. American history. But now it's become something of a joke. For 20 years, every time there is a Republican who might be running, every time there isn't a Republican incumbent, Tommy pops up and says, hey, me too. Look, this is not an agist comment or anything like that. Tommy is 84 years old.

I have no doubt. I actually just ran into Tommy, talked with him a couple of times at the Republican National Convention. He looks good. He's probably got more energy than I do, for goodness sakes. Age would be an absolutely massive issue. He would be 88 years old at the end of his first term, were he to win? Not only that. This song and dance routine four years ago did incalculable damage during a must-win gubernatorial election in 2022. Republicans then had coalesced around former lieutenant governor Rebecca Clayfish. She was raising a good amount of money. She got pretty much every endorsement from every political figure in the state. It looks like we're going to avoid. The bruising primary that absolutely destroyed Leah Vukmir in the 2018 Senate race where she had to battle tooth and nail against our good friend Kevin Nicholson. And she was tapped. She was spent just like in 2012. The bruising primary between Hovdi and Tommy left Tommy completely out of resources. Tommy's allies convinced... Whoever would listen or they tried to convince whoever would listen. I know this because they reached out to me multiple times. They told me, Dan, Becky can't win. Rebecca has no chance of it. To which I replied, Republican women are winning everything. This was in the era where January 6th was still fresh. And let's face it, that Trump brand was not doing particularly well. When Republicans nominated women, they did exceptionally well. I said, you're telling me that Republican women are winning everywhere, but in Wisconsin. Rebecca Clayfish is the one Republican woman who can't possibly win. Give me a break. And I rejected that flat out. Tommy's people, though, were relentless. They said, no, no, no, no, no. We need Tommy. We need Tommy back in this race. So behind the scenes. They were trying to get Tommy to run so that he would go in with the Trump endorsement. He would just blow Clayfish out of the water and then all of the support would go to Tommy. Well, again, April 18th, he officially says, I'm not going to run. About a week later, Tim Michaels gets in the race. Now, Michaels was sort of the backup candidate, as I understand it. He was not going to run if Tommy was going to run, rather obviously. But Michaels just happened to get all of that institutional Tommy support. The Tommy support, by the way, which was kind of hostile to Rebecca Clayfish and her Scott Walker-based team. They wanted nothing to do with each other. Once again, bruising primary left Tim Michaels, who we were told was going to be able to self-fund and was going to be able to just blow Evers out of the water in fundraising numbers because he would just dump $50 million of his own money into the campaign. He dumped a ton of money in to win the primary, and then he just sort of stopped spending. I have nothing against Tim Michaels. In fact, I love Tim Michaels. But it was obvious he was not the right candidate.

Would Rebecca Clayfish have won? I don't know. Frankly, it's an unknowable thing. But what I can tell you is that Ron Johnson won and Michaels ran significantly behind him. This notion where the entire party coalesces around one cat. Right now it's Tom Tiffany. And yes, I've heard rumblings that the mayor of Wapun, Ron Bishop, who is a good guy. I've seen online, people are blasting him as a rhino. He is not a rhino. He's a very good, decent man. He's a principled, conservative Republican. But again, he's just not going to have the institutional support. It would essentially be a fool's there. There is just no chance. At this point, anybody is going to unseat Tom Tiffany. And so help me, if this is part of another behind the scenes effort to get an alternative to Tom Tiffany, because now we're starting to get cold feet in Tommy world that Tiffany can't win. I just, I can't support any of this. Now, is this just Tommy wanting to hear people talk about it? Yeah, it's certainly possible. Certainly possible it is. But four years ago, it wasn't just an innocent thing. Like, oh, well, Tommy's interested in running. Four years ago, it absolutely was a precursor to one of the most damaging primaries that Republicans have ever inflicted upon themselves. And I'll be doggone if it's going to happen again on my watch. You're listening to The Dan O'Donnell Show. It's a tour de force of truth, and it's coming right back in just a second. Welcome back to the Dan O'Donnell Show. Matt Hurt in the St. Patrick's Day bumper music rotation here on the Dan O'Donnell show. By the way, we have our complete playlist up on Spotify. Yes, I know it's technically a... competitor of iHeart radio i have been trying to get an i heart radio premium account for many years now and i i guess i'm just not as good a negotiator as i thought i was when i got my last contract i could not get a premium subscription to i heart radio thrown in and despite my best efforts i wanted to put a playlist on you go to i heart radio dan o'donnell show st patrick's day bumper music playlist i can't make playlists because i don't have a premium account and I don't know. I don't want to pay the company that pays me for a premium account. I already have Spotify. Sorry, boss. I have Spotify. So you can check it out on Spotify. We'll share it again. We are doing all St. Patrick's Day bumper music until the big day next Tuesday. And we always have fun with the St. Patrick's Day bumper music. Time now to name the unhinged liberal of that.

Trump is Hitler. We are in pre-Nazi Germany. All white people are racist. Trump is dangerous because he's evil. America is over. Today's unhinged liberal of the day is whomever. Today's unhinged liberal of the day is whomever it is that runs the at CNNX account. You know, the two terrorists from Pennsylvania who went to New York City on Saturday morning and threw improvised explosive devices into an anti-Muslim protest outside Gracie Mansion? Yeah, here is how CNN describes them. I did not change a single word out of this tweet. Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home. Here's what we know so far. What? Two Saudi nationals were just out for a flight on a beautiful September morning. What are we doing? They're terrorists. You crazy people. He was a brilliant mathematics student who could have gone to Harvard at age 15. But instead, he started mailing bombs to people. The Ted Kaczynski story. What? They could have spent a normal day enjoying the city. Yeah, they could have, but they're terrorists, so they did what terrorists have a tendency to do. What is it about liberals in the media and their attempts to sanitize what it is the worst people in humanity do? Whoever it is that runs that CNNX account is your unhinged liberal of. the day coming up for four straight years four straight years Democrats told us that the president is not responsible for gas prices. Do you know there are just so many factors that go into the price of crude oil and that, you know, the refining process and it could be bad weather in Malaysia and that has an impact on the global oil market. Look, there's, look, nothing Biden could have done could get gas prices down from five bucks a gallon in the summer of 2022. Now that we have seen a temporary spike in the price of gas, I believe the AAA average today is $3.53. Now it is 100% the president's fault. And by the way, by the way, we have paid $3.53 a gallon for gasoline since yesterday morning. So about two days, give or take, two days, right? Would you believe that is only 8 cents higher?

than the average price of a gallon of gasoline during four straight years of Joe Biden's presidency. That's right. It was about this price for four years, Libs. Why'd you think we'd forget Dan O'Donnell's show coming right back? Your whole neighborhood goes black in seconds. Except your house. The Patriot Power Generator 2,200X from four Patriots keeps your lights on when the grid goes down. It's the most powerful generator Four Patriots has ever built. Four Patriots gives you backup power without gas, fumes, or a loud engine. Just lights, a cold fridge, and peace of mind when the power fails. Right now, save $500 and get two solar panels free. That means you can recharge twice as fast, but only while supplies last. Keep your lights on, your food cold, and your family calm when the grid goes down. Don't wait for the next blackout. Visit 4Patriots.com. That's the number four, P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S dot com, and see why families trust four Patriots to stay ready. Welcome back to the Dan O'Donnell Show. It is classical conservatism delivered with contemporary style. I want to apologize for last hour. Apparently, we had some sort of signal interference or something. And those of you who are listening to us on our flagship station, News Talk 1130 WISN, did not hear my opening monologue about the blue slip blues, how Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin has been abusing the process by which... U.S. attorneys and federal district court judges advance to Senate's judiciary committee and then advanced to the full Senate after they're nominated by President Trump. It is the reason that U.S. attorney Brad Shimulow had been serving on an interim basis is not going to continue and is not going to be the permanent U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, even though that's who President Trump wants to be the permanent U.S. attorney. The best I can tell you, we'll try to recap a little if we have time. I'm going to warn you. It's a jam-packed show, folks. We've got a ton of stuff to get to, so I don't know if we're going to be able to do a redo. What I always do, though, is post highlight show clips on my social media at Dan O'Donnell Show on X or Facebook.com slash Dan O'Donnell Show. And the best way to ensure that there's never any signal interference is to listen to us. on your iHeart radio app you can listen to the show live by heading to the news talk 1130 or 1310 w ibae channels or you can always listen to the show afterwards and the podcast is usually posted about 15 to 30 minutes after the show goes off the air at 6 p.m. Central, there is never any signal interference. You are always able to hear it in crystal clear stereophonic sound. You can also watch the show streaming live via the Dano Cam. We are on Facebook. We are on Instagram. We are on X.

We are on YouTube. Smash that like button. As the kids say, follow us across social media at Dan O'Donnell's show and watch the show. Look, I was talking maybe a couple of weeks ago about how radio is, it's my first love. I love radio. I love the medium. I love spoken word broadcasting. But it's a flawed medium. It's a very expensive medium, and it's a hundred years old. The reality is internet delivery systems are far more efficient, far easier, and you don't get signal interference. You don't have to power down at sunset. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was absolutely counting down the days until the start of daylight saving time when... Sunset is well after this show goes off the air. Boy, oh boy, was it nice not to walk outside into pitch blackness like I'm stepping into the middle of like a vampire hellscape every time I go off the air. All right. You want to join the Dan O'Donnell Show 414-799 1130. That is our advent knows.com talk and text line. You can also email me, DoD at iHeartMedia.com. Time to get you updated on all things. Trump White House. It's the Daily Trump Day. We're going to win so much. You may even get tired of winning. Trump just keeps waiting. It is a win for the administration. It's also a big win for the United States. We have to keep winning. We have to win more. We're going to win more. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt updating on the progress of the war in Iran during her daily press briefing this afternoon. More than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck so far. Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90% and their drone attacks are down by approximately 85% since the start of Operation Epic Fury. The United States is also annihilating the Iranian regime's navy and we have destroyed more than 50 Iranians. naval vessels, including a major drone carrier ship. None of the regime's vessels are operating in major regional waterways, and the Iranian Navy has been assessed as combat ineffective. Levin also reiterated President Trump's warning to the remnants of the Ayatollah's regime to not disrupt the transportation of oil and other goods through the Strait of Hormuz. Moving forward, the stated objectives for Operation Epic Fury remain the same. Destroy the terrorist regime's ballistic missiles. Raise their Iranian missile industry to the ground. Ensure their terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. President Trump remains confident these goals will be accomplished in swift fashion.

is already revolutionizing the world. And you want to talk about not being dependent on the Strait of Hormuz or uncertainty in the Middle East. You get into a situation in which autonomous electric vehicles are just dominating American roadways. And that does more than anything else to decouple us from... awful regimes like ira well also that and just destroying the military capabilities of an evil regime now democrats are not used to this sort of military might now you heard from the secretary of war Pete Hegseth and he said what i have been trying to explain to people for several weeks now since this conflict started and really starting with the arrest of nicholas meduro the now former dictator of venezuela We are not going to the idea of a forever war, the idea of American boots on the ground for a generation like there were in Afghanistan, that is long past. Technologically, the United States is so superior to every other military on planet Earth that we are able to achieve our objectives as quickly as the blink of an eye. without deploying a significant portion of our fighting force or any portion of our fighting force. Now, this sort of strength, this sort of speed, this sort of military might, this sort of extreme competence at the top of the Department of War, or as it was formerly known, the Department of Defense is rather alien. I want to take you back two years ago, February 1st, 2024. The Iranian regime's proxies, Hamas, had just killed three American service members. And Biden's Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, took to the White House briefing room podium to offer his condolences and to pledge to do, I don't know, something in response. The president will not tolerate attacks on American troops, and neither will I. Sounds tough, right? Exactly 45 seconds after Austin opened that press briefing by saying that, he apologized for going AWOL over the Christmas holiday, just absolutely disappearing. And even the woman who was left in charge as acting secretary of defense had no idea that she was actually in charge. while Austin was getting surgery for prostate cancer. Now, of course, nobody is going to criticize Secretary Austin for having prostate cancer. All right. I have loved ones with prostate cancer. I've known my grandfather had prostate cancer when he passes away. Millions of men have prostate cancer. Millions of men get treatment. That's not the issue. You cannot.

While Houthi rebels were sinking American ships, while Hamas was flexing its muscles, just sort of disappear and leave America without a Secretary of Defense. But 45 seconds later, after he promised some ambiguous action at some future date in response for the killing of three American service members, you had Austin groveling for forgiveness for going AWOL. But I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right, and I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people. How absolutely pathetic was that display. Meanwhile, Democrats have spent two days now predicting that oil would get to $200 a barrel. It is now at $77. And in freefall, yesterday we actually saw the single biggest one-day decline in the price of a barrel of oil after there was a whole lot of fear mongering. My good friend Dave Spano over at Annex Wealth Management calls it a wall of worry that just sort of gets built up. over things, whatever it is, global conflicts, the Federal Reserve, anything and everything. When you get that wall of worry built up, a lot of times you get panic selling, a lot of times you get panic hoarding, you just get illogical behavior. What we saw with the Straits of Hormuz being essentially bottlenecked by the remnants of the Ayatollah's regime, was this wall of worry being, they call it a dam of fury being built up in the strait of Hormuz. But once that cleared, once it was abundantly clear that we had plenty of supply, the price of a barrel of oil dropped from 110 down to 84 almost instantly Monday, and pretty much every Democrat talking point was destroyed. Right now, though, we are in a gas price spike. We have seen higher than normal gas prices. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded. is three dollars and fifty three cents per gallon three dollars and fifty three cents per gallon the average price Under Joe Biden for four years was $3.45 a gallon. For four years, we have been paying the price of gas that we are paying for the last two days when it's a natural national emergency, excuse me. Democrats are screaming about the price of gas as though we didn't just live through the single worst period for gas prices, probably since the last time we had a truly disastrous Democrat president in Jimmy Carter. And at some point, ladies and gentlemen, I think it is worth revisiting. Carter's responsibility for not just bringing us the Ayatollah's brutal 47-year reign of terror.

in Iran, but also undermining Middle East policy by subsequent presidents through backchannel communications with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries after he left office. You know, Jimmy Carter somehow skated by on this reputation, largely unearned of just being a nice guy who builds houses for habitat for humanity and is going back to his peanut farm in Georgia and he was just going to live a nice long life. No, he was actively undermining American foreign policy to the degree where some might consider it to be a criminal offense against the United States of America. To say nothing of the fact that 47 years of the Ayatollahs and the Mullahs brutally oppressing their people, spreading the tentacles of terrorism, not just through the Middle East, but across the globe, killing hundreds of Americans, thousands, if you include all of the IED attacks in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jimmy Carter, in large measure and his feckless foreign policy in the late 1970s was responsible for a good portion of it. All right. When we come back here on the Dan O'Donnell Show, the Save America Act, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not going to pass because he does not have support for ending the Phantom filibuster. We'll discuss in just three minutes here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. Your whole neighborhood goes black in seconds. Except your house. The Patriot Power Generator 2,200X from Four Patriots keeps your lights on when the grid goes down. It's the most powerful generator Four Patriots has ever built. Four Patriots gives you backup power without gas, fumes, or a loud engine. Just lights, a cold fridge, and peace of mind when the power fails. Right now, save $500 and get two solar panels free. That means you can recharge twice as fast, but only while supplies last. Keep your lights on, your food cold, and your family calm when the grid goes down. Don't wait for the next blackout. Visit 4Patriots.com today. That's the number 4, P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S dot com. And see why families trust four Patriots to stay ready. Barroom Hero, the dropkick Murphy's in the St. Patrick's Day punk music, bumper music rotation here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. Welcome back to it. Happy St. Patrick's Day a little bit early in top of the afternoon to all of you. Senate Majority Leader John Thune sang today in a press conference with reporters that he does not have the votes. to get the Save America Act passed through the talking filibuster. For those who have been unfamiliar with this debate, the talking filibuster is what you would think a filibuster should be. You simply talk until you can't talk anymore. You might remember we had to do something like that on this very radio show back in December.

when we lost the ability to play commercials or anything else. I basically just had to talk for hours and hours and hours. The most famous example that everybody reminds themselves of when they hear filibuster is Mr. Smith goes to Washington, 1930s or 40s film starring Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith, who goes to Washington and tries to take on corruption. And the climactic scene is him filibustering and he. gets all the mail delivered from people who support him and then he collapses because he just can't talk anymore. So that's what people think when there's a filibuster. Well, about a hundred years ago or so, the Senate abolished the talking filibuster and instead went to what's known as a zombie filibuster or phantom filibuster. A senator merely says he's going to filibuster. And then there is a vote for cloture. Cloture means debate is ended on a particular measure, and then there's a vote on the measure itself. Cloture used to require two-thirds plus one majority, 66 votes plus one. When that threshold was lowered to three-fifths in the 1970s, zombie filibusters became commonplace. When you only needed 60 plus one, when you only needed 60 votes to end a filibuster, everybody started filibustering. But not actually filibustering using the zombie filibuster. There has been a movement. And this is something, by the way, that the framers of the Constitution never actually intended. Look, the framers of the Constitution never actually intended for the direct election of United States senators. They actually intended that state legislatures would appoint two United States senators. We changed that with the 17th Amendment, about 150 years after the Constitution was ratified. Soon today. It's about the votes. It's about the math. I'm the one who has to be clear-eyed and a realist about what we can achieve here. We don't have the votes either to proceed to get on a talking filibuster nor to sustain one if we got on it. There is nothing I can do about that. I mean, I understand the president's got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do. Sigh. The fear that a lot of Republicans have, and yes, it's the usual suspects, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, cocaine Mitch McConnell. As much as I loved the guy when he was Senate Majority Leader, he has no business being in the Senate anymore. I was in the first hour talking about how Tommy just, I hate to say it, but is too old. Even though he's very vibrant, he's very full of life, it just isn't going to work him as governor of Wisconsin again. Mitch McConnell is not vibrant at all. He is the opposite of vibrant. He needs to step down. Now, of course, he's not going to.

But he also opposes this. You actually also have a number of other senators. I think I saw Barrasso was one of them. You got a pretty big coalition, seven or eight senators who are saying, look, we don't support going back to the talking filibuster. And the fear is always the same. that Democrats will simply do what Republicans did after Cocaine Mitch went on the floor of the Senate. Remember when the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the Democrats got rid of the, he used the nuclear option to get rid of the filibuster for nominations for federal courts. Cocaine Mitch gets up and he says. You may regret this, and you may regret it sooner than you think. And Democrats absolutely did because as soon as President Trump took power and Democrats filibustered Neil Gorsuch, Republicans simply used Democrats precedent against them and said, all right, well, now we're going to use the nuclear option and get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees as well. The fear here is that if Republicans do anything to the filibuster now, As soon as Democrats retake control of the Senate, and they've got, say, a governing trifecta, a president, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, that they will simply use the Republican president and further gut the filibuster and get rid of it altogether. Is there anyone alive who thinks that this current crop of Democrats, folks, they're talking about packing the Supreme Court. adding states simply to give them more senators so Republicans have no chance of ever winning the Senate again. And you're wondering if they'll keep the filibuster rule. They were calling the filibuster a relic of Jim Crow when Republicans were using it against President Biden from 2021 to the end of 2024. You're really telling me that they're not just going to do whatever it is they feel like. Maybe a generation or so ago, Democrats would have bowed to precedent and say, okay, there's a level of decorum here, and we must respect prior precedent. I'm telling you, folks, this generation of Democrats does not. As soon as it suits them, they will get rid of the filibuster. They will do whatever they need to get their agenda passed. The idea that we can make this most minor change and simply go back to what a filibuster is supposed to be, this idea that this is just a bridge too far and we can't possibly do this, especially to get something passed as vital as ensuring that only American citizens are taking part in America's democratic process. If we can't even do that, then what are we really doing with a governing majority? We will talk more about the Save America Act itself. When the Dan O'Donnell Show returns, stay tuned. Welcome back to the Dan O'Donnell Show.

So the Save America Act itself, what specifically does it require? There is a whole lot of misinformation out there. All it requires is that you essentially prove not only that you are who you say you are, but also that you prove that you're an American citizen. During today's White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt took the very first question on the Save America Act. And it was about Democrats who claim that married women will be unable to comply because they're not able to change their name when they get married. This is honestly one of the dumbest arguments I think I've ever heard. It essentially comes down to married women. And it's always racial minorities. Just racial minorities are unable. to comply with this law because reasons. Well, the very strong implication is that they're somehow not competent to be able to get the thing that you need to do to do most things in American public life, and that's have a photo ID. In order to get on an airplane, in order to buy a car, in order to rent a car, in order to buy a house, in order to rent an apartment, in order to apply for a loan, for a credit card, for a bank account, you need a photo ID. And what is so wrong with requiring a birth certificate if you don't have a passport? By the way, 50% of Americans have a passport. It is very easy to get one. Admittedly, it does cost money. This is why there is a provision in the law where if you are one of the estimated 3% of people. who is unable to get your birth certificate, it doesn't have easy access to your birth certificate. Admittedly, I don't have a copy. Actually, I do. I take that back. I do have a copy of my birth certificate somewhere in the files, in the bowels of my home. I think somewhere in my home office. I've got my birth certificate. But you know what I can do? I was born in Milwaukee County. I can call up Milwaukee County. And I can get a birth certificate printed for me. I can go and get it. I can get it. emailed to me there are a million ways it is very very easy i i make fun of milwaukee county government inefficiency but their records department is remarkably good very easy to get So Karoline Leavitt was asked, okay, are married women really not going to be able to comply with this? As far as married women who have changed their name, if they're already registered to vote, they're entirely unaffected by the SAVE Act. And for the small fraction of individuals who have changed their name or their address, they can still register to vote. Of course, they just have to go through their state processes to update that documentation. And this is something that the American people married women and minorities and people all across this country who... Democrats are insultingly saying cannot do this, they're already doing it every day, going to the Social Security office, going to the DMV. And I think it's frankly insulting that the Democrats are saying that there are certain groups of people in this country who aren't smart enough to update their documentation to allow them to vote. That's it exactly.

The fact that there is a provision in the proposed bill, in the act itself, that says, okay, if you truly cannot get it, you are still able to attest, meaning you're still able to say, okay, hey, a person who is checking my ID, I swear I am an American citizen. I am. someone who is legally authorized to vote in this country. And oh, by the way, lest you think non-citizens voting in American elections is something that never happens. There was just someone who is arrested yesterday for voting in presidential and other federal elections since 2008. He is a native of his Mauritania. Is that how you say it's a nation in Africa? It's rare, to be sure, we think it's rare. We have no idea how often it actually happens. There is no legitimate argument against this, unless when it boils down to we don't care who it is that's actually voting in our elections. Now, I would say, okay, Democrats don't actually want non-citizens voting in American elections, except Democrats want non-citizens voting in American elections. multiple cities across the country, including San Francisco, allow non-citizens, allow legal residents in this country, not illegal aliens, but again, how would you really know if illegal aliens are voting in municipal elections, in school board elections? This was something that for a few years in there, this was all the rage in Democrat circles. We have to allow non-citizens to vote in these municipal elections. especially school board elections because look they live here too they go to the schools their children are going to the schools so they should have a say in who it is that represents them on these school boards who it is that's hiring the superintendents and principals and so forth Regardless of the fact that it is a federal law that only American citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, the clear implication there is that you need to be a U.S. citizen in order to take part in American democracy. And I just find it bizarre that the Democrat Party, who has positioned itself as the great defenders of democracy ever since January 6th, all of a sudden... does not want any procedural safeguard whatsoever. This is something, folks, that 80 plus percent of Americans want. Even about 47 percent of Democrats actually do want proof of citizenship, not just voter ID, but proof of citizenship before you're allowed to vote in federal elections. Election security is something that actually unites both parties, because frankly, both parties have accused the other of stealing an election and cheating every time they have lost.

Oh, Democrats don't do that. That's just Republicans. That was just Trump pitching a fit in 2020. Oh, really? Oh, really? Because in 2024, how many people were taking to social media and say, hey, there were 8 million Democrat votes who just disappeared? These voters just disappeared. In 2020, there were 8 million more Democrat voters for Joe Biden than there were for Kamala Harris in 2024. What happened? Trump must have done something to which I said, yes, absolutely. It is weird. It is very weird that it just looked like there were eight to nine million people who appeared out of the ether in 2020. They voted for Joe Biden. And then they disappeared never to be seen or heard from again. Yes, I do find that very weird. In 2016. Democrats claimed that Trump was a Russian agent and that Russia hacked the election. They were actually going into ballot boxes and hacking the vote totals. 2004, remember in Ohio, they were claiming that, ironically enough, Dominion voting machines were changing John Kerry votes to George W. Bush votes. In 2000, of course, they accused Jeb Bush, then governor of Florida, for rigging the election for his brother in the critical swing state with the hanging chads in the Supreme Court decision. Do you realize that Democrats, every single election they lost, every single one this century? They have claimed was rigged. They have claimed was stolen. They have claimed was not on the up and up. Don't you think it is a little weird, therefore, that when Republicans say, okay, yes, we want to do something to make sure that those elections can't be stolen, that elections can't be rigged, that Democrats say, well, no, absolutely not. We don't want to do anything about that. Unsung Hero of the Day coming up next right here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. If Republicans get shellacked in the midterms, you can take a look back at today as a potential big reason why. If in fact, John Thune and Republicans in the Senate don't show some sort of spine, some sort of backbone. And President Trump and Republicans can't get something that 85% of the American people want passed. That is the Save America Act required voter ID for all federal elections in addition to a requirement that you prove citizenship. That'll be a big reason why.

Forget about the price of gas, forget about the war in Iran, forget about inflation or the economy or interest rates or anything like that. This is about just doing what your voters want, doing what all American citizens want. The Trump administration has had a year of pretty substantial wins, especially on the immigration issue. But it's all for not if we can't have faith and can't have secure elections. And we can't have faith in elections that we know to be legitimate. And Democrats, this is the thing that absolutely gets me. The charge of being an election denier is almost exclusively hurled at conservatives, even against your very humble host here, who actually did find a substantial amount of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. in the form of nursing homes, absolutely casting ballots for patients who had no business voting whatsoever. I found dozens of examples. I think that the final number was 76 examples that were emailed to me that I could verify. These are people whose loved ones contacted me and said, look. My mother has no idea who is on the ballot. She would have no idea whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden is even running for president. She had no idea Donald Trump was president, yet somehow she voted, and I'm going to take a wild guess, that she voted for Joe Biden. Democrats have been complaining that elections have been stolen every single time they have lost an election this century. Let me repeat that. Every time Democrats have lost an election this century, they have complained that it was rigged. Did Republicans complain in 2008 that Barack Obama had rigged the election? Or did we say, hey, okay, a lot of people voted for the first black president. John McCain was not a particularly inspiring candidate. Heck, we Republicans didn't particularly like McCain all that much. 2012, same thing. Did we complain that somehow the election was stolen? 2020, when all of a sudden, you had roughly 66, 67 million total votes for Barack Obama. All of a sudden, that number jumps to 83 million for Biden, and then it goes right back down to the mid-60s again. Maybe it was upper 60s for Kamala Harris. Yeah, there's a big reason that people are suspicious of that. that a guy who didn't even campaign got the most votes by far in the history of American elections in a year in which Democrats fully admitted that they changed all the rules because of COVID-19. Okay. Time now to name the unsung heroes of the day.

Today's unsung heroes of the day just might be the most worthy in quite some time. They are Assistant New York City Police Chief Aaron Edwards and Sergeant Luis Navarro. During Saturday's terror attack at the anti-Islam demonstration outside of Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, Assistant Chief Edwards jumped over an iron barricade and tackled one of the terror suspects, a man by the name of Emir Balat, brought him to the ground. As he was trying to throw a second improvised explosive device, the video is absolutely incredible. Assistant Chief Edwards actually gets him mid-throw. His tackle stopped the second bomb from being launched into the crowd. Sergeant Navarro, as Edwards tackled the suspect, he ran straight toward the lit-smoking IED that Balad had dropped near officers and protesters. He did so. According to the New York Police Department, without hesitation and without regard, for his own safety to neutralize the device and protect everyone nearby. Both were publicly honored by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in yesterday's press conference. And today, they are the Dan O'Donnell show's Unsung Heroes of the Day. When we come back here on the program, MPS. is going to cut 260 non-teaching jobs. Is it enough? Not nearly. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the news. Believe it or not, we are three weeks away from the spring election here in Wisconsin. My goodness. Is it really that quick? Let's see. One, two. Four weeks. All right. Four weeks away. two weeks away from the start of early voting my goodness in-person early voting or the rather paradoxically titled in-person absentee voting that that just kind of reiterates how ridiculous it is you are absentee voting but you are doing so in person Folks, we are once again launching the state's largest early vote drive here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. What we are going to encourage everybody to do as per usual is to vote as early as possible. Vote for conservative Maria Lazzar. Vote for every conservative on your ballot. What? What, Dan? What's that you're saying? Dan, Dan, we don't know who the conservatives on our ballot are. We don't know. Well, ladies and gentlemen. Have we got something for you? What we are going to unveil on Monday, March 23rd is the state's ultimate conservative voter guide. We have been working on this for the better part of, oh, a month and a half now. It is going to be the single biggest conservative voter guide that has ever been put together.

It is going to be in a new digital spot, which we are going to unveil on Monday, March 23rd. I am very, very excited about it. And as part of this, we are going to be running once again our very popular segment, Better Know a Candidate. And we are expanding this in conjunction with my good friends Ben Yount and Jason Gotch. who do the morning and midday shows here on our flagship station, News Talk 1130 WISN, they are also going to be doing better know a candidate. And they are also going to be letting you know where you can get the digital copy. We are not having hard copies of the conservative voter guide. It is going to be, let's just say, at a brand new spot online. You are going to know, no matter what county you are in, we're going to have an interactive map. where you're just going to be able to click on your county and you are going to have every conservative that we were able to identify. We have been working with Republican Party, county parties across the state. We have been working with conservative groups across the state. We have just been going through and doing our own research on the candidates. And we are trying to get as many conservatives as humanly possible. Again, if you are a conservative, if you're in southeast Wisconsin, Waukeshaw County does easily the best job of this I think I've ever seen. The Republican Party of Waukesha County, Terry Dietrich, the chairman there, does just an excellent job. He runs an initiative called Wiss Red, and we have partnered with them. here at the Dan O'Donnell Show. So if you're in Waukeshaal County, don't worry, we already know who you are. You are already in our voter guide. Same thing with, I believe, Milwaukee County. We've got Racine. We've got Kenosha, Sheboygan, I believe Fondalac. We've got what Wiss Red does. is to identify candidates and actually produce materials to help them win in local elections. We're not doing that here on the Dan O'Donnell show. We're literally just giving you a list of names because for years and years and years now, I've been doing this radio show for the better part of a decade. I believe it's coming up on a decade now. The number one question I get every spring is, Dan, when is Tommy Thompson going to say he's thinking about a serious run for statewide office? Okay, but the second biggest question that I get is Dan, who is the conservative in this race? Dan, who should I vote for in this race?

I am firmly convinced that one of the big reasons that conservative turnout is somewhat depressed and has been for a long time now in spring elections, in state Supreme Court elections, is that conservatives stay home because they literally don't know who to vote for. And this isn't, you know, I'm sure at this point liberals are going to be saying, well, that's because conservatives are stupid. They don't pay attention to local race. It's very difficult. It's very difficult. Pretty much every study has shown, by the way, that conservatives actually consume way more news than do liberals and are way more informed and better informed on current events than the left is. The reality is, when am I going to be talking about the, you know, Mount Horib School Board? When am I going to be talking about the Shaniqua Village Board elections? And folks, I dare say we here on this show do local news and do Wisconsin news more in depth than, and I may pull out a shoulder blade patting myself on the back here, but I dare say we do better local coverage than pretty much anywhere else. We certainly break more exclusive stories, I think, than any other news organization in this state on Wisconsin News and politics, but we can't cover it at a granular level. And an unfortunate byproduct of the destruction of local news is that you just don't get that coverage anymore. Remember when we used to have the CNI local newspapers, you'd have like Greendale now, hell's corners, now, cut a hay now. Those don't exist anymore. And we don't have Patch attempted to fill the void, but it really didn't work out. it is very difficult to do. I'm sort of hoping that now in the era of artificial intelligence. where you can have AI do some of the newsroom work that you would otherwise have like low-level employees or interns do. You might see that again, but the reality is there just aren't a whole lot of people passionate about it. So as a result, we're a less informed electorate, were a much worse served electorate by the so-called fourth estate. And heaven knows, the biggest news organizations in the state, the journal Sentinel, the state journal. They aren't covering local elections in any fair manner whatsoever. So that's why I think I actually do believe that you get people to say, well, I don't know who any of these candidates are. I don't even know if I'm going to be voting for the right person. Why should I show up? And then when you say, okay, well, there's a big Supreme Court election on the ballot. Some people will show up and just vote for that, but other people will say, well, does it really matter? Honest to goodness. Does it really matter?

All right. That was a long way of saying, stay tuned. Monday, March 23rd, the ultimate conservative voter guide goes live online. Top stories we're following right now here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. The White House is providing an update this afternoon on the status of the military campaign in Iran. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says Iran's ability to strike back against its enemies is decimated. And the U.S., its mission is well ahead of schedule. Moving forward, the stated objectives for Operation Epic Fury remain the same. Destroy the terrorist regime's ballistic missiles. Raise their Iranian missile industry to the ground. Ensure their terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. President Trump remains confident these goals will be accomplished in swift fashion. And I have no doubt that that is the case. Here at home, the Milwaukee Public School Board has approved MPS Superintendent Brenda Casillius's plan to cut 260 non-teaching positions. More details on that coming up in just a second. Then coming up at 325, did the Hudson School District flat out lie to parents about an anti-ice student walkout last month? It sure seems like it. One parent called the district out during last night's school board meeting. You won't want to miss this audio from that brave parent. Finally... What is it about liberals that they don't want parents knowing what sort of sexually explicit material their kids have access to a library group in Madison? Very upset that Republicans in the legislature want warning labels on graphic books for kids. That story coming up at 535. Right now, though, Brenda Casillius, the Milwaukee School Superintendent, has announced plans that she is going to cut. 262 non-teaching positions from MPS. This is to help close a $46 million budget shortfall. That sounds pretty impressive. And MPS, the school board passed these cuts last night. The school district wants some plaudits here. They want an add-a-boy for saying, hey. We're doing something right. This is on top of the 160 jobs cut last year. About 104 of those positions, I believe, were subsequently refilled. Well, I actually did some digging. Just how many non-teaching positions are there in MPS? And what percentage is 262 non-teaching positions? According to MPS's website, it employs 4,500 teachers. It's pretty impressive. That's actually very impressive. Plus 1,500 educational aids. Okay?

1,500. So we have got 6,000, what I would consider teaching professions, professionals, right? Guess how many non-teaching positions there are in the Milwaukee Public School, mid-level school district? Nationally, it is by far the biggest school district in Wisconsin. Take a while, guess. 4,000, 4,000 non-teaching positions. There are roughly 10,000 total employees in Milwaukee public schools. The 262 non-teaching positions that are being cut right now represents a 6.5% reduction. in the number of non-teaching positions. Given the fact that MPS has been fiscally underwater for quite some time now, and apparently its financial situation has been so bad that they have just refused to report it to the Department of Public Instruction for several years, resulting in all manner of sanctions, not just from DPI, but also from the federal government. because of its financial reporting requirements that MPS did not follow. And also, by the way, the fact that the head start program, the pre-K daycare program that MPS runs was quite literally losing track of children, the Biden Education Department actually cut funding from MPS's Head Start program. And given the fact that Milwaukee Public Schools just passed a $252 million referendum a couple of springs ago and also got roughly $770 million in federal ESER grants for COVID-19 relief and mitigation, this district over and above shared revenue from the state over and above property tax revenue has gotten more than a billion dollars. The fact that it can only manage to cut 6.5% of the non-teaching staff is frankly a slap in the face. Not only that, what we found from Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce are great friends here on the Dan O'Donnell Show in their brand new competitiveness report here in Wisconsin is that statewide. We have lost anywhere between 65,000 and 83,000 K-12 public school students since the year 2000. Now, as you might imagine, that's led to a loss of teaching positions as well. We have shed roughly 2,000 teaching positions in the past 25 years. But according to WMC, across the state, we have gained 8,000 non-teaching educational bureaucrat positions in that same timeframe. How exactly does that make sense, especially when oftentimes non-teaching positions, vice principals, education coordinators?

any manner of make work jobs at MPS central office or in district offices across the state, these people are oftentimes making sometimes double the salary that teachers are making when teachers are the ones who are providing the most valuable service actually educating our kids. If anything. Lest you think that that evil Dan O'Donnell, big, bad, conservative, he hates teachers. If anything, I would say double teachers' salaries and get rid of half of the administrative staff. I'd rather have, instead of 4,500 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants, I'd rather have 5,500 teachers and 2,000 educational assistants. And maybe a thousand non-teaching bureaucrats who are making, by the way, way more than those teachers and educational assistance, I would actually bump up the salary of teachers and dramatically reduce the salary of the educational bureaucrats. Look, folks, the reality is it ain't working. MPS is according to the most recent national testing, the NAEP national test. It is the worst school district in America for educating black students. Pretty damn bad at educating all students, but Milwaukee has the single worst racial disparity in the country. It's so bad that the entire state of Wisconsin has the worst racial disparity of any state in the entire country. Cutting 262 bureaucrats is a good start. And I will actually admit, I have been pleasantly surprised. by Brenda Casellius's brief tenure as the head of MPS. The bottom line, though, is that more bureaucrats need to be cut, more salaries need to be shed, more of these make-work positions need to go away permanently, and the investment has to be in teachers. The investment has to go into the classroom. The investment, in other words, needs to actually go to kids. From Milwaukee to Hudson, a student walkout in protest of ICE puts students in danger. One parent is absolutely furious. You'll hear from him coming up in just three minutes.

The Sherwin-Williams Summer Sale is here. Get 30% off select paints and stains or 35% off our newest product. Emerald Symmetry, July 17th through the 27th. Whether you're refreshing your interior or exterior, we've got the colors to bring your vision to life. And with delivery, getting everything to your door is easier than ever. Shop online to have it delivered or visit your neighborhood Sherwin-William Store. Click the banner to learn more. Retail sales only, some exclusions apply. See Store for Details, delivery available on qualifying orders. Welcome back to the Dan O'Donnell Show as we are celebrating St. Patrick's Day a week early and for the entire week leading up to the wear in of the green with special Celtic punk bumper music all week long here on the Dan O'Donnell Show. Welcome back to it. Well, about a month ago, students across Wisconsin across the country. were taking advantage of the lefties freaking out about how quaint it seems when the lefties were just freaking out about ice raids in minneapolis now they're freaking out about world war three about the price of gas is just quickly it's remarkable how quickly They're able to just turn on a dime as to what the most existential crisis to this world is. Well, about a month ago, it was ice rains. And you might recall that every Democrat in Wisconsin was panic-mongering that ice was going to leave Minnesota and they were going to set up shop in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay. We're not entirely sure where. Maybe in Hudson. Students in the Hudson School District took part in the nationwide trend of getting out of class by walking out in protest of ice. Well, one parent at the Hudson School Board meeting last night by the name of Joseph Rivera stood up and said, hey, wait a second. Last month, we were told by the superintendent that there was going to be no walkout, that students were not going to be walking out of class. The very next day, guess what? The students walked out of class, and not just that. They walked out in what appeared to be a very highly coordinated school-sponsored anti-ice walkout. Parents were told that students would not be permitted to leave campus, that disruptions would be minimized, and that parents could excuse their children if they plan to participate. In response, the superintendent wrote back stating that he supported that message to families and that the district had handled previous walkouts in the same manner. But the next day, around 150 students, including middle school students, walked out of school and were seeing downtown participating in protests and wandering around the streets with alongside adults. That was not spontaneous. It was anticipated. District policy 442 clearly states that disruptive demonstrations and walkouts during the school day will not be permitted and that students remain subject to compulsory attendance lost. Yet the walkout still happened.

Parents were told one thing and experienced another. I heard from families who were frustrating that their children were allowed to leave campus without their permission and without consequences. That creates confusion. It undermines trust and it puts our students at risk. Now, why would the school district say, no, no, no, students are not going to be allowed to leave campus. If they want to walk out, they can walk around and they can march around the campus. They're not going to go downtown, but they did go downtown. Now, just to be clear, just to be clear, this is not Joseph Rivera or Dan O'Donnell or anybody else saying that these students don't have a right to walk out. They do. First Amendment. They, however... are still students. They are still kids. They are still being protected by school staff, by teachers, by adults who should know better than to allow them to just sort of wander around downtown where there's 150 kids marching and maybe only a handful of chaperones in something that was never communicated to the parents. The parents, in fact, were told the exact opposite. Okay, your kids aren't going to march out. They're not going to leave campus. And then, lo and behold, very next day, they're marching out and they're leaving campus. Here's Rivera. When students are on campus during the school day, they are under the district's care and responsibility. Allowing that many students to leave campus and walk around through downtown during school hours creates obvious safety risks. Hudson Police were present and I appreciate their support. They were only there because this was a known safety risk. But the reality is this. We got lucky that no student was hurt, and we cannot rely on luck when it comes to the safety of our students. Policy exists for moments like this, when leadership must enforce clear boundaries and set expectations. If a policy exists, it must be followed. If expectations are communicated, they must be enforced. And if safety is the priority, actions must match words. Our students deserve that level of leadership. Our families expect it. And our district must do better. I don't know if Joseph Rivera is running for a school board or not, but he should and he absolutely would have my vote. Why is it that a random parent seems to be the only one in the Hudson School District who is concerned about this sort of thing? Again, nobody is saying the kids can't walk out. They can't make a stink about ice as dopey as some of those protests were. They do need to be safe. And parents do need to know where their kids are going to be. You drop off your kid, especially if it's a middle schooler, kid who's sixth, seventh grade. You drop your kid off at school. And if they're going to be leaving the school building, let's say they go on a field trip, right? Isn't there always a big, well, there's weather day at the ballpark?

The meteorologists from a local TV station will go to American Family Field and you watch a daytime Brewers game and you learn about the weather. It's a cool little tradition. You have to sign your consent for your student to go to Weather Day, even though they know exactly, you know exactly where the kid is, okay, is that American Family Field, okay, there's a certain number of chatt. They're parent chaperones. There are teacher chaperones. But when it comes to... protesting the evil Nazi brown shirts in ice, well, those rules don't seem to apply because you see the message is just so great that we've got to allow as many 12-year-olds to walk out of the building without ever telling their parents. Again, what is it with these school employees who believe that they do not have to tell parents what it is their kids are doing at school? This goes right back to the same thing we have been arguing about the social transitioning, where a kid is going by different pronouns at school. And the teachers are saying, well, your secret is safe with me. Okay, adults and children should not have secrets unless they're mom and dad. Grandma and grandpa, okay, fine. I think I'm... old enough to admit this. When I was in my 20s, I really liked PBR beer, Papp's Blue Ribbon. This is in the era where hipsters were drinking PBR and old Milwaukee and, you know, schlitz. And everybody accused me of being a hipster because I'd go out to bars and I would order a PBR. Well, really, it was because my grandpa. When I was a teenager, I was like a junior, senior, senior in high school, and I drive over, and every week or so, I would mow his lawn. My younger brother and I took turns. Well, my grandpa, when I got to be an older teen, he would sit and he loved the smell of freshly cut grass. What dude does not? And he would sit. And he would drink a PBR and watch me mow the grass and just sit out, read his newspaper. And as I got a little older, I was getting ready to go off to college and so forth. He would have a PBR waiting for me. And he would say, what do you think he told me? As he and I would sit and sip beer, don't tell your dad. Well, we lost Grandpa, oh boy, 15 years ago. And I think I can finally come clean to my dad that grandpa was allowing me to have PBRs. And that's why I still, to this day, I love, I haven't, I've actually extended dry January. I call it dry January. I haven't really had a dry. I went out to the Milwaukee Public Museum's Food and Froth event. By the way, fantastic event. The last one at the old museum, that was the only time I've drank in 2026, the only alcohol I've had. Oh, yeah, I'm probably down. Producer Eric, do I look thinner? I think I'm down 15 pounds just from cutting out alcohol. I'm not even kidding. Well, just from alcohol and I don't know what it is. I, boy. It's been a rough year for health for, for the old DOD. If I've sounded.

I've had real bad acid reflux, and that has really impacted my hunger. I'm just, I'm not hungry because, like, my chest and my stomach just constantly feel awful. And if I've sounded distracted, last week, I think I told you folks that it was almost certain that I tore my ACL. Well, MRI results finally came back. I didn't tear my ACL. I tore my ACL and my meniscus. So I've been about midway through the show. I took the call from the doctor's office. And yet no real surprise there. I'm going to need surgery. So boy, oh boy. But no, I haven't been drinking alcohol. My point, though, in saying all of this. is that unless it's your grandpa sneaking you a beer before you go off to college after cutting the grass, you should not be having secrets with adults. This is why this idea of social transitioning at school is so dangerous. Oh, it's your and my secret. I won't tell your mom and dad that you're exhibiting signs of severe mental illness. No, no, no, you can trust me. What is it about this? In fact, coming up next, we have got education advocates in Madison very, very upset that parents might actually know about the sexually explicit material in some of these left-wing children's books that are on school libraries show. Stay tuned. Dan O'Donnell's Show coming right back. All St. Patrick's Day bumper music that you hear here on the Dan O'Donnell Show, you can find on the Dan O'Donnell Show, St. Patrick's Day bumper music playlist at Spotify. We'll send out a link shortly after this show wraps up in about 15 minutes or so. A reminder, please do subscribe to the Dan O'Donnell Show podcast on IHeart Radio or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm loving. Folks, all of the kind words, yeah, it's been a rough go of it with this knee that's been bothering me for quite some time. Good to finally have some. Well, not good the fact that a week ago Saturday was playing basketball with my son and just, it just collapsed. Like my leg just, it was like it wasn't even there. I knew instantly something was badly torn. Turns out it is a complete tear of the ACL plus a, what is it, vertical tear of the meniscus. So, yeah, I'm something of an overachiever, says one listener on our advent nose.com talking text line, I can't just tear one ligament. I got to tear two. I am going to need surgery, probably going to miss minimal time off of work, but just fair warning that that is happening. Republicans in the state legislature want to require warning labels on explicit content that is sold commercially and geared towards children's literature.

In other words, some of these truly insanely graphic kids' books, Boys Aren't Blue is a classic example. Folks, I have done this segment so many times that it's almost become cliche, where I will literally just read passages from books geared towards children and see if I don't get shut down by the FCC. That's how graphic this stuff is. All Republicans want is a warning label on the book that says, hey, parents, there is like graphic sexual content in the book that is geared towards 11-year-olds. Well, one group in Madison headed by a woman named Rowan Childs. is very upset that Republicans would warn parents about the pornographic content in the books that are marketed towards children. Here's the report from WMTV. We always are concerned when people are policing books or policing words. So A, we're always concerned about that and always look at who is trying to police books, whether they are for adults or teenagers, kids. Rowan Childs with the Madison Reading Project says, her organization focuses on expanding access to books for kids and families across Dane County. She says a big part of that work is making sure children can see themselves in the stories they read. The diversification of the books, even just that alone, is really important so that you can see yourself in the cover or you are the main character in the book. Those are all really important things so that everybody can engage in the books. So yeah, what if the, uh, Main character is performing sex acts. Do we want the 12-year-old to see himself in the main character there? Nobody's talking about banning books. Although, quite frankly, folks, do yourself a favor and read. First of all, make sure you explain to anybody else who might use your computer, why you are looking at the images you are. Because, folks, I'm telling you in some of these books, this is not like, are you there, God, it's me, Margaret, where the little girl gets, you know, she becomes a woman, she gets that time of the month for the first time. It's not that, okay? It is a very different sort of coming of age story. Where you have graphic depictions of sex, of drug use, of, and I'm not talking about like implied sex where it's necessary to the plot where, say, I'm trying to think. What would be trying to think of a classic work of literature where some sort of sexual abuse is very central to the plot. Yeah, Lolita, classic example. Lolita is all about. You know, the relationship between a man and a girl about pedophilia, okay? There is artistic merit to Lolita. I never actually read it, to be totally honest. Didn't they make a movie about it like 20 years ago or something like that? Yeah, I didn't, yeah, just a little creepy for me. But okay, there you go. There's at least some sort of art. In many.

forms of literature and forms of entertainment, where there is going to be graphic, you know, relations. It was always sort of done tasteful. You always knew when a sex scene was coming because, you know, the characters would start kissing and then they would pan away from the bedroom and it was implied, right? Now you don't get that. And I'm telling you, folks, take a look at what is actually in these books. It's not as though, I mean, these people, they try to pretend that they're freedom fighters standing up against the Nazi book burners when really it's bizarrely trying to make sure that nobody knows what type of sick child sexual material. And that's what it is. You have got underage characters in books engaging in sexual content that is being put out into the marketplace and marketed explicitly to underage audiences as part of young adult or even children's literature. There's a big problem with that. Republicans are saying, okay, well, maybe we should put warning labels on that, hey, there's a graphic sex scene in the new Bernstein Bears book. Okay, I'm making that up. Brother and sister Bear are not doing all manner of unholy things. But the point is that in some of these books, the folks, I wish, I can't even, I can't even. describe one of the scenes that I am thinking of in Boys Aren't Blue. That's how graphic. That is how truly deviant it is. And the idea that we would warn parents that it's in there is somehow wrong. Give me a break. Couldn't believe what I heard from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today, as he is again voicing his opposition to the Save America Act. It sure as heck sounds like he admitted that there are an awful lot of illegal aliens on America's voter rolls. Why else would he be spreading the paranoid delusion that ICE is going to be cleaning up the voter rolls? ICE. It's about voter registration. It allows ICE to kick tens of billions of people off the rolls, off the rolls, and they don't tell them until election day, and you show up and you say, you're not registered anymore, you're not registered here. Wait, what? Why would ICE be involved unless the people on the voter rolls are illegal aliens or suspected of being illegal aliens? You're not on the rolls. And they say, I didn't know that.

This is a bill that destroys the country, and it is not about showing ID when you show up to vote. It's about the voter registration rolls, destroying them, purging them, not letting people know and taking the rights in an algorithm put together by ICE, put together by Doge and Elon Musk. It's an outrage, and that's why so many people don't want to pass it. You got to have ICE, DOGE, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, let's see, who else don't we like? Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, wait, he passed away a few years ago. Give me a break. By the way, if there was no issue with the voter rolls, especially here in Wisconsin, why is Governor Iver is hiding them from federal investigators? Not ICE that wants to look at Wisconsin's voter rolls. It's the FBI. They're apparently finding all manner of inconsistencies on voter rolls in Maricopa County in Arizona, so much so that they're now fearmongering that if that happens here in Wisconsin, big article in the journal Sentinel today, if that happens here in Wisconsin, they may know who you voted for in 2020. No, they won't, you people. All right, out of time. Back tomorrow, Wednesday edition of the Dan O'Donnell Show. Talk to you then.