Topic: Tim Eyman & I-917
Guests: Nick Handy, Washington Secretary of State's office & Tim Eyman, Professional Huckster
Summary: John goes over the burgeoning controversy over the number of signatures turned in by Tim Eyman for his most recent car-tab tax initiative. Mr. Handy explains in detail how the process works and how Eyman asked them to stamp a handwritten piece of paper saying that he was giving them over 300,000 signatures. But once counting started they only found around 266,000 signatures. Things get marvelously tense when Eyman comes on to give his side of the story. Eyman is the one right-winger that doesn't get a free pass from Carlson. Their prickly relationship goes back to several years ago when Eyman lied to Carlson on air about his efforts to divert campaign money into his own bank account. Their conversation devolves into a shouting match more than once, with Eyman frequently questioning Carlson's motives due to his involvement in Gary Locke's transportation planning commission. This could be the most entertaining episode of Carlson's show that I have ever heard.
Classic Quote 1: "Here's where this is going, that when you handed in the signatures, you knew that you didn't have 300,000, and so you have them a piece of paper and said 'here, date stamp this please', so you could turn to the press and say you had 300,000 signatures, knowing that when the truth came out and you had far fewer than that you could then raise the fact that '34.000 signatures have just disappeared and this is either incompetence or corruption'"
Classic Quote 2: "You know what? I'm just going to say it. Tim, yes I know government can screw up, but I also know that you can screw up. And I know that sometimes government is dishonest, but I know that sometimes you have been dishonest."
Classic Quote 3: "This would have been easily correctable if you had done what several initiative campaigns, including several that I have been involved in, if you had photo copied your petition sheets as they come in. And again, I still don't quite understand why you did that. And of course there's a motive for why you might want to claim to have turned in 300,000 whe you knew you didn't, and that is you got a third of a million dollars from one donor to get this thing on the ballot, and if you spent his money and came up short, a few thousand signatures short, that's probably not going to make him very happy."
Classic Chat:
CARLSON: I've done a couple of initiatives myself as you know, and I know a thing or two about...
EYMAN: How did 912 go? How did 912 go for you John?
CARLSON: We turned in 420,000 signatures and [crosstalk]
EYMAN: How'd the voters react to that?
CARLSON: When it comes to turning signatures in I know how the system works.
EYMAN: Yes you do, and the reality is that last year we did initiative 900 which turned in 315,000 signatures, more than enough to qualify.
Time: 01:15 - 02:00
Topic: Environmental politics
Guest: Dr. Patrick Moore
Summary: John talks to a former leader of Greenpeace who has now turned against the organization because of their anti-capitalist bent.