Thomas Bowman
Welcome to Transition Virginia. I'm your host, Democratic Strategist, Thomas Bowman. I'm joined by my co host, journalist, Michael Pope. Michael, good afternoon.

Michael Pope
Afternoon? This is not afternoon. This is, we're well into the evening, it's podcast time. Okay. We are so excited, Thomas, that we've got Amy Friedenberger of The Roanoke Times and Richard Crouse of Bill Stanley's office, and this is raw and uncensored. We're gonna have to put an E next to this podcast, Thomas.

Thomas Bowman
That's right. We're coming to you live in Penny Lane Pub here in the bowels of Richmond City, Virginia. So yeah, welcome to the podcast, Richard and Amy. It's so nice to have you.

Amy Friedenberger
Thank you for having me. Pulled me out of the Capitol as they're still working.

Richard Crouse
For the record, this podcast is so jacked. Like, you know on what we're doing? At John Frederick's, it's like two steps above you. We need to up the game. We have to up the game. Really?

Thomas Bowman
Well, that's why we brought you on.

Michael Pope
Why we brought you on. Richard Crouse is going to up the game. So our the, the theme of our podcast is about the transition of power from Republican to Democrat. Amy, explain, how would you explain to someone who does not follow Virginia politics, the transition of power? Has it been seamless? What does it actually look like from the ground levels? The Democrats taking power over the Republicans after 20 years out of power.

Amy Friedenberger
I would say it's been pretty exhausting. And I think both sides would say this. You know, I pretty much covered the Roanoke Times, Republicans from the Shenandoah Valley and far Southwest Virginia. And a lot of them have been posting, you know, messages to their constituents in emails or Facebook posts, that they're just tired, they're ready to go home. They're upset, they're distressed. So I think it's been kind of a bumpy ride for them to kind of transition into doing legislating in the minority for the first time. For some of them, this is the first time they've ever been in the minority, definitely a handful that have been in the minority before. So I think it's been a bit of a struggle, psychologically and-

Michael Pope
Psychologically? Explain that. Why do you say psychologically?

Amy Friedenberger
You know, I've walked in quite a few times, just kind of on the House floor when they're at ease and, you know, I'll see, you know, a handful of Republicans kind of clustered to the desk and they'll just kind of be bemoaning their their circumstances that they can't get a bill out of Committee, that their bills aren't being taken up for consideration. That the others being killed, their bills are being held left and right. They don't have you know, I mean, they have nothing really to do there. There's really not a lot they can do to stop any of these bills if the Democrats want to get pushed out of it, that there's a lot of power doing about it.

Thomas Bowman
Crouse, so what what has your what's your perspective on this? You've been in a both in the majority and in the minority in the Senate.

Richard Crouse
I've been around so long, dude. It's not even funny.

Thomas Bowman
So how does this, how does this Democratic majority compare to the previous Republican majority and to previous Democratic majorities?

Richard Crouse
I would say the institutional knowledge is gone. There's a lot of new people there, a lot of learning curves, not only on the staff side. Some staff have left and stuff like that, like Paul, you know, Paul Nardo is gone. Institutional knowledge. So you have to give people the learning curve, because it's been, what 10 years?

Thomas Bowman
Sure.

Richard Crouse
Give or take?

Michael Pope
20 years.

Richard Crouse
Well, I'm talking about Chambers.

Thomas Bowman
Chambers, sure. Saturday, I was actually the- I was I was an aide in the House when the Senate Dems lost their majority in 2014, when Senator Puckett resigned.

Richard Crouse
Oh, I remember that.

Thomas Bowman
And that was on Primary Day, when that happened. But it has been I think, 27 or 28 years for the House Democrats out of power.

Richard Crouse
Right, but the Senate hasn't been that long, right. So I'm talking about both. But you know, especially the House, the institutional knowledge is not there because some of the people have retired and moved on and there's a lot of new people there. So it's a learning curve and when people talking about the General Assembly, just like I got a couple of young guys working with me this year that wanted to learn the process, that want to that is very interested in it's style. I can explain to you the process of the General Assembly and what it's like in today's real life but you have to experience it. And once you experience it, you get a better appreciation of how the sausage is made. And for us and Senator Stanley, and myself, the transition, it's been a little rough, in the beginning, because again, committee, subcommittees, which is a new thing, and running around here and there, can't get quorums for subcommittees because everybody else is on other committees or other subs and stuff. So it took a little while to get used to it with it. And but once we get closer here, once we got closer to crossover, it was fun. You know, it was you know, we just started to say that.

Michael Pope
What about the most surprising thing? Amy what's been the most surprising thing of the transition of power and things that you might not have expected or things that sort of took you aback anything come to mind?

Amy Friedenberger
Oh, um, I mean, I think it's been surprising to kind of see some of the Republicans be able to find a way to navigate this. What are you looking at me for?

Michael Pope
Richard Crouse. So, for those of you who can't see this, because we're on the podcast, Richard Crouse is heckling Amy Friedenberger.

Richard Crouse
Some idiots on the other side of the wall.

Michael Pope
We are in Penny Lane Pub, recording live and anyway, there's trivia happening behind us. Richard Crouse, what's the most interesting or notable, unexpected thing that's happened during the transition that you want to talk about? What? Weren't you just heckling her about not having an answer?

Amy Friedenberger
There were some obvious flubs in the beginning that kind of shocked me-

Michael Pope
Flubs of the rules? Do you think the rules are the flubs?

Amy Friedenberger
I'll talk briefly about the rules. I don't know, who perhaps advised Republicans that it would be a great strategy to just complain about the rules and the Parliamentarian rules at the beginning. I don't think the voters really care about that. They don't care if Speaker Filler- Corn kind of, you know, stumbles over the they just care that the bill was passed. So, you know, there was a while where I think-

Richard Crouse
Passed or killed.

Amy Friedenberger
Yeah, passed or killed. And so I think there was a while where, you know, again, like emails going to the constituents from Republicans just kept complaining about the rules that I just thought who I don't care about that.

Richard Crouse
For the record, we wrote nothing about the rules.

Amy Friedenberger
I don't think yours did.

Michael Pope
Well, the Senate rules, no one cared about the Senate rules, it was the House rules.

Amy Friedenberger
But I will say that that some of the stuff that surprised me at the beginning was, and I think maybe you've talked about this on the past podcasts, was the early gun ban that I thought that the Democrats just did a horrible job of rolling out with. You know, essentially you could bring, you know, you can carry a firearm into the Capitol Building and Pocahontas and in the Capitol as long as you have concealed carry, right? That's how it used to be. And so the Democrats, when they took over, just wanted to eliminate that. No--no guns at all in any of the buildings. And I just thought it was it was kind of perplexing whenever they rolled it out that they tried to pitch it to something that Capitol Police wanted and it became so immediately and quickly clear that the Capitol Police did not suggest that at all, they just kind of were helping them. They if the Democrats wanted to do that, they would help them just kind of, you know, implement it.

Richard Crouse
Well, here's the funny thing about that, is if you look at the Special Session, back in July, and this is just me talking here. We came in with bills, Senator Stanley and myself, we thought of bills and stuff that would start the conversation. That will go to the problem, to prevent the problem of what happened in Virginia Beach. So we were talking and stuff and we said "What is the most common problem that's there. Mental illness." Workplace Violence, is what happened with WDBJ seven, Virginia Tech, Virginia Beach. You know, I'm just talking about Virginia here, and I can probably relate that to other areas, too. So one of the bills that we came up with was an automatic screen. Okay, so you're shaking your head-

Amy Friedenberger
I was going to call you on it if you didn't bring it up.

Richard Crouse
And what that bill was, it stated was, is that if you have a screening process in place, and we drive to dispense, you get screened no matter what. It doesn't matter if you have a badge, if you're a Delegate, Senator, Governor, doesn't matter, you're getting screened, and you're going through the process. Because again, like in Virginia Beach, if he would have gotten screened, it would have stopped right there, because the metal detectors would have picked it up. But he flashed his badge. Yep. Going around. And then that happened. So, when the initial verdict came down from the new rules with the new majority, again, it's politics. Guys get over it. You should have known this was coming. Okay.

Thomas Bowman
It was well telegraphed, I would say.

Richard Crouse
So I wasn't law on the first day that it went into fact, I was past the Court of Appeals. I was laughing. I'm like, "This is awesome." Everybody was complaining. Everybody was complaining. And I said, "Why are you complaining? Sunday, granted it's a little cold. At least it's not raining." There we go. You know, not a big deal.

Amy Friedenberger
And it's really eased up, there's really hardly any lines these days, you know. I think the route is a little difficult, and sure, on certain days where there's a lot more people coming to the Capitol Lobby, it was a lot more difficult. But I think just the rollout rollout of it just kind of was an example of a minority that was just kind of stagnant in the minority, you know. They just kind of were used to just showing up every year, their bills dying. They don't really make any big, consequential decisions about the operations of the legislature. And when they did something, I think they weren't used to having to answer questions from the media. They weren't used to being held accountable for their decisions. And so I think that was that was like an early just kind of stumble.

Thomas Bowman
The difference between campaigning and governing, right? And so well, let's go ahead and take a break, now, and we'll come back. Let's talk about some of the issues-

Michael Pope
Is there anything else that either you want to say about the transition? Richard?

Richard Crouse
I will just say this, is what I tell people all the time, especially when you're running for office or advocates or whatever else. It's a lot, you know, there's a lot of fun throwing bombs over the wall.

Michael Pope
Throwing bombs? The minority gets to throw bombs, right? It's a challenge.

Richard Crouse
It's fun. It's great.

Thomas Bowman
I wrote a few of the bombs myself.

Richard Crouse
Correct. So a lot of fun. So it's fun, it's entertaining, and you get to laugh and chuckle as you drink and watch it happen and watch the green flash in the background going, well, somebody just got screwed. But when you're on the other side of the wall, governing, it's a little different story, but the same rules apply, but it's a different game. And now you have to go and now you have to lead. And a lot of times in that transition. It just happens.

Michael Pope
You're not recording.

Richard Crouse
Dude, I was recording. Dude that was fucking broke.

Thomas Bowman
Welcome back to Transition Virginia. We are recording live from Penny Lane Pub.

Michael Pope
Penny Lane Pub.

Thomas Bowman
Let's talk about the minimum wage.

Michael Pope
Democrats have wanted to increase the minimum wage for many, many years. They've wanted to have it at $15 an hour for as long as I can remember. And they've been thwarted by the Republicans. Now the Democrats are in power. They're poised to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. But, there's this wrench that's been thrown.

Thomas Bowman
They didn't have the votes! So now they have to go regional. And that's the proposition from the Senate. But, Amy, you've got some thoughts on the minimum wage bill. Can you tell us what you think?

Amy Friedenberger
Oh, I think this minimum wage debate has been a great example of how the Republicans have been able to leverage themselves the best way they can, to either shoot down an entire measure, or, you know, walk it back just enough that they're still gonna hate it. But it's not as much, they won't hate it as much. You know, it's-

Richard Crouse
What the hell are you doing, looking at talking points?

Amy Friedenberger
I'm looking at my article, Richard, that Republicans told me that they liked.

Michael Pope
She's looking at her own article.

Amy Friedenberger
Yeah, I wrote this article.

Richard Crouse
Shut up.

Amy Friedenberger
Yeah, so I guess yeah, let's, in fact, check me as we do it, so what the House wanted to do an across the board $15 by-

Richard Crouse
I don't know, you wrote it. So let's see if your article's, right.

Thomas Bowman
The House recommended-

Amy Friedenberger
Okay, they wanted to do it $15 by 2025, but it was gonna be incremental on the way and it was gonna be all across the state. Um, and you know, I think as a lot of us are aware, you know, we have a very economically different state. Some are far more prosperous than other areas. Alexandria is a thriving community. You go down the Tazewell, I think-

Richard Crouse
Don't be talking about T-Town, man.

Amy Friedenberger
I love Tazewell. I love Tazewell.

Richard Crouse
Dude, I'm from T-Town.

Amy Friedenberger
Oh, yeah, I forgot you from there.

Richard Crouse
That's right, man.

Thomas Bowman
They're they they had one bar. They had one bar in Tazewell.

Richard Crouse
They have one.

Thomas Bowman
They closed. Is it gone? Or-

Richard Crouse
No, it's still there They got couple breweries there.

Amy Friedenberger
They got a brewery.

Thomas Bowman
It's up and coming.

Michael Pope
Do those people deserve to earn $15 an hour?

Amy Friedenberger
I will say that the Republicans concerns have, I think been quite valid according to research. You know, that these are places that, you know, their median hourly wage is lower than $15. And so, you know, to just like jump them up to $15, they're worried that that is not sustainable and research does say that it would lead to significant job losses. That small businesses cannot support that these small businesses and Tazewell, I love them in Tazewell.

Richard Crouse
There you go, walk it back.

Amy Friedenberger
Maybe I'll pick a different county. Tazewell Representative Will Morefield, Delegate Morefield-

Richard Crouse
My cousin. Yup.

Amy Friedenberger
Wow. All right. Learning a lot. Bringing it back to the minimum wage, I will say that the House seems sometimes that they're, you know, ride or die on some of their proposals, whereas the Senate with their very narrow majority of 2119 they have a handful of Democrats who aren't as fully committed to the House version and are unlikely to vote for it. So, the Republicans have kind of set up an opportunity for themselves to either kill the entire thing if both Chambers can't agree to it, or they'll force the House to commit to a regional one, but I don't know. I don't know how likely they are to do that.

Michael Pope
So, Crouse, we had-

Thomas Bowman
Senator Stanley voted against the minimum wage increase, as did all the rest of the Republicans in the Senate. So could you give your perspective on why you think it's just a bad bill in the first place?

Richard Crouse
In a lot of areas, if you raise the minimum wage, in certain small businesses, you will have to cut employees. And you're putting Southside Southwest Virginia and maybe other pockets of Virginia in jeopardy, and you're increasing the unemployment value and the unemployment of that region. So if you're going to do it, then I would suggest do it incrementally but do it in small steps to make sure that the market can adjust and, you know, and absorb the cost is just like the sheriff's. Sure. Okay, not giving the raise of the sheriff's. There's a lot of shares in the Commonwealth of Virginia, that family of three family of four, with the median income in certain regions are on public assistance. But yet day after day, they put their lives on the line for us.

Thomas Bowman
To be fair, the sheriff's specifically, if they enforce the laws, they get a 9% raise?

Richard Crouse
If they enforce the laws, but see, that's a red herring and that's a double edged sword because again, as you know, the legislator, you know, the Legislative Branch writes the laws, the Courts interpret it. So you don't even know that the laws are constitutional or not. You can say well, in count, you know, in California and Nevada, New York, wherever else, they've done this. We are not in that Judicial Circuit in that federal district circuit, so we don't even know-

Thomas Bowman
Well, generally speaking, once there's a new law, the Executive enforces that new law until the Judge says-

Richard Crouse
Correct, but a lot of people are like, "Well, you know, I mean", there's gonna be lawsuits coming out of this.

Thomas Bowman
Sure. Certainly.

Richard Crouse
You know, if you look at that, and stuff like that, then it's like, you know, we need to really think about this before we do it, because you're putting pressure on a region of the Commonwealth, that is already depressed-

Michael Pope
Can't they afford to pay $15 an hour?

Richard Crouse
Maybe some, some cannot.

Amy Friedenberger
I think people forget that there aren't a lot of large corporations down in that area. You know, I think people like to toss around like, "Well, Amazon's you know, doing $15" and or whatever Amazon's doing. I don't know, like-

Thomas Bowman
Amazon can pay whatever it wants.

Amy Friedenberger
Yeah, exactly. Like these are large, very profitable companies. But when we're talking about just small little restaurants, yeah.

Richard Crouse
Why does well, they like this one, for example. So let's say at Penny Lane Pub, you know, when I think of bill pass to about the about taking the tips away that everybody gets some, you know, the living wage. So what about the servers? So are we to tip the servers on top of the $15 an hour that we're making?

Michael Pope
Yes.

Richard Crouse
Can the business sustain that? And what they're doing? You know, just Penny Lane, I know Penny Lane, because I've been here a lot in my travels. It's very, you know, packed during Session. But what is it after Session? Can they sustain that year round? Or is it going to have to be seasonal, regional or whatever else? That's another things you got to take into, you know, as I tell people this, when you try to make a policy decision, that's great. It's kind of like throwing a pebble into a pond. You see the first two ripples, nobody looks past the first two ripples and see the ripple hit the you know, hit the bank. There's other repercussions there that we might not even think of, we might not even know because we're so in the weeds with all this other shit going on.

Thomas Bowman
So my perspective on that on that minimum wage increase bill to $15 is a little bit different coming from the House Dems side. Back in 2014, when I started, we had 32 Dems, so we didn't even have enough to be governors. No, we had nothing. But when they first started talking about a $15 minimum wage, I don't know a single Democrat that actually took it seriously, frankly, a elected Democrat that took it seriously. And the reason for that I came to found find out by my in House experience with labor unions, is that was the highest they felt that they could pause it without getting laughed out of the room. I don't know that, I might be wrong, but I don't think Labour actually expected Dems to run with a $15 minimum wage. They, I think they were looking at-

Richard Crouse
It was an election year, dude. You're going to promise the moon-

Thomas Bowman
Of course-

Richard Crouse
We both do it. I'm gonna promise you the moon and the trip to fucking Saturn and then we're gonna go from there and like "We can't do it because the Republicans and the Democrats" -

Thomas Bowman
I remember a really bad Redistricting Chamber.

Richard Crouse
Let's talk about redistricting. We need redistricting reform a bipartisan commission, y'all motherfuckers walking that shit back quicker and anything. Okay, really, really, really.

Thomas Bowman
I'm a Northern Virginia Democrat. We're calling for gerrymandering reform in Northern Virginia.

Richard Crouse
What do you mean gerrymandering? Yall's districts are so damn compact, it's not even funny.

Thomas Bowman
In the House or Senate?

Richard Crouse
Both.

Thomas Bowman
But anyway, the for minimum wage though, they I don't know, up until the most recent election, that anybody actually thought $15 was where we were gonna land in Virginia and so I'm kind of taken aback that that's where we're going and now we're having a-

Richard Crouse
You're rambling. He's giving you the wrap up sign.

Thomas Bowman
I know. We've got the we've got the regional, we've got the statewide, all of a sudden. I hate the regional minimum wage thing.

Richard Crouse
That's where we're at, we're regional right now because other people have said it, Stanley said it, Chaffin's said it another Republican Newman said it. It's regional. You have the Fertile Crescent, which is Northern Virginia, Richmond, Hampton Roads and Rova.

Amy Friedenberger
Did you call it the Fertile Crescent?

Richard Crouse
It's the Fertile Crescent. It is.

Thomas Bowman
No yeah you're right.

Richard Crouse
And then you have Rova, the rest of Virginia. Okay, if you look at the chairmanships, okay, this is what gets me and what is different between the Republicans and the Democrats that have taken control. And I understand why they did it because their in power, that's fine. That's their choice. They do what they want to do. This when when the Republicans were, you know it, you know, in control, they had people on committees and stuff that represents different parts of the region. Look it up. Now now that you have the Democrats in control, which is fine, they won the election, the people have spoken, it is what it is. They make the rules, that's fine. I'll play by the rules. All the chairmanships are concentrated in certain areas. The only chairmanship that I can think of off the top of my head, and correct me if I'm wrong, Amy is John Edwards who's Chairman of Courts or sorry?

Amy Friedenberger
Senate Judiciary.

Richard Crouse
Judiciary.

Thomas Bowman
Senator John Edwards from Roanoke.

Richard Crouse
Yes, is the only one west of 95 and South of Fredericksburg.

Amy Friedenberger
I will say like this is sort of an effect of the nationalization of politics coming to now the statewide level. We used to have a lot of Democrats in Southwest Virginia. Now there's not and so the opportunity to kind of spread it around with, you know, various parties all over Virginia is kind of no more, you know. This is the most Southern most Democrat in Virginia.

Richard Crouse
Right, right, but what I'm thinking about that is the fucking hypocrisy. And we're not governed by the FCC or-

Thomas Bowman
No, no. Perfect. Say whatever you want.

Richard Crouse
Is the hypocrisy of it all. Is that both sides, this is not D.C., this is Virginia. We do, quote unquote, "Virginia way", but you're doing it the D.C. way. You're doing it the D.C. way.

Michael Pope
Somebody agrees with you.

Richard Crouse
I doubt that. Somebody finally got a question right. But you know, but it's the D.C way. and it's trickling down in Virginia because if you think about it, in politics and stuff from Fredericksburg up, it's all all D.C. media and it's D.C. stuff and it's not Richmond stuff.

Michael Pope
What's wrong with D.C. media? Like you're saying that it's a negative thing? Like Roanoke media?

Thomas Bowman
Let's take one more break. We're gonna we're gonna come back. Let's talk about redistricting reform. We can talk a little bit about criminal justice reform.

Amy Friedenberger
What about elephants?

Thomas Bowman
We'll talk about elephants. We're all about that.

So we're back with Transition Virginia. And now we're going to talk about anything we want.

Michael Pope
What aren't we going to talk about?

Thomas Bowman
Let's talk about elephants.

Michael Pope
Let's talk about casinos. Let's talk about elephants. Elephants. Amy Friedenberger, explain the Elephant Bill, because this is something that you've been following.

Amy Friedenberger
So usually every Session, I stumble upon a bill that becomes, just my favorite bill to cover, and this one has to do with whether you can ride or touch elephants.

Michael Pope
Ride or touch?

Amy Friedenberger
Touching them, which also includes riding them.

Thomas Bowman
Like at a circus or?

Amy Friedenberger
Just on somebody's you know, zoo, zoo situation business. And so really, if you have never sat in on the Companion Animal Subcommittee-

Richard Crouse
It's fucking brutal.

Amy Friedenberger
You should. It is rough stuff. It's very emotional. If you think guns are an emotional crowd, phew, getting there when they're talking about murdering puppies.

Thomas Bowman
For those of you who don't know, guns are to Republicans what Animal Welfare is to Democrats.

Amy Friedenberger
Yes.

Richard Crouse
No, not really. They killed a bunch of the damn bills and shit.

Amy Friedenberger
They did kill a lot of them. But so yeah. So I was in this subcommittee in the Senate and I was really, I was there actually to follow some bills from Senator Bill Stanley, who was a dog lover. He has adopted what, a lot of puppies and dogs from shelters.

Richard Crouse
More than I can count.

Amy Friedenberger
He's, I read something, he rescued a beagle or something the other day, I don't even know. but so-

Richard Crouse
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He did what?

Amy Friedenberger
I saw something about him. A Beagle wandered onto his property and he-

Richard Crouse
If he rescued a beagle than I'm going to get him a goat. The next thing I want to get him is a goat or a cow because that's what he needs.

Amy Friedenberger
So in this Committee, Senator Lionell Spruill, Democrat from Chesapeake, Virginia. So he has this bill, I don't know where it came from, and it was to ban people from touching and coming into contact with dangerous animals. Was it a dangerous animal? It was just a list of some random animals, like-

Richard Crouse
Lions and tigers and bears and all that stuff.

Amy Friedenberger
And then it had elephants in it. And so really, there's only one elephant in all Virginia that lives here, year round, that you can touch and it is in Natural Bridge. This is not like a big, you know, fancy zoo or anything. It's a little more casual, I guess? I don't know how you'd describe it. I have not been to it. It has like some everyone's-

You have been recording how long on this and you have not seen the property?

I have seen the property.

Richard Crouse
Then you should know what the property looks like.

Thomas Bowman
She knows it looks janky.

Amy Friedenberger
I didn't call it janky. It's a little more of an informal zoo, I guess you would call it. And so they have an elephant there. Her name is Asha. And they got this elephant. She's an African elephant. Just, she they adopted her when she was like one year old. And so, well known within that area, you can go and you can ride her, you can go touch her, all kinds of stuff. And so she was first in this bill and the Subcommittee of the Companion Animals, and the people were very wound up in this committee and they and so they passed it out of there with the elephants in there. They really "We got to protect Asha."

Richard Crouse
Which committee?

Amy Friedenberger
The subcommittee the subcommittee passed out on the elephants in there.

Richard Crouse
On which subcommittee?

Amy Friedenberger
The House Companion Animals-

Richard Crouse
No, on the House they stripped out Asha.

Amy Friedenberger
No, they stripped it out once it got to the full committee because that's where Emmett Hanger. So, Senator Emmett Hanger had this delightful story where he wanted to protect Asha because, one time, he was at Natural Bridge, this is in Rockbridge County-

Richard Crouse
He rode the elephant like he did back in Hannibal days?

Amy Friedenberger
No, now, I think he was out campaigning with maybe Jim Gilmore, and he was running for Governor, I guess?

Richard Crouse
Dude, that's back in the 90s. Really?

Amy Friedenberger
Probably. I guess it would have been when he was running for Governor. And so he says that he comes in contact with Asha, she was tickling him with her trunk. And so he was like "I don't want to be-" He was like "We want to protect the ability for Asha to tickle people with her trunk" and so he was like-

Richard Crouse
Folks, this is a PG podcast.

Amy Friedenberger
Elephant is taken out in the Full House or Senate Committee, passes the Senate, goes to the House Subcommittee on Companion Animals. They put elephants back in and so then today, when the full House Agriculture Committee took it up, they took the elephants back out. So they really can't make up their minds about elephants.

Thomas Bowman
So, yes, thank you for the cheese fries. All right. Table service.

Amy Friedenberger
I think Asha has been exempted. You can't see now but they put delicious fries in front of us.

Michael Pope
Penny Lane Pub is awesome. Tip your servers. Double, tip, tip them double. So let's go off topic. I know that Amy Friedenberger likes trash television. Explain to me how you love the Kardashians.

Amy Friedenberger
Richard is laughing at me. This used to be a secret I have-

Richard Crouse
Not anymore.

Amy Friedenberger
I know. I really watched a lot of reality TV and really just trashy TV.

Michael Pope
Trashy.

Amy Friedenberger
But I especially gravitated toward Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I've watched The Real World.

Thomas Bowman
What about Vanderpump Rules?

Amy Friedenberger
No.

Michael Pope
Explain why the Kardashians are so-

Amy Friedenberger
I just like it's just it's fascinating just storyline of just this family.

Richard Crouse
Oh, drama TV. Really?

Amy Friedenberger
I love it.

Thomas Bowman
Who is your favorite?

Amy Friedenberger
Khloe for sure.

Thomas Bowman
Why?

Amy Friedenberger
I just feel like I feel like I relate the most to her.

Richard Crouse
Oh, please do tell why.

Amy Friedenberger
I have no idea.

Richard Crouse
I would like to hear this.

Amy Friedenberger
She swears a lot, she's just kind of-

Richard Crouse
I've never heard you cuss.

Amy Friedenberger
Well, I'm on the radio Richard. I can't. My employer might listen to this.

Thomas Bowman
Cuss right now. The Dems are trying to make it legal again.

Michael Pope
Yeah the Dems.

Amy Friedenberger
No, I can't swear.

Michael Pope
I took July one, July one. Yeah, but-

Amy Friedenberger
Bring me back on July one and I'll swear.

Thomas Bowman
I'll fucking swear.

Michael Pope
Okay, so, Richard Crouse. I know that you are a big fan of the band, Kiss. And so, let me tell you something. I'm also a big fan of Kiss, and no one else cares about this stuff but you and I do. I know that like the Destroyer album. Explain to me, what what you like about Destroyer album, which is, by the way, 1976?

Richard Crouse
I think so? Because one, that was a great year that I was born.

Michael Pope
Yeah, okay good.

Richard Crouse
And two, it's just, you know it's just it's badass man. It just rocks.

Thomas Bowman
What's your favorite Kiss song?

Michael Pope
"Detroit Rock City."

Amy Friedenberger
Great movie.

Richard Crouse
"Detroit Rock City's" good. I like "Heaven's On Fire" because-

Michael Pope
"Heaven's On Fire". Oh wow that's like you're going deep tracks. Cool.

Richard Crouse
Okay, you know, like all this stuff that's being thrown out there so like, "Oh shit the world's on fire"

Michael Pope
"Heaven's On Fire" is 1984. That's way later, actually. That's not on the Destroyer album.

Richard Crouse
I understand that but see you gave me four so yeah I mean I like Kiss and I have a Kiss blacklight poster in my office.

Michael Pope
Yes you do. Yes, that's why I'm asking you.

Richard Crouse
There's a blacklight and it's like "Oh my god, you got a Kiss poster". "Yeah, with a blacklight". "No way" and I have to turn it on for people to like, "How did you get this in here?" I don't know, just did it.

Michael Pope
Okay, so are you, which Kiss character are you? Are you Gene Simmons? Are you Paul Stanley? Are you Peter Criss?

Richard Crouse
I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna do a political answer.

Michael Pope
Ace Frehley. You're Ace Frehley.

Richard Crouse
You tell me who I am.

Michael Pope
Ace Frehley.

Thomas Bowman
So, I was always a fan of "Doctor Love". You know that song?

Richard Crouse
That's a good one. "He called me Doctor Love"

Thomas Bowman
The reason I like "Doctor Love" is because it's not as overplayed as some of their other big pop-y songs. "Detroit Rock City" great song but overplayed, but not nearly as much as-

Richard Crouse
"God Gave Rock and Roll to You?"

Thomas Bowman
Rock and Roll, Party Everyday, right? Great song. We can't play it. We can't play it. No, we don't. We don't have the rights. But I love that song, thank you.

Richard Crouse
Only five people listen to this.

Michael Pope
Hey, 10 people.

Thomas Bowman
We can cuss but we can't play music.

Richard Crouse
He's not gonna get a lawsuit from ten of his friends.

Thomas Bowman
That's right, well, you know, actually, if Kiss wanted to sue us, I would welcome the contact.

Amy Friedenberger
That would be such fun attention.

Michael Pope
Let's edit this out.

Thomas Bowman
This is going to shit, quick.

Michael Pope
Yeah, really.

Thomas Bowman
Wrapping up.

Michael Pope
Let's go downhill.

Richard Crouse
You know what, and I did not start it. I just want to note for the record and the disclaimer it was not me.

Michael Pope
Wait wait wild speculation, wild speculation. What is your call for the Governor's race, Lieutenant Governor's race, the AG's race? Any any race that's coming up that you want to talk about.

Thomas Bowman
The human race.

Richard Crouse
The human race will survive. We will carry on, I think, depending on what happens this year, and how things come out, and what signed by the Governor. It's going to be a very hot Gubernatorial race and Attorney General race.

Thomas Bowman
Are you ready for Governor Amanda Chase?

Amy Friedenberger
Do you want to weigh in? We know what your boss sort of thinks.

Richard Crouse
Amanda Chase, God bless her. I gotta be nice.

Michael Pope
Explain that. Explain that, Richard Crouse. Why? What's wrong with Amanda Chase? She's not a member of your Caucus.

Richard Crouse
You know, when you say God bless you from the South. You know what that means?

Michael Pope
I'm actually from the deep South, so I know.

Richard Crouse
So um, that's all I'm saying. God bless her. Let her run if she wants to run. God bless her.

Thomas Bowman
So if so if we have a Democratic field, do you care to speculate on the Democratic nominee for Governor? Potentially?

Richard Crouse
It's gonna be shit show.

Thomas Bowman
Yeah, it will. So you got Terry maybe, who's running.

Richard Crouse
You got Terry, you got McClellan, you got Foy, Kaye Kory.

Michael Pope
Kaye Kory? What?

Thomas Bowman
What?

Richard Crouse
I've heard that rumor.

Amy Friedenberger
Oh gosh.

Michael Pope
Thomas used to work for Kaye Kory.

Thomas Bowman
Foy, yes. Openly speculated by the Washington Post.

Michael Pope
No one has ever- forget Washington Post! Thomas. Like no one has ever talked about Kaye Kory.

Richard Crouse
Levar Stoney. We have the current AG, Herring.

Thomas Bowman
Yes. Herring. So-

Michael Pope
And the current LG.

Thomas Bowman
In our experience, most people tend to think that Terry McAuliffe, if he wants it, can get it, the nomination. But if Terry doesn't run, who do you think in the Democratic Party has the upper hand?

Richard Crouse
Hmm. It's hard to say. It depends on what happens this Session.

Thomas Bowman
Well you've got Mark Herring, who had his pictures back in the day, back a year ago.

Richard Crouse
The blackface.

Thomas Bowman
The blackface picture, alleged blackface picture, we never actually saw it. But the the most recent polling has-

Richard Crouse
We might not have seen it, but he admitted that he did it.

Thomas Bowman
He did admit it. And the most polling actually has him up pretty significantly, which I did not expect. I expected someone like McClellan or Foy, if Terry McAuliffe were out of it.

Richard Crouse
Well, when you're in the AG's office, you have no you know, you have the press at your beck and call because you're out in front. You can easily get the press quicker than the, you know, the Lieutenant Governor. With all due respect to the Lieutenant Governor and whoever the Lieutenant Governor is, the role of the Lieutenant Governor is to preside over the Senate, breathe, die, and pay taxes. And when the Governor dies.

Thomas Bowman
Right.

Richard Crouse
And that's it. All the Senators voted, now closing. I mean, it's that. That's it. No policy. No nothing. You're presiding over the Senate. That's all you're doing. Look at Bowling, like Bowling, but dude, really? Okay. The AG is the one in the forefront either doing lawsuits, suing the government, defending whatever else.

Thomas Bowman
He can be on he can be on the front page of the New York Times and Washington Post any day they want.

Richard Crouse
Exactly.

Thomas Bowman
All right, we're gonna wrap it up. This has been another episode of Transition Virginia. I'm Thomas Bowman. I'm here with Michael Pope. Thank you to our guests. Thank you, Richard Crouse, Amy Friedenberger. We are @transitionvirginia on Twitter and you can email us at transitionvapodcast@gmail.com. Leave us a five star rating on iTunes, if you get a chance, or Google Play. Thank you very much. Talk to you next time.