Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Jean Stothert is a 'Big Government' R.I.N.O

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Jean Stothert is a 'Big Government' R.I.N.O · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: Well, we've had some real severe weather over the weekend
0:02
Speaker 1: and it looks like more is coming in this afternoon.
0:06
Speaker 1: We will all keep you posted. Scott talked a lot
0:08
Speaker 1: about that earlier today, but you know, I just have
0:12
Speaker 1: to say, this is springtime in Nebraska. Do you know
0:15
Speaker 1: The first year that I moved here, I moved here
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Speaker 1: from Texas in nineteen ninety three, and that first year
0:22
Speaker 1: we had some real severe weather in the springtime and
0:26
Speaker 1: our house got struck by lightning. And every since that,
0:29
Speaker 1: whenever there's a lightning storm, it creeps me out because
0:32
Speaker 1: I remember that. It was in the middle of the night.
0:35
Speaker 1: It hit one of those metal vents on the roof
0:37
Speaker 1: of our house, and it just sounded like things were
0:40
Speaker 1: cracking all through the house, and almost anything that was
0:43
Speaker 1: plugged in was ruined. There was a duct behind an
0:48
Speaker 1: upstairs bathroom mirror, and the duct was the one that
0:52
Speaker 1: got hurt, that got hit by lightning. It got so
0:55
Speaker 1: hot it turned the whole mirror black and it smelled
0:58
Speaker 1: like burnt plastic and my house for like about a wow,
1:03
Speaker 1: I know, but luckily my house didn't burn down. But
1:06
Speaker 1: that's scary when you are hit by lightning because you know,
1:08
Speaker 1: we live on a golf course, so I mean, you know,
1:11
Speaker 1: wide open spaces. But that was scary. So every time
1:15
Speaker 1: we have a lightning storm, I sit there and think, oh,
1:18
Speaker 1: here we go.
1:19
Speaker 2: You know, I was scary.
1:21
Speaker 3: I was driving home from Minnesota this week on Saturday.
1:25
Speaker 3: So I'm driving south down seventy five. I'm coming through
1:28
Speaker 3: Sioux City headed towards Omaha.
1:30
Speaker 2: And it was weird.
1:30
Speaker 3: There was no rain out, but there was rolling lightning
1:34
Speaker 3: on the horizon line. I mean it was almost kind
1:37
Speaker 3: of like shrobe lights everywhere, lightning lightning. It was kind
1:40
Speaker 3: of pretty. It was kind of, you know, an interesting
1:44
Speaker 3: thing to watch, entertaining. I'm glad it wasn't raining, so
1:47
Speaker 3: it wasn't too hard to drive. But interesting weekend here
1:50
Speaker 3: and obviously a little bit we can look forward to
1:53
Speaker 3: tonight maybe, but we'll be here covering here on news
1:55
Speaker 3: radio eleven to ten KFA.
1:56
Speaker 1: Babe, We'll keep you posted. And mother nature is beautiful.
1:59
Speaker 1: Those are really, really, really beautiful. But what has this
2:03
Speaker 1: done to Jean Stoth. It's kicked my allergies up again.
2:06
Speaker 1: I said, I never had allergies till we moved here.
2:09
Speaker 1: I know people are getting tired of hearing me cough
2:12
Speaker 1: into the microphone. So I'm Peyton today. I'm mastering the
2:16
Speaker 1: cough button. I do have a cough button.
2:18
Speaker 3: I try my best over here, but I only shoot
2:20
Speaker 3: about seventy percent.
2:22
Speaker 1: Doesn't work all the time. And it just you know,
2:24
Speaker 1: people out there listening that have allergies, they're like uncontrollable.
2:28
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I'm like, and I cough. But
2:30
Speaker 1: now I'm going to master the cough button, and You're
2:32
Speaker 1: not going to hear me coughing in the mic anymore.
2:34
Speaker 1: That's disgusting, So sorry about that, you know, I talking
2:38
Speaker 1: about bad weather. I remembered so distinctly the tornado that
2:43
Speaker 1: hit West Omaha on Arbor Day two years ago. I
2:49
Speaker 1: was like a week post out from a total hip replacement,
2:52
Speaker 1: and I was still using a walker, and I didn't
2:55
Speaker 1: want anybody to see me with a walker. But I'm
2:58
Speaker 1: telling you these way other people, men, women, meteorologists that
3:03
Speaker 1: we have on our stations truly safe lives. I mean,
3:07
Speaker 1: I remember that day of the of the tornado and
3:11
Speaker 1: Bill Ramby and all of those people that were just
3:13
Speaker 1: on the air continuous keeping people informed of what was happening.
3:18
Speaker 1: I was watching them last night. And here's how it
3:20
Speaker 1: goes with the City of Omaha. The City of Omaha
3:23
Speaker 1: uses all of the free weather information places that we can,
3:30
Speaker 1: like the National Weather Service, et cetera. And then we
3:33
Speaker 1: have several paid also that we use. And it's always
3:38
Speaker 1: been if all of them agree, it's going to happen.
3:41
Speaker 1: Sometimes none of them agree. I mean, it's like the
3:44
Speaker 1: National Weather Service, the all the different sources that we use.
3:49
Speaker 1: Some of them they don't agree at all, and then
3:51
Speaker 1: it's it's a crapshoot, it really is. But most of
3:54
Speaker 1: the time, if they all agree, we know what's going
3:57
Speaker 1: to happen. And I think the meteorologists do the same thing.
4:00
Speaker 1: But they really, really really do a good job, and
4:03
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful for what they do. Last night, I
4:06
Speaker 1: was sitting there eating dinner with my husband and we
4:08
Speaker 1: were just watching the pattern and the radar, and here
4:10
Speaker 1: it was about ready to hit Millard where I live,
4:13
Speaker 1: and we're like, uh uh, And it was right by
4:14
Speaker 1: the interstate, which we live right by the interstate. But
4:17
Speaker 1: luckily we were able to see where it was and
4:20
Speaker 1: not have to go and take shelter like they were
4:23
Speaker 1: recommending a lot of people do. So other things that happened.
4:27
Speaker 1: Cinco de Mayo parade. Okay, everybody was saying, why is
4:32
Speaker 1: the city doing a Cinco de Mayo parade when it's
4:35
Speaker 1: not Cenko Demayo. Sanko Demayo is the fifth of May.
4:39
Speaker 1: This parade, as well as all parades, are not put
4:42
Speaker 1: on by the City of Omaha. Just wanted to give
4:44
Speaker 1: a little bit of information here. The City of Omaha
4:47
Speaker 1: is involved in every parade. You have to get a
4:50
Speaker 1: parade permit from the City of Omaha. The City of
4:53
Speaker 1: Omaha have to make sure that there's barriers up, they
4:56
Speaker 1: have to make sure that there's enough police protection. They
4:59
Speaker 1: have to coordinate the parades with whoever, the whoever those
5:05
Speaker 1: that are putting the parade on with. But we don't
5:08
Speaker 1: put on those parades and we don't make or decide
5:11
Speaker 1: when the date is for those parades. Somebody called in
5:15
Speaker 1: and asked about the Saint Patti's Day parade recently and said,
5:20
Speaker 1: you know, does the City of Omaha not like parades
5:22
Speaker 1: anymore because they re routed it. Well, that's put on
5:24
Speaker 1: by the Hibernians, and the Hibernians loved the new route
5:28
Speaker 1: that they had. It was safer, it was longer, and
5:31
Speaker 1: because it was longer, it didn't appear that there were
5:35
Speaker 1: as many people because they weren't all crowded in there,
5:37
Speaker 1: but there was. It was an all time record for
5:40
Speaker 1: the people that were watching. So I just wanted to
5:42
Speaker 1: make that clear that the city of Omaha does not
5:45
Speaker 1: put on these parades. They coordinate with whoever is putting
5:48
Speaker 1: the parade on to make sure it is safe for people.
5:51
Speaker 1: I saw Denise pal our favorite new congressional candidate, that
5:56
Speaker 1: was down in South Omaha for the Sinko Demayo parade.
6:00
Speaker 1: I heard her being quoted to say it was surreal.
6:03
Speaker 1: I really don't think Cinco Demiel parade was surreal. That
6:06
Speaker 1: was kind of an odd word to use. They're fun.
6:09
Speaker 1: I was in it for twelve years. I like the
6:11
Speaker 1: Sinko Demio parade, but not really surreal. I wonder if
6:16
Speaker 1: she's carrying her passport like she said in her commercial,
6:19
Speaker 1: but she has to carry her passport where she goes.
6:21
Speaker 1: Now once again I have to talk about Denise Pal though.
6:24
Speaker 1: I mean again, I am now that she has won
6:27
Speaker 1: the nomination and she's going to go up against Branker Harding,
6:31
Speaker 1: you know, trying to just find information out about this
6:35
Speaker 1: woman that, according to her commercials, has been a leader
6:39
Speaker 1: in Omaha for years and decades. I've never heard of her.
6:42
Speaker 1: She did apparently run a nonprofit Ready to Run, which
6:47
Speaker 1: is an organization that does an event basically to try
6:53
Speaker 1: to help women mostly know how to run in an election.
6:59
Speaker 1: But this is I question too. Now again, Jean Stothard's
7:03
Speaker 1: been in nine elections with the primary, that's eighteen times
7:07
Speaker 1: I was on a ballot. I was asked to go
7:11
Speaker 1: and speak it Ready to Run one time, like ten
7:14
Speaker 1: years ago. I mean, they weren't interested in me or
7:18
Speaker 1: somebody that actually won a lot of races. I think
7:21
Speaker 1: it's very left leaning. But being led by someone who
7:24
Speaker 1: has never run for office, that's what I question. I mean,
7:28
Speaker 1: how do you know how to run for office, Denise
7:30
Speaker 1: Powell when you had never run until recently? And what
7:33
Speaker 1: I hear the time I was speaking at this group,
7:37
Speaker 1: the thing that I heard the most was this thing
7:40
Speaker 1: that I hate hearing as advice to candidates, and that's
7:43
Speaker 1: you better get three pair of shoes and you better
7:45
Speaker 1: wear them out and then I'll support you. You got
7:47
Speaker 1: to walk door to door. Well, it's not that you
7:50
Speaker 1: have to have three pair or two pair or ten pair.
7:53
Speaker 1: You should be encouraged to number one run for office
7:56
Speaker 1: because you're never going to win unless you try. Great
7:59
Speaker 1: for anybody that runs for public office, it's so hard
8:02
Speaker 1: and you need to do what you need to do
8:04
Speaker 1: to win in your district period. Whether you need to
8:07
Speaker 1: walk door to door day and night, whether you need
8:10
Speaker 1: to send out more direct mail, whether you need to
8:12
Speaker 1: do more debates, whatever you need to do. You need
8:16
Speaker 1: to figure out what you need to do for your race,
8:18
Speaker 1: not have somebody up there preaching you got to have
8:20
Speaker 1: three pair of shoes you're gonna wear out. That's kind
8:22
Speaker 1: of a ridiculous. It's kind of a cliche. It's a cliche. Now.
8:27
Speaker 1: I walked door to door like nobody's business, and I
8:30
Speaker 1: had these really good walking boots and I still have
8:34
Speaker 1: them because they got so comfortable. I just wore them
8:37
Speaker 1: all the time. I never wore them out, but they
8:40
Speaker 1: were really good and I still have them, and I
8:41
Speaker 1: wore them all the time, wore them in the winter.
8:44
Speaker 1: They kept my feet warm when we were out there
8:45
Speaker 1: walking in the snow. So it's not that you have
8:48
Speaker 1: to buy three pair of shoes and wear them when
8:51
Speaker 1: you got a little.
8:52
Speaker 3: When you got a little tired, did you bring your
8:53
Speaker 3: walker out with your little tennis balls on the bottom
8:56
Speaker 3: and help you get to the next one.
8:57
Speaker 1: Oh, now you're offending me, and you know what. Okay,
9:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to spill the beans here. I didn't want
9:03
Speaker 1: to buy a walker. I thought nobody's going to see
9:06
Speaker 1: me in a walker. I did go back to work
9:09
Speaker 1: the second week with a cane. A cane is okay.
9:12
Speaker 1: And when we had that tornado, Todd Schmutter and I
9:14
Speaker 1: went out and looked at the area the next day
9:17
Speaker 1: and I had a cane. But I got my walker.
9:20
Speaker 1: I borrowed it from brinker Harding. Wow, has had a
9:25
Speaker 1: hip replacement too, So we're in that group of people
9:28
Speaker 1: that have bad hips. Now, don't you look at me
9:30
Speaker 1: like I'm old Peyton, because you, being a soccer player,
9:33
Speaker 1: have messed up your hip.
9:34
Speaker 3: I've already had surgery on my hips at the right
9:37
Speaker 3: age of twenty two years old.
9:38
Speaker 1: I know, I know I'm not much better. You may
9:41
Speaker 1: be a candidate coming up in the future. My son,
9:43
Speaker 1: I always bring him up. Andrew. He was a goalkeeper
9:46
Speaker 1: for years and years and years from kindergarten through college,
9:50
Speaker 1: and he fell on his knees so many times he
9:53
Speaker 1: has terrible knees. He's going to be a candidate for
9:55
Speaker 1: a total knee one of these days.
9:57
Speaker 2: I hear you.
9:58
Speaker 3: You brought up this go to Mayo parade, and Kevin
10:02
Speaker 3: in the email in box said to your point as well,
10:04
Speaker 3: you know Saint Patrick's Day parade is not on Saint
10:08
Speaker 3: Patrick's Day either, it's in and around it. But I
10:10
Speaker 3: have one on the phone line here who wanted to
10:12
Speaker 3: add to the conversation. Okay, so onan you're live here
10:15
Speaker 3: on news radio eleven ten KFAB with Jean's author.
10:18
Speaker 4: Good morning, excellent, Good morning Gene.
10:22
Speaker 5: Gene.
10:22
Speaker 4: I wanted to mention I I the Secret Demyele and
10:26
Speaker 4: some elements around it. I've often thought that this is
10:29
Speaker 4: one of one of your worst mistakes as mayor. One
10:33
Speaker 4: of the things that was presented today on the on
10:36
Speaker 4: the air was the news story was that again the
10:41
Speaker 4: Secret Demio producers went around to South Almaha businesses and
10:46
Speaker 4: told them that they cannot do business and that they
10:50
Speaker 4: needed to close. I can confirm that this is something
10:53
Speaker 4: that's happened, and I know that you were told this
10:57
Speaker 4: by an organization that I belonged to and it was
11:01
Speaker 4: kind of ignored. And not only did you do that
11:04
Speaker 4: double down, these guys presented and you know, the idea
11:08
Speaker 4: to build a park in the parking lot in South Omaha,
11:12
Speaker 4: which has been allowed. If there was, if there was
11:16
Speaker 4: a space to build a new parking lot, why not
11:19
Speaker 4: leave the parking lot there and then build a park
11:21
Speaker 4: where you're going to do the parking. I just felt
11:23
Speaker 4: like that this was just sort of not really well managed. Well.
11:27
Speaker 1: I appreciate your I appreciate your comments, but again, that
11:31
Speaker 1: wasn't a decision that was made by the City of Omaha.
11:33
Speaker 1: Was a decision made by the producers because I know
11:36
Speaker 1: what you mean. It was on South twenty fourth Street
11:39
Speaker 1: and they wanted to de barricade it off and have
11:41
Speaker 1: all the activities in the street. They are the ones
11:44
Speaker 1: that told the businesses, not the City of Omaha. And
11:48
Speaker 1: the thing about you're talking about Plaza de la Raza,
11:50
Speaker 1: which is right down there on South twenty fourth Street,
11:53
Speaker 1: that is an area that we worked with the bid
11:56
Speaker 1: the Business Improvement District and got some money and to
12:00
Speaker 1: do that park and do a great renovation and make
12:03
Speaker 1: it a lot bigger and a lot more usable. It
12:07
Speaker 1: would take up that big parking lot behind it where
12:10
Speaker 1: it was. I'm not sure. I can't even remember. It's
12:13
Speaker 1: between twenty fourth Street and maybe it's twenty fifth Street
12:17
Speaker 1: the parking lot. But what the City of Omaha did
12:21
Speaker 1: agree to do is to build a parking garage for
12:25
Speaker 1: South Omaha to replace the parking that would be taken
12:29
Speaker 1: up when we expand that park. So expanding Plaza de
12:32
Speaker 1: Loreza is something that the folks down in South Omaha
12:35
Speaker 1: really really did want, and we recognize that losing that
12:40
Speaker 1: parking would mean a lot to businesses down there. So
12:44
Speaker 1: the City of Omaha is going to build a parking
12:46
Speaker 1: garage too, and that I think would be more ideal
12:49
Speaker 1: and much much safer, because you know, sometimes with Sinko
12:53
Speaker 1: Demio two, that parking lot then was barricaded off and
12:57
Speaker 1: it was used for the event, and so then there
12:59
Speaker 1: was very little parking available. If the parking garage was built,
13:05
Speaker 1: then that would be there forever. Another thing that I
13:08
Speaker 1: did do that I was being asked to do by
13:12
Speaker 1: the businesses down there and I met with them, is
13:15
Speaker 1: that they wanted parking meters down there along South twenty
13:19
Speaker 1: fourth Street for easier parking, and they said, because a
13:22
Speaker 1: lot of people would that worked in the stores would
13:25
Speaker 1: come park the car there and then stay there all day.
13:28
Speaker 1: And you know, parking meters are meant for fast turnaround,
13:31
Speaker 1: they're not meant for somebody to come and park there
13:34
Speaker 1: all day. So we bought the parking meters, but I
13:38
Speaker 1: didn't want to make the decision where the meters went.
13:41
Speaker 1: I wanted a business improvement district formed and to let
13:44
Speaker 1: the businesses decide where they wanted the parking meters at.
13:49
Speaker 1: And I had a hard time getting people to want
13:51
Speaker 1: to be in the South Omaha Business Improvement District that
13:55
Speaker 1: can be up to about I think about twelve to
13:58
Speaker 1: fifteen people, and I was lucky to get five or
14:00
Speaker 1: six that wanted to actually be on it. Now there
14:03
Speaker 1: is a business improvement district or a bid down there,
14:06
Speaker 1: and you know, to let them make the decisions of
14:09
Speaker 1: what goes on along that business district. But I will
14:12
Speaker 1: say this, I love that business district down there. I
14:15
Speaker 1: think I've gained ten pounds down there during my campaign
14:18
Speaker 1: because the food is so good down there too. But
14:20
Speaker 1: appreciate your comment. It is it is nothing that the mayor,
14:26
Speaker 1: whoever the mayor is, decided to say, businesses, we want
14:31
Speaker 1: you close during Cinco Demayo. That was producers, and I
14:35
Speaker 1: will tell you I did hear a lot from the
14:37
Speaker 1: businesses saying they didn't appreciate that the producers of Cinco
14:41
Speaker 1: Demayo blocked off their businesses during the event.
14:44
Speaker 3: This is the KFEBE comment line, your host of the show,
14:47
Speaker 3: Gene Stoutht. I'm Peyton HIGHLEK. Phone lines are wide open
14:50
Speaker 3: for your questions, comments, concerns, if you have something you
14:53
Speaker 3: want to complain about or cheer about. I guess so
14:56
Speaker 3: everything works for zero two, five, five, eight eleven ten.
15:00
Speaker 3: I'm at KFAB is the email. I'm looking at the
15:03
Speaker 3: OPPD outage map right now, Gene. It looks to be
15:08
Speaker 3: pretty well out of control. About two hundred and seventy
15:11
Speaker 3: people out. That's minimal right, no power right now, and
15:15
Speaker 3: it's not really focused on anywhere in particular. There's a
15:20
Speaker 3: little bit of a hot spot in South Omaha, but
15:22
Speaker 3: nothing that I would say is too severe. But you know,
15:25
Speaker 3: we're just keeping an eye on this stuff as well,
15:27
Speaker 3: right And you know.
15:28
Speaker 1: There, I mean I remember during some of the other storms,
15:30
Speaker 1: and of course also during the tornado. I mean thousands
15:34
Speaker 1: and thousands and thousands of homes or without power. So
15:37
Speaker 1: when you have a heavy wind, strong winds sometimes where
15:41
Speaker 1: the trees are involved, you're going to get this. But
15:44
Speaker 1: it's oppd is very very good at trying to get
15:46
Speaker 1: this remedied right away. You know, there's something else I
15:50
Speaker 1: want to bring up. The elections again, were over. There's
15:56
Speaker 1: a lot of people that want to talk about the elections.
15:58
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a great guest tomorrow. Mary Barrett
16:01
Speaker 1: is going to be on tomorrow from the world famous
16:03
Speaker 1: Barrett family that owns Barrett Barleycorn, a restaurant down on Levenworth.
16:08
Speaker 1: She was Mary Barrett was the Grand Marshal of the
16:11
Speaker 1: Saint Petty's Day Parade a year ago. Mary Barrett used
16:15
Speaker 1: to be a Democrat. She became a Republican. She's got
16:18
Speaker 1: plenty to say. She was working for Don Bacon about
16:21
Speaker 1: the election. She's going to be on tomorrow. But here's
16:23
Speaker 1: something that really really gets to me and I want
16:27
Speaker 1: to talk about it once again. I brought it up before.
16:30
Speaker 1: The Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom is a small group ran
16:33
Speaker 1: by Doug Kagan, who was supposed to be a taxpayer
16:37
Speaker 1: watchdog organization. I read a letter or a note that
16:42
Speaker 1: Doug Kagan posted about me a while back, calling me
16:47
Speaker 1: the pariah of the Republican Party, and he calls me
16:52
Speaker 1: streetcar stother he loves name calling. I was privy to
16:57
Speaker 1: another email orge that Doug Kagan sent a Republican candidate
17:04
Speaker 1: for the Douglas County Board. Now, this is what I'm saying,
17:07
Speaker 1: Republicans need to rally with each other. This was a
17:11
Speaker 1: Republican candidate that ran against another Republican candidate named PJ. Morgan,
17:18
Speaker 1: who everybody has known of. But good for people that
17:21
Speaker 1: want to run for public office. Doug Kagan sent this
17:25
Speaker 1: Republican a message and it said, from the winning side,
17:29
Speaker 1: Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. Apparently voters in District four had
17:33
Speaker 1: more confidence in our reputation and that a PJ. Morgan
17:38
Speaker 1: than in your pathetic campaign. You loser, Sign Doug Kagan,
17:44
Speaker 1: Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. This is what we do not need, Republicans.
17:50
Speaker 1: And I think most Republicans ninety nine percent that are listening,
17:53
Speaker 1: and I'd like to hear your opinion, feel the same
17:56
Speaker 1: way I do. Good for people that will put their
17:59
Speaker 1: names on the ballot and will work hard, and I,
18:03
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Republicans if there is more than one,
18:06
Speaker 1: whether you're challenging the challenging the incumbent or not, that
18:10
Speaker 1: you should stay neutral in the primary, and you should.
18:14
Speaker 1: You should support all Republican candidates and then see who
18:18
Speaker 1: gets through that primary and then rally behind him for
18:21
Speaker 1: the general. Saying thing from one Republican to another, sending
18:25
Speaker 1: them a message, calling them a loser is not what
18:29
Speaker 1: this party needs to be doing.
18:31
Speaker 3: Is this type of insulting language? Maybe you can call it.
18:36
Speaker 3: I mean, it's not an insult, but it's just kind
18:38
Speaker 3: of you know, is this are we in middle school
18:40
Speaker 3: calling people a loser? But is this just dad?
18:43
Speaker 1: Doug Kagan? In this group are supposed to be taxpayer watchdogs.
18:48
Speaker 1: He started criticizing me when I was still mayor about
18:50
Speaker 1: the budget that I wasn't lowering taxes enough, although I
18:53
Speaker 1: lowered the Levey five times since ilways been mayor. I
18:57
Speaker 1: offered numerous times to talk to him and meet umerous
19:00
Speaker 1: times to come and talk to the group. They didn't
19:02
Speaker 1: want me, They didn't want to hear what I had
19:04
Speaker 1: to say. This is the kind of posturing that we
19:08
Speaker 1: get that does not help our party at all. We
19:12
Speaker 1: need to rally behind all the candidates, and so what
19:16
Speaker 1: if you're challenging an incumbent. You know, I've been challenged
19:19
Speaker 1: every single time. It's just the way, as Tony Connor said,
19:22
Speaker 1: you got a shelf life. So you know that's okay.
19:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it gives people every four years the opportunity
19:30
Speaker 1: to say you're doing a good job. You should keep
19:32
Speaker 1: on doing it or not. But let's quit calling each
19:35
Speaker 1: other names and in calling somebody or sending a message
19:39
Speaker 1: to somebody that ran a campaign and worked hard a
19:44
Speaker 1: loser for trying. Wow, Doug Kagan.
19:48
Speaker 3: Is this do you think this is more of a
19:50
Speaker 3: personal squabble or is this just kind of some toxic
19:55
Speaker 3: in party politics?
19:56
Speaker 1: I do not know, because he certainly went after me,
20:00
Speaker 1: you know, and every time I did the budget, he
20:02
Speaker 1: would send the same about six page document making all
20:06
Speaker 1: these suggestions to run the city with less money. And
20:10
Speaker 1: some of them were so ridiculous. They were like, let's
20:12
Speaker 1: have a volunteer fire department. You know about some of them, right,
20:15
Speaker 1: a bucket brigade.
20:16
Speaker 6: No.
20:17
Speaker 1: I would say ninety nine percent of the things he
20:19
Speaker 1: was recommending could not be done. But did he want
20:22
Speaker 1: to sit down and talk to people and listen and
20:25
Speaker 1: hear the truth. No we didn't. But sending a message
20:29
Speaker 1: like this to a Republican candidate that came in second
20:33
Speaker 1: during the primary and calling him a loser and a
20:36
Speaker 1: pathetic campaign, this is something that I just think we
20:40
Speaker 1: need to really think about and I'd like to hear
20:43
Speaker 1: what people have to say about it.
20:44
Speaker 2: And we're going to go to break here. But the
20:46
Speaker 2: winning side, yeah.
20:47
Speaker 1: From the Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. The winning side, well,
20:52
Speaker 1: let me tell you they were very involved in District ten,
20:56
Speaker 1: and they were very involved in District twenty and their
21:01
Speaker 1: candidates and those two districts. Rebecca Wrenz, great candidate, Chris
21:05
Speaker 1: Anderson in District twenty, she was in ten. Those were
21:09
Speaker 1: candidates at Nebraska Taxpayer for Freedom were backing great candidates,
21:14
Speaker 1: great Republican candidates. I liked them too, but they didn't
21:17
Speaker 1: come in first. So, you know, should we be writing
21:20
Speaker 1: Doug Kagan and calling him names? No, we should not,
21:23
Speaker 1: but we need to stop this stuff. My goodness.
21:26
Speaker 3: Here in my email inboxcomment at kfab dot com, Rob
21:31
Speaker 3: says this, I'm nineteen years younger than Gene. In February
21:36
Speaker 3: of twenty thirteen, I was walking door to door with her.
21:39
Speaker 3: When a resident near countryside village asked if she was
21:42
Speaker 3: my wife, if I was faster on my feet, I
21:46
Speaker 3: should have said no, she's much too young to be
21:49
Speaker 3: my wife.
21:50
Speaker 4: Oh.
21:50
Speaker 1: I like this guy. He could call in any day.
21:53
Speaker 1: Lucky he didn't say no, this old grandma walking with me.
21:56
Speaker 1: That is very nice to him. Thank you. But you
21:58
Speaker 1: know what, I can't hide my a When you run
22:00
Speaker 1: for political office, everybody knows how old you are, and
22:03
Speaker 1: I can't hide it.
22:04
Speaker 3: I am an old grandma and moving to Robert also
22:08
Speaker 3: comment at kfab dot com. Republicans should support Republicans absolutely.
22:15
Speaker 3: Is that why you supported Trump? True definition of a.
22:19
Speaker 1: Rhino supported Trump? Trump is a Republican. I'm not sure
22:25
Speaker 1: where this person is going, but yeah, I supported Trump
22:29
Speaker 1: and he is a Republican. So I don't know how
22:31
Speaker 1: that makes me a rhino, which is a word I hate.
22:36
Speaker 1: Branker Harding when we had him on hates it too,
22:39
Speaker 1: because there are some in our party that feel like
22:44
Speaker 1: if any Republican says that they don't hate all Democrats,
22:49
Speaker 1: if they say, I will, if elected, represent everyone, including
22:53
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans, not that you agree with their politics,
22:57
Speaker 1: but that you will represent them, and then you suddenly
23:00
Speaker 1: are a rhino breakers getting called that already because he
23:03
Speaker 1: said I will support everybody. I was called that because
23:06
Speaker 1: I said I will support everybody at Omaha, and it
23:09
Speaker 1: worked for three elections. So you know, I don't understand
23:13
Speaker 1: the statement calling me a rhino for supporting Donald Trump.
23:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't get it too much either of Now
23:18
Speaker 3: we're going to go to the phone lines now, Sandy,
23:21
Speaker 3: you are live here on news radio eleven ten kfab.
23:26
Speaker 2: Hello, Hi Sandy, Hi, Hi Jeane.
23:31
Speaker 5: I just wanted to call in and say I have
23:33
Speaker 5: voted for you in every miroral race that you've ever
23:37
Speaker 5: ran in. But I have not agreed with all of
23:40
Speaker 5: your stances that you have taken. But I do believe
23:44
Speaker 5: you always have the best interest of the city at heart,
23:47
Speaker 5: even though we didn't see eye to eye on certain things.
23:51
Speaker 5: But in talking like about that man who was for
23:54
Speaker 5: the tax cuts, I mean, that's the problem with our party.
23:58
Speaker 5: You start dividing it and then are so weak. Yes,
24:01
Speaker 5: we're going to loose to the opposing you know, to
24:04
Speaker 5: the Democrats, to the people that we don't have anything
24:08
Speaker 5: in common.
24:08
Speaker 1: You hit the nail on the head with that one.
24:10
Speaker 1: And that that's exactly what's happening. You know. There there
24:14
Speaker 1: were a lot of people that we obviously that didn't
24:17
Speaker 1: agree with some of the positions I took. But I said,
24:20
Speaker 1: I always made a decision the same way I studied
24:22
Speaker 1: the issue, I gathered the data, I got a lot
24:25
Speaker 1: of input, and then I made the decision. And I
24:28
Speaker 1: never stood back and blamed anybody else. I always said,
24:31
Speaker 1: I'm the mayor, I will take full responsibility. I'll own it,
24:35
Speaker 1: and you know, and then you take your knocks of
24:38
Speaker 1: those people that agree with you and those that don't.
24:40
Speaker 1: The looming one that is still out there with me
24:44
Speaker 1: has to be the streetcar. And I still know that
24:48
Speaker 1: once it is up and running, it's going to be
24:50
Speaker 1: extremely successful. It's causing a lot of economic development already.
24:55
Speaker 1: It's going to be a good thing. But there's growing
24:57
Speaker 1: pains when you do things like that. And there are
25:00
Speaker 1: a lot of people that didn't agree. They didn't agree
25:02
Speaker 1: with the Arena Convention Center, they didn't agree with the
25:04
Speaker 1: Downtown Ballpark. A lot of people didn't agree with the
25:07
Speaker 1: Dodge Expressway. And then once it's done, it's done. But
25:12
Speaker 1: you are so right though, you still are I still
25:15
Speaker 1: are am a Republican. I have my principles, and I
25:18
Speaker 1: always said I am not going to change who I am,
25:21
Speaker 1: which is a conservative Republican to get votes. I'm not
25:24
Speaker 1: going to do it. And so I really appreciate your
25:28
Speaker 1: sentiment and your call because this is a problem that
25:31
Speaker 1: we are having right now. And do you know that
25:34
Speaker 1: with this last election, the voter turnout was twenty six
25:40
Speaker 1: percent in Douglas County. I mean my last election, it
25:44
Speaker 1: was twenty eight in the prime in the general, and
25:47
Speaker 1: I thought that was bad. Usually we're up about fifty
25:49
Speaker 1: percent or so. For this primary election, it was twenty
25:54
Speaker 1: six percent. We really got a rally or we're going
25:57
Speaker 1: to lose getting our candidates elected. And we should be
26:01
Speaker 1: grateful again for all Republican candidates. And in the primary,
26:05
Speaker 1: I don't think the Douglas County Republican Party should be
26:10
Speaker 1: going out there endorsing one Republican candidate over another in
26:14
Speaker 1: the primary. They should back all the Republican candidates.
26:17
Speaker 3: Back to the phone lines, we go, Dave, you are
26:20
Speaker 3: live here on KFAB with Jeans author.
26:23
Speaker 1: Good morning, Hello, Mayor, good morning, Hey.
26:26
Speaker 7: I think I think the prior emailer was referring to
26:31
Speaker 7: a comment that you made on one of your past
26:33
Speaker 7: shows that you wrote in John McCain instead of reporting
26:37
Speaker 7: supporting the Republican candidate President Trump. I think that's what
26:43
Speaker 7: he was pointing out, and I didn't even realize you
26:45
Speaker 7: had done that, you'd set it on a prior show.
26:49
Speaker 7: I'll also say, you know, you're talking about the negative campaigning.
26:52
Speaker 7: I agree with you completely. I hate the negative ads.
26:56
Speaker 7: But the reason that campaigning is so negative is that
27:01
Speaker 7: it works.
27:02
Speaker 1: You are so right.
27:03
Speaker 7: And ninety nine percent of the people that are listening
27:06
Speaker 7: to me say this right now are agreeing with what
27:09
Speaker 7: I say that they hate negative campaigning, but almost everybody
27:14
Speaker 7: is influenced by it, whether it's a lie or whether
27:17
Speaker 7: it's the truth. Yes, and that's something that we're all
27:19
Speaker 7: going to have to address individually with ourselves.
27:22
Speaker 1: And you are so right. And that's why people do
27:25
Speaker 1: it because it does work and it confuses people. Look
27:29
Speaker 1: what Denise Powell did with John Cavanaugh. My goodness, referring
27:34
Speaker 1: to John Cavanaugh is maga, holy cow. But it confuses
27:39
Speaker 1: people and it works. So and you know, let me
27:43
Speaker 1: bring up something else about the Donald Trump. If the
27:46
Speaker 1: caller meant that what you brought up. He didn't make
27:50
Speaker 1: that clear, but I made it very clear when I
27:54
Speaker 1: said I didn't vote for Trump because all of this
27:56
Speaker 1: stuff was coming out about him and women in the past.
28:00
Speaker 1: I did still write in a Republican candidate. I certainly
28:06
Speaker 1: didn't vote for Hillary Clinton. But let me tell you
28:09
Speaker 1: what Donald Trump said about this. Donald Trump knew that
28:13
Speaker 1: I did not vote for him, and he knew I
28:16
Speaker 1: wrote in John McCain. And on my next round, I
28:21
Speaker 1: was told by some congressmen that were actually in the
28:25
Speaker 1: Oval Office with Donald Trump, and he was talking about
28:28
Speaker 1: the mayor's race in Omaha, and he said something like,
28:32
Speaker 1: we need to support Jeene Stothard and get her reelected,
28:35
Speaker 1: and they said. One of his aides standing behind him
28:38
Speaker 1: said to Donald Trump in the Oval office, mister President,
28:42
Speaker 1: she did not vote for you in the first race.
28:45
Speaker 1: And he said, yes, but she supports me now and
28:49
Speaker 1: that's all that matters. I wish people would feel everyone
28:52
Speaker 1: would feel the same way if the President said that.
28:55
Speaker 1: I wish people would understand. He said, yep, but she
28:58
Speaker 1: supports me now and I'm going to support her.
29:03
Speaker 3: Very interesting their gen I did have an email come
29:06
Speaker 3: across here and it says this could you explain to
29:11
Speaker 3: me what you believe is a conservative. What I hear
29:16
Speaker 3: is anything but conservative. You are big government, big salaries,
29:20
Speaker 3: that government is needed to solve every pop problem. Government
29:24
Speaker 3: is never big enough when you need more nanny control.
29:28
Speaker 3: And when you're not pushing big government, you're pushing huge,
29:32
Speaker 3: costly business growth.
29:34
Speaker 1: Who is this that wrote this? What's the name?
29:36
Speaker 2: It's an email from Doug is there?
29:38
Speaker 1: Oh, maybe it's Doug Kagan, who knows you know what?
29:41
Speaker 1: Maybe it is whoever wrote that has me all wrong
29:44
Speaker 1: and does not really pay too much attention to what
29:48
Speaker 1: I stood for when I was mayor for twelve years
29:52
Speaker 1: in city council four before that, in school board twelve
29:55
Speaker 1: before that. So no, I do not believe in big government.
29:59
Speaker 1: I believe and it's that in smaller government. I believe
30:02
Speaker 1: people should solve the problem and not government. I don't
30:06
Speaker 1: believe in big salaries. If you look at my salary
30:09
Speaker 1: for mayor, I had a lot. My salary wasn't even
30:11
Speaker 1: comparable to what the other mayors in the top fifty
30:14
Speaker 1: cities in the United States made. I paid people uh
30:19
Speaker 1: and made the decision for directors on what I thought
30:21
Speaker 1: they were worth and and not big, huge salaries. I
30:27
Speaker 1: believe in in you know, smaller government. I believe in
30:31
Speaker 1: lower taxes. I believe in a strong national defense. I
30:35
Speaker 1: believe in support the blue I believe in all of
30:38
Speaker 1: the tenants of the Republican Party. So if this this
30:42
Speaker 1: Doug who has called in doesn't really know what he
30:45
Speaker 1: is talking about.
30:46
Speaker 3: Back to the phone lines we go. Here, Brett, you
30:48
Speaker 3: are alive with jeens st Author on kfa B.
30:52
Speaker 4: Hi.
30:52
Speaker 6: Good morning, good morning. So I'll keep it very succinct
30:56
Speaker 6: and to the point. I've got three buckets really to
30:58
Speaker 6: talk about here real quick, and the call is regarding
31:03
Speaker 6: conservatives attacking other conservatives. We all need to get on
31:05
Speaker 6: the same page, especially our federal leaders, and there's a
31:09
Speaker 6: lot for us to talk about, and we need to
31:11
Speaker 6: go on offense a little bit and be unified. If
31:14
Speaker 6: you just look at where the Democrat Party is at
31:16
Speaker 6: today federally, and they're already talking about it. You just
31:20
Speaker 6: listen to what they say. They want to pack the
31:22
Speaker 6: Supreme Court, they want to overtake the Judiciary, they're talking
31:26
Speaker 6: about it. They don't like the electoral College, they want
31:29
Speaker 6: to change that and they want to do away with it.
31:31
Speaker 6: They want to add Puerto Rico and Washington, DC at
31:35
Speaker 6: states so they can overtake the Senate. They're for open borders.
31:39
Speaker 6: They've changed their position on immigration over the last several decades.
31:44
Speaker 6: The Jewish population in our country, whether you're a college
31:47
Speaker 6: student and you are terrified to go out, as we
31:51
Speaker 6: saw at the universities here over the last couple of years,
31:54
Speaker 6: or synagogues in this country are spending an armed fortune
32:00
Speaker 6: to have security and to fortify their places of worship,
32:05
Speaker 6: and they advocate for political violence. You can go on
32:09
Speaker 6: any social media platform and you can see people in education,
32:12
Speaker 6: you can see people in health care. You can see
32:15
Speaker 6: it all over the place. They either lament the fact
32:17
Speaker 6: that Donald Trump has not been assassinated or they celebrate
32:20
Speaker 6: the fact that he has been attempted to be assassinated.
32:24
Speaker 6: As far as socially, where they're at is the second bucket.
32:27
Speaker 6: They advocate for boys and girls' locker rooms. They advocate
32:30
Speaker 6: for boys and girls' sports. There was this California. A
32:35
Speaker 6: boy identifies as a girl. He competes in the state
32:37
Speaker 6: track meet. He wins the high jump, the long jump,
32:40
Speaker 6: the triple jump. They make decisions based upon race, gender,
32:45
Speaker 6: and everything else, and then lastly, we can talk about
32:48
Speaker 6: the history of the party, like they started a Civil
32:53
Speaker 6: war over slavery. Our party is an abolitionist party. That's
32:56
Speaker 6: what we were founded on. They were the party of segregation.
32:59
Speaker 6: They they were the party of Jim Crow, not us.
33:02
Speaker 6: They were the party that opposed every single civil rights
33:05
Speaker 6: act that was presented, and even into the early twentieth century,
33:09
Speaker 6: Woodrow Wilson refegregated the federal bureaucracy. Margaret Sanger, who is
33:16
Speaker 6: a widely revered figure on the left, was a eugenist.
33:21
Speaker 6: So we have all these things to talk about. We
33:24
Speaker 6: can walk and chew them at the same time, and
33:26
Speaker 6: we all need to get on the same page and
33:29
Speaker 6: talk about these things and just call them out for
33:32
Speaker 6: who they are.
33:33
Speaker 1: I agree with everything you just said one hundred percent.
33:38
Speaker 1: And you know, talking about the Democrat Party today, you
33:41
Speaker 1: know you hit the nail on the head here. How
33:43
Speaker 1: they want to pack the Supreme Court, they don't like
33:46
Speaker 1: the electoral college, open borders, advocates for political violence. All
33:51
Speaker 1: of those things that you said are so so true.
33:55
Speaker 1: And this is my point. I've been trying to make
33:58
Speaker 1: Republicans need to unify and help each other. I think
34:04
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this on the show. The day after my
34:07
Speaker 1: defeat last year, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy called me from
34:13
Speaker 1: California and he said, Geen, this is what I fear
34:16
Speaker 1: is going to happen in twenty twenty six and thereon
34:20
Speaker 1: with the Republican Party if we don't get our act
34:22
Speaker 1: together and start supporting each other. And that is so true.
34:27
Speaker 1: You know, there is a National Committee woman in the
34:29
Speaker 1: state of Nebraska. I won't mention her name, but anybody
34:33
Speaker 1: could look it up and know who it is. And
34:36
Speaker 1: I was mayor for twelve years. I've never met her.
34:39
Speaker 1: She never reached out to me, she never wanted to
34:41
Speaker 1: meet me, our National Committee woman, And when someone was
34:45
Speaker 1: working on my campaign ran into her at an event,
34:48
Speaker 1: she said, oh, Jean Stothard, she's the one that wants
34:50
Speaker 1: to take our guns away. I mean that the National
34:54
Speaker 1: Committee woman said that about the Republican mayor of the
34:57
Speaker 1: biggest city in the state of Nebraska. And it was
35:01
Speaker 1: just false. And you think people get your act together
35:05
Speaker 1: and start helping each other. That was so untrue. I mean,
35:08
Speaker 1: I was one of the first people to get a
35:10
Speaker 1: concealed carry. People used to always ask, hey, Gene, you
35:13
Speaker 1: packing today or what kind of guns you have. I
35:16
Speaker 1: could talk about guns all you want, but for her
35:19
Speaker 1: to accuse me of something like that, and she's never
35:21
Speaker 1: met me, This is my point. She's never met me,
35:24
Speaker 1: never reached out, never wanted to have a conversation. And
35:27
Speaker 1: she's a Republican National Committee woman. We got to get
35:30
Speaker 1: her act together. Kfab comment line, Jeane Stothard here. I'm
35:34
Speaker 1: Peyton high Locket.
35:36
Speaker 3: A few minutes ago, I read an email from Doug
35:39
Speaker 3: at comment at kfab dot com basically accusing Eugene of
35:44
Speaker 3: being big government, big salaries, raising costs.
35:48
Speaker 2: You are for big government.
35:49
Speaker 3: Now, you responded, and you said your piece, and Doug responded, Gene,
35:54
Speaker 3: how many police did you hire? How many firefighters? How
35:58
Speaker 3: much salary increased did you push? I listened daily, I
36:01
Speaker 3: pay attention. My view comes from your comments on multiple
36:05
Speaker 3: subjects on this station.
36:07
Speaker 1: Well, I'm so glad that he responded, so now I
36:10
Speaker 1: can respond. I hired probably close to over one hundred
36:16
Speaker 1: police officers to be put in our budget, and the
36:20
Speaker 1: reason is because we needed them. Look at our statistics.
36:24
Speaker 1: Look at our crime rate in Omaha. We have one
36:26
Speaker 1: of the lowest crime rates of all top fifty cities
36:30
Speaker 1: there is in the country. So far this year, we've
36:32
Speaker 1: had two homicides. Our homicide unit is bored because they
36:36
Speaker 1: don't have anything to do. They've moved a lot of
36:38
Speaker 1: them to assault. Here's what I did. I did what
36:42
Speaker 1: we felt I felt like we needed in Omaha. That's
36:46
Speaker 1: not saying I'm a rhino or I believe in big government.
36:50
Speaker 1: That is saying that public safety has always been my
36:54
Speaker 1: number one priority. Public safety, fire and police are two
36:58
Speaker 1: thirds of the uneral fun budget because that should be.
37:03
Speaker 1: Every mayor's number one priority is public safety, keeping the
37:06
Speaker 1: citizens of Omaha safe. Mayor Ewing's number one priority is
37:10
Speaker 1: affordable housing. Now, now, what would you rather have public
37:15
Speaker 1: safety and a safe city are affordable housing. So saying
37:19
Speaker 1: that because I increased their salary to yes, I did
37:25
Speaker 1: increase the police salary because we had to be competitive.
37:29
Speaker 1: We were about one hundred officers below what our budgeted
37:33
Speaker 1: strength is. It started happening during COVID and during the
37:37
Speaker 1: summer of twenty twenty, and it happened all over the
37:41
Speaker 1: country that people that wanted to go into law enforcement
37:44
Speaker 1: weren't going into law enforcement anymore. But the trouble we
37:47
Speaker 1: were having here is that a lot of our other
37:51
Speaker 1: law enforcement agencies in the state of Nebraska were paying
37:54
Speaker 1: more than we were, so they were cannibalizing us. I
37:57
Speaker 1: gave them the salary that they needed to remain competitive,
38:01
Speaker 1: and it was the right thing to do because we're
38:04
Speaker 1: seeing results.
38:05
Speaker 2: Thank you for being engaged on the show, Doug. We
38:07
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
38:07
Speaker 3: One thing that you've brought up on the show, Gene,
38:09
Speaker 3: is if the city is not growing, it's stagnant.
38:13
Speaker 1: Yes.
38:13
Speaker 3: And one thing that you've done is continue to try
38:17
Speaker 3: and grow the city of Omaha over your years as mayor.
38:21
Speaker 3: You know, and sometimes that streetcar whatever it is, that's
38:24
Speaker 3: a little bit unpopular. But you have a Sunday edition
38:28
Speaker 3: of the Omaha World Herald with some history of Omaha
38:31
Speaker 3: in there.
38:31
Speaker 1: I love this. This was on the front page. And
38:34
Speaker 1: by the way, what I said is cities never stand still.
38:37
Speaker 1: They are either growing and moving forward or they are
38:39
Speaker 1: declining and falling behind. So true. I love it. But anyway,
38:46
Speaker 1: on the front page of the World Herald there is
38:48
Speaker 1: a story about the two hundred and fiftieth the anniversary,
38:53
Speaker 1: but it talks about I think it's so interesting. In
38:55
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six what Omaha looked like, and it said
38:58
Speaker 1: Omaha was why held wooly and dusty? Back in eighteen
39:03
Speaker 1: seventy six, and they said Omaha was a city with
39:06
Speaker 1: dirt streets and wooden sidewalks, growing pains everywhere. And the
39:12
Speaker 1: western boundary of the city of Omaha then was thirty
39:16
Speaker 1: sixth Street. Is that pretty?
39:18
Speaker 2: Thirty sixth Street as as far west as a win.
39:21
Speaker 1: That was it. But here there's a World Herald reporter
39:23
Speaker 1: named Walter Rowley in nineteen fifty four wrote this about
39:27
Speaker 1: Omaha's growth. That's a year I was born, good lord,
39:31
Speaker 1: and he says, wait to hear this. Now, I'm going
39:33
Speaker 1: to go after you if you agree with this, Peyton.
39:35
Speaker 1: The softer sex was not well represented in the earlier
39:39
Speaker 1: years of the territory. And then it said, lady respectable,
39:43
Speaker 1: lady like women were rare in.
39:46
Speaker 2: The streets of too much ankle.
39:49
Speaker 1: They needed the ankle away, they needed mean gene around.
39:52
Speaker 1: And then they went on to say those of the
39:55
Speaker 1: sterner sex. That was the men. So they call us
40:00
Speaker 1: the softer sex then, and the men were the sterner sex.
40:04
Speaker 1: Old boys, the doors are pretty stern. I'm gonna fight
40:07
Speaker 1: that one. Let me tell you again, they don't call
40:09
Speaker 1: me mean Gene for nothing. Thank you so much for
40:11
Speaker 1: being with us today. I am Jean Stothard. Join us tomorrow.
40:15
Speaker 1: And this is eleven ten kfa B