He was a u. S. Congressman from the Second District of tennessee, from 1988 until 2019. In book that he has written from bat boy to congressman duncan taps a journalistic flair to provide a series of anecdotes from his storied life as a lawyer, a judge and a congressman. Congressman, welcome. Well, nathan, thank you very much. I have written a book. I was a lawyer and a judge for 16 years. And then i was the u. S. House for 30 years. And all through that 46 year career, i had many strange funny, unusual things happen. So ive written this book. About half of it is serious. About half of it is is kind of humorous. Senator hair and ask me to start off this program and tell two or three of my little stories. Theres 203. The books about 160 pages. But its 203 vignettes from my life. And i tell about my early jobs and and then some of my cases as a lawyer, some of cases as a judge. I tried the attempted murder, james earl ray. My court was the only court he ever testified in. I tell stories about most of it is about my 30 years in the congress and at one example would be i was flying on air force one one time with the second george bush. And i dont remember why i said this, but i told him that when i was in law school, they used to say they students made the professors, the students made the judges in the c students made the money. But when i said that about the c students making the money, president bush said he laughed and he said, ah, they become president. So thats thats one example i have sports stories in there as you can tell from the title. I spent five and a half years as that boy for the knoxville smokies baseball team. Now my wife, my late wife used to say that that was my biggest claim to fame. I was a bat boy for five and a half seasons, and i think i should be in the hall of fame because ive never heard of anybody else being a bat boy that long that i wasnt. I stayed at that job. Got it. Got it that long, because i did the first season half for free and the next four for a dollar 50 a game. And that was for five or 6 hours a work our fun every day but i was to speak to a chamber of commerce dinner in athens, tennessee, a few years ago, and the main speaker was the famous baseball player, pete rose, and i sit next to him at the head table. And i told him that i was batboy for the smokies when he played for the macon peaches and i probably was 12 or 13 at the time, but when he got up to speak, the first thing he said, he said the congressman duncan, he said, i wish you were a senator, but he said, but you were nine years old when i played at macon, my hair was already wide at that time, i should tell you. And he said that he said, but you were nine years old when i played the macon. He said, what the hell happened to you . I said, i thought i was sitting next to Colonel Sanders up here. And so. My favorite story in the book, though, and ive got funny stories and i and i am pleased that this both liberal saying conservatives have read my book and both have told me that they really enjoyed it. I dont really say anything mean much about the anybody in my book, but and senator herron and i are really good friends but our politics are different. Hes a he is a liberal democrat. Im a very conservative republican. My younger sister, becky, is in the state senate now. And i told her one day, i said, becky, im really proud of you. I said, i think youre doing a great job. I said, i think youre a little more liberal than than i am. And she looked at me and she said, jimmy, everybodys more liberal than you are. But one of my favorite stories in this book is, is about a little boy who wrote to me one time and i want to read the letter to you that he wrote to me. He said, homework does making life at home not fun for many kids. Teachers are just giving way too much. If i get 2 Million People to sign, please ban homework. He said. I dont see how forcing kids to do homework is in any way helpful, especially on days like wednesday, when most of us have jerks and things to go to. Not only does it mess with our schedule, family time and morals, but it also causes a lot of stress it makes many kids. These days are very troubled by homework and can put people in a state from which in which they cannot recover. Said homework is ruining our lives. Id recommend you limit it than it on wednesday or just get rid of it. Im tired of spending 4 hours a day on homework and hey, theres a day in school. You as well extend school. So i can tell you that i got i got a lot of different kinds of requests when i was in there, but i, i feel real pleased that i got to serve not 30 years at a time when both democrats and republicans could get along with each other. The democrats control the white house, and thus the departments and agencies. For 16 of my 30 years. And i feel like i was treated just as well with by the democrats as i was by the republicans and i tried to i tried to do everything our our work as well as i could. Theres another story in my book. And congressman burgess from texas asked me one day, he said, jimmy, how do you get so much in these Appropriations Bills . And i said, just as serious as i could. I said, well, michael, its its not right and its not fair that its based on looks very heavy. Every time hed pass me in the hall about once a week that hed say its based on looks, but but at a certain club in knoxville a few months ago of talking about my book and, i was asked the question, who is your favorite president with what you served with . Whom served and and that that question sort of stumped me. And ill tell you why i told him. I said. I didnt i didnt vote for bill clinton or barack obama, but they were very nice to me. And i know im sure you know, now former President Trump is the most hated man in politics. There was a time when it was richard nixon. Of course, some people. Evan thomas says in one of his books said that nixon nixon lost the president say by 8000 votes have been changed in texas and chicago, both of which were probably truthful allegations about Election Fraud and says he says some of his books. He says the kennedys were surprised that nixon didnt contest the election in 1960 and he didnt because he said he thought it would be harmful to the country so even if he didnt think much of the president nixon and i came from a family that really respect president nixon my grandfather father who was a subsistence farming county, tennessee, and had ten kids and an outhouse and, you know not much more. He used to say you could make it here than if you were not oppressed and a republican, but you had a leg up if you were an and he was a staunch republican. My mother came from a stance republican family and our and so. But every with whom i served was very nice to me. President trump, the both the bushes, i, i will tell you, though, that a lot of the democrats had a little have more trouble with president obama than i did steve cohen, the congressman from memphis. One time pat had some it was getting a president ial and they invited the delegation down to the white house to see that presentation. The only two came were me and steve cohen, because the congresswoman in session that day, well, they had a seat right on the front row. I was sitting next to hilda solis, who was secretary of labor, and she was right next to hillary clinton. But president and i didnt think anything about until steve cohen said the next day, she said he walked up to me on the floor and he said, can you believe that the president didnt even acknowledge us yesterday . And i didnt think that because i. I was pretty nice. We were on the front row and this big crowd in the east room and but steve cohen said if they had been saying that being clinton, he would done everything but have sex with us on the east room floor and and and what what he was what president clinton used to really caught the democrats in the congress more than president obama did. But of course, that didnt bother me. And then one day, president clinton, a president obama came down to knoxville, and i was going to fly down on air force one with him. Well, my chief of staff told me, he said he said, i dont think you ought to fly with president obama. So theres so many people here that dont that dont like him or hate him or whatever. And i said, well, bob is president , the United States. And so i flew down and and president obama was very nice to me and my daughter went and he had asked if i could get a picture of the president with her two daughters, her two older daughters, who were ten and eight at that time. And they were nice about it. They had a little luncheon for us and Vice President biden came as a biden and it was just a small lunch. And then they took me and president obama into a little room and president obama in and he said, my elder granddaughter, who was ten at the time, he said, did you get out of school early . And she said, yes. And he said, its always a great day when you get out of school early and it and she said, yes. But then my older son, whos kind the character, he said, be really great. If he could come to one of those white house beer summit some time. President obama just burst out laughing and he said to my son, he said, have you ever had any of the white house beer and . My son said no. But he said about like do. And president obama laughed again and he said, greg, make sure he gets one of those white house six packs. I didnt know at that time. I didnt know the white house even made their. But my son got a real nice six pack of beer. Ten days later so im ive got so many stories to tell and theyre theyre all in the book and i apologize to my friend sander here and i get started theyre not well run over so thank you for listening to me. Thank you, congressman. I was kind of expecting you to bring some some of that goalpost with you and knoxville after that went from yesterday. Well, i used to tell people all the time that the color is and white. Were almost more patriotic in my district than red, white and so i hear you. Well, thank you. And well have questions for the congressman at the end. Our next guest is former senator roy herron, state senator. He was a Tennessee State representative from 1987 to 1997 and a state senator from 1997 to 2013. He wrote the things held dear soul stories for my son and god and politics how a christian can be in politics. He also coauthored tennessee political humor. Some of these jokes you voted with lh cotton. He now lawyers and rights in west tennessee nashville welcome senator here. Thank you, sir. Im so honored to be here with congressman duncan, who is my good friend. And and his wife, vicki i told vicki last night, we we watched the utah game. Vicki, the congressman, myself and our older son, we watched the utah game last night. And i told him i was going to call my wife and i was going to say, i remember we were when we had the most exciting experience of my life. And i will remember that i was vicki and congressman duncan when i had the second most exciting experience of my life. Yeah, i hadnt quite had the guts to do it. But if youre watching, honey, thats that your story about the the letter congressman reminds of one i got and you cant make this stuff up. Id been a legal aid lawyer right after i came out of law school. President reagan was, and he made cuts to the legal aid programs. Legal. And so he gave me the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the Free Enterprise system and i hung out my shingle. And like donald cafarella here and and began practicing law. Well, i ran for the legislature and got elected. And then a young woman from gleason, tennessee wrote me a and she said, im writing you for a school project. Were supposed to ask you a question what . I would like to know is why did you leave the Legal Aid Society where you were a big help to people, to to the legislature . I, i wrote her back. Im not sure ive ever her army with the answer to. Im honored to be with congressman. I was talking to rick bragg yesterday. He said when he grew up he wanted to be just like and tell stories just like jamie duncan the dalai lama wants to be as chill as john duncan junior and i aspire to be like him myself. Im honored to be with him. But its not just his style. Thats important. Its also his substance. He compassion borne out of tragedy. Heaven help care for his father and his late wife when they both dealt with cancer. And hes always had compassion for the people of this district and was known for the compassion he brought us. He toured that district and stayed in touch with his people. And he hes fiscally conservative and i consider myself the same. And i want to tell you, it was kind of it was a little tough yesterday when he had to come down here in park and we had to get the emt to put the shockers on him to get his heart going again. When he found out how much cost to park in downtown nashville. Yeah, but let it be a comfort to tell you that he he spent your money like he spends his own money wednesday. He was in washington and and hes right when he says if other everybody else or at least a majority had voted like he did, we wouldnt have a budget deficit. And hes intellectually enough to admit that last time that we ran surpluses was under clintongore. And i wished everybody had somehow put together what the three of them were trying to do in this country would be a lot better off beyond that. He really is truly patriotic. There are a lot of folks that hide behind the flag. Theres plenty of chickenhawk in congress wouldnt send your kids off war, that they wouldnt go serve and that their kids wont serve. But hes worn the uniform and he was brave enough and patriot enough to vote against both of the iraq wars, including the popular one. I have enormous respect for congressman duncan, and i really i truly am honored to be here with you. Youre talking too much about me, roy. Well, if youre going to get book this, this is the one id get his book. Yeah, his book is its funnier than mine, unfortunately, this one that i did is pretty serious. But he really is a great storyteller, as you can tell. And and the stories in the book ive read it marked it up and and glad to have well ill say this our feeling is mutual for each other. I tremendous respect for roy and thats thats i mean thats all is to it so you know i dont know about you all but this covid thing has been something and then you throw on top of that a tornado like went through my hometown destroyed five blocks every building except for a little telephone bunker. I thought for five blocks on the other side of the street from my law office. Every buildings gone except for that telephone bunker. My church i grew up in my grandmother taught sunday in 40 years its gone. Become Presbyterian Church is gone. I mean its just you put all that together and then you see happening in this country and you its its not always you on top of the mountain singing the sound of music or something. And but when i know people like jimmy duncan, they give me hope. They give me hope for this country. And the relationship he had with my congressman tanner was warm and close. And and they found a lot of Common Ground. And i im grateful for people like that. I think our hope is and part of what i tried to say, im by the book. I hope you get both books but if you just get one, get his i mean, do yourself a favor but i hope you get both of them. They so nice together on your shelf. Yeah we call it beauty and the beast. Here they. But you know, folks working together, part of what i try to set out in in the book was areas where i thought we sometimes had Common Ground and some of the issues wound up being partizan and they just were. And i dont back away from that. Thats part of what the stories that are told in the in the book that i wrote. But at the end of it, what i try to do is to go from those issues to, talking about those people that give me hope when i first got elected to the legislature, senator milton hamilton, who was my senator the first time we took a trip together, sir. Hamilton said, you know, were all here. Theres no new issues. Theres new bills, but theres no new issues. And when i started putting this book together and these issues that ive written about over the last three plus decades, i realized just how right he was. And these issues sound contemporary to that ive written about over the last 30 plus years abortion, womens rights, voting rights, education, health care, economic justice. Those issues and others are what i wrote about over that period of time. And the folks that you press who did such a great job for both jimmy and me editing and they said, all right, well, not Everybody Knows preliminaries on these things. You ought to write. And so theres a little bit in there that ill explain the context. And they said, not Everybody Knows whats happened since and you need to write about that. So youve got the what i wrote in a particular time, hopefully with explanations, both before after as is helpful to understand the context of the issues. But the sections of the book are are about life, liberty, rights, education, justice, and then finally leadership. And in this leadership section, i lift up two of my heroes, one of them was a republican, howard baker, who and tried and tried to get congressman to become senator duncan. And if peter run, he the one. I believe that. But he was loyal to the people in his district and stayed where he was. But howard baker now he can be fiercely partizan when it was election time, but when it got down the election, it was time to govern. He worked in a bipartisan way. He worked with president carter. He had a chance be president United States and knew if he worked through the issues on the panama canal, he could not win a republican primary for president. But he did the right thing for the country anyway. He helped coauthor the environmental most of the major environmental legislation that this country depends upon. Still today, the clean air act, the Hazardous Waste legislation. Both oh, howard baker. Right. That his father in senator Everett Dirksen was like congressman duncans father. He knew that racism was wrong and Everett Dirksen had helped pass the civil rights act. And howard baker voted for. Well, congressman, father went on this very street. This library sits when the sit ins were taking place right on this street. And you could throw a rock from where was this library and hit where those citizens were taking place when were taking place here they soon were taking place in knoxville, tennessee. And it was john duncan singer, congressman duncans father, who basically pushed shoved, negotiated and worked out so that for the first time in the history of knoxville, it didnt matter what your race i