He didn’t win his upstart third party candidacy for president, but “Tickle,” the hillbilly sidekick on the Discovery Channel hit “Moonshiners,” has an answer to Washington’s debt and fiscal cliff quandary: Legalize shine and watch the tax dollars roll in.

“If we can make moonshine legal,” he tells Secrets in his first interview, “we can take people out of jail, so people won’t have to pay for those in jail. Everybody can make a little extra money. And if you’ve got money in your pocket, you are going to spend more money.”