"is, is"

[Peter Richardson]

Quote from a meeting this morning: "The thing is, is it takes too much
time..."

Here the second _is_ seems to be a conjunction; but then it could also
plausibly have been followed by _that_: "The thing is, is that it
takes..."

I'm sorry to get us back to the _that_ topic, but here it's a bother again
in an absent way; or, rather, in the first sentence it's present to a
negative degree. Can anything other than _is_ and silence replace _that_?
("I know it's hard...")

Peter R.