Journalists aren’t reporting the seething anger of Colorado’s Tea Party conservatives at their Republican leaders for allowing the federal government to continue operating and/or for caving on what they see as GOP priniciples.

It’s an important story not only because it offers a tangible angle to explain the rise of The Donald and his ilk, but also because it shows the stress within the Republican Party  here in Colorado, as state party chair Steve House continues to face intense criticism from within.

I write a lot about talk-radio hosts, but but it’s not just the talk-radio hosts who are mad, but also folks like Anil Mathai, Chair of the Adams County Republican Party. He had this to say on Facebook:

MATHAI: The Republican Party in Washington DC has just passed a spending bill – understand they would rather Hussein Obama get everything he wants including funds to kill thousands of unborn children. WE HAVE THE HOUSE AND SENATE AND OBAMA GETS EVERYTHING HE WANTS – WHAT UTTER MADNESS!!!!! The Republican Party has become no different from the Democrat Party! Instead of supporting most of its voters, they decide to support evil and corrupt cronies. If the leadership and direction doesn’t change ASAP, we will have a Communist President in Nov 2016 and the cowardly, traitors known as “Republicans” will have the party collapse because of their arrogance. It is time to primary every RINO right now, it is time to clean house by demanding “republicans” actually support the US Constitution and the Republican platform. Sick and tired of the democrats in our party!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! 3000 more children will die today because there is no Republican party who will help them and follow our written documents of first defending LIFE then LIBERTY then Pursuit of Happiness but instead must avoid a “government shutdown”!! GOVERNMENT over LIFE – TREASONOUS!!!!! Time for pitch forks and removal of “leaders” starting first with Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and every Republican that voted today to fund abortion instead of “shutting down the government” and listen to most Americans on ending the evil Planned Parenthood. CORRUPT COWARDS!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!! [BigMedia emphasis.]

Mathai is the Republican leader of one of the most important counties in the state going into next year, in light of its surprise tilt toward Republicans in the last election.

And Mathai’s Adams County vice-chair, John Sampson, also doesn’t shy away from controversy, as you can see here and here.

Asked about the Facebook post, Mathai said, “The context is, the Republicans need to be consistent with the party platform. What people want is trust. We are all Americans, and people want trust back in their party.”

Also upset, Derrick Wilburn, the Vice Chair of the state Republican Party, said this on KLZ’s Rush to Reason show Sept. 30.

WILBURN:  Here’s what these guys don’t realize – Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn, Michael Coffman — I mean, not just our state but all over the country – if they started standing up for those things, if they started taking that position – If they started sticking it back and saying, “we aren’t going to take it anymore!”  You know what would happen?  We would meet them at the airport when they come back home into the district.  We’d be standing there with signs, cheering them, calling them heroes! …It would happen everywhere!  It would happen all over the country!

Asked to explain, Wilburn texted that he wasn’t talking about shutting down the government but instead about GOP leaders standing up for principles.

The sentiments of these elected GOP leaders in Colorado should be aired out by outlets with bigger audiences than this humble blog. It’s a local window into the forces that are shaping Colorado’s Republican Party and having a actual factual impact on who will be the next president. In other words, this isn’t just hot air. It’s oxygen for the insurgents in the Republican Party.

KLZ 560-AM will install a new morning-show host this week, replacing Randy Corporon, who resigned in protest after station owner Don Crawford, Jr, temporarily banned former Rep. Tom Tancredo and (reportedly) GOP Chair Steve House from KLZ’s airwaves.

“Yes, our man, Rush, will announce and introduce him Monday during his show,” Crawford emailed me last week when asked if he’d decided which conservative would fill Corporon’s shoes. (In recent weeks, the station held on-air auditions for the job.)

Meanwhile, Corporon, along with KLZ’s other “liberty lineup” hosts Ken Clark and Kris Cook, who resigned along with Corporon, lit deeply into Crawford at a recent “Liberty Libations” event. Their presentation (below) to the libations folks illuminates not only their version of the events involved in the trio’s decision to resign from the radio station but also the angry divisions within the state GOP.

I’m not saying you need more evidence of serious conservative infighting to know how serious the conservative infighting is in Colorado, but you still might enjoy these videos. They were posted by Marilyn Marks. It’s all interesting, if you’re a junkie and you want to pass some weekend down time in front of your computer, but it gets especially good at about the 22-minute mark. The second video includes Tancredo talking off screen.

Education is a favorite issue on talk radio. Over the next few months, I’ll be providing occasional summaries of appearances by public officials on the radio airwaves in Colorado. My goal is to shine some sun on the talk-radio discourse about education, so those who want can peer in. I will not be doing much fact checking or analysis myself, just offering the raw material to those who are interested. This summary covers the past three weeks.

Derec Schuller, founder and Principal of Golden View Classic Academy, appeared on Kelley & Company, KNUS 710-AM, July 14 to talk about opposition from Feldman and Dahlkemper on the Jeffco Board, the affiliation of his school with a conservative university and allegations of religious affiliations.  He also gave his view on the Jeffco School Board turmoil.

Julie Williams and Sherrie Peif appeared on Rush to Reason, KLZ 560-AM, July 9 to talk about Peif’s series in CompleteColorado.com regarding the claims made by Jeffco School Board recall proponents in their petitions.  Her first installment addresses the superintendent’s salary, which she says is misrepresented in the petition as well as by The Denver Post. Williams appears only briefly at the end of the interview.

Meghann Silverthorn, from the Douglas County School Board, appeared on Rush to Reason, KLZ 560-AM, June 30. Listen here and here, saying that her district will pursue partnerships with non-religious schools in the wake of the CO Supreme Court ruling, in order to keep the voucher program alive.

Doug Benevento, vice-president of Douglas County School Board, appeared on Kelley & Company with Krista Kafer, KNUS 710-AM, June 30, to discuss the same ruling. Benevuto offers advice to the Thompson School District in their efforts to replicate Douglas County’s policy initiative to advance choice.

Kevin Larsen and Craig Richardson of the DougCo School Board discussed the same topic on the Dan Caplis Show, KNUS 710-AM, June 30. Larsen and Richardson believe that the CO Supreme Court ruling is positive and encouraging development in the choice movement, albeit a delayed gratification, because it will force the US Supreme Court to address the inconsistency with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Putting its competitive principles where its microphone is, KLZ “The Source” is conducting live “auditions” to replace its morning show host, Randy Corporon, who resigned last month after management pulled the plug on further interviews with former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who was at the center of an attempt to oust Steve House, the leader of Colorado’s Republican Party.

KLZ owner Don Crawford, Jr., insisted on grilling Tancredo about his beef with House prior to airing Tancredo’s familiar voice on his radio station, prompting Corporon and KLZ’s other “liberty lineup” talk-radio hosts, Ken Clark and Kris Cook, to quit.

Crawford told the media he was worried about whether Tancredo was telling the truth about the attempt to oust House. He also temporarily banned Steve House, according to Corporon.

Crawford hasn’t said whether he also banned interviews Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who joined Tancredo and Pueblo’s GOP chair Becky Mizel in leading the coup charge. There wold have been no reason for Crawford not to have banned Coffman and Mizel as well.

In any case, now Crawford appears to be personally spearheading an unusual process to replace Corporon. He’s selected seven conservatives (no relation to the seven dwarfs) to audition live, on air through Wed. from 6 to 8 p.m., on KLZ 560-AM.

Some take-no-prisoners conservatives have already tried out, including: “Americhicks” Kim Monson and Molly Vogt, Steve Laffey, a GOP gubernatorial candidate, who’s a familiar voice on conservative talk radio, Dan Meurer, who’s been a guest host, and Jim Pfaff, a former KLZ radio host.

Here’s what Crawford had to say about the auditions:

Let the auditions begin!! I am thrilled to announce we have some very talented, bright, and insightful people, auditioning for the New KLZ morning show.

Your valued opinion on whom you think is most worthy and will surely eternalize your and our critical principles on our airwaves, such as our unbreakable support of the Constitution, returning political power to the states, and a very limited Federal government, to name some more, is imperative to our decision-making.

Email me at 4Crawford@gmail.com, or post your preferences on our Facebook page if you wish. Every single one will be read, respected, and factored. Those auditions will be from 6PM to 8PM each weeknight beginning Monday, July 6th. The last audition will occur on Wednesday, the 15th. Shortly after, we hope to and should have your new host ready and able to carry the morning torch for those endangered conservative values we so very much cherish and MUST protect.

We thank you in advance for your essential help in this cause. I’m Don Crawford Jr., Station Manager of KLZ.

I’m not sure this job will “eternalize” conservative principles on the airwaves or anywhere, and I’m not sure the radio station successfully carries the “morning torch” for endangered conservative values.

But I admire what Crawford’s doing here, subjecting the would be hosts to everything the audience can toss at them, whether it be blackmail, extortion, or their views on shutting down the government or booting out nice Hispanic families from America.

I emailed Crawford with a few questions, like whether he was telling prospective hosts that he has the right to screen guests on their show, as he did during the Tancredo controversy.

But Crawford hasn’t gotten back to me.

Maybe he sensed my unhappiness with his booting Clark, Cook, and Corporon in the first place, as they were admirably standing behind their principles (and their listeners trust) in not accepting censorship from their own station. They might have quite prematurely, but you gotta admire their stand.

I also asked Craford whether he’d consider adding a show with a progressive bent. All the fighting and salacious whispering on conservative talk radio is getting to be overwhelming, even for a junkie like me.

It’s time for those conservatives to take a break from each other and air a kind, well-mannered, thoughtful progressive show.

CORRECTION: This story initially omitted Corporon’s information that Steve House was also temporarily banned from KLZ.

Former KLZ talk-radio hosts Ken Clark, Kris Cook, and Randy Corporon resigned after KLZ management banned Tom Tancredo from the KLZ airwaves, at least temporarily.

Now the trio is set to take the air again, as substitute hosts on KNUS 710-AM.

As reported by Ken Clark on his Facebook page, here’s the trio’s scheduled KNUS appearances over the next few days:

Ken Clark: ·

The Liberty Lineup is riding the airwaves again! Here’s when we’ll be on 710 KNUS ( www.710knus.com ) in the coming days:

Thursday, 7/2, around 10:15-ish – Kris will be on with Chuck Bonniwell when he fills in for Dan Caplis
Friday, 7/3, 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. – Ken and Randy will fill in for Peter Boyles
Saturday, 7/4, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. – Ken will fill in for Chuck and Julie on Weekend Wake Up
Saturday, 7/4, 9 a.m. to Noon – Randy will fill in for Craig Silverman

I hope you all will listen in, share with your friends and ask *them* to listen in, and especially, if you can, CALL in!! The studio line is 303-696-1971.

The three hosts have been at the center of efforts to air out grievances against Colorado GOP chair Steve House.

You gotta give KNUS credit for giving these people a platform to air out whatever more they have to say–including whatever interviews they want to conduct.

Denver talk-show hosts should release a multi-page document, apparently prepared for last week’s Republican executive committee meeting, detailing concerns about Republican State Party Chair, Steve House.

Tom Tancredo told KNUS 710-AM’s Peter Boyles Monday that House refused to let him or Pueblo Country GOP Chair Becky Mizel distribute the “three-to-four pages” to committee members, even though Mizel sits on the committee.

On Saturday, former KLZ 560-AM host Randy Corporon told KNUS 710-AM’s Craig Silverman that he’d emailed what sounded like the same document to Silverman prior to his interview on Silverman’s show.

Corporon told Silverma on air: I sent you a four-page letter of the problems. You probably haven’t had a chance to see it. Neither did the executive committee, by the way, because Steve House did not allow anyone to distribute the four-page letter of concerns about Steve House for the executive committee (at 56:40 Hour 3).

But neither Corporon nor Silverman responded immediately to my requests for the document.

In the name of transparency, Silverman should place the accusations on the KNUS website post haste.

Corporon should read the document on the KNUS airwaves Friday, when he is guest-hosting beginning at 5 a.m., along with Kris Cook and Ken Clark, the other two KLZ talk-radio hosts who resigned after KLZ management refused, at least temporarily, to allow Tom Tancredo to appear on KLZ.

The legislative branch of the Neville family made a joint appearance on conservative talk radio last month, rehashing a host of unpleasant issues in long-form fashion (audio below).

Rep. Patrick Neville (R-Castle Rock), and father Sen. Tim Neville (R-Littleton), started by talking guns, without noting that brother Joe Neville is the Lobbyist for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the uncompromising anti-gun-safety organization.

Tim Neville told the story on air of attending a “caucus luncheon” at the conservative/libertarian Independence Institute.

Tim left in the middle of the event, but not before confronting Independence Institute Director Jon Caldara directly.

“I asked [Caldara], is this a 30-round magazine? Is this where you want to stop?” Tim told KLZ host Ken Clark referring to Caldara’s idea of easing the magazine limit from 15 to 30 rounds.  “And [Caldara] mentioned, ‘No. Make it a thousand rounds.’ And I asked, ‘Which is it going to be? He went into this diatribe that he presented. Again, blaming Republicans. It’s your fault. You’re standing in the way of this. Frankly, I had had enough, and it was time to leave.”

You don’t have to track the Nevilles very closely to know how they feel about guns. But the father-son dual stands out when it comes to social issues too. As Tim Neville explained on air:

“You have people in the [Republican] Party say, if it’s a social issue, you shouldn’t talk about it,” said Tim on air @21:30 below. “And of course if you go back the last few years, That’s pretty much everything the Democrats and progressives have pushed are social issues. I mean, even the minimum-wage law is a social issue for them. So, to not engage on social issues, to me, is ludicrous. But if you look at the same people who stand strong on the second amendment and social issues, those are the same people who stand strong on fiscal issues also.”

And so it is, but it’s actually an understatement to say that the father-son Neville team is standing “strong on social issues.” They stand extreme.

Tim received a failing 29 percent on the Women’s Lobby of Colorado scorecard, which rated legislators on a variety of votes on women’s issues, and on Patrick tied for lowest-score-in-the-entire state legislature with 9 percent.”

Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado was more blunt, giving Tim Neville the first place award for “worst all-around” legislator for women’s health in 2015, according to a 2015 “Colorado Women’s Health Wall of Shame.”

“Neville sponsored four out of the six anti-choice bills introduced in Colorado’s legislature this year,” wrote Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado. “Not only did he sponsor two bills that would have inserted fetal personhood language (giving legal rights to fertilized eggs) into Colorado’s statutes, but two others that specifically targeted abortion providers and women seeking abortion care.”

“Nipping close at his father’s heels is Representative Patrick Neville, who also proudly sponsored four bills whose goals were to intimidate doctors out of providing abortion care,” wrote Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.

You need only to stick you toe into Colorado’s talk-radio world to know that state Sen. Laura Woods is a superstar on the Tea-Party airwaves, regularly receiving love from KLZ 560AM’s Ken Clark, KNUS 710 AM’s Peter Boyles, and others.

The last thing these guys want is to lose Woods in a primary next year, funded by deep-pocket Republicans. So you’d think they’d want to rally their listeners to stop this before hit happens. And Woods seems to be hinting that it will, judging from her continued criticism of establishment Republicans.

For example, in a May 14 interview with Clark, Woods said there’s “not a lot of difference” between mainstream Democrats and mainstream Republicans–raising the question of whether Woods thinks Colorado Republicans will field a primary candidate against her. But Clark didn’t ask the question.

Woods (at 4:15 below): “I think that for the establishment Republicans, and there is no doubt in my mind that Cory Gardner is one of them. and Democrats, there’s not a lot of difference. Where we see a difference is between conservatives and that group of people.”

Earlier in the interview, at two minutes, she referred to “squishy Republican committees,” further showing her displeasure with the GOP in Colorado.

I’m not saying this is unexpected, given Woods’ ride to power on the back of Tea-Party supporters, but I’m surprised the radio crowd doesn’t talk openly about the obvious possibility of a primary and how to prepare for it.

If you’re a reporter, it’s tough to be fair when the person you’re writing about won’t talk to you, but The Denver Post’s John Frank did the best he could in an article Sunday about State Treasurer Walker Stapleton.

Stapleton, who declined to be interviewed for Frank’s story, is clearly on record supporting legislation this session allowing him to issue bonds to make money for the state’s public retirement system. But speaking on conservative talk radio after the bill died, Stapleton denied ever supporting the legislation. The question is, why?

Frank points out that one reason for Stapleton’s about-face is pressure from conservatives who are wary of debt. That’s charitable to Stapleton. Actually, Stapleton admitted on the radio that he was under pressure from conservatives who want only to reduce expenses of retirement programs (higher age of retirement or contribution, lower pay outs). Stapleton’s bill intended to increase PERA’s revenue, so that the retirement system would be stronger and have a better chance at functioning as promised. This pissed off the conservatives, whose apparent underlying goal is to weaken or kill public pension programs.

Stapleton’s own explanation for his apparent hypocrisy is, as Frank reported, that he “supported the bill to give him the authority to issue bonds but not the issuance of bonds.”

This didn’t impress The Post’s Vincent Carroll, who wrote last week:

Actually, the legislation had everything to do with issuing bonds. You don’t give the state authority to do something unless you anticipate that it will exercise that power at some point and are comfortable with that possibility. And this bill wasn’t a permanent authority. It expired on Dec. 31, 2018, roughly when Stapleton will leave office. Obviously the bill contemplated Stapleton himself signing off on bonds at some point.

Frank produced evidence showing that Stapleton thought actually issuing the bonds was a good idea if “done in a prudent and conservative manner.”

On KLZ 560-AM’s nooner show, hosted by Ken Clark, Stapleton got even more specific, identifying a financial window during which he was prepared to issue the bonds.

“We had a provision that we would not even consider issuing the bonds if the arbitrage wasn’t at least a two-point spread.” (Listen to the KLZ interview at 4:25 below.)

You don’t need to know what an arbitrage is to see that Stapleton was happy and ready to consider issuing the bonds under very specific circumstances–if the arbitrage was at least a two-point spread. Case closed.

It makes sense that Stapleton would have specific circumstances in mind because Stapleton’s office helped draft the bill, and on the radio, he bragged about the bill requirements he insisted on. He wanted and got veto power on whether to issue bonds at all and how many. (Listen to the KLZ interview below beginning 40 seconds into it.)

Toward the end of his KLZ interview, Stapleton was more direct in explaining the conservative arguments that apparently won him over between the time that he favored issuing bonds and then denied favoring issuing them.

Stapleton (@7 minutes below): I’ve talked to a lot of people about this issue since it began, and someone made a very good point to me. And that was, and I think this is an interesting point now that this has died, if we really want to address lasting pension reform, we have to deal with the expense of the system that’s been created. We have to deal with it on the expense side and not the revenue side. And this bill attempted to flood PERA with revenues to make up for the shortfall, but it didn’t bring any structural reforms on the expense side.”

So he’s saying that he’s now not interested in intelligent fiscal management of the state pension system–only in taking away benefits. But it looks like Stapleton didn’t want to talk to The Post’s Frank about this or anything else.

Walker Stapleton on KLZ 560-AM’s Freedom 560, May 5, 2014.

Walker Stapleton on KOA’s Mike Rosen Show May 5, 2015

If you’re looking for 1) horrible analogies and 2) a way to lose an argument about whether it’s ok to discriminate against gays, here’s a model for you, from KLZ AM-560’s  “Rush to Reason” April 8, guest hosted by David Leach:

David Leach, the “Strident Conservative:” You’re an evil person if you’re a Christian, and you don’t want to bake a cake for a homosexual marriage. But, if you’re the CEO of Apple, it’s totally cool to sell your products to Saudi Arabia, where they will murder you if you are a gay. Give me a break! What’s the deal with this? I mean, where’s the media outrage?

Producer Zach: You know, murderers need music too. You can’t discriminate against them. They need their IPods.

David Leach: In fact, maybe we should make a music video. They are throwing the gays off of the building, while we play Tom Petty’s “Free Falling.” That would totally work. I’m sorry, we’re kind of making fun, and some of you probably just got mad at me for saying what I just sad. But that’s too bad. That’s just the way things are. I can’t stand hypocrisy… If I’m in Saudi Arabia and you come into my business and say, ‘Yeah, I would like a cake for my homosexual wedding.’ I’m going to shout Allahu Akbar and cut your head off.”

Listen to David Leach on KLZ 560-AM’s Rush to Reason

Eric Teetsel, Director of the Manhattan Declaration, a right-wing Christian organization, was a guest on the same segment, but wasn’t asked about the Saudi Arabia analogy.