After the Republican election disaster of 2012, there was a lot of talk about how GOP leaders had constructed a giant bubble around themselves, protecting them from facts that could have saved them from the November collapse.

The bubble remains unbroken in many quarters on talk radio, as you’d have known if you tuned to KNUS’ “Backbone Radio,” Sunday, featuring a conversation between former state Senate President John Andrews and host Matt Dunn.

Things got interesting when the two began discussing who’s sufficiently conservative to speak at Andrews’ upcoming Western Conservative Summit, sponsored by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University.

Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Alan West, and Jonas Goldberg got big thumbs up. (They will be there.)

But NJ governor Chris Christie got the big thumbs down, and Andrews said Marco Rubio could get booed, if he were a speaker:

Andrews:  I, honestly, haven’t really worked hard to get [Christie] this year.  I don’t regard him as a conservative.  This is a conservative summit.  We took a good run at getting Senator Marco Rubio–

Dunn:  Yeah, I was going to ask.

Andrews:  a gifted young conservative –

Dunn:  How would Rubio be received. We’re down to about 20 seconds, but how would he be received at the Summit right now?

Andrews:  I think with a lot of skepticism.  There might be some boos from the audience because of what he’s trying to do on amnesty, to be honest with you.  A very gifted guy, but he has taken – he has set his foot wrong on this one.

Dunn:  It’s interesting to me that it seems that Ted Cruz is the ascendant.  And Marco Rubio is the opposite right now.  Who would have thought?

I like to picture these two guys sitting in a bubble-enclosed radio studio floating away from the city of Denver and planet Earth.

Why are they shielding themselves from their own allies, like Christie, who isn’t an exact replica of them?

Is it time for Andrews let some fresh air into his definition of “conservative?”

Those are the kind of questions that Dunn should address on his show, but his radio studio is probably too far into outer space by now for him to read this blog post and accept my reasonable advice.

Former state GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams believes Colorado Republicans should find state-wide candidates modeled after Wayne Allard, Bill Armstrong, Bill Owens, and Hank Brown.

“They were candidates that appealed to a broad section of Coloradans,” Wadhams told internet-radio host Art Carlson Saturday. “They didn’t go out of their way to alienate any Colorado voter. And as a result, they won in a state that’s very competitive, like Colorado. And that’s what we need in 2014.”

Nothing unusual there, but the funny part was, Wadhams went on to praise a possible GOP candidate who’s obviously among the most alienating public figures in Colorado.

“I think it’s difficult to start a campaign when you’re dealing with those ethical assaults [resulting form the ethics investigation Gessler faces],” Wadhams told Calrson. “But if Scott can get past them, if he can get beyond those charges against him, he’ll emerge as a strong candidate.”

What about the need to find a person who won’t “alienate any Colorado voter?” I can think of at least a few voters that Gessler might have alienated, maybe Hispanics, minorities, and the entire voting population of Colorado, for example, but unfortunately Carlson let the topic slide by.

Listen to the Wadhams interview here: Dick Wadhams discusses Scott Gessler on Arts Place 6-8-2013

Wadhams called Gessler “a great friend,” who’s “done some great work as Secretary of State.”

“It’s now been 11 years since Republicans won a race United States Senate or for Governor,” Wadhams told the internet audience. “…The common thread among the people who’ve won statewide for governor and senator as Republicans is that they were very disciplined candidates.”

“If the intention is to win an election, I think Republicans have to take this seriously and really make a decision on who can win,” said Wadhams. “And that’s not because they become overnight liberals or something. Wayne Allard and Bill Owens were two of the most conservative legislators when they ran for state-wide office and yet they could articulate their conservative agenda in a very open and welcoming way for all Coloradans to consider. We don’t need Republicans who will alienate large blocs of voters.”

If I were host Carlson, I would have asked Wadhams if substantive changes, even itsy bitsy ones, are required by GOP candidates to avoid the alienation trap.

Or is this all about messaging, like Wadhams implies? What about some specific policy proposals related to abortion? Hispanics? The environment? Poverty? Healthcare? Education? Taxes?

Those issues never came up. Carlson should have dug deep and asked about them.

If you want to hear what the base voters of the Republican Party are thinking, tune to…talk radio!

This is especially true when the radio hosts themselves are former Republican officials and office holders, as is the case with former CU regent Tom Lucero and former Larimer County GOP executive Devon Lentz, who hold forth as co-hosts in the mornings on KFKA radio in Greeley.

Lucero and Lentz were worked up Wednesday morning about immigration, as they’ve been in the past, and their conversation gives us a local window into the reasons the immigration-reform bill seems to have hit a brick fence in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

Lucero can’t understand why Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who’s been pushing federal immigration reform, would promote a bill that offers a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

“I think if Rubio were serious about it,” said Lucero on air Wed., “he would have come out with just two bills that dealt with employment, and border security. But he got sucked in, in Washington D.C., and now you’re talking about a pathway to citizenship; you’re talking about people with the opportunity to vote within ‘x’ number of years.”

“We’re rewarding people that are here illegally!” responded Lentz.

“Exactly!” said Lucero

“The rules are in place for a reason!” Lentz added. “Enforce ‘em, and let’s move forward from there!  Not change them!  Because somebody has violated rules for ten years, doesn’t make it acceptable. Let’s make an exception to the rule for them?”

Lucero and Lentz (like Rep. Cory Gardner) clearly aren’t happy with the bipartisan Senate proposal to ramp up border security, with specific milestones, as comprehensive immigration reform moves forward.

“Let’s start with border security,” Lucero told his listeners, who you could almost see nodding out there in conservative radioland. “Keep those out that want to come in, and those that are here, they’re here.  So then we deal with it after the border is secure.  First, first – first step has to be border security.”

Is Rubio dividing the GOP, wondered Lucero and Lentz.

Lucero thinks Rubio has put Republicans in an “awkward position.”

Lucero feels the pressure that Rubio puts on him and Tea-Party Republicans: “If Marco Rubio supports it, why can’t you?  Marco Rubio is quote/unquote one of those Tea Party renegade senators in the U.S. Senate and if a conservative like Rubio can support it, why can’t you?”

“I don’t know that [Rubio is] dividing the Party,” Lucero said on the radio, “but he’s not making it easy for Republicans out there that don’t support comprehensive immigration reform–Republicans who support ‘secure the borders, all borders, all ports of entry,’ and who want an employment verification system. Yeah, Marco Rubio is making it difficult on those of us who believe in that. That’s my conclusion.”

I really wanted to like Peter Boyles.

He could talk in depth on most any topic, so you never knew for sure what might come out of his mouth (at least when he wasn’t talking about birth certificates, Jon Benet, or “illegals”).

He was irreverent, blasting anyone and anything, including his own newsroom, his corporate higher-ups (who apparently fired him), or any elected official of either party. Everyone was a target, and sometimes this was a good thing.

He talked a lot about history, and he even read books!

But in the end, how could you like the guy? He stood for nothing beyond weird nihilism and his Arbitron rating.

Why would such an intelligent person spend so much time fomenting anger and hatred toward undocumented immigrants, who are actually one group of people who might, through Boyles’ audience, feel the effects of his venom.

His repeated attacks on Muslims were equally gross.

And why did he spend so much time trashing journalism? You sort of admire Denver Post publisher Dean Singleton for spending hours on Boyle’s show, even though one of Boyle’s absolute favorite things to do was to bash The Post (and the Rocky before it closed) in the most sweeping and stupid ways.

You got a sense of what Boyles could have been when he defended gays. But soon enough, he’d been talking birth certificates and social security numbers again.

What happened to the man who long ago did such an honorable and intelligent job hosting Channel 12’s Colorado Inside Out?

I never gave up hope that Boyles would start caring again. But it never happened.

Correction 6-4-13: Wilburn gave his “Almost Human” to the Republicans generally, and Ryan Call is emblematic of the Republicans, he told me in a phone conversation.

———-

There’s a talk-radio show in Colorado Springs called “Black, White, and Right.”

“Black” because one of the show’s hosts is the African-American founder of Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party, which has the tough job making the conservatism more appealing to African-Americans.

“White” because one of the co-hosts is a white guy, Robert Blaha, who challenged Rep. Doug Lamborn in last year’s congressional primary in Colorado Springs.

“Right” because both of the show’s hosts are righties. (Note that the show was not called, “Black, White, and Correct.”)

Each week, the hosts name someone as “almost human,” kind of like Westword’s “Schmuck of the Week” or Colorado Inside Out’s “Disgrace of the Week.”

This past Saturday on “Black, White, and Right,” Blaha’s “Almost Human” was a woman in Florida who’s under federal indictment after using embezzled money to throw a birthday party for her boss.

But the African-American host, Derrick Wilburn, surprised me by picking “The Republicans” generally, and State Republican Chairman Ryan Call in particular, for “Almost Human” honors.

Wilburn feels unloved and unappreciated by Call, as you’ll see below, but as a connoisseur of conservative talk radio, I have to say that his attack on Call was so authentic and raw that I recommend it to all of you.

Read it below if you want, but listening here is better.

Blaha: This is dark!  This is just dark!!

Wilburn: I’m in a bad mood!  I’ve had it up to here. Our state chairman embodies “The Republicans,” whoever that is.

Blaha: OK.

Wilburn: I formed the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party. It’s been almost two and a half years, and we’ve had monthly, on-the-ground meetings every single month for two and a half years.  except once, we got snowed out, this year, March. You know. You come to our meetings. We get 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 people sometimes. We had 600 once.

Ryan Call has never set foot in one of our meetings, ever! [We’ve met] every month for two-and-a-half years in Colorado Springs, every month for a year in Denver. He’s been to one meeting, when he was the invited guest speaker. He knows what I’m trying to do. He’s heard my presentation, as you have, and the plan we’re putting forth to reach out to minorities.

[Call] invites me to come to this meeting with Reince Priebus. Reince Priebus comes to town, and there is a small, unannounced, closed-door meeting.

Blaha: Who, by the way, is the head of the Republican Party for the United States.

Wilburn: He flies in for meeting with about 35 or 40 of us. He has a hard exit. He’s got to leave at 3:30 to catch a flight.

Ryan Call goes around the room, gives the microphone to every white elected official in the state, and lets them go off for as long as they want to. [BigMedia emphasis]

Gives me the microphone at 3:29 and thirty seconds. Thirty seconds left in the meeting, and says ‘I’m sorry,’ and I get thirty seconds to speak to the man.

I get to speak at the State Central Committee meeting. I get invited to speak.  The guy who’s trying to reach out to the young people, whom we know we all need. He puts us up there last! And puts the Doug Lamborns of the world up there first!

These people don’t get it!  They’re almost human.  And if we don’t get rid of some of ‘em and replace them with people who do [get it], we’re in a world of hurt.

Blaha:  You got to your point.  Well, let me make my point to your point:  The permanent political class has got to go, folks!

Ryan Call did not return an email seeking comment, but I’m guessing he’d say he understands that the GOP needs to diversify. But Wilburn’s comments make you wonder what he’s doing about it, when reality pops up and he has to make actual decisions that affect African-Americans, Hispanics, women, young people, etc. Reporters should keep an eye open for what’s going on with Call.

Jeff Crank works for Koch-Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity and doubles as conservative-talk-radio-host poster child, holding forth on KVOR in Colorado Springs.

I offer Crank’s comments below, from Saturday’s show,to illustrate how the troubles at the IRS give echoers like Crank the perfect springboard to reach for their deepest anti-government rhetoric, while demonizing Obama at the same time in the most extreme and shadowy ways.

Crank: “This is the moment to stand up and say we need to rip the IRS out by its roots! Grab it and throw it away and eliminate it! Get RID of the IRS! Throw it out the window! Let it be—throw it on the ash heap of history! Make it be the Soviet Union! Something that we remember in the disant past! No federal agency should be feared like this – and bureaucrats should never ever have this kind of power. It’s sickening! It’s absolutely sickening to see this kind of thing.”

He added that it’s sicker that we don’t have a leader in the White House who will stand up and get rid of these Jack Booted thugs at the IRS. Then later, he got more specific about Obama:

Caller (Mrs. Youngblood): “The reason I thought why the IRS is attacking most of the religious organizations was that to silence them because he [Obama] is wanting to establish a One World Religion…which would be Muslim. These religious organizations just didn’t meet his standards. [he’s trying to] Keep them from growing. I know he’s Muslim.”

Crank: “…Some people will argue, ‘Oh, he’s not Muslim.’ Whatever, I’ll tell you this — He’s no friend of Christianity. When you’re attacking churches left and right and their tax status… there’s not one mosque that’s come forward and said, ‘You know what? The IRS is really attacking us’ Did you notice that, Mrs. Youngblood?”

Asked via Twitter if Crank really thinks Obama is “no friend of Christianity,” Crank replied: “I said there weren’t any Mosques that got an IRS root canal. Christian ministries did. True?”

Lobbyist Corky Kyle, who runs the Kyle Group, hosts an internet radio show called “In the Lobby,” which promises to give “you a backstage pass to the heated industry of lobbying and politics.”

Here’s a taste of the backstage heat you got when Kyle had Tony Gagliardi, a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business, on the show May 7 (@24 min).

Kyle:  All right. We’re back.  We’re back, after the exciting first segment of our show.  How’s it feel, Denver, to be a small businessman?  Did you just want to bend over and grab the Vaseline®?  Or maybe they’re not going to use Vaseline ® this time.  I don’t think they are.

Gagliardi:  They’re not even going to take you to dinner.

Kyle:  They’re not even going to take you to dinner!  That’s right!  And, on top of that, they won’t even kiss you!

Gagliardi:  [laughing] I know.

Kyle:  What the heck is going on with this?

Watch here @ 19:30:

Kyle and Gagliardi were upset with the legislative session, generally, but in particular, they didn’t like a bill that would subject businesses with 15 or fewer employees to workforce discrimination lawsuits, even though damages and penalties would be limited.

“I represent 7,500 members in this state and another 2,000 in Wyoming,” Gagliardi said on the show. “And the worst thing I hated to see come out of this session was the lack of respect for those who actually generate the infrastructure in this state, and that’s business.”

But was it ok to compare the legislation and the session to being butt f*cked with no Vaseline or anything more advanced?

I don’t think so. Do you?

“I stand by that, even though it may be a little vulgar,” said Kyle, adding: “If someone can show me where small business was helped, I’ll eat my hat and buy them dinner.”

For his part, Gagliardi told me.: “I would stand by my comment as far as lack of respect [to small businesses]. The question is, was respect shown to the small business community during this session? And the answer would be no.”

But what about the specific wording of the radio conversation?

“In that venue, playing off Corky’s comments, it’s not something I probably would have said in mainstream, but in that venue, given the context, and given what had happened the previous 120 days, I would probably stand by it,” said Gagliardi, adding that on internet radio “they really do push the envelope with more open dialogue.”

He’s right about internet radio (See shows like “Panties.”), but I can’t find any shows, featuring serious lobbyists and legislators, like “In the Lobby” does, that hit such obscene notes.

Anal sex came up the other day on Grassroots Radio Colorado, but the reference point was host Ken Clark’s story about how somebody ” rear-ended me” (as in a car accident). His co-host dropped the line: “That’s what she said.”

I don’t recall Kyle’s “In-the-Lobby” show, which has featured dozens of elected officials, including leadership from both parties, getting so deeply in the gutter before.

I asked Kyle if he was changing his show, trying to be more abrasive, so to speak.

“I think it’s starting to change on me because I just don’t like the way things are going [in the Legislature.]  Before, the whole premise of the show was, ‘if you don’t get involved in legislative process, you get what you get.’ All of a sudden things have gotten very contentious. You have to draw a line, and people want to hear different things. I want legislators on who will express some sentiments…. I don’t like the way it’s going.  Small business is getting the shaft so bad.”

Still, Kyle says that anyone who knows him will say that he’ll treat guests with the respect they deserve.

“I really do try to go down the middle,” he says. “That particular day it got a little stupid. I figure after 32 years, I get a hall pass.”

Connoisseurs of the immigration debate in Colorado are familiar with Helen Krieble’s “Red Card Solution,” which originally envisioned undocumented immigrants marching out of the U.S., getting a work permit from a private company, and then returning to the U.S. And all of this would be handled by the private sector. Krieble’s plan has been getting renewed attention lately by Republicans (Dick Wadhams helps promote it.), as an alternative to comprehensive immigration reform, which includes a path to citizenship. And so Krieble has been fielding a lot of questions, like this one on May 14 from KNRV’s Raaki Garcia:

GARCIA: Helen, my question is, would they need to go out of the country to participate in the Red Card. HELEN KRIEBLE: It is simply a question of whether a bill can get passed or not. The “law and order” people, who are a very strong part of this debate, say you must go outside of the borders of the country to enter legally according to our laws. And that doesn’t mean go home to the Philippines if you’re a Phillippino, but go outside. It would only take a week from anywhere in the United States with a forty-eight hour process to do this, so you’re out of the shadows in a week. But I think times have changed. And if it’s possible to pass a law by letting people get their work permits inside the country, I would love to see that happen.

Listen here to Helen Krieble 05-14-13_0001_0001 Garcia should have asked Krieble why her Red-Card-Solution website states that a great march out of the United States is still part of her thinking. What’s up?

If you’ve been listening to conservative talk radio lately, you know most radio hosts on these shows don’t like the election-modernization bill working its way through the Legislature.

Though it might be hard to tear yourself away from Steve Kelley on 710 KNUS in the morning, you might give yourself a break and try Gloria Neal on AM 760. That’s “Colorado’s Progressive Talk,” which used to be hosted by author David Sirota.

Neal had a great conversation last week with Ellen Dumm, who’s a spokesperson in favor of the bill. It’s a great interview as she counters most of the misinformation you hear about the bill on the radio, like the lie it’s nothing more than a partisan trick by Democrats. (It’s been endorsed by 75% of the Colorado County Clerks Association, which includes Republicans.)

Lost in all the attacks is the history of how the bill came forward (from the Clerks) and why (to eliminate the confusion among some voters about how to vote as well as to make voting– and voter registration — more convenient for the rest of us, as well as less expensive for our government, while making sure our elections are secure.)

“What is does is very simple. It gets a ballot to every eligible voter, and they can choose to either vote by mail, which three-fourth of Colorado did in 2012. Or they can drop it off. Or they can vote in person. It’s their choice. We always say, it’s their choice and it’s their voice.”

Listen to Neal’s thoughtful interview here.

Scott Gessler likes to soften his repeated accusations of voter fraud by saying his job, as Secretary of State, is to make it “easy to vote but tough to cheat.”

As Gessler told the Conservative Political Action Committee in October:

And I think most people would agree that when it comes to elections, it should be easy to vote but tough to cheat.  And, you know, I’m focused on both efforts.

Actually, if you listen to Gessler, you know he delivers the “easy-to-vote, tough-to-cheat” line all the time.

What’s Gessler thinking about the “easy-to-vote” part of the deal now, as country clerks have initiated a bill, currently making its way through the State Legislature, that would make voting easier and elections more efficient?

He’s opposing the legislation for a number of reasons, one of which is his belief that Democrats are instituting a “partisan advantage,” even though academics agree that voter conveniences, such as election-day and early registration, for example, do not favor one party over the other.

In response to Mike Rosen’s assertion on KOA last week that Democrats will get more votes if they “make it easier for casual and lazy voters to vote,” Gessler said, “You know, I think there’s evidence to support that.”

Rosen didn’t question Gessler. Why would he, since they echo in the same chamber.

So we need a journalist to find out from Gessler 1) where is his evidence that voter conveniences produce partisan results, 2) why it matters anyway, unless he’s against voting, and 3) why he’s against key elements of an election bill that would do what Gessler says he wants–make voting easier?