Undocumented children are literally dying along the U.S. border, in the desert, and radio-host Mike Rosen and gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez are accusing Obama of dumping undocumented kids in Arizona, as a form of political revenge against Arizona governor Jan Brewer:

ROSEN: You suppose that there could be any spiteful motivations on President Obama’s part for dumping a lot of those unaccompanied—

BEAUPREZ: (sarcastically) Surely not. You’re not that cynical, are you?

ROSEN: — teenage immigrants into the state of Arizona because he doesn’t like [Republican Governor] Jan Brewer?

BEAUPREZ: [laughing loudly] Yeah, it’s perhaps more than coincidental.

ROSEN: Hmmmm. Hmmm

It’s moments like this when you wish SuperTalker from above would float into the KOA studios, bop Rosen on the head, and say, “Shut up, Mike. And you, Bob, want to be governor? What kind of governor makes ugly and bizarre accusations, like this, based on no evidence at all. And you’re laughing about it, at the expense of the poorest, most vulnerable kids? It doesn’t get much worse.”

Then SuperTalker would tell KOA listeners that he’s placed Rosen in timeout for a few days and asked him to think about whether it would be right, on any planet, to say such things, as kids are caught in the immigration nightmare that we’ve created.

Here’s the story, as told by the Associated Press, of an 11-year-old Guatemalan boy, Gilberto Ramos, whose decomposing body was found in Texas.

He was born and grew up in San Jose Las Flores in a modest wood and sheet-metal home in the Cuchumatanes mountains of Huehuetenango province along the Mexico border. At 6,600 feet above sea level, the exuberant beauty of peaks and canyons are in stark contrast to the extreme poverty. There is no running or potable water and only a latrine. There is food, tortillas or wheat atole, an oatmeal-like drink, but never enough.

The cluster of homes where Gilberto lived is accessible only by foot along a rocky and often muddy mile-long path, which took 45 minutes in the canyons and mud to traverse on Tuesday. Gilberto walked that path each way to school, where he went as far as third grade before dropping out…

Short, quiet and humble, he stayed close to home. But he grew despairing and bored, Esbin Ramos said. Their mother grew sicker. The older brother suggested Gilberto come to Chicago, where he could return to school and work at night and on weekends.

So while children like Gilberto (but who survive) are being caught along the border, the Obama Administration is trying to deal with the situation humanely, by sending them to immigration courts different states, obviously not just Jan Brewer’s Arizona. Obama is trying to work with Congress, because doing nothing isn’t an option.

And this is what we get on talk radio?

Let’s hope Rosen, who’s actually more thoughtful than some of his talk-radio colleagues, didn’t think through just how sad it all is.

Last month, The Denver Post ran a strange quote from GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez:

“I’ve never been accused of switching positions on a vote or an issue. But that happens in politics.”

I wondered about the wisdom of running such a quote, given that it was almost certainly a slip of the tongue by Beauprez, who’s been called Both Ways Bob countless times by Democrats and Republicans alike.

But then last week, on KOA’s Mike Rosen show, Beauprez repeated essentially the same thing. Rosen asked Beauprez how he’d respond to the Both-Ways-Bob moniker, and here’s how he replied:

Beauprez: Well, you know, Mike, one thing that the record is actually pretty clear about is that I’ve never been called unprincipled, or wavering, or with a flimsy spine. Quite the opposite. I think most people understand that I know who I am.

Listen to Beauprez deny Both Ways Bob accusation–on KOA radio 06-26-2014

You have to be thick-skinned to survive in politics but to completely deny the existence of a common accusation against you is so weird that it merits further investigation by reporters.

Here’s a transcript of the exchange between Rosen and Beauprez:

Rosen: In an earlier race…during the campaign for the Republican nomination, Marc Holtzman, or his campaign geniuses had crafted the slogan ‘Both Ways Bob”  and in so doing, they were trying to paint you as somebody who had flip flopped on some issues. I hate that kind of tactic in any kind of Republican primary because it can come back to haunt us. Well, guess what? Some progressive sites right now, and progressive is the fashionable word for radically left wing, even to the left of liberals, are using Both Ways Bob to attack you in this campaign against Gov. Hickenlooper. How are you going to answer that?

Beauprez: Well, Mike, one thing that the record is pretty clear about is that I’ve never been called unprincipled, or wavering, or with a flimsy spine. Quite the opposite. I think most people understand that I know who I am.

Listen to Beauprez deny Both Ways Bob accusation–on KOA radio 06-26-2014

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez doubled down on his total and complete opposition to Obamacare last week, saying the law’s core plan to expand healthcare coverage under Medicaid is a path to “ruin.”

But on KOA’s Mike Rosen Show June 26, Beauprez didn’t answer a caller’s question about whether he’d turn down federal Medicaid funding, a move that could deprive over 150,000 Coloradans of health-care coverage.

During the initial years of Obamacare, the federal government is picking up most or all of the costs of expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured, and state economists say Colorado will likely not bear additional costs as federal funds recede.

Beauprez’s radio outrage at Obamacare’s  Medicaid expansion, makes me think he’d reject the federal funds if he were elected, as other Republican governors have done. Earlier this year, you recall, on KVOR’s Jeff Crank Show, he promised to “repeal” and “replace” Obmacare, adding, “What we can do, and what I look forward to doing, is everything within a governor’s power and the state’s power to push back, especially on this Medicaid bomb that is coming our way.”

“The Medicaid expansion as part of the Obamacare mandate is going to bury the states.” Beauprez told a caller on Rosen’s show last week, who said he had health insurance thanks to Medicaid expansion. “It may personally benefit you, but that’s part of the challenge in front of this country, is that the cost of the Medicaid expansion is absolutely unsustainable. I wish we had 45 minutes to explain it, but trust me, this is a path to nowhere – to ruin. I guess it is a path to somewhere – to financial ruin.”

Rosen didn’t ask Beauprez to answer the caller’s blunt question (“Would you turn down the Medicaid dollars?”), but Rosen couldn’t resist doing some Medicaid bashing of his own.

“I’d throw this in, too,” Rosen said on air, following up on Beauprez’s statement above. “If you’re also concerned about the general interest, and not just with benefits, keep in mind, that this Medicaid expansion is bait. That is, states that sign up for this will get some money at the front end, but then that money disappears and the states have to come up with those massive expenditures to cover those promises.”

“That’s the fiscal ruin I was talking about, Mike,” Beauprez told Rosen. “It’s simply unsustainable and they know it! It was the prototypical bait and switch.”

Unfortunately, we don’t know what Beauprez would do about it. Would he reject the federal funding? Would he chip away at it? What’s his plan?

And, FYI, here’s the original question put to Beauprez on Rosen’s show.

Caller Chris: How’s it going, Bob and Mike. I would consider myself to be, I guess, a moderate Democrat. Right now, you know, I’m a 24 years old, and under Obamacare Medicaid expansion, the Medicaid program has been able to extend to me, a young male. As governor, are you going to follow in the footsteps of, you know, like Rick Snod and Rick Snyder and all these guys that are turning down, you know, these Medicaid expansions? Because I’ve got to tell you, I mean, Medicaid is not for people that are, you know, sitting on their bums all day. You know? I work full time. Um, my wages, we just don’t — they don’t provide healthcare for me. And it has become a real help for me and a lot of Colorado residents. Would you turn down the Medicaid dollars?