Sometimes KNUS’ Steve Kelley seems embarrassed by his own morning rants and rages against Obama and the nasty Democrats. The other day he asked, “Do you really want to hear a rant from middle-aged white guy?”

Kelley’s current behavior looks different from what you heard during of his 19 career at KOA, where he at least acted like he didn’t have the answers.

But Kelley’s more level-headed roots return when he conducts interviews, which usually feature straight-forward questions you’d want, but don’t expect, from someone seated behind a microphone.

This morning, for example, during his Kelley and Company show, he asked Rep. Cory Gardner this really good question:

Kelley: Why do you guys [Republicans] seem to be losing the PR battle [on the fiscal cliff]? I mean, it’s so easy to blame a Republican, but it seems to stick to you?

Gardner: Well, you know, it’s tough. We’ve got to do a better job of messaging and explaining to people who are in the middle class, people who are lower income earners, that people who will be affected by this tax increase are people like you, people who are working hard to make ends meet, people who are struggling to pay the mortgage, because their business are going to be hard hit. That’s going to result in lower take home pay because the businesses they work with are suffering and struggling to bear the burden of the tax increases. That’s the bottom line and so the President controls the bully pulpit, regardless of who it is in the White House, whether it is a Democrat or a Republican. They have a tremendous opportunity to shape the outlines of the message.

Listen to audio of Rep. Gardner talking fiscal cliff on Denver radio station KNUS 710 AM on 12-11-12

Kelley was on the right track, but to get to the heart of the GOP’s fiscal-cliff problem, Kelley should have contrasted Gardner’s head-spinning response with Obama’s crisp lines on the topic, which he delivered at a rally Monday:

Obama: “We can solve this problem. All Congress needs to do is pass a law that would prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody’s income,” he said. “When you put it all together, what you need is a package that keeps taxes where they are for middle class families, we make some tough spending cuts on things that we don’t need, and then we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a slightly higher tax rate.”

In another question, which Kelley didn’t acknowledge actually related to his previous question about the GOP’s PR problem, Kelley asked Gardner whether he’d compromise on a tax increase:

Gardner: “We cannot agree to a tax increase. That is not the solution. That is not going to solve our $16 trillion debt. That’s what I am urging our leaders, Speaker Boehner and others, to make sure they are adhering to…I think he knows that the [Republican] conference does not support a tax increase, that there is no will to increase taxes amongst the Republican Party and the House majority.”

That’s obviously part of the Republican PR problem on the fiscal cliff, but Kelley didn’t get into the fundamentals. Maybe he thinks it would be bad PR.

You expect some conservative political organizations to shut down post election, but what about conservative talk radio shows?

I’ve wondered, because some  of them seem like part of the GOP political machine, blasting the same lines into the echo chamber that you hear from Republican candidates.

Going all out, KNUS’ morning host Steve Kelley even swung in a swing for 32 hours just before the election, prior to Romney’s big rally at Fiddler’s Green, breaking a record in the Guiness Book of World Records and trying, unsuccessfully, to swing the vote to Romney in the swing state of Colorado.

After putting his butt on the line like that, I was surprised to hear Kelley say KNUS (710 AM) might be considering putting his butt on the street by canceling the show.

“If you like the show,” Kelley told listeners Tuesday during his Kelley and Company morning show, “tell the management, because we’re not sure we’re going to continue.”

Asked about the ominous statement, Kelley said he was being “flip.”

“It’s a flip statement, of course,” Kelley told me. “I hope we can be viable. We’re not doing badly, but we’ve got work to do still. I’m recovering from two years of unemployment and blowing through my 401K just to survive.”

“My point is this,” said Kelley, whose best known in Denver for his long stint at KOA radio. “I’m a victim of the poor economy in a substantive way. I’ve been on the good side of things when money was not a big deal, and now I’m pay check to pay check.”

“It’s a politically oriented station, but the reason I’m on the air is to hit all fields,” he said. “If we talk about something other than politics, that’s good for me too.”

“Where we couldn’t borrow a phone call a year ago, we’re full lines now.”

On KNUS’ morning talk-radio show Thursday, Steve Kelley played an audio clip of Obama criticizing Romney’s response to the Libya attack, saying Romney has a “tendency to shoot first and aim later.”

Steve Kelley, the host of the show, had Mitt Romney’s son Josh on the phone, and, it’s only natural to try to personalize things a bit. Plus, they say international relations isn’t so different than what goes on within families, on the playground, between neighbors, or what have you.

So Kelley asked Josh Romney if his father shot first and aimed later, when it came to disciplining Josh!

It was a fair question to ask a grown man stumping for his father, but Josh dodged it rather ominously, saying “We don’t talk about that much.”

“He was tough but fair,” Josh told Kelley, after some awkward banter.

I’m not saying Mitt shouldn’t have spanked his kids, or Obama shouldn’t have spanked Sasha and Malia, if he did. (I never spanked my kids, but I’m a deeply wimpy progressive weenie.)

But you’d think Josh would have laid it out on the table. I mean, seriously, did Mitt belt his kids?

Why don’t the Romneys talk about this much? What’s the big deal? I wish Kelley would have finished the conversation.

Kelley: Shoot first and aim later. Critical of your dad. Hey when your dad disciplined you, and how did he discipline you, did dad shoot first and aim later with you?

Josh Romney: My dad was very good with discipline. They really allowed us to understand and reap the benefits of making bad decisions on our own.

Kelley: Did he spank ya? Come on, Josh.

Josh Romney: We don’t talk about that much but he, ah, was tough. Tough but fair, we’ll say that.

Kelley: I remember one time my brother and I were playing with bullets. And you know, my dad heard about it. That’s the only time, first, last, that I received the belt. Can you relate at all to that, Josh?

Josh Romney [laughing]: The dreaded belt. The dreaded belt.

Kelley: Ah, that tells me right there. The dreaded belt.

Josh Romney: I’m joking. He was tough but fair. You know, tough but fair.

Listen to the audio here:
On KNUS radio 9-13, Josh Romney is asked whether Mitt Romney spanked him

You may recall that Steve Kelley, host of KNUS radio’s morning drive-time show, got really pissed at Rep. Mike Coffman, after Coffman refused to appear on Kelley’s show and explain why, among other things, he felt the need to (sort of) apologize for saying Obama isn’t an American in his heart.

Coffman ignored Kelley’s interview requests, and eventually Kelley said he didn’t want Coffman on his show anymore, unless he answered questions about his birther moment and explained why he ducked Kelley. I explained all this in a previous blog post.

But Coffman was on Kelley’s show Friday, talking about the Aurora shootings.

I figured that, in light of the horror at the theater, Kelley had made a one-time exception to his promise not to let Coffman off the hook on his birther comments, and this turned out to be correct.

“I suspended it,” Kelley told me, regarding his Coffman ban.

“Bill, my sports guy, was angry with me. How could I back down? But 58 people had been wounded and 12 were dead. What am I going to do?

“When we’re talking politics again, there will be no conditions set. Period. No questions will be off limits. Not that any conditions were set this time. I could have ambushed him, but I didn’t think it would have been appropriate.”

Kelley obviously did the right thing here.

But I’m hoping Kelley, and any other media types who interview Coffman, insist on getting his personal cell phone number, so they can find him if he refuses to talk about topics that fall someday into Coffman’s  “I-stand-by-my-statement-that-I-misspoke-and-I-apologize” category.

Rep. Mike Coffman is still mostly avoiding reporters, after he went into hiding following his comment at a fundraiser that he’s not sure Obama was born in the U.S. but, in any case, he believes Obama is not an American “in his heart.”

But Coffman is creeping into medialand ever so gently, with appearances on some conservative talk shows (though he’s ignoring Steve Kelley on KNUS). He was on Fox 31 in the morning as well, after the Obamacare decision, but 9News hasn’t been on his dance card.

Coffman’s brief interview on KLZ 560-AM’s Grassroots Radio Colorado July 5 shows what he gets when he cherry picks his questioners.

At one point in the interview he describes Democrats in the new CD 6 this way:

I feel pretty good about the race because I grew up in really what is the most Democrat part of the district, in original Aurora and northern Aurora. They are not traditional Democrats. They are blue-collar, working-class Democrats. They do not share the radical environmental views of the Democrat Party in Washington D.C. They are very pro-military. I have a military background. Probably, quite frankly, on some of the class warfare rhetoric, they’re probably going to buy on some of that, as well as certainly strong labor support. But they certainly don’t line up on every issue. And so there are some avenues in there.

(Listen to Coffman on Grassroots Radio Colorao 7-5-12.)

Anyone except the most sympathetic questioner would be curious about what aspects of the “class warfare rhetoric,” as Coffman puts it, appeal to Dems in his district.

Is he referring to the idea that tax breaks shouldn’t be extended for people earning over $250,000?

Is he referring to the notion that Social Security is more than the “ponzi scheme” that Coffman has said it is?

Does Coffman think Democrats in his district go for these types of things? If so, why?

We won’t be hearing answers to these questions as long as Coffman continues to sidestep real reporters, and his fans in the talk-radio world don’t make their shows more interesting by asking a follow-up question or two when Coffman is on the line.

Last month, after Rep. Mike Coffman said he didn’t know whether President Obama was an American “in his heart,” KNUS morning show host Steve Kelley wanted to talk to Coffman.

He told his listeners May 25 that, maybe, Coffman’s comments weren’t “worthy of a major apology,” and he wanted to talk to the Congressman about it.

But Coffman, who’d been on Kelley’s show “many, many times,” wasn’t returning phone calls, and Kelley was getting increasingly pissed.

So Kelley, a conservative talk-radio host who’s been amping up his attacks on Obama in recent months, took a stand that you wouldn’t expect to hear on rightie radio.

Kelley said on air that he’d give Coffman four more days to call back. After that, since Coffman was refusing to return calls during a tough time, Kelley wouldn’t accept Coffman’s requests, as he had in the past, to come on the radio show and promote himself and his agenda.

Kelley: When Mr. Coffman’s people call and say look, he’s got an initiative, he’s got this, he’d like to come on the air–

Kelley’s Co-host: A ribbon cutting ceremony.

Kelley: Yes. The answer is no. Tank you very much. You weren’t willing to come in during a heated time. You’re not coming on to tout and pump yourself up.  I don’t care what party you are.  I don’t care if I happen to agree with your politics. You’re not going to – you know, that’s not how you manipulate and use the media, at least, you’re not going to here.

It’s been over three weeks now, and Kelley still hasn’t heard from Coffman’s office, Kelley said in a phone interview Monday.

“Unless he can make a reasonable case, he’s not welcome on the show now,” Kelley said. “Fair is fair. I understand it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not like I was going to crucify him or anything.”

“The great thing about radio is you can say what you want, and it’s not edited,” Kelley said. “You’ve got an opportunity to make your case, particularly on our ‘friendly station.'”

Other than an appearance on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman, Coffman apparently hasn’t talked to reporters since he delivered the same soundbite to 9News about his birther moment five times in a row.

In reporting that incident, 9News reporter Kyle Clark echoed Kelley’s comments about Coffman, stating on air that Coffman was normally eager to talk to the press, but things changed after 9News reported the birther comments Coffman had made at a Republican fundraiser in Elbert County.

Clark: The  Congressman is usually willing to talk about anything. He’s been on 9News 16 times in the past year, weighing in on everything from wildfires to Memorial Day celebrations. Seems the only thing he didn’t want to talk about was what he said at a fundraiser in Elbert County May 12.

Clark told viewers that he didn’t think Coffman would be able to avoid questions about his birther-moment comments “till election day.”

“At some point, you have to think, there’s going to be a full discussion of this,” Clark said on the air.

The story continues about Rep. Mike Coffman’s apology for saying Obama isn’t an American “in his heart.”

And when an apology drags on, questions rise up, like did he really want to apologize? Did he mean it? Who’s pressuring him? What’s wrong with him? Etc.

You recall that after 9News aired “Coffman’s Birther Moment,” Coffman first said he misspoke, and he apologized, but not fully, because he was defensive. Coffman stated:

COFFMAN: “I don’t believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism. His policies reflect a philosophy that America is but one nation among many equals,” the statement read. “As a Marine, I believe America is unique and based on a core set of principles that make it superior to other nations.”

Then Coffman wrote a letter to The Denver Post with a full-out, nondefensive apology.

Later, when confronted by 9News, he apologized five times in a row, saying the same apologetic words unapologetically in response to five different questions, including, “Is there anything I can ask you that you’ll answer differently?”

Two days later, Coffman said on KHOW that “to some extent” he’d apologized for political reasons.

On KHOW, he also said of the birthers: “God bless those people; they’re well meaning people,” and he said, “I understand their passion.”

Meanwhile, Peter Boyles called Coffman’s apology “weenie”, and KNUS Steve Kelley was thinking the same thing, though he didn’t put it that way.

So, on June 8, to his credit, Kelley asked Rep. Cory Gardner what he thought about it:

KELLEY: Listen, we haven’t spoken since – and I don’t want to drag you into this unnecessarily, but Congressman, your colleague Mike Coffman and his comments. And I guess it speaks to on some level this whole idea of investigation and you know, qualifications and birther and Fast and Furious – it’s all kind of bundled together which really causes one to question anything that goes on in this White House. Have you talked to Congressman Coffman? We cannot get him to get back on the air, here, and it frustrates me to no end. I don’t know that he needed to apologize as vociferously as he did. A comment on that, please.

GARDNER: Well, you know I certainly talk to Mike Coffman and understand his frustration with the president. I believe the President, as does Mike Coffman, that the President is a citizen of the United States, born in this country. I think what you saw was somebody who is extremely frustrated with the failed policies of this president that is actually making our economy worse. You know, this country needed the president to succeed in 2008 when he was elected. We’ve now seen forty months in a row where unemployment’s been at or above eight percent. The jobs numbers that came out last week where unemployment actually increased. Mike Coffman, myself, and others are all extremely frustrated with the failure of this president’s policies to move the country in the right direction. And so, you know, I think he did what he felt was necessary, and I think he did the right thing. But again, the issue in November is what we are going to do to move this country in the right direction.

Gardner is defending Coffman in a similar fashion as Coffman defended himself immediately after the story broke, saying Coffman did the right thing by apologizing, but implying that the underlying frustrations that Coffman has toward Obama might somehow explain or justify Coffman’s birther moment.

And Gardner’s apology/defense, which includes the line, “he did what he felt was necessary,” also harkens back to Coffman’s statement on KHOW, where Coffman acknowledge that his apology was motivated partially by political necessity.

The evolving apologies and strange behavior by Coffman, and his current position, which is one of silence and avoidance of reporters, points to the need for journalists to air out this issue fully with Coffman, when this becomes possible.

Obviously, this will happen at some point, probably sooner rather than later, and when it does, the full details of Coffman’s response to the 9News story, when it broke last month, as recounted above, should be covered.

Conservative talk radio hosts don’t have too many kind words for Metropolitan State College these days, after Metro’s decision last week to offer a reduced tuition rate to undocumented students.

Everyone knows this issue potentially alienates Hispanic voters in a swing state where Hispanics could decide the election.

Still, the conservatives on the radio, many of whom define themselves as partisan Republicans, are attacking Metro with abandon.

For example, KNUS Steve Kelley, who denounced Metro, had Rep. Cory Gardner on his morning show Friday, and he put the question to him. Gardner replied:

Gardner: I read that in the paper this morning, and of course I oppose in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. I think it’s the wrong policy. It sends the wrong kind of message to people who are in the country illegally. And I think we got to work on border security before anything else. And I think Metro State has it backwards.

KNUS’ Kelley was open-minded about the issue compared to Devon Lentz on KFKA’s “AM Colorado” June 5.

Lentz is a KFKA host and the temporary chair of the Larimer County Republican Party.

She went beyond Metro, stating that Hispanic grade-school kids shouldn’t be allowed in public schools:

LENTZ: Are their parents being kicked out of this country yet? And besides the fact that my taxpayer dollars are educating them in the public schools, that their parents are not paying into the school system. Not okay with this one. Oh, so many levels…

I think I’m missing something here. Why are we continuing to reward illegals in America? Why? That’s what we are doing. We are continuing to reward them. So, yeah, I get the whole ‘they’re innocents, they’re minors’, they got their education. I don’t care if they’ve been here for 3 years and graduated from high school, or if they’ve been here 10 years. They’re on my dime in the school system. Their parents are not paying in. I’m not looking to backhand minors that didn’t have a choice in this country, but at what point does even the schools system learn that this 6^th grader coming in and their parents are here illegally. Why are they being allowed in the school system to begin with?

Both Kelley and Lentz were mixed up on the facts related to this issue, and I’ll get to the fact-checking in a future post, but clearly the conservative talk radio world isn’t holding back.

You have to wonder whether Rep. Mike Coffman admires their passion.

On KNUS’ Kelley and Company yesterday, host Steve Kelley asked Rep. Mike Coffman to name his choices to serve as the GOP vice presidential candidate.

Here’s what Coffman said:

“I think there are a number of people. I think Marco Rubio, though he’s said repeatedly he’s not interested. He’s certainly a possibility. As a United States Senator, I think he’d make a good vice president. I think on my side, Paul Ryan I think would make a great vice president. I think Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana would be good. And I’ve said Eric Cantor, Majority Leader in the House of Representatives. So I think we’ve got a pretty deep bench on the Republican side.”

[Listen to Rep. Coffman endorse Paul Ryan for Vice Prez on KNUS’ Kelley and Co 4-23-2012]

Kelley should have taken a couple minutes to allow Coffman to explain why he likes those guys. Why do they have what it takes to be VP?

Coffman’s suggestion of Rep. Ryan as a “great” VP choice is particularly significant, because you have to assume Coffman is saying that Ryan’s views (as expressed in his budget bill) would be advantageous Romney.

This would include, among other things, Ryan’s controversial proposal to end Medicare as currently designed for people born after 1956.

Maybe Kelley, or another reporter, will ask Coffman about his VP choices.

Rush Limbaugh’s 1950’s-era comments last week, calling a woman a “slut” for believing that her health insurance should cover birth control, came from the mouth of…Rush Limbaugh, an unelected publicity hound/entertainer of the first order.

And Limbaugh’s extremism got all kinds of coverage, locally and nationally.

Then ColoradoPols broke a story yesterday about extreme comments at home in Colorado, by elected Republican legislators at a rally on the west steps of the Capitol.

Pols posted videotape of GOP speakers, including Sen. Tim Neville comparing Nazi Germany to the Obama Administration. Other video clips consisted of, as described by Pols:

“Sen. Harvey declaring that a program of mandating contraceptive coverage is “not a slippery slope, but a cliff” to “genocide somewhere down the road.” Sen. Lambert called the policy “mind control,” and read from a right-wing column warning that the same authority could be used to force the purchase of “euthanasia pills.” Not to be outdone, Sen. Renfroe said that it could to a situation “where England was when their king decided he needed to rule the church.”

Reporters who didn’t make it to the rally should go back and cover these comments, handily posted on Pols, to air them out. That’s what journalism is about.

It’s obvious to me that the statements by elected GOP  officials deserved more attention from the local media than Limbaugh’s comments, weird as they were.  They’re elected officials. Maybe they’re publicity hounds too, but still.

Candidates like Joe Coors who make extreme comments in secondary media outlets, like talk radio, also deserve media scrutiny when they go off. There’s not much public-interest value in reporting that KNUS talk-show host Steve Kelly thinks Obamacare is leading to a government takeover of the individual, but when Joe Coors, who’s running against Rep. Ed Perlmutter, says it, it’s news.

Here’s what Coors said on KNUS’ Kelley and Company yesterday:

Kelley: How big an issue is [Obamacare] in this race?

Coors: It’s huge…. Governments that have controlled health care in their countries basically own the individual. And we cannot let Obamacare legislation dictate our lives in any matter shape or form, and I’m very much opposed to it and would certainly vote to repeal it or defund it or whatever I could do when I get back there. [BigMedia emphasis]

Kelley: You make a great point. Yeah. Think about that. If someone could make a decision on your health and decisions on your health, they have total control over you.

Coors: Yes, sir.

Listen here to Joe Coors on KNUS 3-13-2012 say Obamacare leads to total control of the individual.

A reporter might ask a veteran getting VA coverage if he or she feels the government owns him.  Or a Brit, or to a lesser degree a Canadian or someone on Medicare, for that matter. And what does government control over healthcare have to do with mild-mannered Obamacare anyway?

With depleted staff, reporters at legacy news outlets can’t be everywhere and do everything like they could before, or at least try to. They should throw out any hesitancy to use material from places like Pols or talk radio, if the material is verifiable and newsworthy.

For example, I was just listening to a podcast of Grassroots Radio Colorado from Monday, in which  Sen. Neville describes how he prepared his comments about Nazi’s and the Obama Administration for the rally.

He said:

I was doing some research last night, and I was putting my notes together [for his speech at the rally] and of course you pull things apart. You don’t like this. You don’t like that. And you know I was looking at the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany and the parallels I was seeing were pretty scary.

What’s scary to me is how many of us, including smart reporters, are ignoring this stuff.