(VictoryNH, Flickr)

The self-proclaimed one issue (illegal immigration! ) presidential candidate known for provocative statements has most recently been heading up his policy organization and acting as a regular talk show host at KOA, in a time slot once hosted by “Gunny” Bob Newman.

On the October 31 broadcast, Tancredo laughed at the notion that he might run for Governor. He jokingly said he was interested in perks– in living at the stately governor’s residence, commanding the national guard, and elk hunting from National Guard helicopters. He agreed with guest Gunny Bob that a chimpanzee could do a better job than Gov. Ritter.

NEWMAN: [The National Guard has] their own helicopters they could take you elk hunting from their helicopters.

TANCREDO: All right it is done. Elk hunting… I’ll do it.”

Tancredo recently questioned why the U.S. should not be allowed to use white phosphorus to ignite enemy troops in the War on Terror. In 2007, Tancredo called for the U.S. to deter terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by threatening to bomb Islamic holy sites.

“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo said. “If I am wrong, fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent, or you will find an attack.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Denver Post, Tancredo also notably whistled Dixie while at a recent convention hosted by anti-illegal immigration group Americans Have Had Enough and promoted by the League of the South, an organization that would like to see the South secede from the Union. Tancredo denied any connection to the League.

Another question: Will Candidate Tancredo continue his KOA talk show?

10-31-09

TANCREDO: I don’t know who you are talking about running for Governor but if it is me I am just very appreciative. John in Berthoud.

CALLER: I would think that Governor-Elect Tom Tancredo would sound like a wonderful thing.

CALLER: If Ritter can do it, you can do it.

TANCREDO: That’s it. That’s it.

CALLER: And you would be way better at it.

TANCREDO: Well thanks, buddy…

[...]

CALLER: I wanted to let Tom Tancredo know that I would donate money to your campaign.

TANCREDO: Oh brother. Well listen tomorrow at 9 o’clock and see. That is all it took. Somebody promised me that they would donate money. I will be up on the steps of the capitol tomorrow.

CALLER: And I am quite sure that with what is going now, you would be doing very well financially if you ran.

TANCREDO: Thanks my friend. I appreciate it. It is appealing in many ways. I will tell you, governor is more appealing than the U.S. Senate race, simply because you run for the Senate two things could happen to you, both bad from my point of view. You either lose or you could win.

NEWMAN: It is a lose, lose situation.

TANCREDO: I mean winning six more years in Washington. If I wanted to stay in Washington, I could have probably have that seat for a long time. It is a great seat and I got 60 percent of the vote every time I ran, so that was cool.

But Governor has a lot of allure to it because you get to stay in Colorado. You get that great big beautiful house. But anyway thanks buddy.

CALLER: I do think that if you were governor you could at least protect our borders.

TANCREDO: Ahhh. You bet. You do have the national guard at your command.

CALLER: There is a lot of unused chain link fence out there.

(Tancredo laughs)

NEWMAN: They got their own helicopters they could take you elk hunting from their helicopters.

TANCREDO: All right it is done. Elk hunting and John is going to contribute. I’ll do it.

[...]

CALLER: Anyone of you guys ought to be governor because you could do as least of good of a job as the guy who is there.

TANCREDO: Maybe we could do a tag team governor thing. Now that would be fun. Or a tag team radio thing, that would be fun too.

CALLER: You would do just as good of a job as the guy who is there.

TANCREDO: Give me a break. If I couldn’t do as good of a job as the guy there….

NEWMAN: So could a chimpanzee.

TANCREDO: That is for sure.

[...]

NEWMAN: It has a ring to it.

TANCREDO: It does. I must admit it does. I do get the opportunity though– If I didn’t have these opportunities to cathart like crazy on KOA, where we get a lot of frustration off– I get rid of it. You get it all built up. I would be doing something like that. But probably lucky for me, my wife, and all the liberals in Colorado that I do get to do this on the radio, so it takes care of a little bit of the desire I have to get back in that [political] arena.

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Tancredo asked why the U.S. should be prevented from using white phosphorous on our enemies in the war on terror. “I mean, against what law? Some sort of UN crap?”

In 2007, as a candidate for president, Tancredo called for the U.S. to deter terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by threatening the destruction of Islamic holy sites.

“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo said. “If I am wrong, fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent, or you will find an attack.”

After criticism poured in, Tancredo stood by his comments. Indeed, in 2007, Tancredo was merely repeating the idea. He had floated it two years earlier on a radio show.

Listen to yesterday’s napalm and white phosphorous discussion here.

5 October 2009; 9 p.m.

TANCREDO: We don’t need to use napalm in the mountains of Afghanistan. We have tanks that shoot lightening bolts.

NEWMAN: It scares the pheasants.

CALLER: It sure does. It knocks the heck out of a pheasant. The roosters. Say how come they don’t use that over there?

NEWMAN: We are using a bunch of different weapons. Napalm is particularly useful. When you are using an incendiary weapon, we have really gone primarily to WP when we have to use an incendiary.

TANCREDO: What? What? What?

NEWMAN: White phosphorus.

TANCREDO: Okay.

NEWMAN: Now white phosphorus you can fire in an artillery shell. You can fire in a mortar shell. And it is used to mark targets. It is a big plum of white smoke. But also it burns like mad. It burns at thousands of degrees. It will keep burning unless you remove the oxygen. And now it has particular uses. It is a completely legal weapon. However, you are not supposed to use it to set all the enemy troops and terrorists on fire. No, but we are using other weapons, like fuel air explosives, not true napalm. But fuel air explosives we can use in particular situations.

TANCREDO: What do you mean we can’t use. Who is telling us that we can’t use any of this stuff?

NEWMAN: People. All these bum scubas out there saying white phosphorus is illegal. It most certainly is not.

TANCREDO: Illegal. I mean, against what law? Some sort of U.N. crap.

NEWMAN: When you ask them, “Okay cite the law.” They will go “Uh, uh.” And that is the response you get. But to tell you the truth, we have excellent weapons on the ground over there and we don’t have to use napalm. We don’t have to.

CALLER: We used it over in Korea.

NEWMAN: Sure.

CALLER: Poured it on an ammunition ship over there.

NEWMAN: Yeah, and back then it had its uses. Had its uses in Vietnam. We have better weapons now.

TANCREDO: Napalm seemed to, did seem to always have a certain psychological effect.

NEWMAN: Oh, it does have that.

TANCREDO: Watch the–

NEWMAN: (Imitates generic Asian-style accent) I’m on fire. Fire.

TANCREDO: Well, we are headed toward the barn here. I want to thank you very much Gunny Bob for joining me tonight. It has been wonderful.

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Newman, who for years has aggravated his detractors as he preached his brand of conservatism to “38 states, three countries, and a small moon,” said on his show Aug. 3, that he is leaving to take up a position as a security adviser in an undisclosed location for an undisclosed employer. Apparently, the location of his new job is 19 hours away. Newman says he is still mulling over the possibility of maintaining a blog for KOA that would undoubtedly host his frequent attacks on progressive organizations and leaders.

A frequent target of the now defunct Colorado Media Matters, Newman has been noted for his attacks on gay and Muslim rights as well as misleading or outright factious statements. Those statements included everything from a call for every Muslim to be forced to wear a GPS device, to linking military service of homosexuals to greater HIV risk, to claiming President Obama wants to increase abortions in Mexico with U.S. dollars in order to expand the global economy. Newman called this alleged program “Obamagenics.”

Throughout his tenure, his comments led to condemnations from the Colorado Muslim Council, Mountain States Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Friends Service Committee among others. In addition, his comments caused both Progress Now Action and GLAAD to sponsor action campaigns against him.

While action campaigns led to sponsorship cancellations, Newman told Westword that he was not leaving the show due to financial complications at the studio. He said his show remained number one in its time slot and demographic. He further commented that management was very disappointed to see him go.

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There following are just a few Colorado-specific guilt-by-association efforts that the media watchdog group has documented, listening to such radio luminaries as the Independence Institute’s Jon Caldara and Amy Oliver, Mike Rosen and “Gunny” Bob Newman since the scandal involving the Illinois governor broke.

• On his December 10 Newsradio 850 KOA broadcast, “Gunny” Bob Newman dubbed the Blagojevich scandal “BlagoRezkObama,” in reference to purported unsavory connections among the three and Rezko’s campaign fundraising for both politicians.

• KOA’s Mike Rosen, on his December 10 program, admitted, “Now, I haven’t seen anything that directly connects Barack Obama to anything that would be illegal, dishonest, fraudulent, or felonious” in the scandal. He then added, “But nonetheless, he just doesn’t want to be tied too closely to Blagojevich. It seems, however, that he and his people are tied more closely to Blagojevich than he would have you believe.”

• Another KOA host, Independence Institute President Jon Caldara, during his December 9 broadcast interviewed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Tillman of the “free market” Illinois Policy Institute, asking him: “Is it possible for a man to become a state senator and then a United States senator from Illinois without somehow playing ball, being complicit, understanding, knowing the rules and playing by those rules of such a corrupt system?” Tillman responded by repeating the false claim that Obama “paid under market value” for his Chicago home. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Bloomberg News reported, “The couple who sold Barack Obama his Chicago home said the Illinois senator’s $1.65 million bid ‘was the best offer’ and they didn’t cut their asking price because a campaign donor bought their adjacent land, according to e-mails between Obama’s presidential campaign and the seller.”

• Another Independence Institute senior staff member, 1310 KFKA’s Amy Oliver, stated on her December 10 program: “But I gotta tell you, you know what? There are so many relationships around Barack Obama that are questionable. Tony — what is it? — Rezko, [former Weather Underground member] William Ayers, Reverend [Jeremiah] Wright [Jr.], Blagojevich. These are guys that are all around him.” Oliver continued: “And, by the way, Barack Obama worked closely to get, or worked very hard and was one of Blagojevich’s, I guess was part of his inner circle when he was in the governor’s, when he tried, or, his first run for governor, and Barack Obama’s in the statehouse, and he was an adviser to the governor. Am I saying he’s involved? No.”

Apparently, the right-wing radio heads just can’t help it. Read more of Colorado Media Matters’ findings.