BackboneAmerica

Two Republicans look back and ahead

Fellow Coloradan Steve Mueller (SRMueller1@msn.com) took friendly exception to my year-end email reminding Republicans that the late Gerald Ford, rocklike as he was in the political crucible of 1974, still compares unfavorably to the man who challenged him in 1976 (and Nixon in 1968), Ronald Reagan. Here’s our exchange of views – JA

Andrews: Let’s face it: America could have done better with its leaders in the 1970s. President Gerald Ford, rest his soul, was a good and honorable man who rose to the unsought challenge of cleaning up Richard Nixon’s presidential mess. Indeed he was in some ways heroic at that hour. But as we eulogize Ford, don’t forget the “road not taken” by Republicans who twice missed a chance to nominate Ronald Reagan — instead of Nixon in 1968, then instead of Ford in 1976.

Could Reagan, if nominated, have won the White House? No one can know. But Nixon, Agnew, Ford, Rockefeller, Dole, Carter, and Mondale were not inevitable. Our country (and the free world) could have done better. That is we can know, because in 1980 we did do better. An honest reading and evaluation of the past, including its “what ifs,” is essential to doing better in the future, it seems to me.

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Mueller: I’d like to respond to your comment below about supporting Reagan in 1976. I was very active in Republican politics back then, and even though it was 30 years ago, I remember it like yesterday. I was a two-term State Chairman of the College Republicans, and spent about 60 hours a week working for the party for a couple of years. I ran as a Ford delegate at both the State convention and the 2nd Congressional District Convention, but Natalie Meyer organized a better campaign for Reagan in Colorado than we had for President Ford.. and Reagan won in Colorado, with the exception of Gordon Allot and John Love being elected as Ford delegates. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner (baochsner@aol.com)

I look back on 2006 with some satisfaction, some regret, and the realization that we live in a constantly and rapidly changing world. There’s a Chinese proverb that sums up what I see for 2007 and beyond: “May you live in interesting times.” This can be either a blessing or a curse. Which one it is depends on the preparation and actions you take to stay ahead of these trends.

One reason why some Americans are frustrated and confused about things is because they don’t understand the trends happening around them. The traditional ‘Mom and Pop’ retail shops are generally struggling… unless they know how to market well, and preferably on the Internet. They also see their dollars not going as far as they used to because of high inflation.

For folks looking for job security, well, they may be looking for a very long time. Ever since companies started downsizing in the ‘80s and outsourcing to foreign countries in the ‘90s, this trend has accelerated and will only continue. Not to mention changes in industries, combined with management risk in some companies, such as GM and Ford. (more…)

Matt Dunn will serve out the final month of a legislative term for Rep. Joe Stengel (R-Littleton), who quit early to avoid the lobbying restrictions that take effect soon under Amendment 41. The past year has been a political roller coaster for Dunn, a former Lincoln Fellow of the Claremont Institute who helped me establish the institute’s Denver office and my radio show. The rookie candidate tied for first at the Republican assembly convened to nominate Stengel’s would-be successor, then won his August primary before losing the November election to Democrat Joe Rice. The local GOP organization honored him with interim duties to fill the vacancy until Rice takes over on the legislature’s opening day, Jan. 20. Note: the Rocky Mountain News story of Matt’s Dec. 28 swearing-in erred in suggesting he and I aren’t acquainted — we’re old friends. It was another new member present that day, Steve King, whose nonrecognition I was referring to.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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This Sunday, New Year’s Eve, our show takes a look back at big events of the stormy year of 2006 — and a view of the cloudy crystal ball for 2007.

Columnists Jay Ambrose of the Rocky Mountain News and Susan Barnes-Gelt of the Denver Post (she’s also my TV debate partner, the peace symbol gal) bring their right and left perspectives to the discussion. Krista Kafer and Joshua Sharf are there as well. We hope you’ll be.

My right perspective is that conservatives and Republicans could have done better, a heck of a lot better, in the old year if we’d had our heads in the game as America is entitled to expect from us. Losing Congress was not necessary. Slumping toward defeatism in Iraq wasn’t either.

Here in Colorado, Bill Ritter’s cakewalk to the governor’s chair needn’t have occurred. Ditto with Dem gains in the legislature. Shoot, there was even a way to win judicial term limits if yours truly had quarterbacked the darn thing smarter. (more…)

The 18th Judicial District DA, censured this week by a state regulatory panel, sent the following letter to newspaper editors in response to what many of us believe was grossly slanted coverage of the whole matter. – JA

By District Attorney Carol Chambers (cchambers@da18.state.co.us)

Dear Editors: When I took office, I made a commitment to do the right thing, the principled thing in any given situation. I took this job because I wanted to improve a criminal justice system in need of a great deal more accountability to our constituents for the things that we do and the money that we spend. Our judges, deputy district attorneys and public defenders are public servants first and foremost and should conduct themselves accordingly. It is my job as the District Attorney to represent the People of the state of Colorado and I never forget that.

Identity theft is rampant in the state of Colorado. We rank 5th in the nation for identity theft related crime. District attorneys along with law enforcement must promptly and aggressively investigate this crime and assist victims whenever they can. (more…)

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

I ran across the following comment: “America is responsible for the American deaths in Iraq. After all, they were the ones who invaded in the first place. The Iranians and Syrians have nothing to do with it!” Such a comment is the exclusive purview of a moral relativist who clearly demonstrates his inability to differentiate between good and evil. It’s like saying a person who is robbed is himself responsible for the crime owing to the fact he rose from his bed that morning.

Any mention of the 600,000 bodies found in Saddam Hussein’s mass graves is dismissed with “you’ve killed that many in auto accidents!” or “Well, you dropped the bomb on Nagasaki!” It is “moral equivalizing” at its finest.

The complaint our country and its allies — and the terrorized Iraqi people –have with the Iranians and Syrians is the continuing sanctuary and support they provide the insurgency in Iraq: the staging, training and resupply, conveniently ignored by our commentator. The tentacles of the war reach directly into Syria and Iran. Yet our commentator would be the first to howl “America is widening the war!” were we to chop these tentacles off as we should and need to do.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Why does Christmas still matter, in an America that seems more disspirited each year with secularism, multiculturalism, and political correctness? Why is the Jewish festival of Hanukkah a better fit with our nation’s heritage than the holiday claims of most other faiths? How do Judeo-Christian beliefs and values undergird our liberties as Americans?

We’ll explore those questions this Sunday in a special Christmas Eve edition of “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” My guests are Jean Torkelson, religion writer of the Rocky Mountain News, and Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, editor of the Intermountain Jewish News. Joshua Sharf and Krista Kafer, my regular microphone partners, will also join the discussion. We invite you to listen.

Backbone Radio’s recommended reading for Christmas includes this beloved poem by G. K. Chesterton, this timely warning against false political messiahs by Cal Thomas, and this feast of books for patriots, contributed by my colleagues at the Claremont Institute.

By Dave Petteys (dpetteys@comcast.net)

At a recent cocktail party I talked to a person who believed that secularism was “mankind outgrowing religion: getting beyond it.” He also implied that this was a good thing, in that “religion was the cause of wars.” But is this the correct perspective? Or is our generation merely a disobedient one that is “doing evil in the sight of the Lord”? Certainly Old Testament Scripture is filled with the sad litany of disobedient generations that went on for much longer than our brief 200 years. (more…)

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com)

“Ritter’s inaugural week jampacked” the Rocky Mountain News’ headline exclaimed a few days ago. The week for Gov.-elect Bill Ritter is to begin on the 9th of January with the swearing-in ceremony. Two days later, the new governor will be honored at an inaugural dinner followed by a concert featuring his favorite country music star. Next the governor will be whisked away on a train tour of the Front Range ending in Pueblo where a spaghetti dinner awaits him at the Pueblo Union Depot. The inaugural committee is busy sending invitations to dignitaries, Members of Congress, other elected officials, and civic leaders. The cost of the events is expected to top out at $750,000.

What if the plans were different? Imagine if instead of Denver and the Front Range, the new leader chose to go to La Junta on the plains. Rather than invite prominent officials, civic leaders, campaign funders, and other distinguished individuals, he invited the night cleaning crew from the nearby Wal-Mart and some unknowns from out of the country. And what if instead of surrounding himself with flashing cameras and cheering supporters, he chose a bunch of pack animals. Then rather than take the stage as a man in his prime attired in a suit and tie, he entered as a tiny infant swaddled in scraps of cloth. (more…)

By G. K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome. (more…)

(Andrews in Denver Post, Dec. 17) “This holiday stress is killing me.” “Yeah, my schedule is murder too.” Hold it; Christmas and death in the same thought? That can’t be right. It actually has been right for 2000 years now. Life is brutal, and it was not in denial but in defiance of evil that Jesus’ followers believe he came.

A wave of death from the Judean king accompanied the holy birth, according to Matthew: “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.” Joseph and Mary fled for their lives with the baby. The world has only gotten bloodier since then.

This Christmas finds human life more endangered than ever, with weapons of mass destruction emboldening the Islamic East and a new, ghoulish bioethics rising in the secular West. The old saccharine Yuletide of happy endings died with Dickens – if it ever existed even for him; such somber works as “Hard Times” suggest not. Murderous holidays indeed.

In Backbone, Colorado, my hometown of the heart, up near timberline on Cottonwood Pass, folks celebrate this season of Christ’s nativity with a sensible approach – warm and reverent, yet realistic and unsentimental – that holds a lesson for all of us amid the jaded clamor of a flatlands urban Christmas. The key is perspective. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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How does Barack Obama, the black liberal senator who’s fluttering hearts for 2008, stack up with black conservative author and columnist Joseph C. Phillips?

What must Bush and his generals do to snatch victory from defeat in Iraq, according to the new book by combat veteran Major Eric Egland?

Why do Putin and his poison endanger not just Russian democracy but international peace, as former congressman Bob Schaffer sees it? (more…)

The “Head On” debate between former state Sen. John Andrews (R) and former Denver councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt (D), seen daily on Colorado Public Television since 1997, began its December series this week. They led with a whimsical look at newsmakers of the past year and possible headlines of the year to come. Other topics this month include the Iraq Study Group, advice to Gov.-elect Bill Ritter, and early betting for the 2008 presidential race.

1. WINNERS & SINNERS OF 2006

John: As the calendar turns, John and Susan say thanks for watching us in 2006. Here’s our list of winners and sinners for the past year. Democrats sparkled and Republicans stumbled. US armed forces fought heroically, but politicians and journalists hurt the war effort. Colorado’s economy boomed. Colorado sports teams bombed.

Susan: Big winners in 2006: moderates and independent thinkers. Voters repudiated extreme partisanship and voted for moderates. Congressional elections went national with the war in Iraq taking center state. Losers: neo-cons and crooks.

John: Sinners of the year also included the unethical Senator Hanna, the hypocritical Pastor Haggard, the state Supreme Court with its immigration ruling, and whoever convinced Beauprez to leave Congress. Winners included CDOT with TREX, Hank Brown with his turnaround at CU, and Archbishop Chaput with his spiritual backbone. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
and now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Will Tom Tancredo run for President and invite Jeb Bush on the ticket? Does war novelist and Wall Journal columnist Mark Helprin agree with the Iraq Study Group that America can’t win over there? What’s the comeback from David Barton, founder of WallBuilders and author of “Original Intent,” to the freedom-from-religion crowd this Christmas?

All three will be my guests this Sunday on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” You will find no jollier stocking stuffer anywhere. Yuletide in Backbone with the mayor (me) spiking the punch is an experience not to be missed. Listen and hear for yourself! (more…)

By John Lopez, Durango CO (jhlopez@earthlink.net)

The Durango Herald, our local leftist rag, had several days of breathless nonstop coverage of a tempest in a teapot regarding a subdivision in Pagosa Springs that first asked, and then demanded with threatened sanctions that a doozy resident take down her peace symbol wreath as an inappropriate holiday decoration under local subdivision covenants. First Amendment conniptions of course broke loose — you might have thought that some right wing fundamentalist had dared to question Islamic Awareness Day at the local grade school. [The Denver dailies took much the same line. - Editor]

The Herald’s coverage of the Peace Symbol controversy in Pagosa indicated that they anticipated another journalism award. It also displayed an obvious delight in persecuting Christians during Christmas, with the paper’s baying leftist readership sharing in the joy. All letters printed were pro-symbol and several were aggressively anti-Christian. However there are at least two obvious reasons to oppose the Peace Symbol as a Christmas decoration. (more…)