Backbone Radio

Phillips on Obama, Clinton & King

Slated on Backbone Radio, January 20 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver.. 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

This Sunday, Jan. 20, it's exactly one year until we inaugurate the next President of the United States. Who will it be? Then on Monday, America observes the Martin Luther King holiday, amid sniping between the Democratic candidates about what his legacy means. Has the bare-knuckle Clinton campaign crossed a line? Is Obama benefiting from a double standard? Joseph C. Phillips, one of the most thoughtful black conservatives and author of "He Talk Like a White Boy," a regular on our show for the past year, joins me again this week to help sort the whole thing out.

It was a raucous week at the State Capitol as well. The truest conservatives, in my book, uphold dignity, demeanor, decorum. They follow high standards and set a worthy example. By this yardstick, Rep. Douglas Bruce, right-wing as he may be, is less conservative than Rep. Kent Lambert, who hosted him in the House prior to Monday's debacle.

Lambert, chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a retired AF colonel, is another of my guests for the Jan. 20 show. So is Rocky Mountain News columnist Jay Ambrose. So is Colorado novelist John Berry, whose new political thriller"To Move the Mountain" is set at this year's Beijing Olympics.

Backbone Radio is the most principled, most patriotic, most faith-based, most Colorado-proud spot on your weekend radio dial. Be listening Sunday as we move inside 366 days from Bush's farewell and President Who's debut..

Yours for real conservatism, JOHN ANDREWS

No one's liberty or property?

Slated on Backbone Radio, January 13 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver.. 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

"The legislature is in session, and no one's liberty or property is safe." So goes the old warning. Though obviously exaggerated, it contains enough truth to make you uneasy when the Colorado General Assembly convenes for 2008, especially with Democrats in charge. I mean no disrespect to our state legislature, in which I was honored to serve, and in which many honorable persons of both parties serve now. But overreaching is inherent with political power, which is why we at Backbone Radio are so insistent on limited government.

"In questions of power," as Thomas Jefferson put it, "let no more be heard of confi­dence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." David Harsanyi of the Denver Post provides a vivid illustration with his column Friday about the state's habit of "underestimating" its tax take from us.

What to expect from the new legislative session and Gov. Bill Ritter, along with what's next in the unpredictable presidential race, is our theme for this week's show. Former education commissioner Bill Moloney and Pam Benigno of the Independence Institute are among my guests.

** Illegal immigration, a subject Ritter and the Dems try to ignore, helped Ed Clark win an upset victory for Mayor of Greeley last fall. We'll talk about it with Clark.

** Plus Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on the long war against radical Islam, and film producer Mark Mathis on "Expelled," the new movie about intelligent design theory and its academic enemies.

"Don't tread on me," the old spirit of defiance to tyrants and enemies, is good preparation for Americans facing a new year and new challenges. Here at Backbone Radio, that spirit is alive. It's on our banner as we stride into 2008. Want to march with us?

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

Huckabee and me

Slated on Backbone Radio, January 6 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver.. 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

No, I'm not supporting Huck for President, and we're not pals. But as the surprising Arkansan shakes up the GOP race, I can say I "knew him when." Back in 1995, the then-lieutenant governor was featured in a TV special on term limits that I produced, and he toured us around Little Rock on his funny, fascinating "Clinton scandal" route. Interesting, engaging, entertaining, different? My day with Huckabee was all of those, and it's his personal touch -- in addition to the economic populism and the connection with values voters -- that's helped him break out of the pack for a win in Iowa and a remarkable rise in the national polls.

Couple this with the shellacking Barack Obama gave Hillary Clinton on the Democrat side in Iowa -- oh, the horror of it -- and campaign year 2008 is off to a roaring start. We'll cover all of it this Sunday on Backbone Radio. Please listen in and call in.

** David Sirota, the lefty Denver Post columnist and blogger with whom I will be teaching a DU adult course later this month, will stop in to explain why he thinks this is the Dems' year. I'll tell him why that's moonshine.

** Mike Littwin, who's now in New Hampshire after covering Iowa for the Rocky Mountain News, will talk about what NH voters may do when they have their say on Tuesday. I'll try to antidote his liberal slant, as well.

** We'll also preview the legislative session with free-enterprise lobbyist Tim Jackson... talk about inner-city schools with Kent Hutcheson of Colorado UpLift... and forecast Colorado's youth vote with teenage conservative activist Jimmy Sengenberger.

"Don't tread on me," the old spirit of defiance to tyrants and enemies, is good preparation for Americans facing a new year and new challenges. Here at Backbone Radio, that spirit is alive. It's on our banner as we stride into 2008. Want to march with us?

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

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