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March 13, 2009 09:58 PM UTC

Dan Caplis For Senate?

  • 23 Comments
  • by: redstateblues

(It must be that time of year again – when Dan Caplis pretends to be thinking about running for an office that no other Republicans are remotely interested in supporting him for. http://www.coloradopols.com/sh… – promoted by Colorado Pols)

5280 reports:

Talk-radio hosts might be well-known political figures, but can they turn their popularity among listeners into a successful political campaign?

Dan Caplis might soon try to figure that out. The veteran conservative radio personality, who co-hosts an afternoon show weekdays with liberal counterpart Craig Silverman on KHOW-AM, says he’d like to decide by early May whether to run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate.

He’s already met with John Cornyn, the Texas senator who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, about a potential run. [rsb emphasis] The main factor now, he says, is whether his kids (11-year-old Joe and 8-year-old Caroline) would be able to withstand the rigors of their dad running for Senate.

I know what some of you are thinking–the overflowing reservoir of ridiculous statements he’s made on-air have to preclude him from being a viable candidate. Well, you’re right. Don’t take my word for it though. Colorado Media Matters has been compiling it for years.

If you don’t keep up with our branch of the national media watchdog group Media Matters, or you’ve never listened to Hannity and Colmes Colorado Edition Caplis and Silverman on your afternoon drive, then you might be surprised to find Caplis has:

  • Claimed Hamas and Fidel Castro had endorsed Obama
  • Failed to mention the fact he was a major Bob Schaffer campaign contributor when he was interviewing him on the air.
  • Insinuated that, when a picture of Barack Obama appeared with him wearing traditional African nomad clothing, it meant he had questionable judgment:

    Why do you go, then, and put on similar clothing to the outfit worn by the man who personally ordered thousands of Americans, including women and kids, to be burned to death?

That’s the problem with using the microphone as a soapbox–your words can come back to haunt you. That’s why we haven’t seen Rush Limbaugh try to run for office. He knows his role, and he plays it. Caplis should stick to what he does best: incendiary right wing talk radio and personal injury litigation.

Comments

23 thoughts on “Dan Caplis For Senate?

  1. Al Franken has made the jump from entertainer to politician so why not let Caplis have his moment in the sun?  Bunch up the Republican field and then let them try to out 9/11 each other.  The far right radicals like Caplis stand a good chance of alienating every moderate thinking voter in Colorado before 2010.  Please God add Caplis to the Tancredo and Beauprez mix and force Bill Owens to talk about his love child.  Please Please Please.  Pretty please.

    1. force Bill Owens to talk about his love child

      can anyone go into detail about this. I heard of the love child thing with Owens a few years ago, but was not sure if it was just a rumor.

      as for Caplis,

      is this the best the GOP can do?

      1. but, when Owens last made noises about potentially running for national office, a Denver Post politics columnist wrote a column warning “Family Values” politicians from running for national office without checking their own closets for skeletons.  It was clearly a warning to Owens that, while the press had kept the gloves on while he ran for governor, they’d come off if he went national.  Owens apparently got the message, because he quickly tamped down any talk of running for VP, Senate, etc.

    2. this one but it was one of the rumors circulating regarding his separation from his wife and his decision not to campaign for Allard’s vacant seat or maybe I’m confusing him with John Edwards.  Same stylish hair and access to assistants.

    1. I wasn’t a Pols reader then, so I missed that one. He’s said so many other outrageous thing since then, that there’s a veritable cornucopia of reasons why his candidacy would invoke more tee hees.  

  2. “The main factor now, he says, is whether his kids (11-year-old Joe and 8-year-old Caroline) would be able to withstand the rigors of their dad running for Senate.”

    More likely the devistating experience of seeing their father lose in a landslide….

    1. seemed to withstand the rigors of appearing on stage with their father at just about every Republican rally in the state last fall.

      But your point is a good one, Arvadonian. Will they still respect daddy once he’s been humiliated by voters, instead of the usual humiliation he inflicts on himself every day?

  3. When Sen. Dan:

    Defended claims made by Sarah Palin by repeating the inaccurate assertion that “20 percent of our natural gas comes from Alaska.” http://colorado.mediamatters.o

    Asserted that gay “conduct is not natural” and is “immoral” http://colorado.mediamatters.o

    Defended the “egg as a person” ballot issue by claiming, “Humans don’t have eggs” http://colorado.mediamatters.o

    And possibly my all-time favorite:

    Caplis stated: “[I]f I’m sittin’ on an airplane and there’s somebody who looks like one of the 9-11 hijackers and they are sitting there praying out loud as we taxi, that airline darn well better remove that person.”

    http://colorado.mediamatters.o

    Good times…

    1. I love the last one, and it’s true, I’d ask the TSA to remove Dan Caplis if he were sitting there praying out loud as we taxi down the runway.

  4. Of course, we all know the real problem with the Colorado Republican Party for the last 3 election cycles is that they are not conservative enough. Voters are dying for a strong, principled, pro-life, pro-family, regular-guy-who-used-to-go-to-strip-bars-before-he-was-married, my-father-was-a-Chicago-cop, walking-talking-point, I-pathologically-cannot-let-Craig-win-an-argument conservative like Dan Caplis.

    I say we give Dan Caplis a shot to prove his theory that all it takes for Republicans to win a statewide election is to run a real conservative like himself.  

    1. The race will be a lot more interesting if he does. If we could get Doug Bruce to also run, then along with the usual suspects we would have a ton of great entertainment.

      Why should Illinois and Louisiana have all the fun?

  5. I don’t know exactly how it works – but there seems to be a predictable path of ideological development or deconstruction for all those with elected office itch.

    El Rushbo never seem to have the urge.

    I wish Dan would run

    ANd I wish Craig would let Mike Huttner or some other serious lefty fill in for him once in awhile.

    I’m pretty sure Dan has no idea what he’s in for. None. He thinks because he’s reported one or two he has some idea.  It’s like me watching Nolan Ryan throw no-hit #4 and thinking- it doesn’t look that hard and sheeit- he walked that one guy twice. I could do that.

    Except there’s no way.

    Good luck Dan- and btw- I think in the modern era you get to test the water twice- maybe three times.  But at some point you gotta put up or shut up. Or both- so hurry up cause either or both would be good for me.

    Meanwhile- you gotta stop spewing the talking points of the day. Seriously- just beam off and make something up. Come out against the death penalty, or adopt the Catholic church position on immigration policy. Something.

    Otherwise, you’re just a hack with ratings.

  6. He is not self-effacing..as even Owens is.  Just this week, Caplis referred to himself and Silverman as “virile bucks”

    I hope to hell mmoc got that on tape….

  7. While the republicans have historically gone hard right following crushing defeats, this might not be the time, and Caplis probably isn’t the candidate, to repeat such strategy.

    Mr. Menezes put out a tiny sample of what Colorado Media Matters has documented over the last several years. It’s   Caplis in Caplis’ own words. He’s got a listener ship, no doubt. But his views, and some of those views are pretty extreme, to say the least, would be on display for the entire Colorado electorate.

    For that very reason, I simply can’t see a scenario where the Republicans would consider him as a candidate. This next election is an opportunity for the Republicans to unseat a Democrat that, as yet, nobody knows (if indeed it’s Senator Bennett surviving a primary). But it’s an opportunity lost if the candidate is a fire breathing, extreme right wing bomb thrower. They had that in ’08 with Schaffer. With disastrous results. Everybody, including Wadhams, knows it. So does Caplis.  

    I think the fabricated hoopla is a win/win for Caplis. He’s not going to run. But it keeps his profile front and center. Good for his program. Kudos for showmanship.

    But…..we can always dream. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, Dan Caplis would energize the far right, no doubt. It would also energize the entire Democratic party. The campaign would be fun, the rhetoric unprecedented, the passions on both sides would rise to fever pitch, and it would be covered nation wide for entertainment reasons alone. Imagine Caplis on the stump, in debates, pure Elmer Gantry stuff, circa 2010.

    Should he get the nod from the Republicans, let the volunteering begin.  

     

  8. While I can’t vouch for Dan Caplisas as I do not listen to AM radio, I would love to have more public officials come from this kind of background. I adore the idea of having a raw record of what someone I am potentially voting for actually thinks as opposed to mere coached statements designed to not upset and go down smooth.

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