June 13, 2013 11:47 AM UTC

Bubble-Enclosed Western Conservative Summit Shuns Christie

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

After the Republican election disaster of 2012, there was a lot of talk about how GOP leaders had constructed a giant bubble around themselves, protecting them from facts that could have saved them from the November collapse.

The bubble remains unbroken in many quarters on talk radio, as you’d have known if you tuned to KNUS’ “Backbone Radio,” Sunday, featuring a conversation between former state Senate President John Andrews and host Matt Dunn.

Things got interesting when the two began discussing who’s sufficiently conservative to speak at Andrews’ upcoming Western Conservative Summit, sponsored by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University. 

Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Alan West, and Jonas Goldberg got big thumbs up. (They will be there.)

But NJ governor Chris Christie got the big thumbs down, and Andrews said Marco Rubio could get booed, if he were a speaker:

Andrews: I, honestly, haven’t really worked hard to get [Christie] this year. I don’t regard him as a conservative. This is a conservative summit. We took a good run at getting Senator Marco Rubio–

Dunn: Yeah, I was going to ask.

Andrews: a gifted young conservative –

Dunn: How would Rubio be received. We’re down to about 20 seconds, but how would he be received at the Summit right now?

Andrews: I think with a lot of skepticism. There might be some boos from the audience because of what he’s trying to do on amnesty, to be honest with you. A very gifted guy, but he has taken – he has set his foot wrong on this one.

Dunn: It’s interesting to me that it seems that Ted Cruz is the ascendant. And Marco Rubio is the opposite right now. Who would have thought?

I like to picture these two guys sitting in a bubble-enclosed radio studio floating away from the city of Denver and planet Earth.

Why are they shielding themselves from their own allies, like Christie, who isn't an exact replica of them?

Is it time for Andrews let some fresh air into his definition of “conservative?”

Those are the kind of questions that Dunn should address on his show, but his radio studio is probably too far into outer space by now for him to read this blog post and accept my reasonable advice.