January 25, 2009 05:28 PM UTC

Deep Thoughts With Bob Beauprez

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Grand Junction Sentinel talks with 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate “Both Ways” Bob Beauprez (see photo) about his new book, “A Return to Values: A Conservative Looks at His Party.”

The Daily Sentinel: In the book, you say, “It is time for a revolution, and Republican principles must lead it.” However, the principles you cited are traditional party tenets, such as small government and personal responsibility. How is this a revolution?

Bob Beauprez: What we have got to do is return to those principles. Some would say you have to change your ideas, you ought to change your principles, you have to change your focus. I don’t believe that’s the case. I think we have to regain our focus.

TDS: Do you see the Republican Party as a big tent or little tent?

BB: I see it as a big tent party. … We have room within our party for different opinions on some very, very complex issues, but a general overarching sense of what it means to be traditional, conservative Republicans.

TDS: Throughout the book you take shots at Gov. Bill Ritter and some of his ideas, but you don’t talk much about your 2006 campaign.

Why is that?

BB: It really wasn’t the purpose of the book. It wasn’t to rehash a success of mine or a failure of mine. It was to look at a much larger vision: Where does our party go from here? I was one speck on the lens that got pretty cloudy in 2006.

True that: besides, if we’re talking about a “return” to Beauprez’s values, things might get a little complicated between the “Elk Whisperer” training to ‘avoid’ oil drilling sites and the ‘appalling 70% abortion rate’ for African-Americans. And let’s not forget abusing confidential federal crime databases for campaign purposes, the incredible petition-rights backflip, or picking Janet “Bestiality” Rowland to be his running mate to begin with.

Yeah, there’s a lesson here–in the sense that Bob Beauprez is a walking talking cautionary tale. About mistakes you should never make in politics, regardless of which side you’re on.