July 27, 2011 06:02 PM UTC

With his dog asleep at his feet, Tancredo quits talk-radio gig

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• by: Jason Salzman

When I called Tom Tancredo to find out why he walked away a few weeks ago from his late-night talk-radio show on KVOR in Colorado Springs, I expected him to say he was planning something else, something bigger and anti-illegal immigrant.

But he told me that hosting the show at 10 p.m. was “too late for an old man.”

His dog was falling asleep at his feet, as he did the show on his home phone, he said. That was his final signal to move on.

So even though KVOR execs were happy with the ratings, Tancredo gave it up, leaving his weekly column in Worldnet Daily as his only regular public offering, though, he says, “wherever two or more people are gathered, and it could be my dog, I’ll speak.” (I assume his dog would have to stay awake?)

Tancredo says he’ll consider doing an earlier talk radio slot, if one is offered to him.

“I don’t think anyone will be knocking on my door, but if they knock, I’ll answer,” he said. (Tancredo had a weekend show on KOA, and guest hosted for the station for a spell. He also had a regular two minute commentary on KLZ 560AM, home of flagship tea party show, Grassroots Radio Colorado, before his failed run for governor last year.)

Tancredo doesn’t miss the radio show much, saying, “It’s kind of nice to be free.”

But he does miss the venting.

“During the day I could get so pissed off about something, and I do every day, so I had a cathartic experiences at that hour,” he said. “That was the best part of it.”

How about blogging, I suggested to him, expecting him to say that he already has a blog.

But he said, “You have to be a little more focused [to blog] than I tend to be.”

At first I took this as a back-handed compliment to us bloggers.

But when you look at what Tancredo has managed to do in his life, with less focus than a lowly blogger, (elected to Congress, raising millions of dollars, repeatedly capturing the imagination of bamboozled reporters), you realize that being able to focus isn’t a good thing. It’s an obstacle to success in politics nowadays.