June 19, 2010 12:43 AM UTC

Peter Boyles, with King and Tancredo on air with him, rips Cory Gardner

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• by: BobMoore

(A few swift kicks to the groin of Cory Gardner – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Emotions have been building all week since congressional candidate Cory Gardner canceled a fundraiser that would have featured Iowa Rep. Steve King, and the subsequent decision by the Northern Colorado Tea Party to disinvite King from a rally.

But things went over the top Friday morning on Peter Boyles’ talk show on KHOW-630 AM. Boyles was joined by King and former Congressman Tom Tancredo and spent an hour hammering Gardner and the Northern Colorado Tea Party.

“Pussies is the correct word I think we’re looking for here, and a bunch of punk-ass that think they’re going to run for and make a difference,” Boyles said of Gardner and the tea party group.

(Note: this originally was published at Coloradoan.com here: http://bit.ly/d6jnxB. Listen to the full audio here: http://www.coloradoan.com/news…

Among other highlights, Boyles, King and Tancredo called Gardner’s campaign headquarters to invite him to an alternative rally that was set up for Saturday in Loveland after King got blackballed from the others.

“I’m sure Cory would love to show up and meet the guys,” Boyles said.

Colorado radio listeners got treated to an hour of a prominent conservative talk show host, a sitting Republican member of Congress and a former GOP member of Congress bashing one of the party’s most touted candidates for the fall. Gardner is challenging freshman Democrat Betsy Markey.

“I still hope that Cory Gardner wins the general election, but I’m telling you I hope that when he wins this thing, I hope he shows more spine in Congress than he does in this particular case,” Tancredo said.

King said: “It’s interesting that there’s only one Republican in America who’s distanced himself from me that’s either elected office or nominated to office, only one.”

That’s not quite true. When the Northern Colorado Tea Party disinvited King, a spokesman for Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck (a tea party favorite) said: “”His (King’s) comments do not represent the tea party.”

The sentiment on Gardner’s decision to cancel the King fundraiser is far from unanimous. Jon Nicholas, a conservative radio talk show host in Estes Park, had a column in the Estes Park Trail-Gazette saluting Gardner’s decision.

“The decision by Gardner and the Northern Colorado Tea Party group demonstrates that Colorado conservatives aren`t interested in playing the game of racial divide. There are major policy differences dividing President Obama from conservatives. King`s statements simply distract from the real issues. Conservatives can ill afford to re-argue the merits of the ‘beer summit’ with the economy at stake. The health care bill, cap & trade, expanding federal control of education, the Gulf oil spill response, foreign policy issues — the list goes on and on. King goes on and on about race.”

UPDATE: NoCo Tea Party Director Lesley Hollywood responds to the criticism being aimed at her: http://bit.ly/9LvPAm