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February 11, 2012

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POLITICAL MEMO:

Local conservative radio talk reflects right’s downcast state

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Leila Navidi

Heidi Harris, who has a morning talk show on KDWN-AM 720 in Las Vegas, is a conservative but can be critical of some on her side, such as Sen. John Ensign, who had an affair with an employee, and former President George W. Bush, for his nation-building Middle East policy.

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Sunday, July 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.

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One might expect Heidi Harris, as a conservative talk show host, to be filled with fire and fury, given the liberal ascendancy and Age of Obama.

After all, when the Las Vegas Sun visited her last summer, she questioned whether then-Sen. Barack Obama is really a Christian and sort of flirted with the idea that he is actually a secret Muslim.

(He is a Christian, having done the whole “Jesus is my personal savior” thing in a 2007 speech in Connecticut, though, in any case, the Constitution specifically forbids a religious test for office.)

So how is Harris coping with the conservative calamity?

Other conservative talkers seem to have been liberated from having to defend the policies of former President George W. Bush and have seen their ratings improve, but they are also turning off the mainstream with their shrill commentary.

This explains the White House’s calculated move to anoint Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party — Limbaugh has a huge audience, but the vast majority of Americans would do anything to get away from him if cornered at a cocktail party.

Though Harris’ manner was, as usual, hyper, her words on air and in an interview were not as extreme as those of some other conservative talkers. She was unwilling to engage in the apocalyptic rhetoric heard in other quarters.

“I know a lot of talk show hosts who get hysterical,” she said, when the subject is Obama. “Because I’m a Christian, I don’t believe our country can be destroyed. We read the back of the book, and we win,” she said, in a somewhat esoteric reference to the Book of Revelation.

(Of course, there’s some irony here: She keeps her fears of Obama bringing the Apocalypse in check by reading Revelation.)

Nevertheless, “Is he doing terrible damage to our country?” she said. Yes, she responds, but says people should have known what they were getting.

Harris wears a diamond-encrusted cross and a sleeveless sweater, and a poster behind her reads, “Fire Harry Reid.” Conservatives hate the Senate majority leader with gusto.

Harris rises at 1 a.m. to begin preparing for her 5-to-9 a.m. show on KDWN-AM 720.

Despite her conservative tilt, Harris is clearly chastened by the right’s duress and took shots at her own. She condemned Sen. John Ensign, who recently admitted to an affair with an employee. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, too, though, as she notes, “People had zipper problems before there were zippers.”

She said she opposed Bush’s “nation building” policies in the Middle East. Conflict is inevitable there, given the history, she said.

When asked what caused the economic meltdown, she said it was greed of both banks and homeowners, with nary a mention of the right’s usual boogeymen — Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

There was the ritual ridicule of environmentalists and universal health care, as well outrage about the tax increases enacted by the Legislature this year.

Harris also likes to mix it up, with some talk about recently deceased entertainers Michael Jackson and Danny Gans.

One odd facet of talk radio is that it has come to be seen as important political speech, but is viewed by the industry as entertainment.

Indeed, the key in talk radio, she said, is entertainment.

“There’s a ton of liberals who listen to me. That’s the highest compliment I can get. If someone says, ‘I don’t agree with anything you say, but I listen to you.’ ”

For Republicans who can’t seem to get any traction, there’s a lesson in there somewhere. Stop being the guy everyone wants to get away from at the cocktail party.

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