It’s been two weeks since KIRO unceremoniously dismissed Allan Prell as its morning host, provoking all sorts of reactions over at blatherWatch: . Be sure to read the 2 letters from Allan and the fascinating comments following. Many people are incredulous that Dori Monson wasn’t the one fired. Speaking personally, I had gone from listening almost exclusively to KIRO, except when there was a Mariners game on, to listening to Allan Prell in the morning, to Dori Monson until he infuriated me with his Neanderthal political feelings, and I turned to another station, and then back to Dave Ross later in the afternoon. Now KIRO has lost me completely, and sometimes I don’t even bother to return to Mr. Ross as much as I admire him.

We’ll discuss Mr. Prell more in a future posting, but today Dori Monson is the subject one last time (I hope).

It’s easy to understand why Dori likes President George Bush so much. They have quite a bit in common. First they both are proud Christians, although Dori doesn’t appear to be an Evangelical like George. They both believe strongly in the death penalty and have no second thoughts about it at all. As far as Dori is concerned, the more people killed the better, whether it be sex offenders murdered, 12-year old kids who throw bottle rockets or guys breaking into cars. It always seem to be justifiable for a cop to shoot a black man, whether he is simply parked in a car in a neighborhood he doesn’t live in, or a crazy man walking menacingly down the street with a sword.

The President and Dori both believe that the War on Terrorism is the single most important event this country has ever been involved with and the biggest threat we have ever faced by far. We are therefore justified breaking all our laws regarding habeas corpus and due process and all the principles this country has stood for, not to mention invading another nation, as long as it is in the name of fighting terrorism. Dori says he couldn’t care less that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. He constantly repeats the statement that there would be more dead Iraqis if Saddam was still in power than we have killed in the war. Even Bush hasn’t gone that far.

Dori Monson actually seems to be a nice guy. When he is not talking politics he is witty and engaging. Everybody who knows him personally seems to like him, even liberals like Dave Ross and Tony Ventrella. That’s one of the reasons it was difficult for me to totally stop listening to him. He is a trivia expert and loves to try different things. He loves life. He is fun to listen to.

He actually grew up within a few hundred yards of my house. I have spoken to most of the elderly people who lived around here when he was growing up. Almost all of them talk about how intelligent he was. But he doesn’t seem like he was the goody-two shoes that he is today. He had a mischievious streak as a kid, and was considered by some of them to be a trouble-maker. I suspect he was pretty much a normal kid.

The rest of his story is familiar to anybody who has listened to his show regularly., which is why I don’t hesitate to talk about it. He grew up extremely poor, had an alcoholic father, doesn’t drink alcohol (just like George, at least until recently), put himself through college, had a defining moment with his boss, Liberal icon Dorothy Bullitt, became a sportscaster and then landed this talk show about 10 years ago. He married his high school sweetheart, has 3 daughters, and seems to be the perfect husband and father, coaching a girls basketball team.

I liked him from the start. But he did seem to have this intolerant streak that has grown as he has gotten older. He has an abiding sense that anybody can make it in this country if they try hard enough and make the right choices, whether you be poor, black, or anything else. He doesn’t at all abide people making excuses because, after all, he was able to make it. Even though he was intelligent, and white, too, he feels anybody should be able to make it in this world and if they don’t, it’s because they made bad choices.

He seems to hate almost all Democratic politicians, especially those from Seattle. He says he doesn’t abide Republicans that much either. Over and over he says that the Republicans support the tyranny of big business, while the Democrats favor big government. All liberals become “extreme leftwingers” in his world. They are all socialists and believe in big government. They are ruled by “special interests,” which is defined as labor unions, environmentalists, and animal rights supporters.

He actually liked Bill Clinton and supported him during the impeachment drive. He even claims to have voted for Gore, although now he always points out how lucky we are that Gore wasn’t President during 9/11. He is convinced that Gore couldn’t have fought terrorism like Bush does.

Dori seems to be some sort of libertarian, but he is not consistent with that either. He does believe in no taxes, user fees, that the free-market should pretty much determine everything. He is convinced that government has a huge cache of money somewhere and that they don’t neeed anymore taxes. He constantly says that families have a line item for taxes, and they can pay no more. Taxes are a huge point of contention for Dori, although it is doubtful that he has any real money problems. He particularly hates mass transit and the like, especially our Sound Transit rail system that is being built, and the new Seattle monorail, which probably never will be.

One of his favorite guests is Zell Miller, the turncoat former Democrat Senator from Georgia. He also loves David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, and self-styled terrorism expert Edward Turzanski.

Like Bush he never travelled to other countries until recently. Predictably he hated France and French people.

He has a personal vendetta against some local politicians, most notably King County Executive Ron Sims. Early on Ron Sims decided not to appear on Dori’s show anymore, and although he made fun of it, it obviously made Dori really angry. He even jokes about his last words being something negative against Ron Sims. I have nothing against political give and take, but I believe Dori has made it a personal crusade against Sims, and it really is unseemly. He has absolutely no respect for people in pubic service, from local officials to government workers. Working for the government is the lowest class of people in Dori’s world.

Dori doesn’t seem to care that liberal Seattle really dislikes what he does; as a matter-of-fact he takes pride in it. It’s as if he has decided that his audience is the world of Seattle-haters, whether it be those on the east side of Washington State or those who are simply prejudiced against the big city and its liberal ways. He seems to be particularly nasty when liberal women phone his show.

I don’t really expect Dori to ever be fired from KIRO, at least not until his ratings plummet completely. He has become an institution, he’s very much a local boy, and he is charming. But count me as a new fan of Ed Schultz over on KPTK.

I wish him the best, but I am tired of him myself. Good riddance, Dori.