After a caller to Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show said on the June 28 broadcast that U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) “might have a heart attack ... and just drop dead, hopefully,” host “Gunny” Bob Newman replied, “Yeah, but that's a waste of a good coffin.”

As Colorado Media Matters has documented, Newman on past shows has speculated about the deaths of or violence against public figures he considers to be liberals. For example, on his April 11 show, Newman said that while he found the idea of abortion “obscene,” it “would be OK” if Kennedy had been aborted. Other prominent liberals on his list of “horrible people” to abort included TV personality Rosie O'Donnell, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Newman on his March 16 broadcast announced the results of “a bonus poll question” posted on his show's website: “Who would you like most for 'Gunny' Bob to waterboard?” Newman then stated, “Eight percent said Sean Penn. Twelve percent said Barbra Streisand. Thirty-three percent said John Murtha. And 47 percent said Rosie O'Donnell. [Laughs] That's -- I'd probably kinda like that, actually.”

And on page 121 of his 2006 book Minefields to Microphones: Global Asymmetric Warfare, the Radical Left, and Winning the War on Terror (Paladin Press), Newman wrote that Murtha, a decorated war veteran and Iraq war critic, is “fortunate” that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace “did not demolish him, skin him, and build a hula hoop out of Murtha's spinal column and a kayak out of his rib cage.” And because of Murtha's proposed troop withdrawal from Iraq, Newman claimed that many Marines “want his [Murtha's] head on a stake in the middle of the Marine Corps Commandant's lawn.” (p. 120)

From the June 28 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show:

CALLER: Yeah, I just want to know who the hell entrusted Kennedy to draw up these plans for immigration. And does he know there's too damn many people in this country now that are --

NEWMAN: We got plenty of people --

CALLER: -- loose borders. Damn right we do. There's way too many of 'em.

NEWMAN: Well, yeah, but you gotta -- remember that Kennedy is one of the most powerful senators. He's been a senator since back in the 1960s.

CALLER: He shoulda been incarcerated.

NEWMAN: And this guy's -- I think it was the 1960s he was, he was in, but he -- you know, this is -- frankly, the man should still be in prison for killing Mary Jo Kopechne, but his family --

CALLER: Exactly, he shoulda been incarcerated.

NEWMAN: -- his family got him out for that. And he is a very powerful, very wealthy, very drunk man. But, but, but still, because of his wealth and because of his power and because he was just defeated and, and done so publicly, he now wants vengeance. You got to keep an eye on that guy. You can't turn your back on him.

CALLER: Well, he might have a heart attack too, and just drop dead, hopefully.

NEWMAN: Yeah, but that's a waste of a good coffin. You know, you know -- you know what I'm sayin'?