Christopher Hitchens is the Vanity Fair columnist who took on Mother Teresa with his book, The Missionary Position.

In the past few years, he has traveled to the three countries of President George Bush's axis of evil: Iran, North Korea and Iraq. His latest book is a biography of Thomas Jefferson.

Once regarded as a left-winger, he supports the Iraq war but confidently lambastes any and all political challengers he disagrees with.

Hitchens' most recent tour of duty was his first visit to Denver recently to speak at the Independence Institute's third annual Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Party.

The Golden-based institute touts a "free-market, pro-freedom perspective" and billed its recent event as "the most politically incorrect party of the year with one of the most politically incorrect journalists."

Appropriately enough, 24 hours with Hitchens in Colorado was filled with his trademark sharp wit, fine scotch, and - maybe as only Hitchens can - politically incorrect skeet shooting.

"Let's have Thumper, then Bambi, then Flipper," Hitchens declares, holding a gun as he prepared to blast clay pigeons at the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club on a Saturday morning.

My stint with Hitchens begins with a drink at the 1930's Cruise Room bar in LoDo - he is staying at its companion Oxford Hotel - and he segues into a forum on booze that stretches from Iraq to women. Hitchens, who orders the hallowed, Macallan 18-year scotch, neat, clearly enjoys the good stuff. But he says one shouldn't get too used to it.

Rather, he agrees that one's scotch is like choosing a mate: The drink must travel well, never let you down, and can be chilled or taken neat. His standard-issue scotch is Johnnie Walker Black Label, which he notes is readily available in bars throughout the world, and was the preferred drink of Saddam Hussein's inner circle.

"Johnnie Black, Rothmans Blue," Hitchens says of his scotch, and ever-present Rothmans Blue cigarettes.

Hitchens dines Friday night at the sparse but stylish Domo Japanese restaurant. As quickly as he orders a hulking, 1.5-liter bottle of the driest, and finest cold sake for the table ($80 a pop), he is let down by the rules that prohibit smoking, even at the outdoor tables. This means Hitchens will spend as much time smoking in the rock garden parking lot as he will at the dinner table.

When seated over presentation of raw fish, Hitchens discusses his 2001 visit to dictator Kim Jong Il's North Korea, which he refers to as a slave and famine state. After a dinner that includes an octupus-and- jalapeño dish that tickles him pink, Hitchens riffs on conservative commentator Ann Coulter as a virgin, and a "Christian religious nut case."

With the meal over, Hitchens heads back to his room. It is before midnight.

Saturday morning he's on the skeet course dressed in tan jeans and a plaid, long-sleeve button- down. He hits about a dozen clay pigeons before heading to the banquet tent near the clubhouse for his lunchtime speech.

"We're looking for two good-looking guys," says the woman driving the golf cart that will ferry him back.

"We're looking for two mimosas," Hitchens replies.

Although, in fact, he dives into the first of many Johnnie Blacks with Coke.

Hitchens says dismantling the Hussein regime - "You have a very large, important state run by a crime family" - was key to democratizing the Middle East. But he also believes that former CIA Director George Tenet should have been fired immediately after 9/11 for leaving the country defenseless pending the attacks.

"He should have been indicted," Hitchens says of the man Bush bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom after he departed as CIA director in 2004.

On what grounds?

"Criminal charges," he adds. "I would have found something."

Hitchens says of his own politics: "I only want to be with people who think for themselves."

Cigars, BBQ, and liquor, meantime, are massaging the receptive crowd of approximately 50 - including Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo - that has now gathered.

Hitchens in his talk criticizes a proposed smoking ban in his hometown of Washington as a violation of individual liberties, but as Coloradans debate a similar ban, he says before his speech, "I'm reasonably sure in Denver there will always be somewhere (to smoke), and that's all I want."

The speech, and various questions, bounce Hitchens along from war in the Sudan, to the prospects of winning the war on terrorism (he is optimistic but cautious).

About the only thing Hitchens doesn't get to is the karaoke machine. But he provides a preview.

"I was going to start with Proud Mary," he says.

By the book

A Christopher Hitchens reading list:

• Thomas Jefferson: Author of America

• A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq

• The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

• No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family

• The Trial of Henry Kissinger

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