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August 14, 2009 05:11 PM UTC

Scooter's Short Fuse, Memory Lane Edition

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

Call it the mayhem on AM.

For the past two days, former Colorado U.S. Rep. and current Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis has been engaged in a verbal battle with radio-show hosts Craig Silverman and Dan Caplis.

The issue: whether McInnis made good enough on a congressional staffer’s statement in 2004 that McInnis intended to use the $1.3 million left over in his congressional campaign war chest to help fund breast-cancer research and other worthwhile causes.

The battle started on Caplis and Silverman’s afternoon drive-time show on Denver’s KHOW-630 AM Wednesday when Silverman asked McInnis about the campaign funds. It deteriorated from there until Caplis, a Republican, and McInnis exchanged this bit of dialogue:

Caplis: “That is silly, and it’s beneath you and it’s beneath the office you’re running for.”

McInnis: “Now don’t tell me that.”

But the battle appeared to end Thursday when McInnis made an encore appearance on the show and laughed off the previous day’s scuffle as nothing more than friendly debate.

“I had fun with you,” McInnis said. “I know that the thing sounded like a little heated kitchen, but the reality is that’s life in the day of a talk show and that’s life in the day of a politician.”

It was fair of Caplis and Silverman to give Scott McInnis another chance after Wednesday’s eye-popping disaster of an interview, and McInnis was obviously under strict orders to, you know, be cool this time. And to a substantial extent it appears he was. We haven’t seen anyone allege any violation of law here, just ‘unethical appearances’ and ‘broken promises’–McInnis turned this into a much bigger story with his own out-of-control defensiveness on a GOP-friendly talk show. So now that he’s had a second, less-controversial appearance, all water under the bridge–right?

Not exactly. One thing that happens in the aftermath of an outburst like the kind McInnis had on the radio Wednesday is people start asking whether what they just witnessed was an isolated incident, or indicative of a pattern of behavior. Americans, after all, don’t usually elect irrational hotheads who fly into a rage at any trifling provocation to executive office.

With that in mind, in addition to being careful asking questions about his campaign funds, it appears to be a really bad idea to call Scott McInnis a “fruitcake.”

As CNN reported back in McInnis’ congressional days in 2003:

Capitol Police were called Friday to a contentious House committee meeting marked by a Democratic walkout and accusations of name-calling, vulgarity and physical threats.

Witnesses described flaring tempers. One GOP lawmaker said he almost came to blows with a Democratic colleague he said was threatening him.

The police told lawmakers to work things out themselves and took no action…

[72-year old Rep. Pete] Stark “threatened me with physical harm,” said Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado, a Republican who sits on the committee.

“I think it was entirely appropriate for the chairman of the committee to call the sergeant at arms and the Capitol Police,” McInnis said. “I considered that a bodily threat and I fully intended to defend myself. [Pols emphasis] To calm this down — that is why the chairman did that.”

But apparently,

Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a Missouri Republican who sits on the committee, read what he described as a transcript of the meeting.

In it, he quoted Stark as saying to McInnis, “You little fruitcake, you little fruitcake, I said you are a fruitcake.”

Now, um, you can probably make a good case that congressional representatives calling one another “fruitcake” is not exactly a shining example of parliamentary decorum. But it’s also pretty far removed from anything you’d call a “bodily threat,” isn’t it? Especially coming from a man over twenty years his senior? Think about that for a minute–a barely 50 former cop seriously worried about being beat up by a 72-year old man?

As the 2003 CNN article explains, nothing came of this other than a few angry floor speeches on C-SPAN. The Capitol police told the representatives to ‘work it out.’ From their point of view, it was an isolated incident, people just got a little overheated–over a bill about retirement account rules.

Like the old saying goes, the first time something bad happens, it’s an accident. The second time can usually be written off as a coincidence.

Third time makes a pattern, folks–after the week McInnis just had, everybody’s going to be watching for it. And if McInnis’ intemperance under pressure really is this easy to tip into full-on self destructive behavior, foes in both parties will be looking for every opportunity to help.

Comments

21 thoughts on “Scooter’s Short Fuse, Memory Lane Edition

  1. I’m surprised that McInnis didn’t go off again.

    Caplis: “Thank you for your time Congressman, and thanks for clearing up that little mishap yesterday.”

    Scooter: “No, I will not donate to any Democrat candidates, and how dare you try to trap me! MCINNIS SMASH!!!”

    1. The pet liberal tried to suck up to Mr. County Club GOP and he ended up getting his face ripped off. I love it when McInnis started yammering about what a ‘tough questioner’ Silverman is.  

  2. All these committee members went down the floor to bitch and moan for the record. McInnis whines like a little girl while trying to come across as a tough guy:

    Now, fellow colleagues of mine realize that I like engagement, but it was clear there was going to be fairly prompt disorder beyond the magnitude that was probably originally anticipated when a member of the minority committee made his first comments. I think it was entirely appropriate, entirely appropriate, with considering my own actions, I think it was entirely appropriate for the chairman of that committee to call the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police so that order in the committee could be maintained.

      I think this discussion about process at midnight or process of when the police were in the library is all, and I am not saying this in a derogatory fashion, but is all diversionary from the fact that we were within moments, frankly myself and another Member on your side of the aisle, were within moments of, I would guess, a physical engagement; and I considered that threat serious. I considered the bodily threat not just to the order of the committee but to me, and I fully intended to defend myself.

    Then he gets called out:

    Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) took the floor to relate what happened. And although I was not in the room, I did speak to the Democrat that was in the room. The comments of the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark) were preceded by the words, “shut up.” And that was by the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis), inciting the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark) to respond. Now, that sort of slipped his memory when he talked to us before.

      So, now, here is the scenario. Here is a man in excess of 70 years old threatening a man 30 years his junior, and the chairman was afraid that the 30-year-old junior was going to get beat up. Hello.

    1. It just annoys everybody.

      Bottom line: if you’re so concerned about some fancy-schmancy car, then do the research and write a diary. I’d read it and I’m sure others would, too. That’s how it works, right? But without substance, you’re just a shill.

  3. Americans, after all, don’t usually elect irrational hotheads who fly into a rage at any trifling provocation to executive office.

    True, that is.  Both of these Republican  Governor wannabes have shown their penchant for poor anger management skills and dangerous hotheadedness.  Josh Penry showed what he learned from his mentor when he attacked reporter Mike Saccone.  As CI reported:

    “…Because Penry prefaced some of his more candid remarks in his telephone conversation with Saccone (the reporter who wrote the story) as “off the record,” I’m duty-bound not to report any of that here, even though doing so would be of highly instructive value to the few GOP voters still undecided how to mark their ballots Tuesday. I made clear to Penry, however, that his private remarks to Saccone served the purpose of casting Penry, at least to me, in a markedly different light than I previously perceived him. Enough said….”

    Can Penry and McInnis have the same campaign slogan?  We Put the Goober in Gubernatorial.  

    1. Wasn’t that part of McCain’s downfall? His palpable frustration with Obama during the debates, culminating in the “that one” comment surely didn’t do him any favors with voters.

  4. …thanks for bringing that one up, Pols!

      By July ’10, I predict that the Penry camapaign will be broadcasting the McLobbyist Greatest Hits featuring some of Scooter’s most memorable instances of bad behavior.

  5. Stark flips out, McInnis has the police called because he’s afraid of getting beaten up. (Obviously the transcript of this closed-door meeting doesn’t describe whether Stark got up and walked over to McInnis or anything.)

    That’s probably about what I’d do in a similar situation. It may look wimpy, but I don’t think this is evidence of McInnis “flipping out” or anything. (Unlike yesterday’s meltdown, of course.)

      1. I’d get scared. I’m a wimp. A woman bit my finger last night, and I was whining about it for half an hour. I’ll never trash someone else for being a wimp in real life (even if he’s aggressive on the phone).

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