April 29, 2014 09:57 AM UTC

On talk radio, Lamborn's challenger explains why he decided to run

• 3 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Progressives who read this blog would be excused for wondering, how could anyone find Rep. Doug Lamborn to be insufficiently tilted rightward? So much so that he should be thrown out?

We can thank KVOR's Jeff Crank Show for broadcasting the answer, at least according to the guy who wants Lamborn's job.

Major General Bentley Rayburn, who is challenging Lamborn in the GOP congressional primary in Colorado Springs (CD 5), told Crank on Saturday why he's running:

Rayburn: You know, the thing that pushed me over the side [into the race]– it was kind of funny, because it was the ‘white board incident’ at the Air Force Academy. [Read about it here.] And the fact that this young man, or woman – I think it was a fellow, wrote a bible verse (Gallatians 2:20) on his whiteboard, just a board mounted outside his room. And it was just a statement of his faith. And yet, within nanoseconds, somebody is complaining about it. It gets to our buddy Mikey Weinstein, who’s been a nemesis of the Academy for a decade. And within, you know, two hours – whether the cadet erased it himself or had it erased is really irrelevant. It was erased.

And in all of this, Doug [Lamborn]– people don’t understand this. Doug has a special relationship with the Academy because he sits on the Board of Visitors. That would be like the Board of Regents for the CU system. And so he’s not only the local rep. He sits on the policy board. Every accredited institution has to have an independent policy board. And he has never spoken forcefully about the religious freedom issues at the United States Air Force Academy, and so many of the other important issues that the school faces.

And I want somebody – not only with the other things, the spending out of control, and everything else. But we have a jewel here in the United States Air Force Academy, and if we’re not going to stand up and make sure that we’re producing the kind of officers that we need – one, who are not offended at the slightest little thing that crosses their path, and two, that know what they believe and have the backbone to stand up for what they believe, then I’m not sure we really need an Air Force Academy or any other academies. But we’ve got to have somebody stand up for the schools, and we are not getting it from Doug Lamborn. He’ll write a letter. [Lamborn issued a letter in support of religion at the Academy.]

At least when Putin invades Crimea, at least Obama writes a strongly-worded letter. But we need somebody that will demonstrate real leadership. And that just happened to be the proverbial straw. Had somebody else stepped up [to run against Lamborn], fine. But that’s what drove me over the edge and made me consider running in the first place.