March 28, 2008 03:23 PM UTC

Day is Night, Black is White, Says Bob Schaffer

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• by: Colorado Pols

Senate candidate Bob Schaffer illustrates the kind of wholesale reversal of position needed to hold the GOP ship together with John McCain atop the ticket, with one sentence in today’s Denver Post:

“I’m a Bill Owens/John McCain conservative,” Schaffer said…

Only problem with this statement is the destruction of former Colorado Governor Bill Owens’ legacy with eager help from Schaffer (who was still smarting from the Owens-engineered punking of Schaffer in the ’04 Senate race) over Referendum C, and Schaffer’s previous assertions that he cannot campaign with John McCain. These statements were never equivocal: Owens was a turncoat enemy of small government, McCain “opposed to free speech.” Both archetype “Republicans in Name Only,” flagged by Schaffer personally (and the Colorado GOP in general) for intense vilification.

For longtime observers of Colorado politics, Schaffer referring to himself in 2008 as a “Bill Owens/John McCain ‘conservative'” is more than a mere backpedal; it’s an apostasy. If the conservative base in this state doesn’t challenge this, after everything they’ve been told for the last four years and more about Owens and McCain, the case can be made that they’ll truly believe anything they’re told about anybody.

We refuse to believe that Colorado Republicans are this stupid, even if Dick Wadhams insists they are.