September 05, 2014 08:29 AM UTC

You Can't Do That, Major Coffman

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic catches GOP Rep. Mike Coffman, who touts his military service as a central campaign theme, apparently in violation of Department of Defense regulations regarding display of military uniforms and insignia in campaign literature:

[Coffman] made headlines in 2012 when he called the appearance in uniform of Army Cpl. Jesse Thorsen at a Ron Paul campaign rally an ethical lapse that represented a “grave failure in leadership.”

The comments came in a scolding letter Coffman wrote to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, saying that he thought the troops needed to be reminded about the rules governing participation in politics by active-duty, reserve and retired military personal.

“The soldier’s activities not merely skirted the margins of what is acceptable behavior, but demonstrated either a complete contempt for the standing policy or an unconscionable ignorance of it,” Coffman wrote. “I believe the existing regulations are appropriate policies that clearly express the intent of the Department of Defense. However, I see a grave failure in leaders in the chain of command’s ability to communicate and enforce them.”

Coffman wrote that the Pentagon must “reinforce what the regulations are and issue a warning to the respective service chiefs to ensure that this type of activity does not occur in the future.”

Tough talk. But as Tomasic continues, there's a budding hypocrisy problem here:

So, why then is Coffman now apparently violating those same policies? a Democratic source asks.

A Coffman campaign four-page fold-out flyer (pdf) disseminated to district residents includes images of the Congressman in uniform as the “primary graphic representation” (there are no non-military images of Coffman in the flyer) and make no mention of the fact that Coffman retired from the service years ago. That’s a clear violation of at least one and maybe two of the same Defense Department Directives Coffman railed about Army Cpl Thorsen being contemptuous toward or unconscionably ignorant of…

The directives in question:

The mailer says it was produced by the Colorado Republican Committee, but "authorized" by Coffman for Congress. We haven't seen a response yet from either Coffman's campaign or the state party, but it seems like somebody should have known this mailer could be a problem–especially since Coffman himself has made such a matter of honor out of similar situations.

Unless there's something we're missing, Coffman ought to be collecting heads over this–right after issuing an apology.