President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
January 21, 2018 09:43 AM UTC

Coffman's Discharge Petition a Distant, Contemptible Memory

  • 3 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CNN reports as Day 2 of the 2018 federal government shutdown gets underway with no signs of progress:

Day one of the government shutdown ended with recriminations between the parties deepening and no sign of progress towards ending the impasse.

The White House, Republican and Democratic leaders spent most of Saturday apportioning blame and flexing partisan muscles after the Democrats blocked a Senate bill to fund the government and the federal machine ran dry on cash at midnight on Friday…

Republicans are resolute: No talks on DACA, the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, until Democrats give them enough votes to reopen the government. Democrats, meanwhile, say they have to have an answer on extending protection to nearly 700,000 people brought to the US illegally as children who face deportation after early March.

Leading up to the shutdown of the federal government at midnight Friday, Republicans had offered Democrats a “choice”–between funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a solution for the approximately 700,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children and soon face deportation. This choice was depicted in harsh, controversial terms by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a social media graphic:

Democrats refused to go along with what they considered to be the false choice being offered, and the continuing resolution in the Senate failed–with only 45 Republicans voting yes, leaving Republicans with little credibility to blame the other side of the aisle.

But there’s something else worth mentioning here, and reporter Ernest Luning thankfully picked it up:

That comes in response to the latest report that House Republicans are “locked down” against consideration of a solution for immigrants formerly protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while the government is shut down. Readers will recall that Rep. Mike Coffman affected much anger after President Trump announced his decision to rescind DACA, promising a rare “discharge resolution” against his own party leadership to force a vote on a bill with temporary protections.

And then, as readers know, Coffman quietly abandoned his discharge petition under the pretense of having received assurances from Speaker Paul Ryan that a DACA solution would be brought forward at some point in the near future. In an all-too familiar pattern, Coffman’s quiet abandonment of his previous stand came a couple news cycles after the laudatory headlines he got for “standing up to Trump,” and far fewer people know about the latter part because the press didn’t follow up with anything like the same vigor.

But today, with the federal government shut down, you would think Coffman’s moment has finally arrived. Wouldn’t you?

And…you’d be wrong. Even though Democrats are making a stand over the very thing Coffman claimed to be ready to challenge Paul Ryan over with a discharge petition, Coffman appears to be 100% on the side of Republicans who tried to force Democrats to choose between CHIP and DACA, thus forcing the shutdown. Or as some more pointed observers have characterized it, choosing “between white kids and brown kids.”

Folks, how is this not a monumental contradiction? How can Coffman be ready to force a vote with Democratic support against his leadership’s wishes last fall, but now supports the GOP leadership’s cynical gaming of the very same issue today?

The contradictions flow fast and furious in politics these days, but this is egregious enough that Coffman really should not be allowed to get away with it. At a moment when an issue he professes to care about has brought the federal government to a standstill, Coffman just squandered a golden opportunity to prove his (new) words on immigration are more than platitudes.

Comments

3 thoughts on “Coffman’s Discharge Petition a Distant, Contemptible Memory

  1. Coffman?

    bwahahahaha…ha!… snrk.

    Not a chance he'll say anything now.

    VA hospital is wayyy over budget and wayyy behind schedule?! 
    I'm shocked , shocked, I tell you
    If only there was some kind of Congressioanl voersight.

    House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, say.
    The Chair of that comittee should be fired! by his caucus and the taxpayers. Coffman should say it.

    ha!

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

168 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!