Today The Los Angeles Times picks up an Associated Press story about Rep. Joel Hefley criticizing fellow Republican Doug Lamborn and refusing to endorse his candidacy because he ran a “sleazy” campaign.
This would be big news…if the story wasn’t a week old.
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Yeah, this would be news, last week. But that won’t stop Colopols from posting it again.
However, this will allow Handy Dandy, cctiger, robert, and the rest of the Crank campaign to bitch about losing some more. I hear that getting that sort of anger off your chest can be very therapeutic.
” I hear that getting that sort of anger off your chest can be very therapeutic.”
I love bashing Lamborn! Sleaze that he is.
thanks for mentioning me, but when it comes to the 5th im just sitting back and watching the fun now. im done being sour grapes and ready to warmly embrace lamborn, sorry i was a bad person for a little bit- please forgive me. if lamborn was still running a campaign id join.
Thanks Blahuhaahua.
I appreciate you mentioning me.
How could I not mention you guys. You were like the trifecta back then. Although, I miss robert. Haven’t heard from him in a while. Maybe he’s on vacation.
Someone read me the entire article that covers Lamborn’s campaign. It’s some investigative reporting from a non-partisan publication. Believe me, this was not a piece written by any Crank supporters. I tried to find it online but couldn’t. I guess the Colorado Statesman doesn’t have a website that works. They interviewed Duncan Bremer who, in my view, did a 2nd drop-kick on Lamborn. It’s not just Hefley that’s calling a spade a spade. There were several other damning disclosures in the Colorado Statesman’s reporting. If anyone out there has a copy and can post some of the more interesting facts, please do so.
“Lamborn’s scorced earth campaign not only left Republicans burning mad in the 5th CD, but his inability to put out the fires could negatively impact the slate of statewide races as well.
“…GOP leaders fear that campaign tactics to elect Lamborn were so loathsome” (GREAT WORD–my comment) “to a lot of Republicans in El Paso County that they may stay waway from the polls this November.
“…Lamborn has not made significant strides in seeking support from all five R opponents who together received 72% of the primary election vote.
…”Doug is not big on that. He’s an ideologue”–Duncan Bremer”
here but only the front page is available without a subscription. The referenced article is the right column lead but the wrap can’t be read without a subscription.
That’s a heck of a tease . . . gotta buy to see what’s behind the wrap! The post above gave some hints to Bremer’s “drop-kick” but, there was a lot more in the article, at least as read to me over the phone. Maybe I’ll get really interested politically and subscribe! Any way, it looks like the Republican leadership is going to be kicking Lamborn back and forth for awhile. I can’t say Lamborn doesn’t deserve it.
Dare say that if there were any “REAL” leadership at all, none of this nonsense would be happening. These REpublican losses began years ago and the “Good Ole Boyz” are affraid of admitting the truth. Fact is, there are several Repubs who stand to lose this election, all due in part to this lack of leadership.
I saw how the party allowed dirty campaigning in the May/Newsome race. The way the May camp went about its campaign against Newsome was disgusting. Many of the same people that were involved with the dirty tricks there are the same ones backing Lamborn. There should have been a stop put to it right then and there. If May had had the money from a 527 like Lamborn did, they’d have dragged John Newsome’s name through the mud more than they did–and have won that race too. This is why I think, personally, that a lot of Republicans are trying to send a message to the leadership. If they can’t stop people from running dirty campaigns, if dirty campaigns are rewarded, the rank and file will rise up and toss the leadership out along with candidates running for seats as Republicans. It’s exactly what happened to the Democrats with the Contract for America in Gingrich’s day. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost and the Republicans, for want of keeping the dirty campaigning from carrying the day, are faced with being turned out of office.
Is she not one of the dirty campaigners too? Anyone going to turn her out of office or is she going to be rewarded too?
In 1986, Joel hefley ran one of the sleaziest campaigns on record. Hefley won’t admit it, but ask any of the opponents who ran during that year and they will tell you.
From using the Ari Froce Academy mascots at the REpublican Assembly, from having Mike Ratliff and Dave Stiver stage a covert operation into the 5th Congressional Assembly hall the night before to post banners and other pro-Hefley materials. Posting “Out of Order” signs.
Stealing yards and roadside signs. You name it, this was a sleazy operation to say the least. Ask any proHal Krause supporters, any General Jack Forrest, or Kingston Minister, or Barry Daniels supporters and they will tell you that Hefley had his fair share of shady dealings.
Using the computers in the basement of Otero Savings and Loan (you know, the S&L scandal with Jim Christiansen who went to federal prison) and using it to produce campaign records.
So, for those of you who weren’t around and believe that Hefley’s veins run with purity, fat chance.
Simple fact, Lamborn won, you lost and get over it!!! You know, the same way that Mr. and Mrs. Hefley have helped to ruin candidates they don’t like and then pretend that all was fair in love and war.
Hefley is having nothing less than an “Identity Crisis,” the other candidates are tryibng to explain why they spent $100,000.00 plus and didn’t even appear on the radar screen. Try and justify it all you want.
NOTE: To the Dog Food Manufacturers. Money won’t buy sales, if the dogs won’t eat the product!!!
Mr Handy2001, I notice you spell republican “REpublican” when you’re writing about the party bosses. What’s the significance of that? Am I missing something?
Just curious.
I’ll try a little bit of humor, or seriousness. Take your pick. The RE-publican follows this.
If you are tired once, and become tired again, you are RE-tired.
Thus, if you are tarded once, and become tarded again, you are RE-tarded. Therefore, if you are a “publican” once and have gone astray, then finally come back, you are a RE-publican.
And of course, that makes no sense at all. Neither does half of what the party bosses are doing this election cycle.
Actually, the “E” stands for easily manipulated and pandering. How does that work?
Then it could be that the “SHIFT” key sticks from time to time. Must be that nervous twitch or something. NOT!!!
I saw the following letter to the editor in the Gazette before the primary election but actually stumbled across it tonight on another site where it was posted. Do you think Lamborn should be held accountable for not speaking up in the attacks by the 527s against other candidates even if Lamborn didn’t illegally co-ordinate with them?
“Whether the allegation is proven or not regarding illegal coordination between Doug Lamborn’s campaign and the Christian Coalition and the Club for Growth, (“Lamborn Accused of Illegal Activities with PACs,” Colorado Springs Gazette “Metro’, July 23), Lamborn has not once stood up and publicly said, “I can win this race on my own merits. I do not need attack ads that assassinate men’s characters to win.”
His silence is his assent.
He would not want to appear as being a participant in these attack ads, but I believe that if he does not outright approve, he at least condones the hit jobs on Jeff Crank and Lionel Rivera, which he hopes will produce a win for him — and never mind that these false and misleading ads may cause them to lose their reputations. The end justifies the means. So whether it’s coordinating illegally or condoning immorally Lamborn is taking a low road to high office. Please put a roadblock in his way. Vote for Jeff Crank for Congress.”
So BB should be sorry that Bruce Bensen attacked Holtzman…..
And Angie P should be sorry that Pat Stryker is attacking Marilyn…(I’m SURE Matsunaka was distraught and publicly decried the ads 2 years ago too!)
Bush should be sorry about the Swift Boat Vets attacks on Kerry…
Kerry should be sorry that MoveOn, Michael Moore, Babs and others attacked Bush….
Yada yada yada…..
According to your theory (or the one quoted) they all tacitly assented to the attacks on their opponents….and probably helped them…so they must have ILLEGALLY been involved too!
Give me a freakin’ break! By law they cannot tell them to stop…they cannot tell them to go away…they cannot interfere with them at all.
Now I know its fun to think that all of these folks get together each and every day in violation of the law to come up with new schemes, but you give them all way too much credit.
One side question…..So you think Lamborn, and EVERYONE ELSE LISTED ABOVE, should say that a free people should not be able to exercise their right to free speech? Especially if it isn’t something you want to hear?
I’m no lawyer. are you? I disagree with you though. There is nothing that keeps a candidate in a public forum from saying something like I didn’t ask for the attacks on him or her (fill in the name) but I regret they happened. I know him/her (fill in the name) and can say these attacks aren’t justified.
Too me something like the above is also just free speech. there’s nothing to keep any candidate from simply saying honest information. Or, are you saying honesty is illegal? i mean if you are i then post some kind of link or something that backs you up.
It’s important to remember the reason for attack ads; because they work. Lamborn wasn’t disgusted by the attacks, they helped him get elected.
As voters, we need to take a stand on how we want our elections run. I believe Lamborn would not have won if not for the 527 attack ads. I believe that Lamborn was elected on a platform of lies. Electing our candidates based on misinformation is an assault on the electoral process. Electing Lamborn only reinforces the lies and the behavior.
I would rather Lamborn had shut down the attacks (I think he could have) but that would’ve made him the exception rather than the rule. It’s not up to Lamborn it’s up to us.
I’m a republican and I’m not voting for Lamborn.
Miss Ive,
Or you would know that there were more anti- Lamborn 527’s then pro. Lamborn won inspite of a barrage of mail and radio ads against him. However, you don’t hear about that on this site, because, unlike like candidate parties, non of the Lamborn people complained about it. (present post excepted).
I don’t mean to question you but is there any documentation? Are you including in your statement the idea that any 527 that was “pro” someone else is an “anti” Lamborn 527? The positive ads that some 527s ran for candidates they favored aren’t attack ads but, I guess you could say loosely they’re “anti” Lamborn if they’re not “pro”Lamborn, but that’s a stretch. Can you list the ones that attacked Lamborn? And, how much money did the spend too, if you do list any? I mean, if Lamborn had had only one 527 that had a million dollars it spent attacking all the other candidates, but all the other candidates had 10 different 527s with a combined budget of $10,000 that attacked Lamborn, is it a fair comparison? (I don’t know how much money any of them spent.) But none of the radio and tv spots that were attacking Lamborn were pulled from the air. I thought that all of Lamborn’s were pulled that attacked Crank and Rivera because the tv and radio stations believed them to be false. So, if none of the Lamborn people complained to the radio and tv stations, was it because those attack ads were true? Help me here.
As for documentation, I can’t provide any online per se. You would have to take my word for it, but there were groups sending out anti-Lamborn mailers and doing anti-Lamborn radio spots (and by anti-Lamborn I mean anti-Lamborn and not pro-another-candidate). There was a group called Coloradans Against Lawsuit Abuse (pro-Crank), that said Lamborn was anti-tort reform, there was a pro-Rivera group that claimed Lamborn wanted to institute a statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims (and was, therefor, pro-sexual preditor), and another pro-Crank ad that said Lamborn was a dirty politician.
If the Christian Coalition piece skewed the facts, then so did these, the tort-reform mailers took bill language out of context, and the sexual abuse law was in regards to limiting lawyers sueing the Catholic Church (and not priests -over 50 years after an incident) (the irony is one group is claiming he’s against tort reform, while another group is blasting him for his tort reform.)
All these mailers and ads went out in the last 14 days of the primary. Their validity or legality is arguable, but the point I am trying to make, is Lamborn never complained about them, because he was focused on his campaign. If he was a “dirty” campaigner, then so were Crank and Rivera. However, I don’t think any of the three were dirty, but 527’s have a legal right to throw their opinions on the air.
As for the pro-Lamborn ads being pulled, they were pulled on a matter of legalese and not because they were untrue. Crank had some good lawyers, and most stations are scared because they are legally laible for libel, and not the 527’s, but even so, they were only pulled from two stations.
It would have been good to have documentation to back you up but it’s OK by me if your emotions are behind your beliefs instead of documentable facts.
There were several questions that I had though that I don’t have answers for but maybe you do. For example, the Colorado Christian Coalition and the Club for growth endorsed Lamborn, right? So, their motivations were clear in attacking all others in the race. Crank and Rivera were singled out for “special” treatment. I’m not familiar with the Colorodoans Against Lawsuit Abuse, but, had they formally endorsed Crank?
I had no idea about the timeline on the anti-Lamborn ads and mailers that went out in the last 14 days of the primary. But once you disclosed that I personally felt it undermined even more Lamborn’s campaign tactics. That’s my honest and humble opinion. The reaction I had was that these were defense, not offense, and very late in the game after weeks of the attack ads from the 527s that had endorsed Lamborn. I don’t have any documentation myself on this that is a matter of opinion so I can’t prove it, but I get the sense that all the other candidates combined didn’t spend the money on attack ads as were spent by and for Lamborn. It was kind of like this. Lamborn and his 527 supporters nuked the opposition for weeks before any of the opposing candidates and their supporting 527s responded–but they did so with truck bombs against Lamborn. Nukes beat truck bombs any day! And it would have been stupid for Lamborn to complain about the truck bombs. His hypocrisy would have been revealed. And if his hypocrisy had forced him to quit nuking the opposition, he would have lost the primary. That’s the way I see it. It wasn’t his taking the high road at all that he didn’t complain. It was the exact opposite.
You are clearly disgusted and have every reason to be. Please consider voting for Jay. Maybe you are one of the many Republicans who are staying away from the polls this year because of Lamborn. I guess I should not encourage you to show up at the polls. You’ll vote Republican in other races. But, if you do decide to vote, please vote for Jay Fawcett. At least listen to the debates and see why Lamborn isn’t who we want in Congress. Give Fighting Jay Fawcett a chance.
Yes, despite the some of the ridiculous campaign gaffes from the Beauprez camp, I think BB would be a great Governor. This isn’t simply because I’m an R. I’m tired of the politicians that think they can bank votes from everyone in their party. There are a lot of R candidates that (I believe) are violating the principles the party was built on.
I don’t know if I can vote for Fawcett though. The only thing that has me thinking is his military background and his participation in developing homeland security plans. I read a story today outlining his and Lamborn’s plans for disaster response and JFs sounded very intelligent. Still, don’t you just get so tired of the bs that you just want to stay home?
We don’t have to agree on who we vote for but I suggest that if any candidate turns us off so much we want to stay home, we owe it to ourselves to go vote for whoever it is that opposes that candidate. If the ones get elected that made us want to stay home and we do indeed stay home with all those who are of the same mind, the voter turnout just goes lower and lower and lower and as it does we end up with progressively less qualifed, less ethical elected officials. Once again, I ask you to vote for Jay Fawcett. Give him a chance. Follow the debates. You’ll see why you should when you have the two of them to compare side by side.
I agree with Joel Hefley on about 1% of substantive issues (at most), but I watched a few minutes of the ethics committee hearing he gave James Trafficante a few years ago. I was highly impressed with his judicious conduct of what Trafficante was trying to turn in to a three-ring circus.
Then Hefley had the balls to stand up to Tom “the Hammer” Delay. He should have run for Majority Leader when the post became vacant.
As for Lynne, while I probably agree with her maybe 2% of the time of substantive issues, she conducted the judiciary committee hearing on impeaching Judge Coughlin with an understanding and appreciation for the constitutional separation of powers.
Joel and Lynne Hefley both put the integrity of the political process above their partisan agenda. You people in C.D. 5 don’t know what you are losing.
And you think you’re going to replace it with Stillborn Lamborn?
I thought Hefley was in for a smiting at the very least!
another “POTTED PLANT” in Washington, D.C.
Here’s a thought for those liberals out there.
In his 20 years, how many pieces of legislation dealing with Education did Congressman Hefley sponsor? How many pieces of legislation calling for Social Security Reform? How about Health Care? How about the Environment? Crime Victim rights? Affirmative Action? Congressional Ethics? Campaign Finance Reform?
Here’s a thought for those conservatives out there.
In his 20 years, how many pieces of legislation dealing with pro-social, pro-family related issues did Congressman Hefley sponsor? Pro-life? Anti-abortion? Same-Sex Marriage? Second Amendment? Anti-Illegal Immigration? Balanced Budget Amendment? Term Limits? Judicial restraint?
The answer to these is simple…NONE.
So just how effective was he again?
First of all check out HR4818 in terms of environment and HR5839 in terms of ethics. Second, Washington is not Denver, it makes no sense for every Rep in introduce bills in every subject area because influence in committee assignments determine who takes credit for what and who actually moves bills.
Check out what Hefley sponsored this year alone. http://thomas.loc.go…
Joel Hefley only knocked DeLay after DeLay wouldn’t support him for Chairmanship of a major committee. If Hefley had any guts he would have supported Fawcett. Hefley wants to condemn and still eat at the same table with the swine he knocks. Hefley was a mediocre Member of Congress and his wife a hanger on. Neither will be missed.
“ABSOLUTELY.” Has something to do with “What goes around, comes around”… to bite you in the ass. Tip O’Neill once said “All politics is local.” I say, all politics is circuilar.
Time is the judge, and people with long memories never forget. Best to be careful how one treats others otherwise, in time, the pendulum will swing back against you.
repubs know sleaze when they see it don’t ya know.
Life was so much more enjoyable when we had a competitive governors race to bicker over. Now, because of the tanking BB campaign, we’re forced to fight over this drivel.
ANY CHANCE WE COULD GET SOME SORT OF WRITE IN CAMPAIGN GOING?
Seriously. Could we do that?
governor or 5th? theres two going on in the 5th, neither with much (if any) traction. yawn.
in the CD-05 race, I got the impression that one candidate (Fawcett) is a great public speaker, and the other (Lamborn) isn’t. If true, I wouldn’t expect the poor speaker to agree to any debates.
I saw one debate on the schedule on Fawcett’s website, at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Security on October 4th. Is that really going to happen ? Is there anything us voters can do to try to force a debate, or at least a joint appearance ?