U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Somebody

80%

20%

(D) Phil Weiser

(D) Joe Neguse

(D) Jena Griswold

60%

60%

40%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) Alexis King

(D) Brian Mason

40%

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line
(D) A. Gonzalez

(D) George Stern

(R) Sheri Davis

50%↑

40%

30%

State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(R) Kevin Grantham

(D) Jerry DiTullio

60%

30%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

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

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

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

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(D) Somebody

80%

40%

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

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Somebody

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

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

(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Manny Rutinel

(D) Yadira Caraveo

50%

40%↑

30%

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
October 12, 2006 07:07 PM UTC

So, Rick O'Donnell is an Idiot

  • 18 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As The Denver Post reports, Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell is basically a moron:

Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell, who has blasted politicians who accept perks, took an expenses-paid trip to Panama with his girlfriend arranged by a TV station doing business with a state agency he headed.

O’Donnell took the trip three weeks before he resigned as the head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to campaign for Congress full time.

KCNC-Channel 4 gave him the trip, paid for by the CBS network, after the commission purchased television ads encouraging Latinos to attend college, O’Donnell said. Such perks – called incentive trips in the industry – are commonly used for heavy advertisers.

O’Donnell said he did nothing wrong. “Based upon the state ethics guidelines I follow, it’s 100 percent permissible, 100 percent allowable, because I was there in my official capacity as the head of higher education with our sponsorship agency,” he said.

And he denied that the trip was in any way in conflict with his campaign’s “12-Point Plan to Clean Up Congress.” As part of that, he advocates drawing “a line between public service and private gain.”

We jest at O’Donnell’s expense, but seriously – what the hell was he thinking? This isn’t like one of those things you accept years ago that comes back to haunt you later when you decide to run for office. He was ALREADY running for congress when he accepted this trip. O’Donnell can explain it away until he turns as green as his yard signs, but it looks really, really bad coming from a guy who claims to be running to “Clean up Congress.”

Was O’Donnell ethically or legally justified in accepting this trip? What difference does it make? It looks bad, and it politics, appearance is all that matters. If he didn’t realize at the time that it was going to look bad later, then O’Donnell is an idiot. If he did know how it was going to look, but he accepted the trip anyway…O’Donnell is an idiot. Come on man, this isn’t rocket surgery!

Comments

18 thoughts on “So, Rick O’Donnell is an Idiot

  1. No Way!

    I’m taking bets that it was his mom and he was just too embarassed to tell the people that bought his pre-campaign vacation for him . . .

    But in all seriousness, I hope Ed’s media guys will work up a commericial or some mail about this.

    O’Donnell is campaigning on ethics reform and somehow being ‘new blood’ for the Republican party.  Except, he takes corporate sponsored trips as head of a state agency and has had fundraising visits from Bush and Cheney. And the illegal fundraisers — advertising the sitting head of the EPA to lure energy industry execs at a law firm in heavy litigation with the agency? Don’t think so Rick. 

    Even disregarding the looney tunes essays on social security and immigration, this kind of hypocrisy doesn’t bode well for a guy running on a “let’s make a change” platform.

    O’Donnell really is more of the same – hardcore conservative that’s going to fall in step with the usual monkey business in Washington.  He’s demonstrated this over and over; I hope people are paying attention.

    1. Were they in the country legally or illegally?  Is Rick the child of an illegal immigrant.  As a resident of an unrelated congressional district in Colorado Springs, I hope my representative will jump right on this question and get me an answer.  Perhaps he could email the local paper to ask, for example.

      1. not to call people names?  You can say, “This was a dumb move” without calling someone an “idiot” or a “moron”.

        Seriously, does Colorado Pols have new writers or is Alva just angrier than she used to be?

      2. that name calling was rude?  You can say it was a “dumb move” without calling him an “idiot” and a “moron”.  Having met ROD and heard him speak, I can say with some certainty that he is neither, although I would definitely place this in the “dumb move” category.

        Seriously, does Colorado Pols have new writers or is Alva just really cranky at election time?

    1. But this kind of move can’t be considered anything other than idiotic.

      Unfortunately, our language doesn’t provide a good set of nouns/verbs that adequately separate people with permanent intelligence deficiencies and those otherwise unencumbered individuals who nonetheless exhibit a profound lack of intelligent judgement.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Gabe Evans
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

447 readers online now

Newsletter

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