Leave it to Independence Institute czar Jon Caldara to slow the momentum of the Mike Merrifield resignation story for Republicans.
Caldara is notoriously terrible when it comes to political strategy, so it should be no surprise when he takes a news story that is politically beneficial for Republicans and turns it into a great big pile of silly. As Colorado Media Matters notes:
During the March 29 broadcast of his show, Newsradio 850 KOA host and Independence Institute president Jon Caldara claimed that an email in which state Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) disparaged supporters of charter schools as deserving “a special place in hell” was “more embarrassing” than the sexually explicit electronic communications that former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) sent to underage congressional pages. “The difference is Mark Foley wanted to screw young boys. These people want to screw our children,” Caldara said of Merrifield and other legislators who hold similar positions on education issues.
Um, yeah.
Caldara may have single-handedly destroyed the ‘No on Referendum C’ campaign by turning it into a ridiculous bitchfest about lame expenditures, which took away from any serious discussion about Ref. C, and now he’s marginalizing the Merrifield story. Nobody in their right mind thinks the Merrifield e-mail is more embarrassing than a member of congress getting caught flirting with male teenage pages. It’s not even in the same discussion, and this has nothing to do with the players involved.
Gay underage sexual harassment is ALWAYS going to be more embarrassing than a discussion of the merits of charter schools. Always. It’s not even up for debate.
Let’s put it another way: Whose shoes would you rather be in today? Mike Merrifield’s or Mark Foley’s?
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You called the Merrifield story, “a positive news story for Republicans.”
What did the Republicans do in that story that was positive?
It was a damned good negative story about Democrats and a great political opportunity for a minority party who can do no more than whine and throw up “gotcha” amendments during the legislative session because it doesn’t have the votes to do anything else.
Be that as it may, I think calling it a “positive story” is a bit of a stretch.
Is Caldara telling Coloradans that Republicans like to screw little boys?
not necessarily in that order…
Where does the crystal meth and “back-rubs” come into play?
What do you expect?
The Democrats in the state Senate are more visible and accountable than the arrogant president of the Independence Institute, which I might support if he weren’t there.
David Harsanyi was actually pretty reasonable about it. He took his digs, of course, but also indicated that he had been known to make an intemperate comment or two himself. Caldara is just an idiot.
Caldara has always struck me as an Ann Coulter wanna-be. Trying to be so over the top that he gets lots of attention and money from the wing-nuts.
And I think it’s great – he does more than any other single individual for the Democratic party by far. So go Jon, go. Keep talking wide & loud.
Is that why she is on his radio show once a week, and he kisses her feet the entire time?
Maybe he’ll get caught voting in the wrong precinct and run away from the scene!
Even O’Reilly can’t defend the guy, but Coulter will fight to the end for a pedophial because he’s an RRR. Would Caldara do the same?
Who sponsors (pays) for his show on KOA anyway? I suppose it’s like the “loss leader” when WalMart, Kroger or whomever gives discounts on gasoline for buying $50 of other stuff.
Merrifield used an ancient literary allusion to Dante’s classic. Only the theologically and educationally estranged from Colorado Springs could expect that he was consigning them to such a place. Speculation about hell is not particularly threating to anyone.
This is the classic political ploy perfected by Karl Rove. Take an phrase which has “hot button” words but no real meaning and spin the “hot” words into something entirely different.