April 17, 2013 12:12 PM UTC

What's up with label-loving Coffman joining a "No Labels" group?

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Here’s a label: “Endangered Species” – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Mike Coffman announced last week that he's joining "No Labels’ Problem Solvers — a group of 56 Democrats and Republicans committed to meeting regularly across the aisle to build trust and talk about solving problems."

Some labels, like the label of "citizen" for Obama, have bugged Coffman in the past.

But mostly he's been as label-friendly as a politician gets in Colorado, labeling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," trying to add the label "forcible" to rape, labeling the flat tax as something that has "tremendous value," labeling the expansion of Medicare under Obamacare as "very radical," wanting to put the label of "president" of the United States on Gov. Rick Perry. (Conversely, Personhood USA labeled Coffman a "statesman" for standing firm against abortion for rape and for any other reason.)

All this heavy-duty labeling makes you wonder why Coffman would want to join a group called the "No Labels' Problem Solvers." Much less be able to get away with it, under scrutiny from the media.

I wondered if a journalist had challenged Coffman on it, and I found that almost nothing had been written about Coffman's apparent decision to throw his sharp labeling skills out the window.

Some reporter has to challenge him on this. Coffman has built a reputation in Colorado for saying controversial stuff, often with serious partisan labels attached. What's up?