June 03, 2013 12:23 PM UTC

We Never Knew Ye, Clint Webster (Yeah, Right Edition)

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• by: Colorado Pols

On May 17th, a press conference was held at the offices of the right-wing Independence Institute, featuring attorney Dave Kopel and most of the state's elected county sheriffs announcing their lawsuit against two gun safety bills passed this year's legislative session. Present at the press conference was, as we reported that afternoon, a 2010 GOP state legislative candidate named Clint Webster.

Webster lost his race in 2010 after revelations of a guilty plea in his background for felony assault and menacing. Webster fired shots at his ex-wife after she visited his home as she was driving away. Webster's presence at the Independence Institute's press conference was seized upon by Democrats for the obvious contradiction, leading to this Tweet from Colorado Senate Democrats:

Subsequent to that press conference, the above Tweet resulted in a great deal of flak for the Senate Democratic press staff–mostly from right-wing news sites like the Daily Caller, but eventually also Colorado Springs television news. The story spread without any reference to Webster, implying that there was no known justification for the assertion that Colorado sheriffs were "standing with criminals," when in fact there most certainly was.

Apparently somebody realized this was a problem, as the local conservative "news" site The Colorado Observer's Valerie Richardson suddenly reports today:

The Senate Majority Office issued a statement last week along with a photo of a man identified as Clint Webster, who can be seen standing in the crowd as Independence Institute research director David Kopel speaks from the podium at the packed May 17 press conference...

The photo, originally posted on the ColoradoPols website, shows that the sheriffs “are quite literally standing with a criminal, and not just any criminal, a domestic violence offender who fired two shots from a Colt semi-automatic handgun at his wife,” said the Senate Majority Office press release…

Independence Institute president Jon Caldara said that the event was open to the public and that he has never met Webster.

“I have no idea who he [Webster] is,” said Caldara. [Pols emphasis] “The room was packed. We knew the people who were speaking, but it was a press conference. Anyone can attend.”

Added Kopel, “Some guy shows up and stands there at a large event–you can’t really help that.” He suggested that those filing the lawsuit may have been “victimized by a photo-bomber.”

First of all, Webster's identity and presence was 100% known on the day of the press conference, May 17th–it's absurd to suggest that nobody knew what Senate Democrats were talking about. Webster was intentionally omitted from early reports on conservative news sites for effect, and that's not the same thing.

Second, and more important, the Independence Institute's Jon Caldara is not telling the truth about Webster. 

On Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 Caldara and the Independence Institute held a "candidate briefing" for legislative candidates. Caldara posted on his blog announcing that event:

The briefing will include presentations by a variety of Independence Institute policy experts who work on major areas of state government activity including: Medicaid and other state health care related issues, K-12 Education funding and structure, higher education funding, taxation, energy policy, and transparency. Briefings will cover both basic information and current debate points on the major state budget issues of the day, along with recommendations for reforms to resolve those issues.

Folks, check out which 2010 GOP legislative candidate was proudly photographed at Caldara's candidate briefing!

That's Webster on the left.

We've said it before: Clint Webster is not some nut who roamed in off the street. This was the Republican nominee for House District 24 in the 2010 elections, and he even attended the Independence Institute's candidate training that year. The right-wing Observer "forgets" to mention anything about Webster's background for obvious and plainly deceptive reasons. If his attendance up front at the Independence Institute's press conference was going to be a problem, and it obviously was, somebody at the Independence Institute should have stopped him. They knew who he was, or at worst, had no excuse for not knowing.

And nothing–nothing–can overcome for us the gobsmacking irony of Webster's presence.