April 02, 2015 09:13 AM UTC

Hell No, "Dr. Chaps" Will Not Resign

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• by: Colorado Pols

KRDO’s Greg Miller reports from along the Ronald Reagan Highway:

Critics want him to resign, but a Colorado Springs state representative has a new message for them about comments he made about the attack on a pregnant Longmont woman…

Representative Gordon Klingenschmitt said “This is the curse of God, upon American for our sin of not protecting innocent children in the womb. And part of that curse, for our rebellion against God as a nation, is that our pregnant women are ripped open.”

…Klingenschmitt admits his words were not appropriate, and he apologized for using them saying he wants nothing but a successful recovery for Wilkins. But he stands by his right to free speech even as he takes that TV show that caused him trouble, off air.

“I’m not gonna resign,” Klingenschmitt said Wednesday, though many said he should.

Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt’s current predicament, and that of fellow Republicans forced to reckon with his embarrassing antics as a lawmaker, were fully anticipated last year after his Youtube video “ministry” repeatedly made national news. As a webcam crackpot, what Klingenschmitt had going for him was his willingness to shock viewers with claims that President Barack Obama is possessed by demons and that Rep. Jared Polis wants to behead people a la ISIS. Pretty much anything in the news is/was fair game for Dr. Chaps to twist into headline-grabbing rants about demons and beheadings and disembowelment. That’s how he got his Youtube views–not many, of course, and far more from left-leaning sites than fellow Christians.

But there’s no question that Chaps was a known commodity.

Press coverage of Klingenschmitt’s latest offense in response to the attack on pregnant Longmont resident Michelle Wilkins has focused heavily on condemnation from fellow Republicans, including Klingenschmitt’s loss of committee postings in a rare flash of caucus discipline from House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso. But the shift from last summer, when Klingenschmitt’s predecessor Mark Waller acknowledged Chaps’ troubles but reminded HD-15 constituents how “legislative majorities matter,” makes Republican outrage today harder to swallow.

It’s entirely possible that Rep. Klingenschmitt will face a GOP primary in 2016. Residents of HD-15 have been burned before, after all, when Doug Bruce was appointed to the seat, only to make such an embarrassment of himself in one legislative session that Waller was compelled to step forward and Old Yeller Colorado’s foremost conservative fiscal policy icon. What makes Klingenschmitt different is that his craziness was well known before he stood for election, and the voters of HD-15 overwhelmingly elected him anyway. We’re not sure Klingenschmitt ever had the credibility to challenge Bob Gardner (or Waller) for Bill Cadman’s Senate seat next year, but keeping a seat he won by almost 70% last year is not implausible even now.

And that speaks louder than anything his embarrassed colleagues can say.