Tancredo tried to eliminate federal Dept. of Education. What chunks of state gov would he ax?

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

You knew Texas Gov. Rick Perry's famous Oops Moment would hurt Perry himself, because it made him look so stupid, but I really thought the substance of Perry's incomplete thought–that is, which federal departments should be shut down–would become more of a recurrent theme in conservative GOP primary circles.

I mean, it separates you from the crowd: Shut down the Commerce Department! The Education Department!

This comes up, just not so often.

For example, in a recent appearance on KLZ 560-AM's new "Wake Up" show with Randy Corporon, Rep. Tom Tancredo, who's running for governor, boasted about his efforts, when he was a regional director of the U.S. Department of Education, to shut down the Department of Education:

TANCREDO: I was elected to the State Legislature in 1976, re-elected two more times. I was appointed by Ronald Reagan to run the U.S. Department of Education’s regional office here, in Colorado – six state region. I did that for him and Bush I [one]. Our purpose was to try and implode the whole thing, because we wanted to get the federal government out of education, as much as possible. We couldn’t even get a Congressman to introduce the bill to abolish it, so we tried to do it administratively, and, um–.

HOST RANDY CORPORON: Starve the beast.

TANCREDO: Starve the beast.

CORPORON: Cut back the budget.

TANCREDO: Exactly. So, I found out that that’s what you had to do. That’s the only way you could actually get rid of people that were extraneous – let’s put it that way. [chuckles] I had 22o people employed at the U.S. Department of Education, in the regional office. Two hundred and twenty-two. Now, I emphasize the word ‘employed’. Some of those people were working there, [but] not many. And, um, it took me four years – and as I say, I had to go back to Washington every year and ask for a budget cut in order to actually work through the process of reducing the staff. And I — and there were other reasons why we ended up moving downward, but we got to the point that we had sixty people left, when I left, out of 222.

Left hanging here is, what departments would Tanc cut, wholesale, from state government? That would've been a more relevant direction for Corporon to steer the conversation, given that Tancredo is running for governor.

Perry, you recall, had three federal departments he'd shut down. You get the feeling, when it comes to state government, a guy like Tancredo can top that. Maybe we'll hear about it next time he's on KLZ.

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For the Love Of…STOP USING AURORA SHOOTING PHOTOS for Political Stories

What is it with right-wing political commentators and their complete inability to do a simple search on the origin of a photo? We pointed this out, again, when radio talk show host Peter Boyles used a photoshopped image from a moment during which elected officials were greeting each other somberly after the Aurora theater Shootings.

The right-wing outlet "The Daily Caller" is attempting to drub some kind of scandal into Sen. Mark Udall's research into claims that hundreds of thousands of Coloradans received incomplete notices about changes resulting from Obamacare — a "scandal" that has already been debunked as nonsense on numerous occasions.

Sen. Mark Udall and President Obama at an event held in the aftermath of the 2012 Aurora theater shootings.

Naturally, whenever right-wing outlets are trying to create a scandal out of thin air, they always like to imply that President Obama is somehow involved as well. That's probably why "The Daily Caller" used the picture on your right in their story.

Here's the caption for the photo at right, as supplied by Saul Loeb of AFP/Getty Images:

President Obama, joined by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., tells a story he heard from one of the shooting victims about holding her fingers on her best friend's neck to stop the bleeding. The president spoke during a visit to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo.

It's not overly difficult to do a Google image search and check the source of your picture. This picture misuse isn't nearly as bad as the more commonly-photoshopped picture that also includes Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper (here's one of the most egregious examples), but it's still an inappropriate use of a photo taken during a terrible time in Colorado — and around the country. Whatever emotions the reader might infer from this picture are unfair to a lot of people.

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Republicans Give Up on Trying to Beat Perlmutter

In a year in which Republicans are having trouble fielding exciting candidates for U.S. Senate or Governor, it should come as little surprise that they aren't going to put up a strong candidate against incumbent Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter in CD-7. As Lynn Bartels noted in "The Spot," Republican Don "Can I Buy a Vowel" Ytterberg will kick off his campaign for CD-7 on Wednesday.

Don Ytterberg. Yes, that’s how you spell it.

Ytterberg, the CEO of a metal finishing company in Arvada, lost a bid for State Senate in 2008 to Democrat Dan Gibbs of Summit County. Most recently, Ytterberg served as the Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, a position he resigned late last year. Ytterberg isn't a terrible candidate, but he's definitely more of a ballot filler than a true challenger; he's not dynamic or interesting enough to pose a real threat to Perlmutter, which has a lot to do with Perlmutter himself.

Since first winning election to CD-7 in 2006, Perlmutter has cruised to re-election every two years no matter the opponent. In the Tea Party wave year of 2010, Perlmutter crushed Republican Ryan Frazier 53-42. Even after redistricting made CD-7 more competitive in 2012, and with a wealthy, well-known opponent in Joe Coors, Perlmutter still won by a 53-41 margin.

Given Perlmutter's obvious hold on the district, we've been wondering when Republicans would finally give up trying to make a serious run at the Jeffco native — and it appears 2014 is that year.

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Kåre Rude Andersen - Create a scombot – automate and monitor azure

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Monday Open Thread

"It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."

–Noel Coward 

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Tancredo, Hill Both Bypassing GOP Caucuses

Tom Tancredo and Owen Hill.

There's rarely much interesting on the right-wing "news" site Colorado Observer, but this tidbit from Valerie Richardson caught our attention:

The grass- roots army behind the Recall Hudak Two campaign has thrown its formidable petition-circulating skills behind Republican candidates Owen Hill and Tom Tancredo.

Recall organizer Mike McAlpine said Thursday that volunteers would gather signatures on behalf of the Republicans, who are petitioning to gain slots on the June 24 primary ballot instead of going through the state assembly.

Hill, a state senator from Colorado Springs, is seeking the Republican nomination for Senate, while former congressman Tancredo is making a bid for the GOP nod for governor.

“The same grassroots, conservative energy that led to the victories in the historic 2013 recall elections is the very same enthusiasm that will propel Tom Tancredo and Owen Hill into office,” said McAlpine in a statement. “People are excited about their genuine leadership for personal liberty, limited government, and especially their dedication to serve the people, not our corrupted government system.”

This is the first word we've seen that U.S. Senate candidate Owen Hill intends to bypass the state Colorado Republican Party caucus process, and go directly to the primary ballot by collecting petition signatures. We had heard the possibility that Tom Tancredo might bypass the caucuses with a petition drive, and this announcement would appear to confirm that rumor as well. The story infers that the petition gatherers in question, fresh off the petition campaign to recall Evie Hudak, aren't being paid, but we haven't confirmed that.

With one of Hill's U.S. Senate primary opponents, Amy Stephens, also ditching the caucuses to petition directly to the ballot, the GOP's formerly important assembly selection process appears less meaningful than ever in 2014. This illustrates a difference between former GOP chairman Dick Wadhams, who zealously defended the caucuses and penalized candidates who didn't participate, and current GOP chairman Ryan Call, who sheepishy says both means of getting on the ballot are "legitimate." The truth is, Call would probably be closer to Wadhams' position if he had the power to enforce it. But Call isn't Wadhams, and today's GOP isn't what it was even four years ago.

As for the legitimacy of Hill and Tancredo personally…that really doesn't matter right now.

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