Facilitating Fraud by Disabling Online Contribution Security ... Mark Udall, Too?

Apparently the disabling of basic security settings on online contributions isn't isolated to the Barack Obama campaign. According to Ed Sealover in the Rocky Mountain News, an intrepid Coloradan tested Mark Udall's contribution system:

Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams said that because Udall accepts money from sources such as prepaid credit cards that allow users to be anonymous, he can skirt campaign-finance limits and laws....

Wadhams said that after he'd gotten a tip that Udall, a Democrat, allowed the same practice, a Schaffer supporter made two $1 donations under the name of Steve Mason and included a fake address without questioning from Udall's Web site. The unnamed supporter tried the same thing with Schaffer's site but was prohibited from doing so, Wadhams said.

Schaffer finance director Janel Domenico said the Republican's Web site requires credit card users to input their billing ZIP code and rejects anyone whose ZIP code does not match with the cards. This is standard practice among stores, too, and a campaign would have to disable part of its security settings to accept prepaid cards without a billing address, she said.

Without any proof of who the donor is, a campaign could take money from individuals who want to give more than the $2,300 limit or from foreign residents who are banned from donating, Wadhams said.

"It opens the door for fraud," Wadhams said. "I don't understand why they would do it."

Nor do I.

Is this in the Democratic playbook for 2008? Congratulations if they've found a legal loophole whereby they can disable basic security and collect funds from who knows where. I'm sure once they're in power over all branches of government, closing the loophole will be at or near the top of their reform agenda.

Latching On to Bridget Johnson's Live-Blog of the Final (Phew!) Schaffer-Udall Debate

We here at Schaffer v Udall are too burned out for the final debate between Colorado's two major U.S. Senate candidates. The Rocky Mountain News' Bridget Johnson live-blogged the CBS4 showdown. Here are a few key excerpts we enjoyed:

The closed captioning on TV says that Udall just said "filly blusstering," Schaffer fires back -- still with that forced smile -- about how he would represent values in U.S. Senate.

And:

Udall asks what Schaffer even did in Congress. Bob is on a tear, rattling off stuff from the CDC to ranchland to missile defense.

And:

Lynn asks about Department of Peace moonbattery proposal. Udall said it was "duplicative" and "made some sense at the time." He said he made his point and then it was time to move on. Is Congress just for grandstanding, then? No wonder nothing gets done. [link added]

And:

Udall is asked on card check, without the panel describing that it's a labor bill for the folks at home. Schaffer happily provides the explanation and goes after Udall's jugular on it. The closed captioning called it "car check." This debate is so unfair to the deaf. [link added]

And finally:

Schaffer is on a cool tear against socialism. No redistributing of wealth and take from those of ability to give to those in need, he says.

Thanks, Bridget. We look forward to meeting you in person some day.

Bob Schaffer Barnstorms Western Slope In Search of Late-Breaking Undecided Votes

Some have given up on his cause. He embraces the label "underdog". Yet as reported in today's Rocky Mountain News, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is touring the Western part of the state to churn out every vote from where internal polling shows the most undecideds remain:

He came to the Western Slope armed with messages about cutting taxes to spur the economy and increasing domestic energy production - something that played especially well with the employees of the natural gas company he addressed in the morning. But more than usual, Schaffer emphasized the need to keep Democrats from winning nine more Senate seats this year and holding a filibuster-proof majority.

In answering a question at one event, Schaffer implied that the integrity of the U.S. Constitution is at stake if Democrats control all top federal offices.

Debates over international treaties and Supreme Court justices will not happen if Democrats can cut off dissenting Republican voices, Schaffer told voters at five different stops.

"It will ensure a strategy toward higher taxes," he said. "It will ensure a strategy toward surrender and defeat in the war on terror. It will ensure a strategy on energy that involves less production instead of more."

A similar argument for divided government was made by both the Grand Junction Sentinel and Pueblo Chieftain in endorsing Bob Schaffer.

Next week's results will tell us how successful was Bob Schaffer's last-minute pitch to western Coloradans.

Mark Udall Wants to Redecorate Your Future Fourth of July Celebrations

Rocky Mountain Right is correct. I can't add any (serious) comment to this unedited quote in the Rocky Mountain News:

"Green is the new red, white and blue," [Mark] Udall said. "We need new leadership in this country."

You might want to consider re-ordering those Fourth of July decorations. Or just swap them out for the St. Patrick's Day paraphernalia. "Top o' the nation's birthday to ye."

Thank You, Rocky Mountain News, for Spotlighting Mark Udall's Pandering

You've seen the mind-numbingly grating ad. Well, yesterday the Rocky Mountain News called out Mark Udall for his silly pandering:

Udall believes the economy is totally rigged against average Americans? And he says he's going to solve it with tax cuts and new energy technologies? Next thing you know, some politician is going to announce that clean energy is the long-awaited cure for the common cold, such are the miraculous powers routinely ascribed to it these days.

If this economy were totally rigged against the middle class there wouldn't be a middle class for politicians to pander to with ads like Udall's. But in fact there is a huge swath of middle-income Americans. And while they are understandably worried about the future, they remain as well or better off by most relevant standards than their counterparts almost anywhere else in the world.

It's commercials like the one hacked apart by this editorial that make me nearly unable to withstand the wait for election season to end.

Mark Udall's own votes in Congress denied needed oversight to the government mortgage institutions at the center of the economic crisis. Then he hypocritically blamed his political opponents for "laissez-fail" policies that he alleged to be the cause of the crisis. Finally, Udall descended into silly and shameless pandering to the "middle class".

Thanks to the Rocky Mountain News for performing the small public service.

Mark Udall Just Happens to Vote in Boulder (at least he remembered to vote for himself)

From Rocky Mountain Right:

According to the Rocky Mountain News, Boulder liberal Mark Udall turned in his absentee ballot.... in Boulder:

This just in: Mark Udall voted - for himself. The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate turned in his absentee ballot Monday at an early voting site at the University of Colorado.

Are we still supposed to pretend he's not from Boulder?

A fine question, and an interesting observation based on the remark of a reporter who has busily tried to deny the obvious about Mark Udall's place of residence. We've been over this territory before.

Rossputin Takes Up Bob Schaffer's Defense Against Lefty Lies in Rocky Mountain News

At the risk of giving Ross Kaminsky (aka Rossputin) two free links in the course of one week, we recommend you take a look at his insightful column "Schaffer not exactly 'big oil'" in today's Rocky Mountain News. Consider it your weekend reading assignment, and ask yourself why the Lefty Big Blue Lie Machine has been so intent on painting this deceptive picture of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer?

Perhaps, as Kaminsky points out, to deflect from the authentic weakness of their own candidate, Boulder liberal Mark Udall:

During his five years in the energy industry, Bob Schaffer contributed substantially to the federal coffers while working for a local company on projects to increase supply and lower the cost of energy. During that same time, Mark Udall took his salary from the American taxpayers while doing everything in his power to make energy as costly as possible, following the wishes of every liberal and environmentalist group at the expense of the average American who needs to drive to work or heat his home.

It's a point we've made before - though perhaps not quite so elegantly or concisely. But with the truth fighting to get noticed in this frenetic campaign season, it can't be repeated often enough.

Reporter's Claim that Mark Udall "Never Lived in Boulder" Borders on the Absurd

In her "25 things you might not know about Mark Udall" in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News, Lynn Bartels went out of her way to make this questionable statement number one:

1 He's never lived in Boulder, although he's referred to as "Boulder liberal Mark Udall" by his opponents.

I thought we'd been over this one before in discussing Bartels' "case-by-case" approach to airbrushing Boulder from Udall's name.

Lynn Bartels may wish to be more precise. Mark Udall's recent former residence of 6255 Simmons Drive - where he lived for many years, including through much of his term in Congress - doesn't appear to be quite within Boulder city limits. However, not only could you just about throw a stone from within city limits to the house, but also the City of Boulder recognizes it as part of a "subcommunity" known as "Southeast Boulder".

In addition, both Mark Udall's current home and the home on Simmons Drive listed Boulder as his mailing address, and for years he was recognized by the Congressional clerk as "Mark Udall, D-Boulder".

So maybe Lynn Bartels meant to write that Mark Udall has "never lived within the city limits of Boulder." If she had, she probably would have been technically accurate, but readers would have seen it for the pedantic and insignificant distinction that it is.

Why is it so important for Bartels to insist on repeating the spurious claim that Mark Udall has never lived in Boulder? Whether out of spite for Udall's opponent or some other reason, it's her prerogative to do so. But it would be nice at least to see her support for Udall printed in her byline.

Mark Udall's "Laissez-Fail" An Indictment of His Democratic Party and His Own Votes?

Mark Udall quoted in today's Rocky Mountain News about our current economic crisis:

Congress must retain oversight of the treasury secretary's buyout and should get regular updates, [Mark] Udall insisted. And while it will be up to the next Congress and president to overhaul the financial regulatory system, this bill must outline a road map on how it will get there, he said.

"Clearly this is a laissez-faire attitude that's run amok and, as somebody quipped to me, now we have laissez-fail," Udall said.

But it was Mark Udall's Democratic Party that gave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a free pass when oversight was needed. And it was Mark Udall whose votes in Congress let the mortgage lenders grow dangerously with low capital and high risk.

So I wouldn't exactly take Mark Udall to be a trusted expert on this issue. Then again, maybe he's just humbly hanging the laissez-fail label on his own shoulders.

Denver Reporters Catch Mark Udall in a Self-Damaging U-Turn on Taxes

Better late than never, I say. Last Friday we brought attention to Mark Udall's hypocritical attacks against Bob Schaffer on the repatriation tax issue.

Today both the major Denver dailies have caught on. The Rocky Mountain News notes that Mark Udall not only supported a 2004 bill that contained the same corporate tax cut provision for which he criticized Bob Schaffer, but also gave a speech on the House floor praising the idea:

In a floor speech before the final vote, Udall said the bill was flawed and filled with unnecessary provisions, according to the Congressional Record.

But he also said, "I will vote for it because it includes provisions to encourage American corporations doing business abroad to repatriate their overseas earnings for investment here at home. This has great potential to stimulate investment in new plants and equipment as well as in the research and development that support innovation, job creation and prosperity."

Meanwhile, the Denver Post confronted the Udall campaign with the facts, forcing his spokesperson to admit the falsehood and recant:

His spokeswoman, Tara Trujillo, said last week that Udall had voted to strip that proposal out of the bill, but that turned out to be wrong.

The campaign is now admitting the mistake, but only after Schaffer's campaign manager pointed to Udall's own floor statement on the bill in which he praised the tax-holiday provision.

Mark Udall has to be careful. Sometimes when he makes his infamous U-turns, he ends up crashing his own campaign bus.

Vince Carroll: Gas Prices Push Mark Udall to Reverse Position on Drilling

We here already have asked the question about Mark Udall's whiplash-inducing U-turn on domestic offshore drilling and energy policy. Rocky Mountain News editor Vince Carroll follows on the same theme, though with greater eloquence:

Two years ago, when a Rocky editorial called Udall shortsighted for voting against a bill to ease the ban on offshore drilling for natural gas (oil wasn't even on the table in order to eliminate fearmongering about spills), Udall wrote to say that we had "oversimplified the question."

Drilling "may be justified with the right safeguards," he maintained, but "that has not been properly established."

One would have thought that the vast experience of extracting natural gas in the western Gulf of Mexico had established that safeguards could be successfully imposed elsewhere, but the congressman was very picky at the time.

More to the point, perhaps, gasoline wasn't $4 a gallon.

The shifting winds of politics can do curious and strange things indeed, and none more curious nor stranger this year than Mark Udall finding the inspiration to support domestic oil exploration as Colorado voters have grown angry about high gas prices.

Schaffer, Udall Face Off At KBDI 12, 3rd Party Candidates Included

I liveblogged (in Word, no WiFi) today's KBDI Channel 12 debate between Bob Schaffer and Mark Udall that also featured appearances by Bob Kinsey of the Green Party, and Douglas "Dayhorse" Campbell of the American Constitution Party. Jim Benemann of CBS4 moderated, and Aaron Harber of The Aaron Harber Show and Lynn Bartels of the Rocky Mountain News provided the questions.

I'll have a bigger writeup later, but here is the information on where to see the closed set, recorded debate:
Colorado Decides, a joint production of KBDI Channel 12, CBS4 and RMN, will air on KBDI Channel 12 Friday Aug. 15 at 8pm. The debate will also be available online.

The pre-debate rally was loud and boisterous on both sides:

Mark Udall's Whiplash U-Turn, Distortions Undermine Credibility on Energy Issues

The day after we reported Boulder liberal Mark Udall's whiplash-inducing change of policy on offshore drilling - the Denver Post's Michael Riley followed up with a piece on the topic:

Battered on the energy issue for weeks, Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Mark Udall moved Wednesday to close the distance with his Republican opponent on the issue, calling for more domestic drilling and reversing his long-standing opposition to drilling off America's shores.

Both were sharp turnarounds for a man who has made the expansion of renewable energy a cornerstone of his career and who has consistently dinged the aggressive drilling policies of the Bush administration during this campaign.

But both Udall and his staff emphasized that the nation's energy crisis called for a sweeping rethinking of possible solutions — and that the country could no longer afford to keep much of anything off the table.

Perhaps the last paragraph should be reworded: "...[Mark Udall's looming election] crisis called for a sweeping rethinking of possible solutions." Let's just be honest - Udall has changed his mind because he was reading the polls.

Mark Udall still has much explaining to do to overcome years of opposition to expanded domestic energy exploration. In the Rocky Mountain News, the Democratic candidate tries to dig himself out of a hole:

"I've always said we have to have responsible drilling," Udall said during the news conference. "I'm not opposed to drilling. What I've been opposed to is the Bush-Cheney focus solely on oil. I've been opposed to (the) Bush-Cheney line that we can drill our way out of this challenge."

By "responsible drilling," Mark Udall must mean drilling off the shore of Cuba.

Udall then goes on to tell intentionally deceive about his opponent Bob Schaffer's position:

"My opposition to (Schaffer's) energy plan is based on the fact that it's a drill, drill, drill approach," Udall said. "We need a much broader approach, a much more comprehensive approach that understands that the future includes renewables, conservation, . . . these amazing fuel-efficient cars."

Does Mark Udall want us to believe he doesn't know what Schaffer's position on energy really is?

At public meetings Bob Schaffer has conducted across the state, Coloradans have made it clear they want to help lead America to a future of energy independence. It’s a positive and necessary goal Bob believes can be achieved by taking a long-range, comprehensive approach.

Helping Colorado advance a freedom-based energy strategy means broadening the incentives, research and investment in renewable energy science, production, conservation and improved development of American-based conventional energy resources. This will provide greater energy security as we reduce our dependence on energy needs from potentially hostile countries.

A leader in innovative energy solutions, Bob’s practical experience spans both public policy and real-world business. Colorado is blessed with abundant clean natural gas, oil and coal resources as well as being a robust producer of wind-generated electricity, solar power, crops and technologies used to create alternative fuels. Additional opportunities exist for geothermal, hydroelectric and nuclear production. Combined with world-leading research capabilities and an energy-savvy citizenry, Colorado can and should be a national leader in achieving energy independence.

Mark Udall is drastically changing his position on energy - the preeminent issue of the day - and distorting his opponent's position. Is this the guy independent Colorado voters want to represent them in the U.S. Senate?

Bob Schaffer Connecting with Voters During His Tour of Southern Colorado

Following the momentum from his Monday debate victory, Bob Schaffer has taken to the road. Schaffer is touring southern Colorado with his message of energy independence to contrast with Mark Udall's obstructionism.

The Pueblo Chieftain highlights Bob Schaffer's views on Pinon Canyon but offers little new. Traveling with Schaffer, Lynn Bartels of the Rocky Mountain News recounts day two of the trip, as Schaffer interacts with voters in Pueblo, Westcliffe, and Salida, including this aw-shucks anecdote:

Hillside resident Fred Berry took a Schaffer for Senate T-shirt provided by the candidate’s campaign.

"I'm getting work clothes for my wife," the 69-year-old Custer County rancher joked. "When she’s out baling (hay) she can be electioneering for Schaffer."

Of course, the advantage of grassroots energy in Schaffer's campaign was most visible recently at the turnout and enthusiasm of the debate crowd.

Mark Udall Campaign Drunken Sailor Spending Strategy May Be Cause for Regret

For two straight quarters, the Mark Udall campaign reports that it's spending like a drunken sailor:

Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams argued, however, that Udall is burning through money at an unsustainable rate, noting he spent almost $300,000 more than he raised from April through June. The $2 million cash-on-hand advantage the Democrat held over the former Fort Collins congressman in April has been cut almost in half by Schaffer, he said.

"The only thing that matters from here to the election is how much money you have in the bank, how many more bullets you have left to shoot," Wadhams said. "Even though he had a very good fundraising quarter, when you spend $2.3 million, it negates everything."

Back in April, we speculated about where the money was going:

Patent leather office chairs or golden bathroom fixtures at campaign headquarters? Solar-powered Blackberries? Or maybe it's being wasted on high-paid online staffers? Udall's friend Governor Bill Ritter probably wishes some of that money could be shared to cover his outstanding campaign debts.

This time some of the money was spent on buying television ads - which along with 527 smear ads, has helped to forge a small advantage for Mark Udall. But this rapid depletion of funds - combined with Bob Schaffer's more cost-effective strategy - may later be a source of regret for the Boulder liberal.

After all, there are more painful debate experiences to come.

Mark Udall Winning on Internet Ads, But Obstructing Energy Solutions for Colorado

Long weekend, slow political news cycle. Lynn Bartels at the Rocky Mountain News writes about how Democrat Mark Udall's campaign is absolutely cleaning up on the Internet advertising front:

Udall's campaign has turned to the Internet for an advertising blitz that puts the candidate's face on more than 250 Web sites. Browsers who click on Udall's ads are sent to his campaign Web site, which recently received rave reviews from a blog that grades such sites.

"We hear people say they see Mark's ad in lots of places," said Taylor West, Udall's campaign spokesperson.

Heck, I'm surprised Mark Udall hasn't bought ad space on this site. (It's a joke. Ha.)

And Taylor West was replaced as official campaign spokesperson weeks ago. How long has this story been in the can?

Mike Saccone at the Grand Junction Sentinel also reports that Mark Udall is winning the not-yet-meaningful Facebook rivalry.

Meanwhile, the issue of rising gasoline prices raises the profile on oil shale extraction in Colorado. But Mark Udall stands in the way of energy relief. Smaller newspapers get the importance of the issue (H/T Coyote Gulch). The technology is there to do this far more cleanly than in the past.

Hopefully the discussion of campaign Internet advertising will give way soon to substantive campaign issues, like Mark Udall's obstruction of sensible energy solutions that would benefit consumers.

Robert Redford Woos the Ladies for Mark Udall ... What About Barbra Streisand?

From Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News columnist-about-town, another example of how Boulder liberal Mark Udall is cashing in off his ties with Hollywood celebrities:

If you're a woman "of a certain age" and you get an e-mail from Hollywood hunk Robert Redford, pay attention. That was PR princess Wendy Aiello's reaction last week when she received the cyberspace message from the actor asking her to donate to Congressman Mark Udall's senatorial campaign.

"I'll tell you, it was fun to open e-mails and see one from Robert Redford," Aiello told me when she forwarded the pitch from the Sundance Kid. "I hope I have a Redford sighting at the Democratic National Convention. I'll be looking for him."

The e-mail missive was sent to roughly 50,000 registered voters, according to Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo.

Somehow I'm doubtful that Mark Udall would get such a response from male supporters if they received an email advertising this Hollywood fundraiser - with or without the picture attached.

Rossputin's Report, Part 2: The Left's Innuendos Don't Stack Up to the Truth

Yesterday we highlighted the first of Rossputin's scheduled eight-part series going in-depth to investigate the allegations made concerning Bob Schaffer's 1999 trip to the Marianas Islands.

A well-known Lefty commenter here left a cryptic comment, saying we should look at Rocky Mountain News liberal columnist Jason Salzman's blog to demonstrate that we "protest too much about telling the truth." This is what was supposed to bowl us over:

In addition to ripping off Native Americans, Abramoff made big money defending the Marianas Islands’ exploitative immigration policies, which may even have resulted in forced abortions. Abramoff spearheaded a successful lobbying campaign to block immigration reform in the Marianas. Abramoff specifically targeted the House Resources Committee, which had jurisdiction over the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and on which Schaffer was a member. Only last month, after decades of oppositin [sic] from Abramoff and Congressmen like Schaffer, did Congress finally pass immigration reform for the Marianas.

As reported in The Post, Schaffer visited Marianas, courtesy of an organization with ties to Abramoff, and defended its immigration policies in Washington DC. Overall, Schaffer’s lobbying tactics aligned with Abramoff’s. [emphases added]

It makes a nicely packaged narrative, with a lot of innuendo and guilt by association, but its clever characterizations and omission of key facts adds up to missing the truth by a mile. When you read it carefully, what Salzman writes really doesn't say much at all, except that what Schaffer (and others) observed firsthand about CNMI doesn't match the rhetoric of Big Labor leaders.

To get a better picture, read Rossputin's second installment. First, there "may have been forced abortions," Salzman slyly writes, repeating one case of secondhand testimony. But how about the testimony of a Christian missionary who visited the island and had her eyes opened?:

And regarding “forced abortions”, Mrs. Lafferty says “I was not able to find anyone who had an abortion, whether forced or not, and nobody I met knew anybody who had had an abortion.” Lafferty went out of her way to try to ensure honest answers from the workers: “We made it abundantly clear that if anyone was being hurt, raped, or enslaved, I would see to it that the perpetrator would go to jail, and the victim would be taken care of. If anybody needed help, I would help them.” Still, with this sort of “witness protection program” offer (my characterization, not Lafferty’s), and with a Chinese missionary as a translator, none of the allegations which made Lafferty’s blood boil seemed to have any substance.

The organization that paid for the trip?:

As far as who paid for the trip that Schaffer was part of, Lafferty put it directly: “We paid for the trip and as far as I know we were not reimbursed for anything by [Abramoff lobbying firm] Preston-Gates.”

Rossputin goes on to show that the Post's sinister claims that Schaffer "met with clients of Preston-Gates" amount to nothing. He could not have conducted a thorough independent investigation otherwise.

Rossputin also debunks the Post's use of a photo to make it look like Bob Schaffer and his wife merely took a pleasure trip to the Marianas - something Lefty bloggers have seized on repeatedly to promote their distorted picture of reality:

After those several days of nearly non-stop investigation and meetings, Schaffer was scheduled to fly home the next morning when someone asked him how he had enjoyed the island, to which Schaffer responded, according to the source just mentioned, “It’s a shame it’s so beautiful and I never got a chance to see it”. That person then contacted someone he knew at the airline and arranged to get Schaffer’s return flight moved from the following morning to the following evening so that Schaffer and his wife (who had accompanied him to investigate garment factories and interview workers) could have a few hours of relaxation before flying home. Schaffer, his wife, and the staffer who accompanied them on the trip, enjoyed a few hours of recreation without hosts and without being accompanied by representatives of the government or any industry, after Schaffer’s mission on the island had been completed.

Should we expect to see anyone recant and/or apologize for perpetuating a distorted picture of reality?

Keep reading Rossputin's important investigative series.

Lynn Bartels to Airbrush "Boulder Liberal" from Mark Udall "on a case-by-case basis"

Liberal Rocky Mountain News media critic Jason Salzman adds a clarification:

In my last post, I provided Rocky Mountain News reporter Lynn Bartels explanation of why she deleted “Boulder liberal” from a quotation from Dick Wadhams, spokesman for Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

I should have made it clear that Bartels will not routinely delete “Boulder liberal” from Wadhams’ quotations in which he refers to Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall of Eldorado Springs as “Boulder liberal Mark Udall.”

She will evaluate Wadhams quotes on a case-by-case basis.

Applying the rule arbitrarily rather than uniformly does not make the situation any better. Readers of the Rocky Mountain News deserve to know what criteria will be used to airbrush the accurate phrase "Boulder liberal" from quoted descriptions of Mark Udall in Lynn Bartels' news stories.

And Colorado voters deserve to know why the phrase "Boulder liberal" suddenly seems to frighten Mark Udall so much.

Satire Highlights Pro-Udall Media Bias, Mark Udall in Boulder Liberal Denial

Earlier this week we took advantage of Rocky Mountain News reporter Lynn Bartels' airbrush of "Boulder liberal" from a quote about Mark Udall to remind readers why the "Boulder liberal" tag indeed accurately describes Udall. We closed with this admonition:

Lynn Bartels' explanation for omitting both "Boulder" and "liberal" from Wadhams' quote to describe Democratic candidate Mark Udall has ignored some pertinent facts. The editorializing should be left to others.

The case since has been made more thoroughly - and tongue-in-cheek to boot - by "Andrew Ripemoff" on Face The State:

Ah yes, the old "I didn’t have the space to explain to readers" excuse. Fortunately, she somehow found the space on May 30th, defending Udall in the Rocky: "Republicans have inaccurately pegged Udall as a Boulder liberal, although he’s never lived within the city limits."

To be fair to Ms. Bartels, all of this is technically true. Just like it’s true that Udall lives in Boulder County, and has a Boulder mailing address. He’s also been officially recognized as "Mark Udall, D-Boulder" by the Office of the Clerk of the 107th Congress of the United States House of Representatives.

The important thing is that hopefully other journalists will jump on this trend of censoring quotes from political types. For example, when someone like former President Bill Clinton says, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," a clever reporter could delete words, turning it in to: "I did have sexual relations with that woman." Then, when questioned about selective editing, the reporter could simply state that she didn’t have enough space to "explain to readers" the situation.

But Bartels didn't stop there. She took the extra step of explaining to readers in a May 26th Rocky report that Mark Udall is really a favorite son of Eldorado Springs.

So we’ll play along. Sure. Mark Udall is NOT a liberal, and has never lived anywhere close to Boulder. In fact, he’s never even HEARD of Boulder. Truth be known, he’s a far right-wing conservative from Craig who routinely drives over deer with his SUV on his way to pick up royalty checks from the gas rigs he owns.

Sometimes, nothing makes a point quite so effectively as satire. Clearly, the reporter referenced here isn't the only one in the tank for Udall.

But rather than dwelling on the obvious issue of liberal media bias, a bigger question still lingers: Why is Mark Udall running away from who he is?