Outed!

I'm a bit busy today with my private life, so I haven't been posting. I'll be busy tomorrow as well.

I choose to use the screen name "a watcher" for a number of reasons, but anonymity isn't one of them. When I send emails, I always use my name. When I write to others, I tell them that they can use my name anywhere they like, but I would prefer that they not publish it on the internet.

There are too many crooks running around the internet. I don't need to have any part of my body enlarged. I am sufficiently well off that I ignore messages from Liberia informing me that I have won a lottery I never entered and that my very rich great great uncle left me a fortune.

The following people have met me, have participated in meetings with me, or have received emails from me where I have identified myself as "a watcher" and at the same time used my name:

Dan Haley and several individuals from the Post, the Gazette, and the Rocky; at least twelve members of the legislature, including five Democrats; the past president of the Colorado Bar association, Former Justice Kourlis; current Supreme Court staffer Jeffrey Clayton; Dick Wadhams in his capacity as chairman of the Colorado GOP, Greg Garcia in his capacity as El Paso county GOP chairman; Jeff Crank; Doug Lamborn; and Bentley Rayburn.

I would guess that there are at least 200 well known people in Colorado who not only know who I am, they know me by sight. With few exceptions, they wouldn't know me except as a blogger.

With the exception of Jeff Clayton, and the possible exception of Dick Wadhams, I have, at one time or another been publicly critical of every one of those folks listed above. That means that I have written about them in a less than positive light on one of my blogs or, using the same screen name, as comments on newspaper articles.

Every one of those folks, regardless of how hard I have criticized them, has had the class not to put my name on the internet. They also have had the class not to allow their subordinates and supporters to put my name on the internet.

Now comes Mark Udall supporter absurdicus. He can't seem to hold his own in an argument so he decides that name calling will win him and Mark Udall support. When it is pointed out that I have been fighting name calling in the Senate race for months (and elsewhere before that) with a lot of success, he decided to step his own personal Mark Udall slime machine up a notch and publish my name.

I have given Mark Udall a lot of credit, though not publicly (if I had given him public credit, it would have run the risk of undoing what I was trying to do). Because of the way I went after the name callers, I have thought that someone on his staff was asking them to stop. I never linked to the name callers so they wouldn't have known about my campaign and stopped on their own. The name calling literally stopped in two weeks and it stopped across the board (with one outlyer and an occasional outburst that I ignored).

Politicians are known by the company they keep. If Mark Udall endorses the tactics of absurdicus, I'll be sending him down my favorite chicken excrement smeared slide to see how much sticks and what he smells like when he gets to the bottom.

If all of the above folks can endure criticism and have the class to keep my not so secret secret, why is it that Mark Udall lacks the class to do the same?

For the record, I had other things to do today that I didn't get done because I had to do this.

Name-Calling

I'm not going to waste much time on this: anonymous Mark Udall blog operative "absurdicus" - who ironically challenges the credibility of transparent bloggers who make fact-based arguments and link to their sources - has resorted to name-calling to advance some otherwise weak arguments.

At one point Bob Schaffer was being called a name five days out of every seven. That stopped when my fellow blogger "a watcher" started writing about it. Less obvious is the fact that "a watcher" worked behind the scenes to keep Republican operatives from calling Mark Udall names. Trust me, I've seen it, and I've seen it work for the most part.

So, ironically, the Udall surrogate absurdicus comes along and decides to center his arguments around name-calling against the blogger who has worked hardest and in an evenhanded way to keep the name-calling out of the Senate race.

Does the Udall campaign want to stake its case to the voters on name-calling? Does their side want to be responsible for the kind of politics that turns off independent voters? We have no problem laying absurdicus' name-calling at Mark Udall's doorstep. If Udall thinks it's in his interest that his spokesman resorts to name-calling, absurdicus will continue. If he doesn't, absurdicus will stop. Simple as that.

While we continue to publish and post comments that provide disagreement and debate, those comments left here that resort to the juvenile and distasteful tactic of name-calling will no longer be published. Let's hope Udall and his anonymous surrogate are willing to engage in a debate free of name-calling.

Roan Plateau Drilling

The Denver Post is reporting that Bob Schaffer has adopted the Bill Ritter position on the Roan Plateau. That should tell all readers that we are not the recipients of inside campaign information. We don't want to be.

Politics is the art of compromise, and we don't object to this pronouncement of position. It isn't a change because Bob Schaffer hadn't announced a position to us or anyone else.

What we do object to, and will continue to write about here and elsewhere is the dishonest way this policy was sold. The environmentalists, including Bill Ritter and Mark Udall, must be held to some standard of truth by someone. If they are not, this kind of dishonest campaign will happen again and again.

We want to puke every time we read about how the Roan Plateau is a pristine natural wonderland, beautiful beyond belief, because it isn't. This newly announced Bob Schaffer position doesn't change the character of the Roan Plateau. It is still scrub land.

added: The Denver Post has rewritten its article this morning.

He Was For It Before He Was Against It

Mark Udall must have been out playing golf when 300 plus members of Congress asked him to cosign the congressional amicus brief on the Second Amendment case that went to the Supreme Court. He couldn't decide whether to use a wood or a putter and in the end, he could only decide to pick up his ball and go home.

Read this statement from Mark Udall's official site. The reasoning sounds exactly like John Kerry's "I voted for the $87 Billion before I voted against it."

If the brief stopped there, I would support it without hesitation. However, it does not stop there. Page 30 of the amicus brief includes declarations that “the District’s handgun ban is unreasonable on its face” and further, that “The lower court’s categorical approach in holding a prohibition on handguns to be unconstitutional per se was correct.”

Clearly, Mark Udall thinks that it was reasonable for the District of Columbia to criminalize the possession of hand guns within its borders for everyone except retired policemen. His stated position is that we citizens have the right to have a weapon with which to protect ourselves except when we don't, and he would side with the Bill Ritter's and the John Morse's who are too quick to say that we don't ever have that right.

Justice Alito asked:

“How could the District code provision survive any standard of review when they totally ban the possession of the type of weapon that’s most commonly used for self-defense…?”

Most troubling is that, as a member of the Senate, Mark Udall would insist on confirming only clones of Breyer, Souter, Ginsberg, and Stephens who would, in the words of Justice Breyer, make the Second Amendment a dead letter. He would let those clones do his dirty work while he piously claimed to be "for gun rights before he was against them.

More on this later in the week.

Second Amendment Question for Mark Udall

Since the Second Amendment is in the news, it seems fair to ask Mark Udall what his position might be on that issue.

A few factoids:

The District of Columbia sought to regulate the possession of hand guns to the point that only retired police officers might own them.

If the purpose of that law was to cut down on deaths, it was a law that didn't work. In the late 1980's the District of Columbia the law was 15 years old. At that time, D.C. was recognized as the Murder Capital of the US. Only the criminals had guns.

The Second Amendment was written at a time when the total strength of the United States Army hovered in the neighborhood of 600 to 1,000 men. The US was so weak that the British refused to honor the peace treaty requirements to abandon their forts south of the Great Lakes and were inciting Indian tribes to attack settlements.

The attorney representing the District of Columbia claimed that he took a trigger lock off a weapon in three seconds in daylight. Presumably he had the key in his hand. How far can a burglar move in three seconds in the middle of the night? If guns are to be for self protection, which the majority of the Court seemed to be arguing, are trigger locks reasonable?

The Liberals on the court clearly did not want to recognize the language of the Second Amendment as a right to have a tool with which to protect one's life and property.

Where does Mark Udall stand on the issue of Second Amendment Gun Rights? If his touchstone is Boulder as he once said, he is clearly a liberal. Is he in lock step with the liberals on the court?

Colorado Senate Poll March 2008--Udall 46%, Schaffer 43%

Still within the margin of error--this continues to be a close race--the latest poll just posted at Rasmussen Reports:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Colorado found that the state’s U.S. Senate race remains very close early in the general election campaign. Democrat Mark Udall now holds a very modest advantage over Republican Bob Schaffer, 46% to 43%. A month ago, Schaffer had a statistically insignificant lead of one point over Udall in the Centennial State. Both election polls had a 4.5 percentage point margin of sampling error.

Schaffer earns strong support from male voters, while Udall does well among women. Udall also leads Schaffer 48% to 37% among unaffiliated voters.

The two Congressmen have very similar favorability ratings. Schaffer is viewed favorably by 53% and unfavorably by 32%. Udall is viewed favorably by 52% and unfavorably by 34%.
. . .
Like most of the nation, Colorado voters see the economy as the most important issue in the upcoming election. While 39% feel it is the most important issue, 18% say the War in Iraq holds the highest importance, while Immigration is the most important issue to 12%.

Crosstabs are available to premium members only.

Schaffer First to Agree to Online Debate

Good news today. A representative from the Bob Schaffer for Senate campaign has expressed the candidate's agreement in principle to an online debate versus Mark Udall, a debate co-sponsored by David Thielen on the Left and by us here at Schaffer v Udall on the Right.

Here's the word from Vicki Blanton in the Schaffer camp:

I wanted to let you know that Congressman Schaffer would be interested in participating in an online debate with Congressman Udall. As we move closer to June and July, please let me know the potential dates of the debate. We’re very flexible and willing to work with you to find a date and time that works for all involved parties.

I'm personally honored and grateful that Bob Schaffer has agreed to the debate.

As of right now, the Udall campaign has said maybe. With this race in a statistical dead heat in the early going, each candidate has about the same to gain - or to lose - from such a contest, as low-profile as it figures to be.

In his announcement at Colorado Pols, David expresses a bit of surprise. But anyone familiar with Schaffer and his career will recognize he is up to this kind of a challenge. Let's hope Udall follows suit soon.

We'll keep you posted here on the scheduling of the summertime debate, as well as other details. Though the candidates' schedules ultimately will determine when it happens, any input you have regarding the timing of the debate is appreciated.

Theatre of the Absurd

First, let there be no mistake. We are laughing at Absurdicus. Laughing out loud. Belly laughs.

His turn around time is pretty amazing. We only wrote our Dueling with Absurdicus essay a few hours ago and already he has torn it apart. Or tried.

It seems that Mark Udall isn't really lying to the public. He is using perfectly acceptable campaign tactics that just happen to not be truthful. It's not quite the same thing. Anyone who calls his untruths lies is subject to a libel suit:

Telling a lie is quite a different thing than using campaign tactics you don't agree with. I'd love for [ Mark ] Udall to bring a libel case against you.

We stand uncorrected. Is it any wonder that the public dislikes politics and politicians when lies are "campaign tactics you don't agree with." What would Mark Udall bring a libel case for? You should go back and follow the Udall as a liar labels. Perhaps you can help him make a case.

You really shouldn't ask us to list the lies you have told:
1. The main argument that is being used against drilling on the Roan Plateau is that it is pristine, untouched country, beautiful beyond belief, and that is the argument that we have responded to. The published photographs don't show little critters. They try to show the terrain in a deceptive way. Your argument has evolved from an admission that the terrain isn't what is being described to an argument that the argument being put forward is about the critters. That is untrue. We link to the articles we reference. The best label to follow is "Roan Plateau."
2. We don't own an SUV and never have. We have a wonderful little 2000 Ford Ranger with terrible shocks and reasonable gas mileage for a truck. The wife doesn't own a SUV either, and never has. None of our children own SUV's. We don't think any of our siblings or siblings-in-law own SUV's.
3. Grandpa McGrumpy, eh? Name calling isn't lying. It is just good campaign tactics, lol.
4. A claim that misleading photographs and misleading descriptions isn't propaganda is a lie.
5. Your assertion that oil companies could match the campaign donations of Sierra Club members was a lie. Your assertion that oil companies shouldn't have the right to have a mechanism to protect their interests is offensive.
6. You have no idea what your argument is and claiming that you do is a lie. You haven't used the same argument twice. First it was that you couldn't see anything from 10,000 feet. Then it was an admission that the Roan Plateau wasn't all that pretty with an assertion that we shouldn't suck the land up like a milkshake. Now it is that Google Earth doesn't reveal all of the wonderful and unique critters. The middle argument had integrity. The same can't be said for the other two.
7. BLM is not going to allow drilling on all of the Roan Plateau, so your latest critter argument is a misrepresentation of the facts, another lie.

Is seven lies enough?

Your desire to "continue to slap [us] around" if we name the conditions under which we would like to see the discussion in the political realm is telling. We could "respect" an argument free of the kinds of lies and misrepresentations you and Mark Udall seem to love. Lies aren't really lies - they are only campaign tactics in your book. In mine, they are still lies.

This discussion is at an end. Post any comment you like. This author won't respond. You are not consistent enough or ethical enough in your arguments to make continuing worthwhile.

Dueling With Absurdicus

Readers may wonder why we would spend any of our time responding to Absurdicus instead of concentrating on the real subjects of this blog, Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer.

The answer is simple. Absurdicus is a prolific writer. He usually either speaks for Mark Udall in the blogosphere or parrots those who do. Too often he wanders away from the truth, sometimes far away. If Mark Udall wants to get elected surrounded by a bodyguard of lies and liars, the public has a right to know what is happening.

Here is his latest comment left under our Absurdicus makes a plea post:

So you're admitting you didn't read what I wrote. Wonderful.

No, you wrote two sentences. You can't doubt that we read the second sentence because we wrote a whole post around it. We read the first sentence and didn't understand it. Once you clarified your point, we wrote a whole post around what you claimed your first sentence said, something we would have happily done if you had been more clear the first time.

How is showing pictures of the Roan Plateau propaganda? Are you saying they doctored those photos and the Roan plateau doesn't really look like that?

We absolutely are saying that the scrub land character of Roan Plateau is being misrepresented and concealed by the photographs that make the news and made it into the Mark Udall commercial. That makes them propaganda in the same way that a film of any despot patting the head of a little girl is propaganda. It doesn't present the whole picture and that part that it does present is misleading as you admitted in your last argument.

Let's just take your argument to it's eventual conclusion. The Roan Plateau doesn't look all that great at 10,000 feet. Ooops, the Roan plateau doesn't look all that great from 1000 feet away. Just like judging what you look like from any large distance away, why not just not look at all and then make your argument for what the Roan Plateau look like. Let's not even get into the species of plants, animals, etc exceeds that of other lands that already have protected status. You don't even need a picture for that.

Our argument might reasonably be that every square inch of the Earth cannot be protected from human development. We elect politicians to make decisions about what should be protected and what should not. When politicians like Mark Udall and their supporters routinely lie about the nature of the land they want to protect or any other matter of importance, they cannot be trusted to help make public decisions. More importantly, they shouldn't be trusted and shouldn't be placed in a position of trust. That is what elections are about.

Your comment about the "protected status" of other places could easily be turned against those other places if the Roan Plateau is to be the measure.

Your claim that it is impossible to understand the nature of a landscape from 1,000 feet elevation is silly and intentionally misleading. Enough Americans have bought window seats on airliners to know that.

As for big campaign donations. Who are you trying to fool? Do you really put the Sierra club on the same level with Exxon Mobil and their astroturf group Americans for American Energy?

The last we heard corporations cannot make legally campaign contributions at all, and individuals are limited to making $2,300 donations per cycle. The Sierra Club can mobilize individuals to donate. Exxon cannot.

Who are you trying to fool? This isn't a high school debating class where you get to try out an argument or a piece of propaganda and discard it if it isn't convincing. That is what you are doing. If you and Mark Udall are truthful, and make truthful arguments based on accurate facts, you have a right to expect that the public will trust you.

If you and Mark Udall get caught making false arguments often enough, the public won't trust you even when you are truthful. Mark Udall doesn't seem to understand that, which is why we have a "Udall as a liar" tag. For his supporters who can't be truthful or make truthful arguments, we simply dump them into the "Big Blue Lie Machine."

Bob Schaffer, Prince of Darkness

One of the slick tricks of modern electronic journalism is to use lighting to "throw a bad light" on subjects the journalists do not like. Photo journalists sometimes photoshop photographs to make them black and white because black and white photos are less appealing. Television journalists have their own tricks.

Our colleague thoughtfully posted links to the Your Show videos of Bob Schaffer and Mark Udall. You all watched those, right?

Note that Mark Udall is well lit. Bob Schaffer, by contrast, is sitting in semi darkness with a light behind him to make the camera less able to focus on his facial lighting. It is hard to imagine a less attractive lighting setup. It is also hard to imagine that this wasn't intentional.

Another observation: Bob was a bit more verbose than Mark. By going last, we'd bet his long answers and bad lighting made part of the audience go away.

US Senate Candidates Bob Schaffer, Mark Udall Answer Questions On YOUR SHOW

Bob Schaffer

Mark Udall

Brief description:

YOUR SHOW celebrated its one-year anniversary this week by focusing on Colorado's U.S. Senate candidates for the seat being vacated by incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colorado). Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) was our first guest one year ago and once again, he answered your questions and comments. Former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-Colorado) first appeared on the program shortly after Udall and he, too, answered your questions and comments for a second time.

In our first segment, Rep. Udall appeared on the program live Sunday morning, discussing the war in Iraq, health care, what history will say about President Bush's administration, which candidate he would support for the Democratic presidential nomination and renewable energy.
. . .
The second segment featured a taped interview conducted on Friday with former Rep. Schaffer. He spoke about No Child Left Behind, the war in Iraq, his stand on the future of fossil fuels, and balancing the needs of American companies with the immigration debate.

More later.

Absurdicus makes a plea

Our friend Absurdicus is back with a comment on the Big Blue Lie Machine Post. It is too long to repeat here and keep to our short post format, so we will pick and choose:

Apparently my entire argument is lost because of my mistake of elevation. God forbid I would assume elevation above the earth was not normalized to elevation above ground level.

Go use Google Earth now. You will find it to be addictive. Your real mistake was to respond to what we wrote without even looking at what we were writing about. Had you done that you would have had to assume nothing.

Absurdicus is now the first individual that we know of to admit that the Roan Plateau is no Garden of Eden, no pristine untouched land worthy of saving because of its uniqueness:

Despite my basic math mistake, the argument that at 1000 feet a piece of land should be drilled on just because it doesn't look "pretty" is still my argument. Please address my point, that just because it looks ugly at any distance it should be drilled and drunk up like a milkshake.

Frankly, we didn't know that was your argument.

No one, not Bill Ritter, not John Salazar, not Ken Salazar, not the Sierra Club, not Trout Unlimited, not the Wilderness Society, not the Denver Post, not the Rocky Mountain News, and especially not Mark Udall nor any other individual or organization involved with pushing the environmental agenda has had the intellectual honesty to make that argument.

Instead, they use words and photographs intended to fool the public into believing that the land is something it is not. We never would have thought to look at the land using Google Earth but for the obviously deceptive video ad that we wrote about in Looking More Closely at The Udall Commercial - Part 3. We've driven through that part of Colorado many times and it is a lot of things, but it is not wet.

Absurdicus, we don't know how to respond to your argument. It is one that needs to be had in an honest way by the politicians who represent us, unencumbered by the false propaganda that is pumped out daily.

Instead, we have the politicians like Mark Udall and Bill Ritter as well as the newspaper editorial boards who should be demanding and engaging in an honest discussion unwilling to do so out of fear that they would lose in that environment. There can't be another reason.

The politicians spend their time pushing the false propaganda and taking big campaign donations from the organizations which generate it. The organizations collect big donations for supposedly "protecting the environment" when they are often doing no such thing.

There will never be a response to your argument from us or anyone else because none on your side, probably including you, will allow it to be held under conditions we could respect.

Mark Udall Profiled in the Denver Post

The Denver Post had a well balanced piece on Mark Udall today: Shrewd moves set up Udall's statewide run.

The Post left a few things out. There is much more that could have been written.

As usual, we tried to help them. Our comment is the fifth in line. It lists eight items that they might have included.

Absurdicus - Part of the Big Blue Lie Machine

Absurdicus (how appropriate) appended a comment to our Roan Plateau post where we explained how to use Google Earth to see for one's self what the roan plateau looked like.

We told readers to go down to a level of 10,000 feet and look around.

Absurdicus writes:

Uh, didn't your oil industry shills already push this laughable explanation some 6 months ago? It was preposterous then and it's preposterous now. In contrast, I look really good from 10,000 feet, so you really can't see what the Roan plateau looks like at that altitude either.

The altitude of the Roan Plateau is 9,000 feet. If you "fly" over it at an altitude of 10,000 feet, third grade math suggests that you are only 1,000 feet over the terrain. If there were anything but scrub land, you would see it at that altitude. A picture is worth 1,000 words. We simply want folks to go look at the picture. You don't.

Your screen name is Absurdicus and your argument is intentionally absurd, intentionally misleading.

We expect that you are not so stupid that you can't do third grade math. That makes you a willing part of the Big Blue Lie Machine. Mark Udall is tarnished by these kinds of lies by his supporters. It happens so often that we have a tag for it: "Big Blue Lie Machine."

Roan Plateau

For those interested in the truth about the Roan Plateau, rather than political subterfuge, we suggest you visit today's Rocky Mountain News article on the Roan Plateau.

Ignore the verbiage for now and just look at the map. Click on it to get a bigger version. Get your bearings. You are looking at the area just to the west of Rifle and to the north of the Interstate.

Now, go to Google Earth. You may have to load the new version, but do so. It is worth it. With Google Earth loaded, type "Rifle, CO" in the location box in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This lets you "fly" to that town.

You will be looking down from 34,000 feet, but you want to get closer. Move your mouse wheel to adjust your altitude down to about 10,000 feet and your left mouse button to move to the west about one screen width. Once you get down low, you can tilt the screen so that you are looking at the land horizontially. To do that, move the slider in the upper right all the way to the right.

What you are looking at has routinely been described by the environmentalists, including Mark Udall, as land too beautiful, too pristine to touch. You decide. You also might want to decide for yourself if the Rocky Mountain News areal photograph is deceptive, given the unrepresentative foreground.

Here is what Mark Udall had to say about the BLM decision:

"It was clear last year that in order for the BLM to give the state's input the serious consideration it deserves, it would be necessary for the agency to change its plan to reopen the Record of Decision regarding drilling leases on the Roan Plateau — as Rep. John Salazar and I asked them to do last year," said Congressman Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs.

"The BLM's refusal to do so is deeply disappointing because it means a refusal to properly fulfill what the Bush Administration should - but evidently does not - recognize as its obligation to the people of Colorado."

If the Bush administration has an "obligation" to protect scrub land, where would Mark Udall allow the Bush administration to drill to fulfill its other obligations to the people of the nation?

We can't overlook the Denver Post's input to the discussion. We wonder if they have looked at Google Earth.

Great (or Small if you Prefer) Minds Think Alike

As happens from time to time with a blog written by two or more authors, two authors published similar essays within minutes of each other.

The time assigned to the essays reflects the time work on the essay commenced, not the time it was completed and published. Neither of us had a way to know that the other was doing any writing.

Helpful Neighbors

Yesterday, one of my colleagues called into question the Mark Udall campaign's judgment in letting Cara DeGette carry their latest gem of opposition research into the public square. Last night, Michael at Best Destiny issued a substantive response exposing the utter lack of logic in DeGette's attack:

But, again, what's most laughable is the complete lack of an argument from DeGette. Maybe it no longer matters in the Democratic world to actually articulate your points and defend them with reason--certainly, Barack Obama seems content not to actually make an argument about anything.

But if this "professional" is to be the standard of argument we should expect from the Udall campaign, then I feel better about Schaffer's chances.

In the meantime, DeGette should try to get some editorial assistance. Or, at least a friend willing to say to her "Yeah. And?"

Good point, Michael.

DeGette's supposed "expose" only exposes her foolishness (and by extension, the Udall team that trusted her with the story) on two levels: reminding Coloradans that Bob Schaffer has a consistent record as a mainstream conservative and letting Coloradans know how far out of the mainstream you are for trying to label his record as extreme.

We're just trying to be helpful neighbors here.

Blogosphere Pushback

Yesterday, we reported Mark Udall's ill-advised decision to use Cara DeGette as its front person on any subject.

Today, we note that the blogosphere is beginning to comment on the eight year old document she published:

Best Destiny has a memo to Cara Degette - go back to logic class:

Your writing is without a point...

But, again, what's most laughable is the complete lack of an argument from [ Cara ] DeGette. Maybe it no longer matters in the Democratic world to actually articulate your points and defend them with reason--certainly, Barack Obama seems content not to actually make an argument about anything.

Best Destiny then proceeded to make arguments about several issues that DeGette could only mention as part of a reprinted list with no supporting argument.

Also today, The Colorado Index produced an essay observing that DeGette needs to check her dictionary before she tries to use words longer than four letters, having abused the use of the word "screed." She seems to understand four letter words and use them regularly without problem.

The real point of that essay was laid out in its title: Gun Rights - Still a Sharp Contrast Between the Parties.

One of the dirty little secrets of the 2006 campaign is that the Democrats bamboozled a number of Republican voters into voting for Bill Ritter because he claimed that he would build shooting ranges throughout the state and because he would protect "hunter's rights." So far, there doesn't seem to be money for shooting ranges and Bill Ritter's record on guns more closely matches his earlier gun control stance than any expansion of rights.

It is difficult to see what value Mark Udall's campaign got from 1) using Cara DeGette as its publicist and 2) digging up a document that will help Bob Schaffer far more than it will hurt him, if it hurts him at all.

Wikipedia on Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer

One of the more interesting features of Wikipedia is that it is possible to track weekly visits to any given article.

This week, for example, the Mark Udall article has been visited 2837 times while the Bob Schaffer article has been visited 1797 times in the last 29 days.

A quick look at the two Wikipedia articles suggests that work needs to be done. Someone appears to have photoshopped Bob Schaffer's congressional photo to make it black and white. It seems very unlikely that Congress would be using black and white film or digital photography as late as 2002.

While Bob Schaffer's article mentions Mark Udall, Mark Udall's article does not mention Bob Schaffer. This alone might account for the statistics difference above.

Because it is too easy for both sides to manipulate the statistics, we won't be mentioning them again.

Cara DeGette Strikes Again

Apparently someone in the opposition research section of the Mark Udall campaign forwarded a hot item to Cara DeGette in the last day or so. Cara ran with it.

We have commented elsewhere that Mark Udall's choice of people to carry his message reflects directly on Mark Udall. In our more colorful writing days, we suggested that Cara DeGette would be exactly the wrong person to promote Mark Udall after she wrote without justification or provocation:

Perhaps Haggard should consider moving back to Colorado and challenging Schaffer in a primary bid for the Senate next year.

Lord knows, he has some issues.

We suggested in the most colorful terms possible that when Cara DeGette wrote about the race, she dirtied Mark Udall:

Much as they might like to claim otherwise, [ Wendy ] Norris and [ Cara ] DeGette are not journalists in the traditional sense. They are paid to smear Republicans. Apparently, anything goes.

Mark Udall has to know that we will be more than happy to link him to his supporter's more colorful and tasteless antics. If [ Mark Udall ] wants to take a ride down a slide greased with chicken excrement, he can't expect to arrive at the bottom without some of it sticking.

Anyone who has ever worked with chickens will know why we picked that version of feces. Those who haven't can probably guess at least one of its two attributes: It is semi liquid and the smell is overwhelming.

Wendy Norris got involved because of her equally distasteful and unjustified remark regretting that a prominent Republican objected to sex with sheep. We opined:

It is hard not to think that Ms. Norris and Ms. DeGette have some very serious sexual issues of their own. DeGette and her close friends can't seem to avoid the temptation to write material about Republicans that is, to use a kind word, "strange."

For months, Cara DeGette and Wendy Norris took the hint and had Jim Spencer write about the race. He has gone on to a better and better paid life. Perhaps they have someone else to write about this one issue, important though it is. If they keep writing about this race, we will be more than content to send Mark Udall down that slide smeared with chicken excrement from time to time.

Mark Udall's Policies: Leaving Us "Vulnerable to an Attack"

Over at View from a Height, Joshua plies his typically keen insights on the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. He begins his argument this way:

Mark Udall - a good, patriotic American - is a threat to national security.

And concludes more precisely:

Mark Udall's policies leave us both more vulnerable to an attack, and more vulnerable to the effects of that attack.

Read the whole post - titled "Mark Udall, Natural Gas, Iran, and You" - and see another instance of how good intentions often don't translate to good policy.

But if you're Mark Udall, where do you find time to focus on good policy when you're busy working on your golf game?

Another Mark Udall Handicap

Now we know what Mark Udall does with his time when he should be studying bills so that he doesn't have to explain "present" votes on legislation that is important to the people of Colorado.

It is almost as embarrassing to be at the top of this list as it is to be at the bottom. Go to the bottom and laugh, as we did.

We weren't certain if we should use the tags we did, but decided "what the heck."

Big Blue Lie Machine - Huffington Post Version

The Huffington Post has always been a Big Blue Lie Machine outlet. Even so, you have to laugh when a lefty, Bob Burnett writes two back to back sentences that make no sense when taken together:

Maine Republican Susan Collins has an uphill fight for her third term in the Senate. Her Democratic opponent will likely to be Congressman Tom Allen. Early polls give Collins a double-digit lead over Allen, but political observers expect the gap to narrow.

In our own Colorado Senate contest Bob Burnett seems to forget that no poll has shown more than a one point separation between Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer, with the most recent poll showing Schaffer ahead. For reasons we don't understand, Republicans do better at the polls than polling would suggest, so if Schaffer can keep it this close, it is hard to see how self described Boulder Liberal Mark Udall can be favored:

Boulder-based Democratic Congressman Mark Udall is favored in a race against arch-conservative Republican Bob Schaffer. Representative Udall has the lead in money and public sentiment; however, Schaffer recently hired dirty tricks master Dick Wadhams, the architect of South Dakota Republican John Thunes' upset win over Tom Daschle in 2004.

Did you ever notice that any Republican operative who is successful must be employing "dirty tricks?" Tom Daschle was a high profile ultra liberal in a conservative state. The surprise shouldn't have been that John Thune beat him. The surprise should have been that it took so long.

Udall Afraid Continued Clinton/Obama Battle Will Have Negative Down-Ticket Consequences

From the New York Times:

Suddenly the Democratic presidential race is teetering on the edge — not just between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, but between boost or burden for the party’s hopes in the fall.

So far, the clash between the two history-making candidacies has appeared to be an unalloyed benefit to the party. In state after state, Democrats displayed their enthusiasm through robust primary turnouts that drew in many new voters. If Clinton and Obama supporters have fallen into consistent niches by gender, income, education and ethnicity, polls show that most Democrats would happily support either one in November.

But now the threat of stalemate, vituperation and disillusionment hangs over a contest structured to declare a verdict a month ago. Potential fallout could imperil Democratic hopes for both the presidency and larger Congressional majorities.

“I’m very concerned,” said Representative Mark Udall of Colorado, who needs Democrats in his state to unite behind his bid for the Senate seat held by Wayne Allard, a Republican who is retiring. Mr. Udall warned that unity “could be a real challenge, especially as this thing grows more fierce.”

No doubt the threat of violence and mayhem at the Democratic National Convention in August--with groups there to Recreate '68--will not play well if Denver is trashed or the scene from the convention floor is one of intraparty rancor and argument.

But Udall is also concerned about the money, as in the money he can't raise if it is siphoned off by warring Democratic factions:

A prolonged fight poses special risks to the party’s drive to build a working majority in the Senate. Frenetic fund-raising by the Clinton and Obama campaigns, which collected $90 million in February alone, diminishes the pool of cash available to Senate candidates.
. . .
Mr. Udall said he opposed second-chance “mulligans” for Michigan and Florida. But he said he favored one last contest after the primaries end in early June — a “national caucus” in the form of swift decisions by superdelegates who remain uncommitted. Mr. Udall is one of them.

“Another 60 days probably doesn’t hurt us,” he said. “At that point, we’ve got to decide on a nominee.”

It will take at least $7-10 million for each candidate to wage a formidable campaign. The liberal big bucks will still be there, but tapped-out small time donors that have given to Clinton or Obama may not be there in as great a number should the Presidential nomination come down to the wire in a brokered and messy Denver convention.

The continued focus on the nomination will also prevent Udall himself from stealing the spotlight on Denver for his own promotion, becoming completely overshadowed in the intervening months.

It's Official - Machiavelli Lives, Udall Lies

Dick Wadhams is now Bob Schaffer's campaign manager. Thanks to the Rocky Mountain News.

We had to chuckle at one reader's response:

This is going to be the nastiest Senate campaign in Colorado History and the most expensive. Wadhams has the morals of a snake and the evil genius of Machiavelli. He has never been involved in a race that did not turn into a mudslinging, personal, down and dirty, tell whatever lie you think will win the job, debacle...

As far as we can tell, the only liar in this campaign so far is Mark Udall, and we have example after example of his lying. Just follow the tag "Udall as a liar."

Nighthorse Campbell Will Remain Neutral In 2008 Senate Race

Retired Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell won't be taking sides this election cycle in one of the toughest and most anticipated Senate battles:

"I'm kind of staying out of it because Bob is a friend of mine and so is Mark."

Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who says he's not going to endorse anyone in the expected matchup of former Congressman Bob Schaffer, a Republican, and Rep. Mark Udall, the Democrat, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Wayne Allard. Describing Schaffer as a "straight shooter" and "man of his word," Campbell also said, "Mark Udall is the kind of guy who can vote against you 10 times and you still like him."

Given the unexpected nature of the 2008 election so far, it is not entirely clear whether or not establishment endorsements will play much of a role in bringing votes for a respective party's candidate--Colorado's Republican heavyweights couldn't help Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton's pledged Superdelegates aren't making life for the once "inevitable" candidate any easier.

U-turn Udall Breaks Earmark Moratorium Pledge

Boy, that didn't last long:

U.S. Rep. Mark Udall on Monday wouldn't agree to extend to the Senate his promise of forgoing requests for special-project funding, or "earmarks," should he win the seat he's campaigning for in November.

"This is a one-year moratorium," Udall spokesman Tara Trujillo said.

A timeout is needed, she said, to review the practice.

"It's not that earmarks are bad, it's that the process for securing them is broken," Trujillo added. "He may go back to securing earmarks if some additional reforms are enacted and if we can make progress on reducing the federal deficit."

Why the flip-flopping (Ben had prepared a nice welcome for Udall to the side of fiscal responsibility)?

If Udall wins in November, he will bank his first term and first reelection campaign in 2014 on the amount of "pork" he brings home. This phony 1-year moratorium is just a campaign ploy--and a cheap one at that.

How's that for some expedient campaign flip-flopping?

More Deception From Mark Udall

On Sunday, the Denver Post published an article on the relative liberal standings of Mark Udall vis a vis other prominent members of his party. El Presendente did an analysis and we made separate observations.

The article was based on the prolific work of academic Kieth T. Poole. Dr Poole has created a mechanism for rating Congress, congressional leaders, and even presidents against their contemporaries, past and present.

While it appears that Dr. Poole cannot manipulate his statistics, the same cannot be said for active members of Congress. Congressmen need only change their voting pattern to move around on the tables

Sometimes politicians who are running for higher office feel the need to deceive the public as to where they are on the political spectrum. They do this by moderating their positions, their votes and their rhetoric in the hope that no one will look at their past record.

A good example in this election would be Mark Udall's dropping his co-sponsorship of Dennis Kucinich's Deprartment of Peace bill after he decided to run for the Senate.

Ace political analyist David Sirota opined in the Denver Post that no one one in Colorado would know who Dennis Kucinich was or care about this. We lampooned Sirota's argument with our "Nobody Knows About the Loon in the Attic" observations.

While Mark Udall has not moderated his rhetoric, he has tried to make his voting record appear more moderate.

Dr. Poole's statistics show Mark Udall ranked as the 182 d most liberal member of the 110th Congress. Colorado is a conservative leaning state. Ranking 182 of 435 puts him left of center in a left leaning Congress He is near the 40th percentile of liberalism in this Congress.

By voting this way in 2007, he could hope that some, including the Denver Post, would argue that Mark Udall is voting as a moderate in the 110th Congress. The Denver Post has a history of claiming that very liberal politicians are "moderate," and thus helping them over the finish line.

Is Mark Udall really this close to the center of a liberal congress? A very easy way to do a reality check on Mark Udall's voting record is to go back in time. According to Dr. Poole's statistics, Mark Udall's voting records driven standards for the previous congresses are:

109th 68th most liberal
108th 82d most liberal
107th 25th most liberal
106th Not Provided

These statistics make a compelling case that Mark Udall has again attempted to deceive the public. It is a habit, so much so that we have a "Udall as a liar" tag on this blog.

Udall the Anti-Pork "Johnny Come Lately" Contrasts Schaffer's Longtime Leadership

Last week one of my fellow bloggers here wrote in the monthly "Be Nice to Mark Udall" post that he was glad to see the Boulder liberal swear off earmarks and pork projects.

Let me give credit where credit is due: Mark Udall made the right choice on this issue. We need a federal government that is more frugal and more transparent in its spending. But one has to ask what took Udall more than 9 years in Congress to come to this conclusion.

Could it have something to do with the favorable political winds blowing in the anti-pork, anti-earmark direction? Or something to do with the fact an election looms less than 8 months away in which he seeks statewide support in a close-heat Senate election? Udall can't expect an easy sweep to power from his native liberal Boulder this time.

These are fair and legitimate questions. However they may be answered, the fact Mark Udall is an anti-pork "Johnny-come-lately" does not stack him up well against his Republican opponent Bob Schaffer. In a race with some of the clearest contrasts between two major candidates, here's one more.

Bob Schaffer came to Washington, DC, as a freshman Congressman opposing earmarks when the concept wasn't altogether popular. From the story dated August 22, 1998:

Freshman GOP Rep. Bob Schaffer represents a sprawling congressional district in eastern Colorado, where ranchers and farmers can drive dozens of miles to buy a quart of milk, visit the doctor or shop at a hardware store. Good roads are important.

But when the massive highway bill (PL 105-178) was pieced together earlier this year, Schaffer was not among those lining up to bring federally funded road and bridge projects to his district. The rigidly conservative Schaffer did not come to Congress to bring pet projects back home.

"I asked for zero . . . largely because I thought the practice of pork spending . . . was unethical and is exactly what's sick about Washington," Schaffer said. "So I just resolved early on that I wouldn't take anything."

His reluctance to bring home the bacon has earned him some flak from his Democratic opponent in the November elections, former Fort Collins Mayor Susan Kirkpatrick, but Schaffer shrugs it off. And he notes that his Fort Collins "hometown newspaper, which is pretty liberal and usually opposes me, agreed with me on this one."

To the dismay of self-described "pork-busters" such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Schaffer is the exception, not the rule.

Interestingly, almost a decade ago, there was a close alignment of the now-GOP Presidential candidate (McCain) and Colorado U.S. Senate candidate (Schaffer) on the issue of pork-busting. They were both ahead of the curve as genuine, principled leaders fighting untold millions of dollars in government waste.

And last week, Mark Udall turned a new leaf after 9 years of playing the Congressional earmark game. We welcome Rep. Udall to the party of fiscal responsibility, even if he is late in coming. Isn't it fair for voters to wonder how serious Udall's newfound anti-pork conviction might be, especially when it's compared to Bob Schaffer's longstanding record of leadership?

The contrasts are clear, indeed. Washington insider Udall appears to be forsaking pork and earmarks to save himself the embarrassment of having to defend the practice on the campaign trail. But regardless, Schaffer the reform-minded outsider with a strong track record is the real anti-pork, anti-earmark candidate.

Mark Udall: I'm Very Concerned

Now we know why Mark Udall has been waffling as a superdelegate. He expects to lose no matter who wins the Presidential race in his party.

He told the NY Times:

“I’m very concerned,” said Representative Mark Udall of Colorado, who needs Democrats in his state to unite behind his bid for the Senate seat held by Wayne Allard, a Republican who is retiring. Mr. Udall warned that unity “could be a real challenge, especially as this thing grows more fierce.”

We think that Mark Udall might expect to lose and be looking for an excuse for losing. When this blog first began, the word in the liberal blogosphere was that this race was in the bag. As time goes on, it looks to be less and less "in the bag."

Candidates Bob Schaffer And Mark Udall Will Answer Your Questions

Next Sunday, on 9NEWS' "Your Show."

You can email them--yourshow@9news.com--with questions for the candidates.

Bob Schaffer was on "Your Show" last July, and Mark Udall was featured last March--part 1, part 2.

More on the Liberal-Conservative Rankings

Yesterday, fellow blogger El Presedente presented some good analysis of the Denver Post article on the comparative rankings of the Bob Schaffer and Mark Udall.

Any set of statistics can be made to say anything that the statistician or author wants them to say. While we thought the Denver Post article balanced and informative, it did not point out some relevant facts about the data set.

There were some very liberal congresses and thus some very liberal congressmen in the 1930's during the New Deal, in the 1960's after the Goldwater election, and in the 1970's after watergate. Ranking Mark Udall as the 509th most liberal congressman from 1937 onward is likely accurate, but it is also deceptive given the competition.

Conversely, there were very few conservative congresses in that time, so Bob Schaffer's ranking is also deceptive, though it may be less deceptive than the Mark Udall rankings.

While the Denver Post did not fully identify the data source, it did name the author. We found Dr. Kieth T. Poole's email and asked him for a link to the source data table. He was kind enough to provide it. We haven't had much time to look at the data but we expect it to be a gold mine for both campaigns.

More later.

Water Wars and Courage

Mike Saccone has an excellent article in the Grand Junction Sentinel on water as a potential issue in the November contest between Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer. It essentially says that old news is...old news.

It does, however, reinforce a theme that we have often repeated here. Mark Udall is a coward when the interests of his favorite special interest, the environmentalist lobby, conflict with the interests of Coloradoans:

[ Josh ] Penry said an examination of [ Mark ] Udall’s voting record shows he also has made some bad decisions on water.

During a July 2000 vote on the House Resources Committee, [ Mark ] Udall voted “present” on a more than $343 million water storage project that drew from the Animas and La Plata rivers.

Penry, who worked for the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Scott McInnis, R-Colo., said everyone was stunned upon hearing Udall’s vote.

“Mark Udall didn’t vote yes, he didn’t vote no,” Penry said. “He voted present.”

Penry said that vote shows that Udall’s priorities on water storage are much closer to groups opposing all water storage than those of widely revered Congressman Wayne Aspinall, D-Colo.

We say that it was just another example of a lack of courage by Mark Udall. Does it remind anyone of Mark Udall's refusal to buck the environmentalists to authorize the needed forest roads to create fire breaks in our dead and dying pine forests, even when that refusal has already cost lives and will cost more?

Can anyone say "Mark Udall, (D-Sierra Club)?

Rankings, Voting Records Indicate A True Conservative vs Liberal Matchup For Colorado's Senate Seat

From the Denver Post, a comparison of Bob Schaffer and Mark Udall to their counterparts on each end of the spectrum:



Anyone familiar with either Bob Schaffer or Mark Udall (or both) easily recognizes that the battle for Colorado's open Senate seat will hinge less on the candidates' attempt to reposition themselves in the mushy "middle" but on which candidate reflects the majority sentiment of Colorado's voters as a whole, including the independents and unaffiliateds who control the center. But perceptions, of course, still matter in politics:

Both campaigns say that their candidate's record is more nuanced than what comes across in several vote studies and that the candidate's efforts on issues important to Colorado will make more difference to voters than black-and-white rankings.

Udall's team points to key votes he's made that have bucked his party's left wing — to continue funding the Iraq war, for example — and to the respect he's garnered from Republican colleagues.

A Schaffer aide said the candidate's votes in Congress were no more conservative than the values of most Colorado residents.

Still, in a race where the middle ground is a highly sought-after prize, the battle over perceptions is already running in high gear.

On the campaign trail, Schaffer refers to himself as the "mainstream" candidate, in contrast to "Boulder liberal" Mark Udall. Udall's team calls him "independent minded," "a maverick" and "moderate" — and Schaffer an "extreme right-winger."

It is difficult to ascertain from one study (whose methodology is not explicitly mentioned) whether or not Schaffer or Udall are "more extreme" than the other. If each legislator measured were represented as a dot, for example, would there be an even spread over the spectrum, a great concentration in the middle trickling to each side, or heavy concentrations at each end? This is not revealed, and though this certainly poses no question to study's veracity, it would have been nice to see the positioning in a more detailed manner than a ranking number.

On the other hand, a better comparison would be from an analysis of similar votes made during the same period to see how the candidates stack up against one another. A look at some of the rankings, based on votes from Schaffer and Udall over the last two years they served together in the House:

Liberal ideology •

Americans for Democratic Action:
• 2002 score based on 20 votes, including the estate- tax repeal, late-term abortion ban and welfare renewal — Schaffer: 0 out of 100; Udall: 95 out of 100• 2001 score based on 20 votes, including campaign finance reform, school vouchers and prohibition of flag burning — Schaffer: 5; Udall: 100

Conservative ideology •

The American Conservative Union
• 2002 score based on 25 votes, including a proposed constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds majority in Congress to raise taxes, a 1 percent across-the- board spending cut and limits on malpractice awards — Schaffer: 100; Udall: 4• 2001 score based on 25 votes, including a proposal to cut taxes by $2.3 trillion over 10 years while cutting nondefense spending, an increase in SUV fuel standards and a proposal to permit taxpayer funds for abortions in federal prisons — Schaffer: 100; Udall: 0

Environment •

League of Conservation Voters
• 2001-02 score based on 14 votes, including a measure to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a prohibition of drilling or coal mining within national monuments and a bill to prohibit the weakening of arsenic standards for drinking water — Schaffer: 0; Udall: 100

Taxes •

Americans for Tax Reform
• 2001 score based on 20 votes, including a proposal for medical savings accounts, the expansion of tax deductions for married couples and an across-the-board cut of all tax rates — Schaffer: 95; Udall: 5

Takeaways?

This election offers Colorado voters--Democrats, Republicans, and those elusive unaffiliateds--a clear choice. Rhetoric, labels, and rankings aside, whether you support Schaffer or Udall will likely be more of a function of your agreement with their positions on the issues (which is good) than a reflection of a candidate's charisma or fundraising. For once, voters won't be seeing the same product, just with different packaging.

Exit question: how will the Democrats spin these rankings?

Mark Udall as a liberal, +1

Environmentalist Extremism on Steroids.

Our Governor, Bill Ritter, and our would be Senator, Mark Udall, simply haven't learned to use the Draconian language of "Climate Change." Word is filtering out of Canada that Ontero has appointed a "Climate Change Czar," and, alternately, a "Climate Change Secretariat."

Isn't that the language of the old Soviet Union? And, these commissars are serious:

It's a strategy that has worked elsewhere. British Columbia, which has a Climate Action Secretariat, came out with a green provincial budget two weeks ago that included North America's first full-fledged carbon tax.

One wonders what would happen to the Colorado economy if Bill Ritter or Mark Udall suggested that all coal fired power plants in the state be closed by 2014:

As head of the climate change secretariat, MacLeod's top priorities will be making sure Ontario's coal-fired power plants close by 2014, which is already well after the original Liberal promise to close them by 2007; protect large-scale areas for caribou habitat in the Boreal Forest; and build more rapid transit, the source said.

These are key planks in the Liberal plan to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change by 6 per cent below 1990 levels by 2014, 15 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.

Make no mistake. This is exactly where Bill Ritter wants to take the state and Mark Udall wants to take the country.

We Was Fired!

Now comes news that the National Republican Senate Committee will be doing its own blog on Mark Udall. It appears, according to Politicker to be being called BoulderLiberalMarkUdall.com. It's pretty spiffy, though they are yet to make their first post.

“It’s going to be a truth site of what Mark Udall is all about,” says NRSC spokesman John Randall.

We're guessing that John Randall, whoever he is, thought we told too many tall tales here (chuckle), or that we were costing the GOP and the Schaffer campaign too much money (we do this for free and out of conviction). Maybe they were worried about their reputation (looks around).

No, we weren't really fired (that we know of).

We do expect that the two sites will be additive, in part because there is so much material available that isn't easily presented in a short blog style format. It will be just another resource for us and for YOU!

Roadless "Backsliding"

Recall that yesterday we commented that Taylor West gave Politicker a laundry list of the reasons that Mark Udall just couldn't be concerned about left wing attacks on military recruiters in Berkeley and Times Square:

"Mark Udall believes Congress has much more important work to do – on everything from the lagging economy, to skyrocketing oil prices, to getting our kids covered with health care, to ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way – than micromanaging the budgets of cities for the sake of political gamesmanship," [ Taylor ] West said in the statement.

What is the biggest potential problem facing Colorado, and is it on this list? How about 1.5 million acres of dead and dying trees? If those trees catch fire, mountain homes and towns could burn, the watershed would be badly damaged, if not destroyed, tourism would die, and hunting and fishing ruined for our lifetime.

Why is that problem not on the list? Did Taylor West just forget, or is her boss, Mark Udall, telling her to ignore it? To fix the problem, to the degree that it can be fixed would require building forest roads to allow fire breaks to be built.

They are apparently doing that in Idaho but the environmentalists are none too happy:

“Back off. Just drop the whole mess,” says Craig Gehrke, regional director of The Wilderness Society in Idaho. “Just stick with the 2001 rule. This whole fight for roadless areas is needless.”

Idaho’s petition cuts out about 500,000 roadless acres, but the state promised to keep protections in place for the remainder of 9 million acres. [ Craig ] Gehrke worries wildfire provisions weaken the proposal, though, by giving the state more “wiggle room” to blaze roads.

“They’re backsliding on it,” he says.

Idaho is trying to do the smart thing, but the environmentalists on Bill Ritter's staff are trying to keep Colorado roadless and vulnerable:

A similar battle is taking place in Colorado. Environmentalists are pressing [ Bill ] Ritter, who has spoken in favor of roadless protections, to stick with the federal rule...

Colorado’s former Gov. Bill Owens, R, submitted a roadless plan that was praised for protecting most areas. Environmentalists blasted his successor, Bill Ritter, D, though, accusing him of weakening roadless protections when he decided to largely stick with that plan...

And, where is Mark Udall on this issue. He opposes roads, and collects hefty donations from roadless advocates. Care to guess why Taylor West left this Colorado centic issue off of the list of important things that Congress had to do?

Painful Reading for Mark Udall

If you're Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall, you don't want to be reading this:

So it will come down in Denver to the Party's super delegates, a mechanism reeking of rule by elites, adopted by the party which proclaims its devotion to the common man and woman, and which has made huge amounts of noise about making every vote count. Thanks to its convoluted primary process, with proportional arrangements frustrating the desire to have a decisive winner to allow the party to get on with hammering the GOP nominee, the edge in pledged delegates that belongs to Barack Obama will be difficult to overcome among the super delegates, who have been breaking his way since the first Super Tuesday.

Will the political party which depends on blacks voting for it by a 9 to 1 ratio be able to deny its backing for the nation's highest office to a black man who holds the pledged delegate lead? Will this be so even if the shine on his vague promises gets tarnished and his involvement in ordinary Chicago machine politics becomes clear over the course of the Rezko trial? Will this be so if by the summer it is clear that Clinton would be a stronger general election candidate, running better in more of the contested states than Obama (Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and in western states with high percentages of Hispanics)?

The tragic flaw of the Democratic Party is the hubris that allows it to style itself as the only force interested in the welfare of minorities and the poor, and the only party committed to real democracy. It is not accustomed to its own internal processes being subjected to much critical media scrutiny.

But Denver promises to be the greatest political media spectacle since the Democrats' Chicago convention in 1968. The two candidates are very close in the popular vote and in the delegate race. It would be foolish for either not to go after the nomination prize until mathematically eliminated. The ambition that drives both nominees pretty much ensures that this will happen. It could well end up tearing apart the Party.

Question: Do Beltway pundits think this prolonged and painful development will enhance Mark Udall's chances at winning the general election come November?

Our Monthly Be Nice to Mark Udall Post

We have written elsewhere that we find Mark Udall the easiest Colorado politician to criticize, and we do.

It is hard to maintain credibility as a blogger if one only provides unending criticism of a politician. That is the mistake that sites like Media Matters and PlagiarismNowAction make.

We'd like to not repeat that mistake, so here are three things that we think that Mark Udall did right recently. We apologize for not providing links and may add them later as we have time to do a Google search to find them. (Edited to fix the English. Written English is sometimes our fourth or fifth language. Edited to two hours later to add: Google Alerts picked our mangled sentence to highlight, but even bad publicity is good publicity, lol)

1. Mark Udall said something very nice about John McCain and McCain's treatment of his father, Mo Udall, who was McCain's mentor and friend in Congress. He told how McCain was one of Mo Udall's very few regular hospital visitors in Mo Udall's dying days, and how he took the time to read to him and talk about what was going on in Congress.

Mark Udall could have kept that story to himself. To his credit, he did not.

2. What comes next may or may not be to Mark Udall's credit because it is part of a Nancy Pelosi scheme to try to take the earmarks issue away from Republicans. Udall is reported to have spoken to his staff about forgoing earmarks this year. We don't know what the outcome of that conversation was, but earmarks are a congressional disgrace. They need to be addressed in some way.

We (this author at least) would hate to see earmarks go away entirely. They are a good mechanism for funding small, worthwhile projects that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day in Congress. On the other hand, too many earmarks is a lot like too much food. It isn't healthy.

If it turns out that Mark Udall is insincerely playing politics with this issue, we will be the first to hammer him over it.

3. Finally, it is good that Mark Udall and Doug Lamborn can work together to solve the Leadville mine drain problem. They have a joint bill requiring that two government agencies work together to pump out and treat the water.

Again, this is a bit of a political football as the left wing blogs and left wing newspapers are trying to claim that there isn't and never was a problem. How they would know that is beyond knowing given that they have no engineers on their staff and cite no engineering studies. They just spew mindless propaganda that would quickly change to blame every Republican in sight if there was a blowout. How convenient. How transparent.

Kudos to both Mark Udall and Doug Lamborn for trying to keep this from becoming an environmental disaster.

Wasn't that refreshing? See how we try to be different?

Udall: Can't Decide Whom to Support, Can't Stand Up for Democracy in His Own Party

Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall has got to be looking for a break. These are rough days on the campaign trail for the Democratic Senate candidate.

1) Udall's influence in Congress is in a radical freefall.
2) People are once again noticing the confusion - no, let's call it what it is: plain dishonesty - about Udall's address of residence.
3) Udall's spokesperson opens his mouth to the press only to reinforce how out of touch the candidate is.

Now this...

The increasingly bloody melee in the ever-lengthening Democrat presidential primary has got to be increasing Mark Udall's heartburn, too. Over at the Politico website, they're keeping track of which Democrat officials and high muckety-mucks have pledged their superdelegate votes and to whom.

Mark Udall is still firmly in the undecided column, but you'd have a hard time deciding, too: Go with the guy who won big majorities at the Colorado caucus and still kind of looks like the frontrunner despite nagging scandals and incompetent advisers. -OR- Pick the wildly unpopular and shrill former First Lady who suddenly has campaign momentum and who could make your life miserable if she ends up the nominee, especially if you wait too long to back her.

Then there's the whole superdelegate scheme itself. A couple days ago Udall's colleague Rep. Ed Perlmutter was busy trying to pooh-pooh rank-and-file Democrats' concerns about the patently undemocratic scheme. That was before Hillary's Tuesday comeback threw a wrench into the plan of not having to rely on superdelegates to decide the Democratic nominee.
Now, to make matters worse, Clinton's people are trying to get delegates in the non-binding straw poll to turn their votes from Obama, even though he won an overwhelming majority. How is that for "democratic"?

Where does Udall stand on the matter? In complete silence, as far as we can tell. Just when the Democrat voters he's relying on need him to step forward.

Nothing. Not a word.

But hey, Mark Udall, stuck between a tangled feud of party leaders and party faithful, is paralyzed by inaction. And it looks like there could be many more weeks of this unresolved intraparty strike for Udall to look forward to, maybe all the way to the Democratic National Convention at the end of August.

And...Just Too Rich

Jared "Amendment 41" Polis triggered the "millionaire's amendment" by spending more than $350,000 on his own campaign.

Politicker is reporting that the other two candidates are looking for ways to collect three times as much in donations.

Just Too Busy

Today, a bomb went off in a Times Square recruiting station. Last month, the city of Berkeley voted to oust a recruiting station.

When Mark Udall was asked why he didn't use his position in Congress to try to stop that kind of nonsense, he said, through his spokesperson: "I'm too busy."

Udall spokesperson Taylor West responded in a statement that the ad was "dishonest and intentionally misleading."

"Mark Udall believes Congress has much more important work to do – on everything from the lagging economy, to skyrocketing oil prices, to getting our kids covered with health care, to ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way – than micromanaging the budgets of cities for the sake of political gamesmanship," West said in the statement.

Thanks to Politicker.

This quote is so out of touch with Colorado values that readers should expect us to come back to it several times in the next few days.

Taylor West is God's gift to this blog. We are literally sitting here laughing as we write this stuff and contemplate the possibilities.

Why We Keep a Scoreboard

Today, the Colorado Springs Independent published the following:

So how did it happen that the self-described "most conservative member of Congress," our own Rep. Doug Lamborn, teamed up with fellow Rep. Mark Udall, a Democrat who wants to replace Wayne Allard in the U.S. Senate?

No newspaper can claim to be balanced when it writes a sentence like this. Mark Udall (and his staff) has admitted to the Boulder liberal label. Udall went so far as to call Boulder his "touchstone." Since we linked these two quotes in the last post, we won't bother doing it again so soon. The scoreboard is in the upper right hand corner of this blog.

Not suprisingly, the author was Cara DeGette, one of two women that we have suggested damage Mark Udall when they mention his name.

Mark Udall, Confused About Where He Is From

Someone pointed out to us that before 2004 when Mark Udall issued a press release, it was always marked "Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO)." After 2004 it was "Congressman Mark Udall (D-Eldorado Springs)."

That suggests that in 2004 Mark Udall did decide to try to run from the Boulder Liberal tag that he had been happy to accept until then.

Excuse us! We had thought that he wasn't running from the "Boulder Liberal" tag, in part because he called Boulder his "touchstone" and because one of his staffers opined publicly that the Boulder Liberal tag wouldn't hurt him.

We've also been told that on his 2007 financial disclosure forms he listed 4346 Prado Drive, Boulder, CO as his home address. On his campaign web site, he claims:

He and his wife Maggie Fox have two children...they live in Eldorado Springs, CO.

Does anyone not see why we have a tag " [ Mark ] Udall as a Liar?"

Will Boulder Liberal Mark Udall Condemn Extremist Attacks Against Marines In Berkeley?

In order to curry favor with his liberal, extreme left base, our guess is not anytime soon.

Udall Tumbles in Influence

Mark Udall is spending so much time on the campaign trail that his "influence" is half what it was last year. So says the Denver Post, quoting Congress.org, a subsidiary of a nonpartisan company that provides data to lobbyists.

The Post makes it clear that one of the influence criteria is the ability of a congressman to spend money, our money. Diana DeGette climbed on the list because Congress passed a bill that would have resulted in serious spending.

This upcoming race will be in part about fiscal responsibility. We wonder how many people would think Mark Udall's falling on the list a bad thing? We wonder how many people in Colorado will be unhappy to find that the lobbyists thought Mark Udall the 121st most powerful member of the House last year on the basis of his spending success.

Jared Polis

Square State Net went off the deep end today in an attack on Tom McAvoy of the Pueblo Chieftain:

who must still have drool on his chin

and a suggestion that he get off his knees.

What is it about these people that they can't criticize others in a more civil way? This is junior high school language and thinking. It reminds one of Wendy Norris and her complaint about Janet Rowland when Rowland wasn't even a part of the story. Speaking of Wendy Norris, she was linked to in that story. Great minds travel the same gutter. The very same gutter.

Jared Polis must like that gutter as we note that he added his comment without objecting to the theme the post set. That won't help him much among the Boulder sophisticates. Or will it?

Sen. Webb Compares Dick Wadhams To Karl Rove, Accuses GOP Of Dirty Tricks While Dems Plan "Foot On Throat" Campaign In Colorado

“Mark’s got another little challenge here that I have some interesting memories of. There’s a fellow named Dick Wadhams who happened to manage George Allen’s campaign in ’06. I have a lot of memories of that experience. I have said many times that the Karl Rove approach to political campaigns is really detrimental to everything we are trying to do as Americans. This vicious, personal ugliness that camouflages the reality that so many on the other side have run out of ideas, is no way to run political campaigns"--Sen. James Webb (D-VA) at Colorado's Democrat Jefferson-Jackson dinner

Sen. Webb recalls the 2006 Virginia Senate race against George Allen, the "macaca" moment, and what he called the "vicious, personal ugliness" that he believes shows the poverty of the GOP and hopes won't be repeated--too bad the Colorado Democrats are already planning a "foot on throat" campaign to smear GOP candidate Bob Schaffer and lift Rep. Mark Udall to victory:

“Mark’s got another little challenge here that I have some interesting memories of. There’s a fellow named Dick Wadhams who happened to manage George Allen’s campaign in ’06. I have a lot of memories of that experience. I have said many times that the Karl Rove approach to political campaigns is really detrimental to everything we are trying to do as Americans. This vicious, personal ugliness that camouflages the reality that so many on the other side have run out of ideas, is no way to run political campaigns.

“We found, even toward the end of the campaign that they were going into my books. I’m a novelist. You know, the duty of a novelist is to render the human condition as it really exists. They were going into my books, some of which have been taught in major universities. “Fields of Fire,” my first novel, was the most taught piece of American literature on college campuses in courses about the Vietnam War for many, many years. Taking out different parts of the novels and saying, ‘This is pornography. This is this. This is that.’ Mr. Wadhams, I do confess, I have written books. I do confess, I actually read books.

"I’ll say something else. When our election was finally decided, we knew we were going to win Tuesday night. We had to go through counting of some areas that hadn’t come in. When I stepped up on the platform on November the ninth [2006] and held my son’s boots up in the air, I literally felt like I was climbing out of a sewer. I made a comment then. I called on President Bush to stop this kind of campaigning, to put the reins on this Karl Rove-mentality and put the issues on the table. And I would renew that call tonight: ‘You lost. You lost. Clean up your act.’ We need to start facing the issues in this country. I think one of the things that we’re seeing, one of the reasons we’re seeing such incredible turnouts and such enthusiasm this year, is that the public finally has an avenue with which to express its disgust with that kind of politics.”

Disgust with this kind of politics, Senator?

Two years ago, two of Colorado's richest Democratic benefactors plowed more than $7 million into Democratic candidates and causes.

Now a confidential memo to one of their advisers suggests that it would take contributions of nearly $12 million to finance independent political groups trying to influence the outcome of the presidential, U.S. Senate and 4th Congressional District races.

The money - to be spent by political groups known as 527s - would help buy TV ads, radio time and mailings, according to internal documents obtained by the Rocky Mountain News.

The memo was prepared by political consultant Dominic DelPapa and sent to Al Yates, who wears many hats, including adviser to Pat Stryker, a Fort Collins heiress. Stryker and philanthropist Tim Gill, of Denver, spent $7.46 million in 2006 to try to swing elections for Democratic candidates and causes.

In 2004, the pair, with two other Democratic donors, contributed $2 million, leading to a Democratic takeover of the state legislature.

The memo doesn't say who would contribute the money, and DelPapa wouldn't reveal any details. His memo outlines a proposed media strategy that suggests spending $5.1 million of the proposed $11.7 million budget on the Senate race alone.

Part of the Senate budget calls for a $1.9 million advertising campaign in March and April that would target Republican Bob Schaffer, who likely will face Democrat Mark Udall in the U.S. Senate race. "Define Schaffer/Foot on Throat," the campaign effort reads, according to a financial spreadsheet marked "very rough preliminary paid communications budget."

Smear tactics funded by wealthy Democrats? Just exposing the GOP. Attacking a Democrat? Just disgusting.

Either Sen. Webb is completely oblivious to the current Colorado situation or has fallen into the worst sort of projection--believing in seeing in his opponents what he knows his own side is guilty of committing. For those Democrats sitting at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, a wink and a nod may have been more appropriate, as the stakes for the Colorado Senate race in 2008 could not be any higher.

Cross posted from Slapstick Politics

So, Who is Paying?

Those who follow this blog know that this author is trying to get a handle on the real cost of solar and wind electrical generation, and who is paying. As of now, the costs that we believe to be reasonably accurate for coal is about 4 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh), though it may be less.

The cost for wind generation appears to be just over 9 cents per kwh, with 4 cents being subsidized by the taxpayers. That number comes from Business Week.

We're guessing that the real, unsubsidized cost for solar generated power is in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 cents per kwh, though it may be as low as 25 cents per kwh. That lower number was claimed by a solar researcher who also put the cost of wind generation in the neighborhood of 4 to 6 cents per kwh. That suggests that he was comparing subsidized cost to subsidized cost, making the real unsubsidized cost up towards 50 cents per kwh.

A kwh is enough energy to power ten 100 watt light bulbs for an hour, so 50 cent per kwh is very expensive power.

This brings us to a story in the Pueblo Chieftan that discusses the new 2 megawatt solar array on Fort Carson.

[ Vince ] Gutherie said the electricity from the solar panels is broadly used at Fort Carson and not just as a source of power for housing. The Mountain Post doesn't own the solar panels, but is able to purchase power from them at much reduced prices. Army officials estimate they will save $500,000 in utilities over the next 17 years, which is the term of the contract with the providers.

Unless we are mistaken, Fort Carson was buying power from Colorado Springs Utilities which generates most of its power from coal. Not only that, it is cheap coal! CSU owns its own coal cars and has a long term transportation deal with a railroad that it won't reveal to the public. Fort Carson was already getting a deal, but now they are getting a better deal.

It appears that Colorado Springs Utilities rate payers are producing electricity at this site at a cost of as much as 50 cents per kwh, (but not less than 25 cents per kwh) and selling it to the Army at 3 or 4 cents per kwh. This subsidy is a hidden Mark Udall, Ken Salazar, Bill Ritter tax on Colorado Springs rate payers, and it is not a small tax.

For those of you in other parts of Colorado who want to chuckle at how dumb CSU is to do this to its rate payers, recall that this was driven by state law. Will your utility company do as well?

Save Us, Mark Udall

This month's Astronomy magazine examines the greenhouse gas atmosphere on Venus. It has some really amazing statistics.

Venus and Earth formed very close together and should have had about the same mix of greenhouse gases, including water. Earth's ocean sequestered the CO2 and the oceans on Venus should have done the same. The article starts out with an exhortation that we should follow the water.

It turns out that Venus rotates on its axis so slowly that it has no magnetic field to protect its atmosphere from having its water molecules torn apart and lost to space.

Earth will never have that problem, right? Wrong! It turns out that the interaction of the Moon with Earth will eventually cause the Earth to rotate on its axis once in 43 days. Holy climate change, Batman!

It would seem to us that Mark Udall could better spend his time and our money trying to change the gravitational interaction of the Earth with the Moon than on all of these silly solar and wind projects.

OK, we admit it. The Earth and Moon aren't expected to be tidally interlocked for two billion years. The more immediate problem is that within 500 million years, the Sun will be so hot due to using its nuclear fuel that it will boil the oceans away. Holy climate change, Batman! That's the problem that Mark Udall should work on first.

FYI, we aren't making this stuff up, but we are having a lot of fun at Mark Udall's expense. We wish he weren't having so much fun at our $ expense.

Green Frauds

When it really comes down to it, Mark Udall's sole claim to fame and thus his sole claim to the US Senate Seat is that he is an environmentalist. Some, including this author would call him an environmentalist extremist, and the whole movement a fraud.

Yes, the movement has lofty goals. It just lacks common sense.

During the Vietnam war, an army major was quoted as saying "In order to save this village we had to burn it." That quote was instrumental in undermining support for that war, as it should have been.

The modern Mark Udall equivalent would be "In order to save the forests from logging, we had to let the beetles and wildfires destroy it." Unsurprisingly, the msm has been slow to see the comparison, the fraud, the absolute attack on the public interest.

Someone read about our quest to discover the true costs of wind and solar power and forwarded us the information that they had, including a link to a very interesting Business Week article titled "Little Green Lies."

Does anyone recall their middle ages history when the Catholic Church was selling "indulgences?" Some green entrepreneurs are now selling indulgences to corporations like the Aspen Skiing Company. They call them "carbon offsets." The article makes it quite plain that these indulgences just transfer money from one company to another with absolutely no impact on the environment.

It has a link to another Business Week article "Another Inconvenient Truth."

Done carefully, offsets can have a positive effect and raise ecological awareness. But a close look at several transactions—including those involving the Oscar presenters, Vail Resorts, and the Seattle power company—reveals that some deals amount to little more than feel-good hype. When traced to their source, these dubious offsets often encourage climate protection that would have happened regardless of the buying and selling of paper certificates. One danger of largely symbolic deals is that they may divert attention and resources from more expensive and effective measures.

And, of course, that links to still another Business Week article "Ethanol: Too Much Hype and Corn."

The Mark Udall's of the world would do well to take a good hard look in the mirror before deciding that they know best about the environment. Almost all of what they are proposing and pushing is backfiring and backfiring badly.

Matt Sugar Moves to Udall Campaign

When we heard the news from the Denver Post that Matt Sugar was moving from the state Democrats to the Mark Udall campaign, we checked to see if we had ever tied him into the Big Blue Lie Machine.

We came close but gave him the benefit of the doubt. He was clearly trying to mislead the public with his statements. Judge for yourself to see if we were too lenient.

Frankly, if he had said the same thing as a member of Mark Udall's staff, we would have listed it under the tag "Udall as a liar."

Welcome aboard, Matt. There is no free ride here.