Documents released recently have partially exonerated former Gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis from charges of plagiarism. While McInnis is better off this week than he was at this time last week, it doesn't really matter. Either way, John Hickenlooper is Governor, and the whole thing sucks.

From the Post:

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis will not face disciplinary action from the state's Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel after an investigation of a plagiarism complaint found insufficient evidence to establish ethics violations.

Regulation Counsel John Gleason said new evidence and follow-up interviews with witnesses revealed no “clear and convincing evidence” that McInnis, a lawyer, violated disciplinary rules.

We don't doubt the theory that the Hasan Family Foundation was the Post's source on the story. They dropped a solid chunk of change trying to get Ali Hasan elected State Treasurer, and were probably none-too-pleased with McInnis when he didn't throw his support to Ali. If they were the source, the Post should have been mighty careful about printing their claims, knowing they had a bone to pick. But the emails that are cited in the recent report were never released last year. It makes it seem like there is more to this story, but in reality, we don't care. We're moving on. 

It's a Presidential cycle, so let's focus on getting rid of Obama, instead of rehashing it all. If we are ever to expect Dan Maes to move on with his life, then so should we too.

Early online moves of a campaign are important tea leaves worth reading. When the National Republican Senatorial Committee reserved web domains for Jane Norton it began the narrative that ultimately did her campaign in — that she was the establishment Republicans’ choice.

For Brandon Shaffer it looks like some outside operatives are running around setting up his web infrastructure, despite the deafening silence coming from Shaffer himself on his recent botched campaign announcement. While Shaffer refuses to return the media's calls or be honest with the public about what everyone already knows, he's running for Congress, outside interests are ramping up his online campaign quickly, and as of this article, no longer so quietly. This comes after we reported yesterday that outside operatives are already attacking Gardner on Shaffer’s behalf, continuing the theme of Shaffer not having the guts to say or do openly what is being done privately on his behalf.

We first knew something was up when Shaffer unfriended the Peak on Facebook and blocked us from following him on Twitter.

But even more damning is the Peak’s recent discovery that the domain ShafferForColorado.com was purchased anonymously on May 9th. Now we’re no private investigators here at the Peak, but in all likelihood this domain was reserved by one of Shaffer’s union operatives (ahem Tyler Chafee, we’re looking at you). Interestingly, Cory Gardner is the public owner of his campaign website, corygardner.com. While this might seem like a relatively minor difference, it speaks to larger themes of openness and transparency. Clearly, Shaffer has something to hide.

Further evidence that Shaffer is quietly ramping up can be found on Facebook. On May 6 a “Draft Brandon Shaffer” Facebook page popped up, attempting to create the appearance of a grassroots swell of support for Shaffer’s 4th CD bid. So far, a whopping 7 people “like” the idea. Suffice it to say that more people “like” Kelly Maher’s dog on Facebook. The truth behind these draft so-and-so movements is that they virtually ALWAYS originate from the candidate.

Shaffer's Senate website has also undergone some drastic changes in recent weeks. All of the sudden, Youtube videos appeared on his main page from three Republican State Senate leaders giving him perfunctory praise from the floor of the Legislature. Of course they were just being polite. Compare the polite praise being offered on Shaffer's site to this clip of Senator Cadman from WhoSaidYouSaid about Shaffer's real behavior in the Senate:

Bit different than the games Shaffer’s operatives are playing for him on his site, eh?

What we want to know is why Shaffer’s shady operatives are putting in place everything for his run, while Shaffer refuses to speak publicly. Shouldn’t the press push him to be honest publicly about what he is doing privately?

The Pueblo Chieftain is reporting that Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) was successful in getting the ban on funding for expansion of the military’s controversial Pinon Canon Maneuver Site placed into the military construction budget. Consider this one very big win for the freshman Congressman. Getting the funding ban restored is a very big deal to voters, especially the ranchers in Southeast Colorado.

According to the Pueblo Chieftain, Tipton convinced a key appropriations subcommittee chair, Congressman John Culverson, to insert the ban into the military construction budget before it comes up in the full House Appropriations Committee for a vote.

Lon Robertson, the President of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, told the Chieftain:

“That’s excellent,” Robertson said. “I know many people were calling Congressman Tipton’s office since last week to show their concern, but he clearly followed through and did what he said he would. That means a lot to us.”

For a freshman representative this proves how effective Tipton can be on behalf of his constituents in Washington. If Democrats have their way on redistricting, and the expansion area gets put into the same Congressional district as military-heavy El Paso County, opponents of the expansion would see their voice virtually disappear overnight in Congress.

This is a very big deal to folks in Southeast Colorado and they aren’t likely to forget that Tipton fought, and won, for their issue in Washington.

If Scott Tipton can protect the ranchers in that corner of the 3rd Congressional District, remind us what Sal Pace’s case is for election?

UPDATE: Check out Pawlenty’s announcement video. Incredibly well done.

Finally a Presidential candidate not named Donald Trump took Barack Obama to task hard-core on his embarrassing and bad record on the budget and economy as President.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced he is running for President with a fiery speech that ripped Barack Obama and, in an indirect but still very direct kind of way, pimp slapped Newt Gingrich and the pansy wing of the Republican Party.

Looking at you, Newt:

“I’m going to Florida to tell both young people and seniors the truth, that our entitlement programs are on an unsustainable path and that inaction is no longer an option.”

From his speech:

"We've tried Barack Obama's way — and his way has failed. Three years into his term, we're no longer just running out of money. We're running out of time. It's time for new leadership. It's time for a new approach. And, it's time for America's president — and anyone who wants to be president — to look you in the eye and tell you the truth.  

The changes history is calling on America to make today cannot be shouldered only by people richer than us, or poorer than us – but by us, too. Politicians are often afraid that if they're too honest, they might lose an election. I'm afraid that in 2012, if we're not honest enough, we may lose our country. If we want to grow our economy, we need to shrink our government. If we want to create jobs, we need to encourage job creators. If we want our children to be free to pursue their dreams, we can't shackle them with our debts. This is a time for truth."

Not only did he take on Obama and pansy Republicans, but he challenged ethanol subsidies in the heart of corn country. For a candidate who needs to do well in Iowa, that takes some serious guts, and some big names in conservatism sat up and took notice, including Mitt Romney's personal tormentors over at the Wall Street Journal editorial page:

One of the immutable laws of modern American politics is that no candidate who wants to win the Iowa Presidential caucuses can afford to oppose subsidies for ethanol. So it's notable—make that downright amazing—that former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty launched his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination Monday by including a challenge to King Corn.

And all we can say is, we love it!

Last week Barack Obama committed one of the most grievous foreign policy atrocities in the history of the Republic. Instead of standing with America's strongest ally in the Middle East, Obama "cut and paste" Hamas' position on a Palestinian state and simply adopted it as his own.

Plenty of other commentators have uncorked Obama over this greatest of foreign policy atrocities.

But we wonder: where do our own Congressman stand on Obama's betrayal?

Bennet and Udall don't have any formal statements on Israel on their websites, but they have signed letters regarding support for Israel. One letter signed by both Udall and Bennet stated:

Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East and a vibrant democracy. Israel is also a partner to the United States on military and intelligence issues in this critical region. That is why it is our national interest to support Israel at a moment when Israel faces multiple threats from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the current regime in Iran. Israel's opponents have developed clever diplomatic and tactical ploys to challenge its international standing, whether the effort to isolate Israel at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference or the recent effort to breach the naval blockade around Gaza. We fully support Israel's right to self-defense."

Ed Perlmutter has only one statement about Israel on his website, which states:  

“I am disappointed that Hamas unilaterally chose to end the cease fire with Israel, and that they recommenced firing rockets and mortars at Israeli population centers. Since handing control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in 2005, Israel has been the victim of over 2000 rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups. Israel has the right and obligation to defend its citizens against these attacks (Peak emphasis). Hamas has the ability to end the crisis by ceasing further rocket attacks. For the sake of the Palestinian and Israeli people, I call on Hamas to end their attacks and encourage both parties to pursue peace.”

But where are they now when it actually matters to Israel?

Other than Udall, we can't find nary a word about their opinions on Obama's latest foreign policy failure. Udall has denied that forcing indefensible borders on Israel gives a pass to its enemies, but then pivots and admits that it has the possibility to let Hamas, Syria and Iran cause "mischief." No word on whether he supports Obama's plan.  

We encourage the press to get all of Colorado's Congressional representatives on the record on this essential issue to Israel and its American supporters.

(Thanks to the reader who sent this along)

UPDATE: Colorado conservative columnist, David Harsanyi, has a great article today pointing out the hypocrisy of the lead lawsuit liberal, Andy Kerr (D-Lakewood). It appears he only supports federalism when it suits his tax and spend ways.

A team of Big Government liberals and Republican traitors have filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of the Colorado Constitution. The tag team of fiscal fools filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the citizen-approved Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), which is currently part of the Colorado Constitution. 

Their argument is that the current budget cuts mean that Colorado's entire Constitutional system of ballot initiatives is unconstitutional since TABOR requires lawmakers to seek citizen approval for all tax increases. As the Denver Post reports from their suit:

"Deterioration of the state's funding base has been slowed by many attempts to patch, cover over, or bypass the straitjacket of TABOR," the plaintiffs argue. "However, events have demonstrated that a legislature unable to raise and appropriate funds cannot meet its primary constitutional obligations or provide services that are essential for a state."

It's not as if every government in the country is facing budget shortfalls, regardless of whether they have a form of TABOR or not. Or a government could, you know, cut spending to deal with a deteriorated tax base in a recession. 

The worst part of their case is the implication that the citizens petition process is itelf unconstitutional. They hold that it's up to politicians in the Legislature to set all budgetary matters, and not the right of citizens to voice their opinion through a citizen petition process. 

Of course, if that is held to be true, all citizen initiatives would have to be bounced from the books. As Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute points out in the article, this would mean the end to many liberal favored amendments. If the power of the Legislature to tax is to be constitutionally unfettered by the petition process, why should constitutional spending increase requirements be any different?

"It's again another attack on the initiative process in Colorado," said Caldara, who has sponsored a number of prior initiatives.  

If TABOR is unconstitutional, why wouldn't Amendment 23 — the voter-approved measure that requires spending on public schools to increase every year — also be unconstitutional? Caldara asked.

This case is fundamentally flawed and foolish. Were it to pass, governments across the country would have upending changes forced on them overnight. California, for example, has put dozens if not hundreds of laws on the books from the ballot process. The case is a fundamental attempt to redefine American democracy, which is one of many reasons why we think it is destined to fail.

As it is destined to fail, the real story is in the apostasy of the Republicans supporting the lawsuit.

As for Norma Anderson, she is an unthinking shill for every tax hike that comes along. She's the Republican Benedict Arnold of tax increases.

Bob Briggs of course supports it because he wants to build a billion dollar train. Since trains have proven to be financially successful and worthy of investment in the private sector only in the writings of Ayn Rand, it's no surprise Briggs wants a bigger public trough to feed from. Briggs is like the Alrdich Ames of Republicans. 

It's epecially funny to see William Kaufman on the list of Republicans supporting the lawsuit. As if Mr. Kauffman has a shred of integrity or credibility after endorsing Democrat Governor Bill Ritter who turned out to be the worst in the history of Colorado. 

The Republicans on the lawsuit should be ashamed. They are there as tokens for liberals to point and say there is bi-partisan support to overturn the Colorado Constitution. There is a reason the word former sits in front of most of their titles. 

UPDATE: A reader writes in to remind us that Craig Hughes, Michael Bennet’s Campaign Manager, is a partner at RBI Strategies. How Sherry could not have reported RBI’s partisan role in the affair is beyond us.

While Brandon Shaffer isn't returning any journalists' calls or admitting to what everyone knows now that Steny Hoyer let the cat out of the bag, that doesn't mean he hasn't started campaigning. Even a brief review of the changes to his online presence signals clearly that he, or someone acting on his behalf, is tying up all the loose ends in preparation for a run for Congress in the 4th Congressional District.

It's a whole lot more than just spiffing up his website to include perfunctory compliments from Republicans on the floor of the Legislature. He has already begun the assault on Cory Gardner. Or that is to say, Shaffer's campaign-in-waiting along with shady special interests from Washington, DC have already begun the assault on Cory Gardner.

Last week, Allison Sherry of the Denver Post "reported" on a protest outside of Cory Gardner's office by the "non-partisan" Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) who were complaining about oil "subsidies." If Sherry had actually done her job and looked into the group and its claims, rather than basically reproducing their press release in blog form, she might have discovered an early campaign. Other blogs have covered Sherry's troubles with objectivity, so we don't need to rehash them here. Needless to say, she missed the real story.

First off, TCS is not a "non-partisan" group. Sherry's first sign should have been her first sentence:

"A non-partisan tax group is targeting freshmen Republican Reps. Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton for not supporting the end of oil and gas companies tax subsidies."

Non-partisan groups don't generally only target freshman members of one party. Secondly, the press release for the group's protest/press conference was sent out by a Democrat consultant group, RBI Strategies. Truly non-partisan groups don't generally hire partisan consultant firms to announce their press conferences. But guess who works at RBI Strategies? Tyler Chafee, who is rumored to be Brandon Shaffer's soon-to-be Campaign Manager.

The blog post on The Spot seems as if it was almost written by RBI Strategies itself. It leaves the environmentalist claims about oil and gas production without any fact checking (Energy Information Agency data would have helped), doesn't say whether Gardner supports the "subsidies" which he is being attacked for, nor does it report anything on the group doing the attacking. It's an attack ad via earned media. An attack ad on behalf of Brandon Shaffer.

So let us do the journalistic legwork for our readers. Taxpayers for Common Sense is a Washington, DC-based 501(c)3. Nowhere in Sherry's article does she mention that TCS is DC-based. It is not non-partisan. It's Board of Directors consists of environmentalists and renewable energy sector folks. That would have been useful and important information for readers to note when weighing their "protest" of the oil and gas sector. A number of top staff, including the co-founder and President, came from Common Cause, a liberal group financed by George Soros. Again, this information exposing TCS as a little more than a "non-partisan" group would have been important for readers to know. 

While we'll save the issue of Sherry misreporting oil "subsidies" for a later post, needless to say this post has a number of huge journalistic shortcomings. In fact, the blog post was so shoddily researched and written that it may be in the running for our "Worst Journalism of the Year" award. 

But the biggest problem we have with the piece is Sherry missed the real story. She should have been asking — why is this group only attacking freshman Republicans? Why is RBI Strategies the one organizing the "protest/press conference"? Why is a DC-based group holding an event in Colorado?

The reason: it's the beginning of Brandon Shaffer and his Washington-masters in DC attack on Congressman Cory Gardner. Shaffer not only is going to run — he's already running.

Last week after Rollie Heath's "Tax Hike Kidnap" we called on editorial boards to join us in denouncing this cheap stunt for what it was. Yesterday, the Denver Post editorial board joined us in that call:

"But when parents send their kids to school — or on field trips — it's for educational purposes, not to be used as political props. Using kids as props is often distasteful anyway, but at least ask the parents first."

Other papers around the state have noted the anger unleashed by Heath's use of kids for his political propaganda. From Ernest Luning of the Colorado Statesman:

Meanwhile, a fracas brewed this week in Douglas County over the appearance of a fourth grade class from Wildcat Mountain Elementary School at Heath’s press conference.  

…“It was a commercial for the tax initiative,” said an angry Laurie Bratton, a Douglas County parent and active Republican who worked at the Capitol during the past session. “That certainly is not within district guidelines,” she said, adding, “It’s not sitting well down here in Douglas County.”

The Pueblo Chieftain ed board on Friday also smacked Heath for something we pointed out last week. The tax hike revenue isn't even guaranteed to go to education. Past history says there is a good chance it won't:

“Sen. Rollie Heath is dead wrong in pushing a ballot issue that would increase state sales and income taxes by $3 billion over the next five years. Even though his intent to earmark the money for education is commendable, we've heard that song-and-dance before.

…The taxpayers should be greatly relieved if he falls short of petition signatures to make the November ballot. If not, we trust voters will remember that earmarking state revenues for education has proven to be a false promise in the past.”

 

Rollie’s tax hike is quickly being defined by what it really is — a cheap ploy to raise your taxes using cheap political propaganda rather than reasoned argument. That’s because, as the Chieftain pointed out, we’ve all heard the tax hike for education “song-and-dance before,” and can see right through it. When reason fails, all you’re left with is cheap propaganda.  

The Democrats botched the roll out of their national party-anointed Congressional candidates badly. The Denver Post's publishing of comments by Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) about his recruitment efforts in Colorado caught the entire party apparatus off guard.

This is not how Rick Palacio, the new CO Democrat Party Chair who used to work for the Congressional leader leaker, wanted to start his tenure atop the State Party. Nor how Brandon Shaffer, Sal Pace and Perry "Massage Therapist Millonaire" Haney wanted their campaigns begun either.  While Shaffer and Haney have refused comment so far, Sal Pace begrudgingly admitted to a campaign on Friday.

The press have noticed the deer in headlights reaction to the leak.

From Eli Stokols at Fox 31 in an article entitled "Did Hoyer spill Shaffer, Pace's beans?"

DENVER — Senate President Brandon Shaffer did not return phone calls Friday or make any public comment following Thursday's Denver Post story in which House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer admitted that Shaffer, as well as Colorado House Minority Leader Sal Pace, are committed to running for Congress next year.

Ernest Luning of the Colorado Statesmen, of our 7 Twitter Accounts Worth Following, notes on Twitter that the "cat is out the bag" on the DCCC-approved slate as well.   

Stokols also points out how badly the timing was for Hoyer to let it slip, but especially for Senate President Brandon Shaffer.

Hoyer's comments, meant to convey that he didn't have much convincing to do in Colorado as far as getting potential candidates to run, failed to account for the local political context, coming just a week after the end of a legislative session marked by a simmering feud between Shaffer and House Speaker Frank McNulty.  

McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, who ripped Shaffer for proposing congressional districts that would make it easier for him to run in the Fourth C.D., said at session's end that Shaffer's possible announcement of a run for Congress would be "an exclamation mark" that punctuates and validates his criticisms.

Last week we pointed out that the "Brandon-Mander" had come to home to roost. Looks like it just laid its first egg.