Congressman Ed Perlmutter has long fancied himself a man of the people, and his staff and supporters have tried to use that false identity to slam Congressional challenger, and scion of the Coors Brewery family, Joe Coors Jr by comparison. As we pointed out a few weeks ago, those attacks fall pretty flat considering Perlmutter is a millionaire trial lawyer politician who belonged to the same country club as Coors. Now talk radio rockstar Mike Rosen is taking up the line of attack in a Denver Post Op-Ed, with some brutally key details.
In a piece about the strength of Coors' candidacy, Rosen quickly hits back at some of the smears used by Perlmutter's spokeswoman Leslie Oliver, pointing out both the blinding hypocrisy and factually failing merits of Oliver's attacks.
It had originally been reported, falsely, that Coors used golf carts from the Rolling Hills Country Club to help get elderly supporters from the far reaches of the gravel parking lot to the building where his announcement took place. Hearing that, Oliver went on full Occupy Denver attack, saying it meant Coors was out of touch, rather than considerate, which is how our mother would have described helping ferry elderly folks to the front door.
Too bad Perlmutter's attack dog based her class warfare attacks on false information.
Now, I've seen plenty of folks in need of assistance who are transported by golf carts at DIA. But, in fact, the two golf carts didn't come from Rolling Hills Country Club, where Joe Coors Jr. happens to be president (and where Ed Perlmutter himself was a member for 20 years until 2008, when he surrendered his membership to his ex-wife following their divorce). It's a nice club, but hardly exclusive. [Peak emphasis]
The carts were rented from Colorado Golf & Turf. Rolling Hills wasn't involved, other than as a phony connection to enable the Perlmutter spokeswoman's snide remark and demagoguery. And how did any of this minutia merit inclusion in a news story about the announcement of the Coors candidacy for Congress?
SLAM!
Not only do attacks on people's wealth fall flat, as personal attacks mean little to voters concerned more about their own dwindling bank accounts, but when they are based on entirely fictitious facts it makes the attack look even more petty and desperate.
Ed Perlmutter is in for a serious challenge from a business tycoon with a name well known and respected across the district. If his team thinks attacking his fellow country club member for belonging to the same club and helping elderly citizens traverse a long distance with rented golf carts is his best line of defense, he may be in more trouble than we thought.
Especially if the race is decided on Perlmutter's voting record. We'll let Rosen sum up the peril that presents:
As for Perlmutter's own voting record, it's reliably liberal…According to the National Journal, he gets high marks from left-wing groups like the ACLU (88 percent), Americans for Democratic Action (95 percent), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (88 percent). He gets low ratings from conservative organizations like the American Conservative Union (4 percent), Club for Growth (0 percent), National Taxpayers Union (4 percent), U.S. Chamber of Commerce (29 percent), and Family Research Council (0 percent).
We're guessing those little figures are more important to swing voters than the digits in Coors' bank account.