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June 09, 2013 09:15 AM UTC

Video: Scott Gessler Remembers Nothing From Last Summer

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

AP's Ivan Moreno reports from the scene late Friday:

Republican Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler testified Friday to defend himself against an ethics complaint alleging misuse of state funds for political events, insisting he used his discretionary office funds appropriately.

At issue is Gessler’s travel last summer to a Republican conference on elections law in Florida and then the GOP national convention there. Gessler said it was his understanding, based on advice from his office and previous practice by his predecessors, that his discretionary fund could be used for “pretty much just about anything” provided that the expenses “had some nexus to your job as secretary of state.”

But as the video clip collage we were forwarded below demonstrates rather hilariously, when it came to recalling…well, much of anything Gessler actually did during his partially state-funded trip last year to the Republican National Lawyers' Association conference immediately prior to the Republican National Convention in Florida, things got…you know, fuzzy. Also, we love the backbeat in this video:

Good heavens, the man has got a terrible memory, doesn't he? We're told that at no point in Friday's questioning, which only took place after a judge ordered Gessler to personally testify before the Independent Ethics Commission, did Gessler formally invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Remember that Gessler has already repaid the money in question, just days before his anticipated run for Governor became public, which Colorado Ethics Watch quite reasonably takes as an admission of guilt. But as you can see, simply "not remembering" anything, if you're persistent at it, can carry you almost as far as formally "pleading the Fifth."

Fact is, these clips could probably be edited down even more–like for instance into a 30-second ad? For somebody who claims to be thinking seriously about running for Governor, safe to say, this wasn't a helpful outing.

Comments

21 thoughts on “Video: Scott Gessler Remembers Nothing From Last Summer

    1. Hey,  this is all a smear against people with mental disabilities! If Reagan could serve at least half his first term and all of his second with early (and increasingly not so early) stage dementia, that proves that mental capacity is irrelevant and leftie meanies shouldn't be picking on those so afflicted.

    2. Bullshit, Bullshit . . .

      . . . anyone who's worked on behalf of the State knows that there's absolutely nothing they do that's ever that memorable.  Back off, huh?!?

      Gessler in a landslide !!!!!!!

      [Signed ArapaGOP — in his usual unpaid weekend abstentia]

    3. Big difference between memory you use for day to day tasks and memory you use when each word is going to be scrutinized in statewide, and potentially nationwide, media. 

      Let's say you are 95% sure something didn't happen.  How do you answer a question on whether it happened?  Or say that you are asked to provide details of a conversation that occurred months ago and you can't remember all aspects of it.  How are you supposed to recount it?  

      Very few people have a photographic memory of every event in their life – especially an event that appears quite mundane at the time it occurs but gets drawn into great scrutiny weeks after the fact. 

        1. And we all know Eliot's attitude toward direct questions.

          Of course this makes Gessler look shifty, no matter what percentages EF wants to play with and if EF takes the same attitude toward answering questions or addressing opponents' points when he runs for something, he'll look shifty, too.

          He can argue whether that's fair or not all he wants but it's the way it is. People don't assess candidates and their character in hair-splitting lawyerly terms. It's not as if Gessler is looking to run for a safe congressional seat where the right initial, R or D, guarantees victory no matter how dim or sleazy you come across.

          This, along with so much other material, will definitely find its way into debates, interviews and ads that will cause Gessler problems. He drips so much shifty sleaze,  Dems really should be able to make it noticeable even to low info apolitical voters.

        1. Leave Scotty Alone!

          Honey badger can't hold up under scrutiny, he's just a delicate wallflower after all.  He doesn't need this; there is some political function he could be attending on the taxpayers' nickels instead.  Mean meanie mean meanies.  The Sleeping Giant ain’t going to put up with these terribly unfair questions of its public servants! 

           

      1. Did you attend this meeting on this date?

        I don't recall.

        Did you fly into Tampa?

        I don't recall.

        If the standard of recall is unreasonable, why does Gessler apologize? 

        I agree there is a difference between normal remembering and remembering in a deposition campaign.  I think we have all seen the difference.

        Campaign memory example: Yes, but when I said that, I …

        …didn't know the cameras were on.

        … didn't mean what it sounds like I meant.

        … wasn't a candidate at that time.

         

        It's ok – the non-story story here is Gessler is not going to be indicted, there will be no lawsuits, and his gubernatorial campaign is begun. But you have to admit, the soundtrack works.

        1. It’s totally unreasonable to expect an adult human being to have memories of activities from months previous.  Terrible terrible unfair liberals in your smear of a fine public servant that just wants to be free…to go to political functions on the taxpayers' nickels and not have to remember it!

  1. Seriously, guvs, you guys are so meanie mean!!

    Posting this on a Sunday when the Groper isn't around to say, Pols, you are so meanie mean!  Gessler is just misunderstood!!!   And, landslide. . . .

    And. . .

    1. Sunday is the Lord's day and a day of rest. That's what I do on Sunday, not respond to stupid out of context video clips.

      And this is so lame. Why didn't you include his actual responses, Pols? He said a LOT more than "I don't know."

      1. Actually, according to the Laws Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, its Saturday.  You should have been laboring here Sunday already.  Heathen. 

        Do you make your cattle work on Saturday too, while you lazed about on Sunday?  

        1. No, no, no… you're thinking of the old version of the Bible…the new, improved GOP Bible has whatever they want to keep in it, at any given time, and any inconvenient passages are removed, ignored, forgotten, or "subject to interpretation"  (I'm looking in your direction, Levites….).

        2. My understanding is that only Jews are supposed to follow Shabbos – technically speaking if you aren't Jewish you aren't supposed to follow it (which is why converts to Judaism are supposed to break Shabbos each Shabbos while the conversion is pending)

          1. That might be according to some, but a number of related religions have taken on the Sabbath in their own light. Some spend the day at church. Some follow the Jewish prohibition against work. Some have specific traditions for the holy day. And, of course, some practice it on a Sunday and others on Saturday.

            I'd be surprised if AGOP really follows the "day of rest" thing to the extent that Orthodox Jewish people do. I'm guessing on Sundays he turns on the lights on his own, drives the car, cooks (or has someone of the same faith cook for him), and possibly even does work around the house. He doesn't really post on Saturday either, so..

            Maybe AGOP simply has a Monday-Friday job posting to Pols for a couple of hours a day.

    1. Idea for cute ad. Montage of Gessler testimony interspersed with this Schultz video. That is if a sufficient number of non-codgers saw the re-runs and would know  anything about the show and character.

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