(Making it formal – Promoted by Colorado Pols)
POLS UPDATE: The Durango Herald’s Peter Marcus updates the story, with Tom Tancredo admitting that the name of Steve House’s alleged mistress was indeed brought up during their confrontation–a key confirmation:
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo said Thursday that the name of the woman who Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve House allegedly had an affair with came up in a meeting last week in which several fellow Republicans expressed concerns with House’s leadership.
Tancredo’s comments to The Durango Herald come as a left-leaning group, ProgressNow Colorado, called on Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey to investigate Tancredo, along with Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and a well-known Pueblo Republican, for extortion related to the meeting. The DA’s office Thursday afternoon declined to take the case…
The Herald asked: “Why would her name have come up?”
Tancredo responded: “There was essentially concern, I’m sure that that was a problem.”
The Herald then asked, “What would that problem be?”
Tancredo said: “What do you think? He immediately walked out and called her.”
The Herald also asked: “Is it fair to say that her name was brought up because you were trying to let him know this is something you guys know about, and that it could come back potentially to haunt him?” [Pols emphasis]
Tancredo answered, “Yea, I think that’s probably the correct context.”
Whatever the Denver DA thinks of the request you read below, these are some potentially damning admissions.
—–
As questions continued to grow about the involvement of Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman in an alleged attempt to blackmail Colorado Republican Party chairman Steve House into resigning from his position, ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest online progressive advocacy organization, submitted a formal request to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey to open a criminal investigation into the incident.
“For ten days now, we’ve been trying to get answers from Colorado’s chief law enforcement officer about her role in trying to push Steve House out of his job as Republican Party Chairman,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Amy Runyon-Harms. “Yesterday, we asked Attorney General Cynthia Coffman if she discussed the possibility of legal proceedings or action against Steve House in any way to persuade him to resign. Coffman’s own statements in press interviews this week appear to admit her reasons for being involved in this scheme against House, as well as admitting that allegations of an extramarital affair ‘came up’ in an attempt to convince House to resign.”
In a letter to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, ProgressNow Colorado asserts that “Mr. House’s allegations appear to support a finding that General Coffman, Mr.Tancredo and Ms. Mizel committed criminal extortion. C.R.S. § 18-3-207…[y]our office is reported to have stated that it has not been contacted regarding any potential crime described in Mr. House’s statement. Please consider this a formal request to begin an investigation into whether an extortion attempt occurred in your jurisdiction.”
Read ProgressNow Colorado’s letter to DA Morrissey here.
“Again, if Coffman was in any way involved in criminal activity, even to sanction it with her presence, she has violated the trust of Colorado voters and cannot remain in office,” said Runyon-Harms. “Colorado law is clear that any person who makes a ‘substantial threat’ to damage the reputation of another person in order to coerce them into a decision is committing a felony crime. As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Cynthia Coffman must be held accountable for her actions in this case. Even the appearance of such unseemly behavior on the part of the Colorado Attorney General renders her unfit to serve.”
“For the sake of the rule of law, and confidence in our law enforcement, we have to get to the bottom of this,” said Runyon-Harms.
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As if anyone believes ProgressNow cares about the Republican Party. You're all in cahoots, and you're propping up Steve House when he doesn't deserve it for political reasons. Shame on you.
What "political reasons" would Pols have to prop up Steve House, Moderatus? If he resigns, he’ll be replaced with a much weaker chair – or with a Tea Party extremist who will alienate moderate voters and your own RNC establishment.
If we wanted single party Democratic rule in Colorado, (and I, for one, don’t), all we would have to do is sit back and let you all go at it. You all are doing such a great job destroying yourselves from within….
That's not true. Steve House is a bad seed. He misled a lot of people, and he has no appetite for the job. There are a lot of good Republicans who would do a better job, and they will get their chance soon.
The Executive Committee will put a stop to all of this on Friday. You'll see.
There is no action the Executive Committee could take right now that would clear the cloud hanging over the Attorney General's office.
I completely disagree. If the Executive Committee finds wrongdoing on the part of House that warrants his firing, as I believe it will, it will vindicate Cynthia Coffman. No one will prosecute her if it comes out that she was saving the GOP from a serial liar.
The old "end justifies the means." IOKIYAR
You mean King v. Burwell? Because that is the best example of the end justifying the means there is.
A well-reasoned decision written by a solid conservative justice appointed by Dubya Bush.
Nah. Bush v. Gore's got that beat.
Tea-member, Moddy's not a disinterested party — he's still having troll butthurt at being dumped by House …
I have never worked for House or Cynthia Coffman. I'm just a concerned Republican for my party
But have you ever had a job anywhere?
If she attempted blackmail to get him to resign that's a crime whether it's good for the Republican party or not and prominent Republicans aren't exactly flocking to her cause. They seem to think, no matter how this turns out, it's already bad for the Republican part and it was all handled badly enough to make the party a joke.
Coffman is already put it a fork in it done as far as her political career is concerned, the circular firing squad is inflicting more damage than a bunch of lefties ever could, even rightie radio is melting down over this, with no help from us mean lefties, so it's all gravy for us from here on out.
Agree it will take more than a request from ProgressNow to get a criminal investigation going but your own side has already guaranteed enough internal damage to keep us happy and entertained for some time to come without having to do much but enjoy the ride.
a. House sets the agenda for the Exec Committee. I'm guessing that firing himself will not be on the agenda. The Exec Committee can vote to advise him to resign, and he could decide to do that – but he doesn't have to.
b. To remove him would take a vote of 2/3 of the Colorado Republican Committee. That would take about a month to put together. You want to keep this going for another month?
It is sad that I know your bylaws better than you do.
Yeah! Let's keep this going for another month. That ought to make all the state Republican bigwigs and contributors happy.
That wouldn't just keep this going for another month. If they get the votes to remove House, then there would be the decision as to who would replace him: the vice chair, Ted Harvey or the mystery tea bagger behind Door #3?
I try to understand the divisions in the Republican party. When we lump them all together, it is about as unhelpful as when they can't say the -ic on Democratic.
So as far as the new GOP chair, he or she has to contend with leading people in these categories, most of whom now hate each other or are not speaking because of OutHouse.
House was supposed to be from the "Liberty Movement" who were the people who rebelled against Ryan Call, but instead has shown himself to be more of an RNC establishment guy. So most of the people who are mad at House are from one of the two "circle" groups on this graphic, and the people still supporting him are the RNC establishment at the top.
Becky Mizel, who had ambitions to replace House if he did resign, is from the socially conservative Tea Party wing. Ted Harvey, as well. Most of the conservatives who post on here – Elliot, CHB, probably even Moderatus and AC – are from the libertarian wing. (I think- correct me if I’m wrong). The RMGO folks are all Tea Party people, at least on the surface. An establishment person is going to have trouble herding these cats. You see the problem.
Those Republicans reading this, feel free to correct my analysis.
MamaJ — Moddy is definitely in the Tea Party wing. Not socially liberal, definitely not pro-immigration. He's a Ken Buck lover/Obama Insane Clown Hater.
AC is about as establishment GOP as he can be.
I think you're right.
Nice explanation, Mama…..I'm a big fan of Ven Diagrams!
If she made threats to go public with affairs, and to file lawsuits, then it's still extortion no matter what comes out in the committee.
Even if it's "Steve, if we have to go to the Executive Committee to remove you, your affair is going to become public" is treading on the wrong side of the line.
Tell me it's never happened with Democrats. Lie to yourself and tell me that.
I won't say it's never happened with Democrats, because I'm not that naive. But when Democrats get caught in consensual sex with an adult, they resign. Republicans hang in there, repent, get forgiven, and run again.
Boy. Sure wish stuff like that was happening in the Dem party during the time I was most active. I've been to meetings at HD and County level, to caucuses, to County and State Assemblies and Conventions. If we'd had coup attempts, extortion attempts and sex scandals it would have been a whole lot easier to stay awake. Maybe things have picked up since then but nobody would have compared the usual party snooze fests to GoT any time during the first dozen years of this century.
Pueblo Dems has some backstabbing and sex scandal action once in awhile, but people pretty much have to do that on their own time; it's not on the agenda.
I actually enjoyed the State Assembly, and caucuses in Jeffco and Pueblo, political nerd that I am.
But we should submit your idea to State party leadership. Maybe they can include it in a powerpoint. ZZZZzzzzzz
Vitter is about to be Governor.
That guy should have gone to jail.
Moddy, Moddy, if you're gonna be a reliable Repub mouthpiece, you gotta support all Repubs. IOIYAR. Say it over and over to yourself, and stop attacking Repubs. Steve House can't be a bad seed, because IOIYAR. See? Simple, kinda like you, Modster.
Yes, because on Friday, all of you corrupt turds will click your heels together, and go magically the hell back to Kansas. If only…
People are going down for this, chump. But the graveyard wanted us to tell you how much its enjoys your "brave" whistling each time you pass it.
He misled a lot of people
Why? Because he reneged on hiring Ted Harvey?
You and Team Coffman keep saying he misled a lot of people but you don't say who those people might be (except for Harvey and he brings issues of his own), how he misled them and we don't see any of them coming forward to back up Team Coffman's claims. So if you can't show us actual misled people you really should stop saying that. Or don't stop but don't expect anyone to just take your word for it. And BTW, if they don't have some proof of formal offers in hand it'll just be he said/she said stuff anyway. Not that any of it is in the least relevant to the question of whether blackmail or extortion were attempted for whatever reasons.
Also we'd like to hear some of those serial lies. While Team Coffman constantly refers to them that haven't offered any examples. Not that it's legal to blackmail serial liars but if you call a person a liar you should be able to back it up with examples. Lying about an affair would be one if true but not one that's the party's business. What are all those others?
Do you support having a state Attorney General who is under suspicion of extortion? Wouldn't you like that cleared up one way or the other?
She has already explained herself. There was no extortion. She was trying to handle an ugly matter quietly, just like Democrats do. If she committed extortion, then it happens every day……..
My my, all this agitated wheedling, whining and diaper wetting! Looks like somebody has landed a job on the Coffman family cabal’s payroll!
Her explanation is just he said/she said. Just because you seem to have a hard on for the AG doesn't mean everybody is obligated to take her at her word just because.
PS: Look up extortion. It doesn't happen every day and when it does it's a crime. Clue: It doesn't mean handling quietly.
Well, glad that's settled.
You're really not dealing with this Out-House scandal very well, are you?
"You're all in cahoots and propping up Steve House when he doesn't deserve it." Are you insinuating that there is this vast left-wing conspiracy to do in the CO GOP by pumping up the blackmail attempt.
And regardless of whether the allegations of the affair are true or false, House seems to be the only one in this drama who has behaved in a commendable way (i.e., standing up to the blackmail attempt).
Off topic but I have to ask, how are you holding up in light of King v. Burwell?
From Moddy's replies on the other thread, I'd say about as well as Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" —
"Feeling like a dead duck
Spitting out pieces of his broken luck."
Shame on who exactly? It sounds as if some of the strongest calls for an investigation as to whether these actions constituted criminal extortion are from Republicans – including Steve House and several far-right radio hosts.
You and I both know there are unproductive factions in the Republican Party. Democrats are eager to use them against conservatives, and Steve House is happy to help. He needs to go.
Yes. Steve House lives to help Dems. You're going to be left behind yet again little modster. By Republicans.
"Number One — make it so. Engage!"