June 22, 2018 10:19 AM UTC

Thanks For Nothing, Scott Tipton (Dead Letter Office Edition)

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent reports, the Trump administration’s self-inflicted debacle over child separations along the southern border is tripping up GOP Rep. Scott Tipton of Cortez–who is quickly emerging as a “reach goal” target for Democrats in the upcoming elections:

Two Democratic challengers who are seeking to replace Colorado’s 3rd District U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton are pressing the congressman after he Tweeted earlier this week about his position on U.S. border patrol family separations.

“I recently signed onto a letter w/ some of my colleagues to be sent to DHS, that expresses disapproval of the current policy of separating families & requests additional information on what is being done when a family arrives at the border in-between legal port of entry,” Tipton stated, responding to growing criticism of President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy of separating children from parents, before he signed an executive order Wednesday reversing the policy.

However, asked Wednesday for a copy of the letter outlining Tipton’s position on the issue, staffers in Washington, D.C. said they couldn’t immediately provide a copy.

Apparently, as of Wednesday the reason that Rep. Tipton could not provide a copy of this letter to the Department of Homeland Security is that it hadn’t been delivered yet! The crisis over family separations has been front page for nearly a month, and a major bone of contention for months prior to that, so a letter delivered Wednesday (or later, who knows) when President Donald Trump rescinded the policy that same day can be fairly categorized as totally meaningless ass-covering.

“I think that is classic Tipton, that he is trying to avoid taking a position on an issue because he doesn’t know which direction the political wind is blowing.” [Pols emphasis]

[Democratic CD-3 candidate Karl] Hanlon continued, “If I am sending this letter to the Department of Homeland Security, and speaking to a humanitarian crisis within our borders, I absolutely want my constituents to know what I said.”

In addition to the overwhelming public disapproval of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that led to families being separated at the border, Tipton’s district has been impacted by the Trump administration’s crackdown with documented shortages of both agricultural and seasonal resort labor. The state’s extremely low unemployment rate combined with visa programs for the needed labor that haven’t grown in decades is demonstrably holding back the economy in Tipton’s district.

And that’s before we even talk about Pueblo. In short there’s real danger for Tipton here, and he appears to already be well behind the curve in addressing the biggest headline in the national news today.

This isn’t a good year to be complacent.