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December 15, 2009 09:31 PM UTC

GOP Parades Villafuerte's Scalp While Latinos Line Up Behind Ritter

  • 24 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

There’s no question that the Colorado GOP scored a victory yesterday with the withdrawal of U.S. Attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte from consideration. Villafuerte’s withdrawal validates a story that GOP chairman Dick Wadhams had patiently worked for months, in the end drawing on his considerable national connections to enlist the aid of Sen. Jeff Sessions in blocking Villafuerte’s confirmation.

All of this should have been avoided, but that’s one side of the story. For the other, we turn to a release yesterday evening from Governor Bill Ritter’s campaign:

Prominent Colorado Latino leaders will gather Tuesday to endorse Governor Bill Ritter, citing his commitment to Colorado’s diverse communities, to reforming Colorado’s education systems, and to creating jobs and strengthening the economy…

Who: Over 40 prominent Latino community leaders including, Colorado State Senators Abel Tapia and Paula Sandoval, former State Senators Polly Baca and Paul Sandoval, former House Speaker Ruben Valdez, DNC Member Mannie Rodriguez, former Colorado Latino Forum Chair Joe Salazar, and many others.

Do you remember what we said when it became clear a few weeks ago that Tom Tancredo was being used to mollify the hard right in favor of Scott McInnis? We predicted that Tancredo would be helpful for consolidating the Republican base (not so much as it turned out), though at the expense of the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the country–namely Hispanics, who at one point this year the GOP was at least pretending to court.

Do you remember what we said earlier this year when Tancredo was part of the GOP assault on now-Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an assault led in the Senate by the very same Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III of Alabama? We said that Republicans can’t afford to alienate Hispanics to appease the comparatively small right wing of their party.

Republicans didn’t listen either of those times, either. Jeff Sessions, who embarrassed himself during the Sotomayor hearings by seeking personal revenge over his own rejection by the Senate for a federal judgeship during the Reagan administration–after an avalanche of racist disclosures of his own, mind you, including calling a white attorney a ‘disgrace to his race’ and remarking that he ‘used to think they [the KKK] were OK’–obviously isn’t concerned about angering minorities. The same can be said for Dick Wadhams, the man whose job it was to defend ‘Macaca.’ It’s pretty undeniable that when Wadhams puts Tom Tancredo on a “GOP Unity” stage, or calls in Jeff Sessions on somebody named ‘Villafuerte,’ the Latino vote is not what he’s aiming for.

With all of this in mind, and given the original facts of the matter–a last-ditch, unsuccessful attempt by the Bob Beauprez campaign to ‘Willie Horton’ then-candidate Ritter with privileged law enforcement information–we don’t find the victory for Republicans to be nearly as clear-cut. Unfortunately, the defense we see so readily here was never picked up by Ritter’s surrogates, who seemed undecided between going to bat for Villafuerte as Democrats did for Sotomayor and letting her twist–ultimately choosing the latter. As we’ve said, if that was how it was going to play out, she should probably never have been nominated to begin with.

But Republicans could yet pay a price for Villafuerte’s scalp, with a segment of voters most agree they cannot afford to keep alienating.

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24 thoughts on “GOP Parades Villafuerte’s Scalp While Latinos Line Up Behind Ritter”

  1. Yea right.

    The Latino Leaders press conference is a sign of weakness.  They are mad over the Bennett appointment and the Governor is kicking them back in line.  

    Your thesis is total insider baseball.  

    1. The fact that Republicans always seem to come down on the opposite side of brown people – inside baseball, got it.

      Hispanics aren’t likely to think so.

      1. What I don’t understand is the weakness to stand by your man [or in this case Mrs. Villafuerte].  I’ll admit not knowing what this “imcomplete” file thing [Session letter] is all about for the Senate Judiciary Committee; but it can’t be that bad.  

        You stand up, make the rounds of those voting, do a CNN soft interview and testify to the fact that you’re a seasoned prosecutor.  You win the hearts and minds of those on Judiciary as well as the people.

        I must believe that there are other Hispanic or women candidates that the Senators and the Guv can recommend to POTUS …. lets just hope the next candidate doesn’t get thrown under the bus.

  2. yes the “GOP won,” but what did they win? US attorney is an important position, but when preformed correctly (in a non Bush manner) it is in essence a non partisan position and not a political one.

    It is a good first step on the elected political ladder since it has high exposure, but its not a game changer unless you use the position for political prosecutions.

    Why phyric?  Latinos are too important for the GOP to keep crapping on them.  Was this because of race? No? But the underlying issue was race and she just happens to be a Latina.  Stupid move GOP.

      1. 1. for the problems with Latinos it doesn’t matter why or if the GOP is “right,” what matters is the perception within the Latino community that the GOP is persecuting them.

        2. Even if she was lying, I never saw it be a problem for anyone in the Bush administration, I don’t see how its a problem for any tangentially related Democrat to an issue that has nothing to do with what voters care about.

        3.  You’re wrong.  Its about pulling on a thread to take a scalp–lying had nothing to do with it.

        1. Had better hope there’s no investigation.

          Does anyone really believe she dropped out for any reason other than she was possibly going to either perjure herself or plead the 5th while under oath?

      3. But how does it matter to Bennet or Udall?

        They didn’t nominate her.  They didn’t go to bat for her. They didn’t join the witch hunt either, but if that’s the bar then this will be the issue that sweeps the D’s back in next year. No one joined the witch hunt besides Crummey, Boyles and his listners, Wadhams, Sessions and allt he knee-jerks who think D= bad, embarrass, obstruct or oppose D= good.

  3. From today’s Post.

    The agent’s trial revealed that others had accessed the same information the agent had, including the Denver DA’s office. A phone message showed that Villafuerte had called the DA’s office about Ramo/Estrada-Medina, and she had exchanged calls with DA staff before they accessed the NCIC to confirm the names belonged to one man.

    FBI interview summaries from the ICE agent’s case, obtained this year by The Denver Post, describe Villafuerte as telling the FBI she had “no conversations” with anyone at the DA’s office about the illegal immigrant. The FBI did not ask her about the phone message or the calls exchanged with DA staff.

    Nobody in the Ritter camp wants her to go under oath and answer questions related to why she may or may not have lied to the FBI.

    Using racism as an excuse to deflect very legitimate questions about whether a crime was committed is bogus.

    1. That the whole “Walter Ramo” bullshit affair was intended to exploit racism. Scary brown man cops a plea in Denver and molests children. Willie Horton Jr.

      Never mind that ICE wasn’t picking up deportables (what happened there, Voorhis?), and that Republicans don’t allow the government enough money to incarcerate offenders. Perhaps it also doesn’t matter to you that Beauprez’s campaign originally accessed the confidential database?

      Here’s one for you: if a “crime” was committed, why wasn’t Voorhis convicted? How can Villafuerte, who nobody is accusing of personally accessing this protected information, be MORE guilty than the guy who freely admits he did?

      1. Which raises a bunch of questions: (1) Did she lie?  She left a phone message for Lynn Kimbrough, who does not recall ever talking to Villafuerte about the issue.  FBI notes say she told them she had no conversations with the DA’s office.  Is a phone message a conversation?  Do you remember the phone messages you left a year ago?  Would you be lying if someone asked you if you had a conversation, you said no, and it turned out you had left a message but never actually talked to the person you had called?  (2) If you assume that she did lie to the FBI, is that a crime?  It’s not perjury; she wasn’t under oath.  So what crime did she supposedly commit?  

        1. We will know in the fullness of time.

          And although my gut says he’s wrong, if he proves to be right, I’ll be the first to congratulate him.  Provided, of course, that I can get my sorry ass out of bed early enough.

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