May 10, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

Beauprez Assailed on Military Record

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Congressman Bob Beauprez’s draft status during the Vietnam war came under scrutiny again Monday when a political organization launched the first in a series of Internet-based attack ads. In the 60-second spot, a Vietnam veteran wonders how Beauprez received a medical exemption for an ulcer that didn’t prevent him from playing two varsity sports in high school.

“On the one hand, Bob Beauprez was healthy enough to letter in two sports in high school and major in physical education in college,” says Jim Hudson, who served in Vietnam and currently is active in Colorado Veterans for America.

“On the other hand,” Hudson continues, “Bob Beauprez says he wasn’t healthy enough to serve our country when his draft number came up after college because of an ulcer he had shortly before this picture was taken.”

The photo, from Boulder’s Fairview High yearbook, shows the congressman in a three-point stance with the caption, “2 yr. letterman.”

The ad opens with photos of Beauprez in a flight suit and concludes with Hudson saying, “Dodging the draft then, taking the credit now. You can’t have it both ways, Bob.”

ProgressNow, a liberal advocacy group that produced the ad for less than $300, sent the link to 23,000 e-mail addresses in Colorado. It said 1,000 people had viewed the video within five hours, and 200 had electronically added their names to a petition calling for Beauprez to disclose his medical records from that time.