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October 08, 2013 10:02 AM UTC

Coffman Buckles--Now Backs "Clean" Continuing Resolution

  • 65 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, reversed course Tuesday and vowed to support a clean continuing resolution to fund the government, breaking ranks with an obstinate House GOP bloc that has insisted on changes to Obamacare in exchange for passing a CR to end the ongoing shutdown…

Last week, Coffman told FOX31 Denver he was adhering to the House GOP position and that he was comfortable with the position even if it eventually hurt his reelection chances.

But Tuesday morning, in an Op-Ed piece published in several community newspapers, Coffman reversed course, revealing yet another crack in the House GOP unity around the unrealistic strategy of holding the government hostage until Democrats agreed to the de-funding of the Affordable Care Act.

—–

Rep. Mike Coffman (R).
Rep. Mike Coffman (R).

As the Denver Post's Allison Sherry reports:

Rep. Mike Coffman said Tuesday he will urge his GOP colleagues to support a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the federal government and end the current standoff in Washington.

Coffman, R-Aurora, is a critical voice in the debate because there is now a critical mass of Republican votes to pass a funding measure that does not dismantle or defund the Affordable Care Act — a proposal rejected by the U.S. Senate that led to the current shutdown…

“I have done my best to delay, defund and dismantle all or parts of Obamacare because I believe that much of it will be harmful to this country in the long run,” Coffman wrote. “However, the debate over attaching Obamacare to a spending bill must end and I will argue before my colleagues in the House that we need to pass a 'clean' spending bill to immediately reopen the government.”

Obviously this marks a major shift from Rep. Mike Coffman's position just a few days ago, when he held firm with the strategy to shut down the government to forestall implementation of the Affordable Care Act, saying "this is a negotiation" and demanding further concessions such as the repeal of the "Obamacare" medical device tax. Since that time, Democrats have singled out Coffman for paid-media pressure, and Coffman's hometown Aurora Sentinel weighed in with a blistering editorial condemning Coffman's "abandonment of good judgment." The latest polling shows Republicans taking heavy damage, to the extent that even safe-seat Rep. Doug Lamborn sees "the writing on the wall." Coffman is broadly considered one of the nation's most vulnerable incumbent Republicans going into 2014, so all sides were watching to see how long he would hold the hard line before cracking.

Answer: eight days.

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65 thoughts on “Coffman Buckles–Now Backs “Clean” Continuing Resolution”

    1. Maybe. But let's not forget that this is only happening because the Imperial President refuses to negotiate. If Obama would just sit down and compromise, there would be no shutdown. It's terrible the lengths Republicans must resort to to get Obama's attention, but he's fine with negotiations with Iran.

      1. Sect. of State John Kerry dressed up in a purple something or other for goodness' sakes and went and talked to foreigners!!!!!  And Obama won't even sit down and listen to the same old bullshit served up again from the wingnut fringe of the wingnut party about a two-year old law upheld by SCOTUS and pre resounding re-election (and trouncing of the guy running against Obamacare…)… Imperial, right–in the way that neeb3kinses like to make up new meanings for old words. 

      2. Tea Bagger Republican-"I want to burn your house down. Can we talk?"

        President Obama-"Now, we won't talk if you want to talk about burning the house down."

        Tea Party Republican-"Can't we just burn the top floor? Can we talk?"

        President Obama-"We can't talk about burning any part of the house."

        Tea Part Republican-"How about the garage? Can we at least burn the garage?"

        President Obama-"No, we can't talk when all you want to talk about is how big the fire is going to start."

        4. Lawrence O'Donnel swiped that for his show this evening.I wonder if he lurks on Pols.He was talking about the Rs trying to take over the State senate by recall, so maybe.

      3. The Imperial President has already given the Repugs 90% of what they wanted. Just ask Boehner.  Or google the videos where he says exactly that. 

        Shutting down the government and threatening to let the US default is about extorting the remaining 10% they couldn't get through negotiations, the legitimate legislative and judicial process or over 40 attempts to repeal a perfectly legal and duly passed and signed law they don't like even though it's based almost entirely on ideas from their own conservative think tanks.  

        And the public isn't buying your spin. The majority still blame the Republicans the most after a week of frantic spin. Why do you think Coffman changed his mind? It's because polls show him and 16 other Rs losing to a generic Dem in 2014, more proof that the public isn't buying your spin and a lot more meaningful than a simple generic do you prefer Dems or Rs for congress poll. This poll says, at this point, given a decent candidate we'd be happy to get rid of this bozo.  It's in the Dems' court to keep that sentiment going and growing. You're guys are making it easier every day.

        Maybe GOTP leadership is talking the stay firm talk for now but ordering Rs like Coffman to switch out of fear of losing the House.  Maybe they're now going for losing this battle in order to win the war.  Maybe it will prove too little too late.smiley

        1. Too late for the erstwhile green zoner. 6 just isn't the "vote red, any red" goober haven it was before the '10 Census.

          Yeh, there are still the one issue "he's black" older white entitlement receiving pinkos, but they're not the demographic juggernaut they once were. While goober filled 4 and 3 probably will remain under red control, 6 is flat out up for grabs now. coffman can't ride the teabag wave like tipton and lamborn, and his history of lamebrain company line votes are going to be what the Democratic runner faceplants him with.

          He's made his bed with 2 debt ceiling folds and his backing of the teabag forty's seditition.

          No matter what he says now.

        2. Great article by Andrew Sullivan:  "There Is No There There"

          "My best guess is that since they failed to make Obama a one-term president, they now intend to do what has become their custom with second-term Democratic presidents: impeach him. How to do it? Risk blowing up the entire global economy, bet on Obama caving at the end by some kind of dubious executive action, and then prosecute him for it. And what would that do exactly? It would not end Obamacare. But it would throw us instantly into both a Second Great Depression and a severe constitutional crisis."

          "The GOP have driven themselves into a tight, airless corner of ideological purity and self-destruction. The trouble is: their own self-destruction means ours as well. And the world’s."

          2. He's not going to fall for it Michael.  If it comes to the default, he is going to have to allow the country to go over the edge no matter how many people it hurts.  There will be no trillion dollar coin trick which would end up in court for years and open the door for impeachment.  The worst possible thing for Republicans is for him to allow them to carry out their threats.  People like Coffman will be gone in the next election along with all our 401k's.  Not even the Wall Street Republican elites can rein in this mob so let it burn baby.  Let's see what happens to their old age base when people stop getting their Social Security checks.  Obama doesn't have to do anything this time.  He tried to craft a Grand Bargain in 2011 and got nothing for it so he can say he made previous attempts in good faith and Republicans were double crossing liars with the sequester.  So be it.  I just wish I had switched my 401k to the ultra conservative profile.

        3. Poor ol' Coffman. That hardline, right-wing rubbish he's used to spouting just ain't gonna go in his new district, and he's finding that out the hard way. His new (Perlmutter's former) constituents are readig him the riot act every day of the Republican Temper Tantrum and he's having to tone down the Teabagger stuff or risk losing that seat. Must be rough.

      4. Kind of like Lincoln building the railroad accross America at the same time he crushed the southern rebellion.

        Hold that……….actually it's EXACTLY like that.

        While the 40 seditionists destroy our economy to thier best ability, the President continues to…………..wait for it…………do his job.

        Thank you Mr. President.

      5. Negotiate what? The Republicans have voted to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act (AHA) over forty times since it was passed. Until one week ago last night, their only negotiating position was the absolute repeal of the entire AHA. On that evening, they changed positions and said they wanted a one year delay in the AHA.

        Why? What amendments do they want to make in the AHA over that year time period? How extensive are their amendments? As of this morning, there hasn't been one word on exactly what they want to amend in the AHA, not one. The Republicans have not offered any negotiating position.

        I worked on the "Hill" and the idea that all the President need do is negotiate and the government shutdown will end is complete nonsense. When very complex legislation like the AHA is passed or if there are going to be substantial amendments it would take weeks to work out the details and in the meantime the government remains shuddered. 

        The Republicans aren't going to pass a CR until amendments are ready to be attached to the CR and again that would take weeks just from the practical perspective of making sure what was agreed to will work properly.

        President Obama has not acted "imperial" at all. The Republican position does not offer any prospect for negotiating because they haven't set forth any real position. The Presidnet is doing precisely what he should do. 

    1. It's as telling that while Coffman is forced to wave the white flag, those reps who aren't members of the suicide caucus and deemed "safe" by the party have apparently been muzzled for the time being.  Where, or where, has my Congressman gone?

      1. And what happens to these congressmen if they are waving that white flag too late? If the government shuts down and their districts are already polling against them it's unlikely they won't be blamed even though they folded while, from their right will come the RINO label. They'll be ripe for attacks from that quarter whether by being primaried by someone unelectable in their district or having to face a third candidate appealing to TPers, draining base votes and sealing a Dem opponent's victory. 

        This is all assuming that it matters which it won't all that much if the catastrophic melt down Sullivan describes happens before the 2014 elections.  

        Bright side? Worst case doomsday scenarios usually don't happen any more than best case Pollyanna scenarios do.

          1. They supposedly got rid of Littwin, along with several others, for budgetary reasons but then they turn around and hire this Tosches guy and every time I try to read one of his sophomoric attempts at humor I get pissed off all over again that they got rid of Littwin and stuck us with a guy who isn't anywhere near as entertaining,  insightful or as talented a writer. Nothing against him. It's just that Tosches belongs in some nice little suburban weekly and Littwin should be at the primary Metro Denver paper.

            1. My thoughts exactly.  Singleton is afraid of having a strong, clear liberal voice to counter the right-wing nonsense they print.  Better to have a non-threatening lightweight for bestowing a false sense of heft to Vincent Carroll, et al.

              1. A couple of points:Tosches was contracted to write a perspective column to fill the space left by the tragic death of Ed Quillen. With Littwin, the Post didn't want to pay him. Tosches is a contractor, hardly a fulltime employee.

                 

                    2. Speaking of monkey wrenches, something strange just happened in my previous reply, merging two comments into one — the edit box and my Firefox browser aren't cooperating

          2. I have an idea, Since we have a Friday Rush quote, how about a midweek ( Wed.?) Littwin quote with a link to his column in the Colorado Independent? How about it ColPols?

              1. Yeah! Littwin quote!

                On the shutdown: "If you expected progress, you haven't been paying attention."

                On Kopp for Governor:" I assume he’s going to run as being not as crazy as Tom Tancredo, not as gun-happy as Greg “Biking to the Gun Show” Brophy, not as unlikeable as Scott Gessler. "

  3. Well, let's have a vote then.  What is "BIpartisan" Coffman doing to demand a vote from Boehner?  And, how long is that clean CR that he says he'll support?  And, how much has this shutdown cost the US taxpayers?

    Finally, what's his position on the debt ceiling???

  4. I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question, but what hold does the tea party faction have on Boehner?  Why wouldn't he allow the vote on the clean resolution? The tea partiers are a minority of the house republicans.  They cannot, by themselves oust Boehner as Speaker.  I understand that many republicans are worried about being primaried from the right, but:  1. How many primaries can the tea partiers win? 2. Of those they can win, how many are they going to back away from just because the "rino" stuck with them on the shut down?  In other words, when do the rank and file republicans (and Boehner) get a backbone.  Aren't they tired of being led around by the nose by a minority of their own party?  Especially if that minority is leading them and the country off the cliff.

    1. Maybe because Boehner is afraid that if enough of the safe Rs get primaried from the right the first thing the resulting more numerous Tea Party faction will do is boot him with the help of remaining less crazy  Rs who will be even more worried about their future if they don't go along with the TPers. On the other hand if too many crazies from the right win primaries against saner Rs in competitive districts or are faced with TPers draining their votes then maybe the Ds will take the House altogether. But at this point I think that it has more to do with saving face than anything else. 

      2. I appreciate the explanation.  It still does not make sense to me. If the tea partiers are going to primary safe Rs, they are going to do so whatever Boehner does.I don't see how he staves that off by giving in to their worst impulses. And if they do primary incumbants and get nominations, thay are jsut as likely to lose as win.  Do the names Ken Buck, Todd Akin, Christine O'Donnell, and Sharon Angle mean anything? Boehner may be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, so why doesn't he just try doing what is best for the Country?  Sorry, that is just too much to ask. 

        1. Tell me if I'm crazy, but I think this is what Boehner is afraid of in the next Speaker election:

          Boehner 155

          Gohmert (or equivalent) 80

          Pelosi 200

            1. The Stupid is spreading like wildfire among the GOP:

               Republicans have a new, cold confidence that the president, and the press, are lying to them about the downsides of these crises. Democrats are just comforting themselves with polls—Washington Post, Fox News, Pew—that show the public turning on the GOP’s shutdown strategy.

              http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/house_republicans_debt_default_and_government_shutdown_the_gop_thinks_the.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content

              They believe there won't be any negative consequences to a default unless Obama wants it to be that way.

              Did these guys get half their brains sucked out while getting their haircut?

              1. I just thought of how we can solve this crisis:

                Offer the Republican House members a free week long junket, er, "Fact finding mission" to Dumbphuckistan.  A place were there are no unions, no child labor laws, and the booze and entertainment never ends on sunny white beaches.

                Once the planes leave US airspace, revoke their passports and ditch them in Somalia.

                Then Congress can vote on the clean CR and debt limit bills.

                I know at least 3 and possibly 4 of Colorado's delegation would jump at that offer!

              2. Didn't they learn anything from the final days of the 2012 elections when they thought all the lame stream media pols, apparently including Fox's, showing Obama ahead of Romney were wrong and their own special "adjusted" polls were right? They still haven't figured out that it's not what everybody else recognizes as objective reality that needs adjusting? 

    2. Early Worm — Another reason the Tea Party minority within the GOP House minority has such power is that Boehner is deathly afraid of having to woo (compromise with) even a single Democratic vote to pass legislation.  That would be tantamount to heresy in today's purity-driven GOP.

      Mike Littwin also puts Boehner's position in context:

      In normal times, a minority of one party in one house of Congress couldn’t wield so much power. But these are not normal times. In times when the real danger for Republicans in Congress is to be primaried from the right, Ted Cruz scares Speaker John Boehner into pretending to believe that Obama could actually be forced into defunding Obamacare. And, with Boehner’s speakership at stake, the suicide caucus lets Boehner know that compromise is out of the question.

    3. The Tea Party can't oust him on its own – but they could force a no-confidence vote on the Speakership and get a broader group of Representatives to do so.

      They can primary Boehner and any moderate willing to buck the right-wing crazy train.

      They can gum up the works badly enough that Republicans lose their majority. Oh, wait – they're already doing that.

      1. I'm hearing boehner will try to counter the President's Presser sledge hammer demands at 2:30 our time.

        boehner has proven to be a weak and ineffective shepherd of the seditionist (I learned PR) teabag contingent.

        My question is why does he value the position of Speakership when all being Speaker has netted him is being shown to a feckless shill?

        1. Well, he just walked off after 1 question following his childish rant about the "President demanding unconditional Surrender". boehner looked shaken, but still maintained temerity.

          He really is incompetent. Feelings over reason. If we do default, it's on the teabag 40, the lemming republican House, and boehner's outright inability to do his job.

          By the way, the President is demanding Unconditional Surrender. As he should. redland has backed itself into an airless corner. Letting them out would have devastating consequences to this Democratic Republic that could never be repaired. Holding firm and crushing this new southern rebellion will save our Democracy.

          Untill the next southern rebellion.

          1. Obama did a great job of pointing out waht a big fa lie that whole line is. He pointed out that the deal Boehner is rejecting  now is the deal he was formerly so happy to have that he's on record croiwng over it, bragging that he got 90% of w everything he wanted. It's on video. It can be played in endless loops.  

            Obama pointed out that the whole, they won't negotiate while people suffer spin is complete bull. What they won't do is respond to this one by one hostage taking tactic whereby the GOTP tries to put the blame on the Libruls every time a negative effect on a popular program breaks into the news. It's clear that giving in on these smaller, targeted blackmail attempts won't  get us anywhere. 

            The GOTP plan is to keep pointing the gun at a new hostage's head, one by one, until they get everything they want. And this is the way they plan to do the people's business until they get back the Senate and the White House. And now I think every sensible grown up who's paying attention knows it.

  5. The House Republicans have just made the same offer they've been making but dressed up differently. They want to create a bipartisan panel to discuss reducing the deficit, find ways to end the government shutdown, and make recommendaitons about a debt-limit increase. Again, as in my last post, this isn't an offer at all. Speaker Boehner, who made this proposal, didn't set forth any specific positions on the debt ceiling, deficit reduction or how to resolve the government shutdown. In other words , the Republcans haven't offered any proposed solutions.

    Let's look at this from the practical side. For the moment, forget about being a Republican, Democrat or Tea Party person and look at the divergent positions the parties have on the deficit, the debt ceiling and the shutdown. How in the world does Speaker Boehner expect a bipartisan panel to settle these issues in a short period of time.

    Take the deficit as a prime example. First, the annual deficit has already been reduced to less than 50% of its all time high of $1.5 trillion. Second, what programs will have their spending cut and by how much and who will that impact. In the past, the Republicans have always demanded tax cuts as part of a deficit reduction package and the Democrats want to save the social programs. Regardless of your philosophy on such issues, none of them can be negotiated in a two hour meeting over coffee. Very difficult and weeks or months of bargaining will be required. We don't have weeks. We have nine days until the debt ceiling limit is reached and if we don't do something to increase it, almost every economist and all the major economic powers in the world agree we will be responsible for sending the whole world into an economic tail spin. With that staring him in the face. Speaker Boehner and the congressional Republicans should realize that their demand to repeal or delay the AHA pales to insignificance and that we simply and literally don't have time for a "bipartisan panel" to discuss and solve those three issues.

    The Republicans don't have a real choice. They must reopen the government and they must agree to a debt ceiling increase. Any other course of action is insane at this point.. 

    1. Sadly, many are insane.  Wish I thought Coffman read my email about shooting himself repeatedly in the same foot he keeps inserted in his mouth and it encouraged his change of heart.  But I know he doesn't read my emails for at least a month.  Still the more Rs who back away from the Kool Aid, the less believable Boehner's lies are.

    2. The 'Bipartisan Panel' is just another red herring 36 to try and make it look like they 'want' to negotiate.  It's bullshit and Democrats aren't going to fall for it.  The Simpson Bowles commission should have convinced every Democrat that they are getting suckered with these games.

    1. The conclusion is worth highlighting:

       

      The most telling thing about Boehner’s remarks is their brevity. The Speaker spoke for about five minutes, responded briefly to one question, and bolted out the door. Obama’s disquisition earlier today may have been long (over an hour) and professorial. But he was able to defend his position against questions, engage counterarguments, and marshal facts to support his position. Boehner couldn’t do any of those things. So he did the only thing a man in his position could do: repeat a handful of false or crazy talking points and quickly flee the premises.

       

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