June 26, 2015 04:59 PM UTC

Coffman's Political Career will be Measured in Weeks, not Years

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Aaron Gardner of conservative blog RedState Tweets it like it is:

We all get that this is still just beginning, right? Lot of big bold dots that can easily be connected. #copolitics

— Aaron Gardner (@Aaron_RS) June 26, 2015

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For Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, the headline in the Denver Post this afternoon is just about as bad is at gets — until it gets worse (which it will): “Cynthia Coffman says no blackmail in asking Steve House to resign.”

On Friday Coffman said the meeting at the Warwick took place over wine and was meant to be confidential. She said she mentioned House’s alleged mistress by her first name at that meeting, but not in a threatening manner. “Nobody accused him of an affair. Nobody threatened to expose anything,” she said.

Coffman said: “If you look up the legal definition of blackmail this doesn’t fit it.” [Pols emphasis]

This is now the second time in a week that Coffman has publicly responded to blackmail charges…by talking about blackmail. Suffice it to say, a politician never wants to end up in a position where you are repeatedly denying involvement in a serious crime, but leave it to Coffman to even include the “B word” in her own comments.

On Friday afternoon, the Executive Committee of the Colorado Republican Party listened to “testimony” about unfounded allegations against GOP Chair Steve House. Coffman herself “testified” at the meeting, where she reiterated that she was in attendance at the June 15 meeting intended to force House out of office.

When the meeting was finally over, Republicans had voted 22-1 in support of House and in repudiation of claims made by Coffman, Tom Tancredo, Becky Mizel and others. Coffman’s last remaining supporter appears to be Mizel herself, who cast the solitary “NO”vote.

Some in the Republican Party may try to pretend that they have swept everything under the rug with Friday’s vote, but it’s not that easy. The Colorado GOP is not a court of law. It has no judge or jury. It doesn’t get to decide whether or not Coffman, Tancredo, Mizel and others can be exonerated of a plan of blackmail or extortion in an effort to get House to resign on his own.

Only our legal system gets to make that decision. The U.S. Attorney’s office may be in the process of pursuing an investigation as we speak type, and as Republican Party Attorney Chris Murray noted ominously before today’s kangaroo court:

Murray reminded the group that anything said is subject to discovery if there is a criminal or civil investigation into the recent events.

Cynthia Coffman’s political career is about as dead as it gets — and that was true even before today’s circus. She has lost all support in the Republican Party and is radioactive to anyone who might sympathize with her. It appears all but certain that there will be a federal investigation into claims of blackmail/extortion. Two questions remain:

1) When will Coffman have no choice but to resign as Attorney General?

2) Will Coffman be able to avoid felony criminal charges?

There are no good answers when the questions are that awful for the chief law enforcement officer in the State of Colorado.