September 21, 2015 03:21 PM UTC

Coffman Planned Parenthood Needle Threading Goes Badly

• 7 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark with an astute observation:

How to turn typical #copolitics doublespeak into a truly convoluted on-the-record quote in 3…2…1…

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) September 21, 2015

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9NEWS’ Brandon Rittiman follows up on Friday’s big story, the vote by the GOP-controlled U.S. House to defund Planned Parenthood–a vote that included Colorado’s Rep. Mike Coffman voting in favor despite the fact that he used the organization’s logo in a campaign ad last year:

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado,) who voted last week in favor of a bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, is defending his use of a Planned Parenthood logo in an ad for his 2014 re-election campaign.

“Coffman was praised for protecting women from violence,”the ad’s narrator said, while a logo for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund appeared on screen beneath the congressman’s face.

The ad sought to take credit for Coffman’s support of the Violence Against Women Act.

Democrats argue that the goal of using the logo was to appeal to voters who support Planned Parenthood and see Coffman’s vote to defund the organization as hypocritical…

There’s no nice way to say it, but the response to this very straightforward question from Coffman spokesperson Cinamon Watson may well go down as one of the more preposterous political comebacks of contemporary American politics.

“Using Planned Parenthood’s expression of support is not the same thing as saying it’s a good organization,” said Coffman’s spokeswoman Cinamon Watson in an email to 9NEWS. [Pols emphasis]

Got that? Mike Coffman uses praise for himself from “bad” organizations in campaign ads–because, well, he doesn’t have to explain! We assume this to mean if Westboro Baptist Church or Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were to say something nice about Coffman, we’d see that in a future ad too. Right? After all, Coffman doesn’t need to support you back in order to use your support in a campaign ad. Or something.

Back in reality, we all know that’s nonsense, and we know exactly what Coffman was hoping to get out of invoking Planned Parenthood in a positive light in a campaign ad. Even giving Coffman the benefit of the doubt that the recent heavily edited undercover videos attacking the organization “changed his mind” doesn’t wash, because everyone familiar with his record knows Coffman has always been a stridently anti-abortion politician. Coffman’s vote Friday to defund Planned Parenthood only makes an ad where he used their logo in a positive light look more deceptive–yet another case of Coffman’s words failing to square with his long record of deeds.

To be honest, the best thing to do in this situation is probably not to comment at all. Because this didn’t help.