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December 05, 2008 12:41 AM UTC

Andrews: "Lay Off Musgrave"

  • 34 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Ex-Sen. John Andrews has had enough, and his keen sense of manly chivalry will not allow dear friend Marilyn Musgrave to be ridiculed any longer. Writing for Politics West:

Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, targeted five years ago by the Tim Gill machine for the crime of defending traditional marriage and finally brought down last month, is the most relentlessly and unjustly smeared public figure I can recall in 35 years of Colorado politics.

Since the election, amazingly, the smears have continued from the Democrat who defeated her, Betsy Markey, aided by biased or lazy reporting from the state and national media. The rap against Musgrave now is that she hasn’t made a courtesy phone call to Markey, hasn’t spoken to her supporters, and hasn’t even thanked her own staff — making her one of America’s sorest losers, according to no less an authority than Newsweek.

These heinous offenses have been repeatedly alleged in the Denver papers, most recently this week with stories in the Post and the Rocky occasioned by Musgrave’s campaign efforts in the Georgia Senate runoff. But they are baloney three times over. A stronger term occurs to me, but this is a family website…

According to Andrews Musgrave did in fact thank her supporters and staff, even though no evidence exists for this other than an email from a Musgrave staffer to a newspaper well after the fact. And according to Andrews, Congressional opponents don’t have to concede defeat. Or something.

So…why hasn’t she talked to the press…herself then? About this, or for that matter anything else? If everything Andrews says is true, and Congresswoman Musgrave has comported herself perfectly honorably, why does she need to hide–in this case, behind some lowly ex-state senator?

It’s nice to see that Andrews has a solid Old Spice chauvinist moral compass, or whatever’s going on here, but we’d rather have heard it from the source. Several weeks ago.

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34 thoughts on “Andrews: “Lay Off Musgrave””

    2. I just got it….and now I’m going to get myself some brain bleach because I’m having a mental image I don’t want haunting me for the next few minutes.

  2. “A stronger term occurs to me, but this is a family website…”

    Thank you, John Andrews, for realizing that a vast number of small children read Politics West with great interest for your feelings about Marilyn Musgrave.

    Their impressionable young minds, looking for nothing more than a few details on the relationship between Tim Gill and post-electoral Congressional etiquette, would be terribly scarred if you used the filthy sort of language that you are prone to use when you forget to keep your mouth in check.

    Bravo, sir! Well done!

  3. may have targeted Musgrave five years ago, but her constituents are the ones who pulled the trigger (to the tune of 12% points).

    I think that that is the part that Andrews and the few Musgrave supporters (including Musgrave herself) are having the hardest time grasping.  The 4th CD was not drawn to be competitive.  It was drawn to be represented by a Republican.  Musgrave is a republican…..and yet her district repudiated her and the hatred that fueled her time in electoral office.  They may not like the idea of gay marriage, but they know, unlike Musgrave/Andrews and their out-of-touch ilk, that it is not, “…the most important issue facing America.”

    1. often enough — Musgrave’s loss is the first time in 20 years that Colorado voters have rejected an incumbent member of Congress.

      It’s too bad Ewegen isn’t around these days, we had a great discussion on just that topic on Pols this past spring.

      The last Rep. to go down to defeat was the 3rd District’s Mike Strang, in 1988, and the last senator defeated was Floyd Haskell, 10 years before that. All the other turnover has been due to death, retirement or seeking higher office. Quite a distinction Musgrave has.

  4. I just put this comment into the moderation queue over at PW. I wanted to rebut Andrews assertion that Colorado Congresspeople never call each other on election night.

    “You see, it’s just not done that way.”

    That is not true. I can’t speak for all candidates, but was there on election night when Ed Perlmutter defeated Rick O’Donnell in Ed’s freshman year.

    O’Donnell was very gracious, made a call to congratulate Ed, and the two of them even spoke about getting together later in that week to talk about the needs of the district. It was only after that call that Ed took the podium and spoke to the Press and his supporters about his victory.

    It was more than just formalism, it was a demonstration of how much the two men cared about the well being of their district. Sure, you battle it out during the election, but unless it was always about your own selfishness, you don’t make your personal loss into a loss for your community. You shake hands with the victor and you bring your thousands of supporters to the table to join as a team.

    It is not just some arcane snub that Musgrave is making. As the sitting Representative she has a duty to her district to provide for a smooth transition and to seek out the Representative-elect to offer the guidance and support Markey will need from all sides if Colorado and the USA are going to move forward in a productive way.

    1. Great comment, and thanks for x-posting it here.

      Not calling to concede isn’t just bad manners, it shows a complete disregard for the well being of your constituents.

  5. My favorite line — after arguing the concession calls aren’t that important, Andrew simply must throw in an anecdote about his own very special concession:

    I don’t know what happens in all governor’s races, but I personally went to see Gov. Roy Romer after he beat me on election night 1990. But at the congressional and legislative level — memo to Ben Marter and Betsy Markey — to say it’s “customary” is just not so.

    1. There was obviously also plenty of money from her supporters to run lots of really vicious ads against Markey.  Most important, it was a 12 point loss. You lose close races because the other guy outspent you.  You’re an incumbent and lose by 12 points, it’s because most of your constituents want you gone. I’ll never understand how Andrews has a job as a columnist. He’s an idiot and a lousy writer.

    1. continue to promote such a “has been” loser.  It was under his “leadership” with all the midnight redistricting shenanigans that the Colorado GOP started sinking out of sight.  The guy is a triple loser who couldn’t face reality if it came clothed as St. Ronnie.

    1. loss was tied to a bad year for Republicans?  She caught that she lost by 12 points in a red district, right?  I think the reason she’s been missing is because she’s been sleeping.  In a cave.  For the last two years.  Maybe she thinks she’s still dreaming.  $20 says that if seen in public, she’s clicking her heels three times.

  12. That the Musgraves and Andrews and Wadhams continue to delude themselves.  Why was it “a bad year for Republicans?”  Because they let the right wing of their party hijack them.  Andrews — along with Bill Owens and the merry band of neocons, helped to cause the fiscal straightjacket in which Colorado finds itself by cutting income and sales tax rates.  When the economy tanked, unable to raise revnues and because the state can’t have a deficit, Draconian cuts have had to be made…transportation, higher education, you name it, have suffered.

      1. Well, I would say Musgrave shoulders most of the blame.  But I think the mindset and actions have caught up with them — and unforutnately us.  Government is “bad.”  Slash taxes and “wasetful” government spending.  Don’t view things like public infrastructre as an investment or and educated populace as a public good.  Demean civil service as “bureaucracy.”

        3. It wasn’t just a vote against Bush, Musgrave (or Owens). Markey ran a sharp campaign and was an attractive alternative. The voter registration numbers and Forward Colorado did a lot, too.

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