Advocacy group wants to buy McInnis geography book after mountain mixup

The liberal finger-waggers at ProgressNow Colorado pounced Monday on Scott McInnis with an offer to help the Grand Junction Republican “learn the geography of the Centennial State he aspires to lead.” The former congressman’s campaign for governor of Colorado got off to a bit of a fumbling start late last week when he yanked a prominent photo of the Canadian Rockies from his Web site after local bloggers uncovered the geographic faux pas.

Never ones to shrink from the chance to capitalize on — or amplify — a GOP slip-up, ProgressNow fired off a release announcing the group is raising money to buy McInnis a copy of Joy Clapp and Paul C. Stevens’ textbook Geography of Colorado, “an excellent college-level primer on our state’s fascinating physical and cultural features.”

“That’s right, folks, Scott McInnis apparently doesn’t know the difference between Canada and Colorado,” ProgressNow snarked at the Square State blog. “Nobody, certainly not a college-educated former elected official, should be this clueless about the state they desire to serve.”

A McInnis spokesman still hasn’t replied to The Colorado Independent’s e-mail and phone message seeking comment on the misplaced mountains.

“What’s unbelievable about this is McInnis actually had the nerve to criticize Bob Schaffer after his campaign switched Alaska’s Mt. McKinley for Pikes Peak in a television ad,” said ProgressNow Colorado founder Michael Huttner in a release.

Huttner pointed to some harsh words McInnis had for Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer a year ago when Schaffer pulled his inaugural TV spot because it pictured Alaska’s Mount McKinley instead of Colorado landmark Pikes Peak, where Schaffer proposed to his wife.

McInnis said those kinds of mistakes “tend to accumulate,” according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “They can afford this one, but one or two more and that’s all you can absorb,” McInnis said last May.

“Does this mean McInnis has already used his free pass?” Huttner asked in the ProgressNow release.

“Don’t feel bad, Mr. McInnis,” Westword’s Michael Roberts blogs. “You can bet that before long, right-leaning bloggers will return the favor to some Democratic politician. After all, the web eventually abuses everyone, no matter their party affiliation.”

Incidentally, Amazon had one copy in “good” condition of the 1967 edition of Geography of Colorado available for $15. British bookseller AbeBooks offers a “clean and tight” copy (with some corner bumping) of the 1977 edition for a mere £ 6.62, which works out to $10.50 at Monday’s exchange rate, but shipping costs from the U.K. could be murder.

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