Tag: Bob Schaffer

The pattern emerging in the weird and sordid business life of Scott Shires points to two possible conclusions: He's cornered the market on shifty...

Former congressman and twice-failed Senate candidate Bob Schaffer crows on his Twitter feed Thursday evening that the national media has picked up the story first reported a week ago by The Colorado Independent. It's the story of a Fort Collins family with a taste for tequila, a homemade margarita recipe and the marketing savvy to bottle the blend and call it ... Coyote Gold.

In an attempt to "liberate the world from bland margaritas," former congressman and failed Senate candidate Bob Schaffer is hawking his wife's pre-mixed margarita blend, Coyote Gold, dubbed "The Microbrew of Margaritas." The thing is, Schaffer writes on his Twitter feed, "Coyote Gold isn't beer. It's the best margarita there is. No mixing. Just pour and enjoy." Not only that, Schaffer describes the family margarita blend in positively patriotic terms: "A stimulus package that works! Capitalism in a bottle. Liquid liberty."

The end of the year is always a good time to look back and reminisce on the bizarre and ridiculous, like when U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer claimed that he, personally, had not witnessed a forced abortion while traveling (and parasailing) in the Northern Mariana Islands while in congress -- and when two guys from Georgia claimed they had the dead body of Bigfoot. Possibly Colorado’s freakiest hoax of 2008, however, was the crank call, placed by a Colorado Springs woman, that led to the forced removal of 400 children from a Texas compound of fundamentalist Mormons.

On Friday, Sen. Tom Daschle was in Denver to talk of the paralyzing effects of a failed health care system. Among the realities: “One half of all bankruptcies, one half of all home foreclosures are related to medical costs.” Daschle’s appearance was a reminder of the sharp-tongued Dick Wadhams, who made his name known on the national stage by unseating the former Senate Minority Leader from South Dakota, employing, among other things, nasty name-calling. Sound familiar?

Despite a crushing 3-to-1 loss of a pioneering, but controversial, state constitutional amendment to confer civil rights on fertilized human eggs, an American Life League spokesperson made a curious slip of the tongue in a weird silver lining statement about its future plans to ban abortion.

Even as the mainstream media Saturday acknowledged the role of The Colorado Independent in introducing the topic of dramatic change to the state Republican Party prior to the Nov. 4 election, The Associated Press over the weekend delved into just what that change might look like.

Two things jump to mind when thinking about the outcome of the Colorado vote: 1. Rep. Doug Lamborn — two years ago a freshman trying to find the Capitol bathroom — is now the Dean of Colorado’s Republican delegation in Washington. 2. Dick Wadhams’ threat to shove a bunch of 30-second ads up Democrat Mark Udall’s ass over a missed vote might just have marked the Macaca moment of his failed effort to get his old pal Bob Schaffer elected to the United States Senate. Such trashy talk underscores what went so utterly wrong for Republicans in Colorado on Tuesday.

Just as the turning point in the presidential race came in September when Wall Street wavered and John McCain looked equally unsteady, Bob Schaffer’s U.S. Senate campaign might have imploded later that same month in a debate with Mark Udall on “Meet the Press.”

As Democrats counted win after win this evening, Republicans at the Colorado GOP event in Littleton appeared exhausted as the results rolled in. Thousands of people roamed slowly around the Marriott Hotel and several lounged on chairs and couches in the hallway. A few engaged in philosophical discussion about the election results, while others asked their friends where to find more food or what they had in mind for tomorrow.