Pity Aurora. After all these years of being the bridesmaid, the old girl finally gets an offer to hitch up with her very own congressional district, and look what happens.

Given the quality of the two gentleman callers that have proposed so far, being disenfranchised and unengaged seems to have its appeal.

Local boy Mike Coffman, the Republican, continues to choke on his own comments from a couple of weeks ago where a “supporter” taped him talking trash about President Obama’s credentials as an American and an American citizen.

Et tu, Mike? It wasn’t so much disappointing — OK, it was disappointing. More to the point, it was scary. It was frightening because I know Mike, and I know he doesn’t believe all that crap from those creepy birthers. It’s unnerving that he would be so shifty that he would patronize a bunch of kooky tea-baggers out on the plains, for what? He was out in Elbert County, which can be just about as sophisticated as it sounds, at a campaign function. It’s way out of his district.

So he’s drinking the tea-bagger Kook Aid out there under the stars, and he was momentarily overcome in the heat of the moment, I guess. Whatever. And then he’s humiliated by an ally who plays his foolishness to 9News. Oops.

It’s what’s happened since then that bothers me. First, there was the deafening silence from Coffman about the conundrum for a few days. Then he writes his mea culpa to The Denver Post, apologizing to, umm, them? Obama? Prairie dogs in Elbert? He apologized for his “boneheaded” remarks about Obama not being an American “in his heart” and for being an illegal alien masquerading as a U.S. citizen.

Boneheaded? Dude, running out of gas on I-225 because you think you can make it to the gas station is boneheaded. Telling your wife you’re leaving the office in 15 minutes when you know damned well it ain’t going to happen is boneheaded. Being a congressman and telling a herd of Neanderthals that the U.S. president is pretty much the Antichrist isn’t boneheaded. It’s freaky. It’s pretty sick. It’s absolutely lame.

Am I to understand that you actually don’t believe those things? That for a moment you did, and now you don’t? I get it that you’re sorry you said all that. Look how it turned out.

I’m certainly not going to apologize for having said outright that George W. Bush was the stupidest president in U.S. history. Or that Dick Cheney just plain creeped me out. But as many times as I heard people talk crap about Cheney eating the heads off of bunnies or Bush being seriously brain damaged, I never said, “you betchya.” I frequently disagreed with what those two morons did, but I never doubted for a minute that the U.S. Supreme Court had every right to appoint them to their jobs.

And what I really don’t get is that Obama is much more your president than mine. He’s all about treating the little guys in the U.S. military as good as the country can bear. He’s fought against gay rights just about as long as you have. He talks a lot about protecting the environment, but in the end, big oil et al. still get their way. He seems to be much more in tune with mainstream Republicans than with my pinko pals.

I don’t know. I just thought it would be different when Aurora came into its own and got a congressional district and a Gaylord hotel.

Also knocking at the CD6 door is Denver Democrat Joe Miklosi. This is a guy who never met a constituency he didn’t love, love, love, including the oppressed bikers in Colorado, whom he thought needed legal protection to wear as much leather as they wanted in Denny’s.

He just seems so overly eager, like a date that’s rushing through dinner and checking out everyone else in the restaurant at the same time.

Like Coffman, Miklosi says all the right things about helping folks get jobs, about making sure that we can afford to see a doctor, about keeping college affordable. But neither suitor is making me feel all tingly in my stomach, or feel like I wanna lift up my left heel when I listen to them campaign.

We’ll see where this goes, but if Pat Schroeder or Olympia Snowe come calling, I’d probably leave either Mike or Joe at the altar.

Reach Editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com

9 replies on “PERRY: Aurora is dreading that date with Coffman and Miklosi”

  1. Great article, Dave. You give Mike Coffman a lot of credit here, for “not really believing” the “boneheaded” things he said. You’re a good friend to him. Whether or not he really believed them is irrelevant — what he said was so serious, if he wasn’t a Congressman with federal immunity, he could be court-marshaled as an Officer within the United States Military. You see, undermining the Authority of the Commander in Chief is a pretty serious crime when you are an officer. Aurorans want a Congressman who sees himself as a partner with the President of the United States — not an enemy combatant.

    Is this the first time Coffman has been in trouble? No. Remember his illegal purging of voter registrations a few years back when he was Secretary of State, and you’ve got a guy who clearly has no respect for the law. Either that, or he’s pretty sure he is above it. https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/10/colorado-judge/

    I’ll take Joe Miklosi as my Congressman anyday. Joe may be a little overly anxious to get the job, as you have indicated, but he seems to respect the law of the land. And unlike Mike Coffman, Joe actually seems to want people to vote — all people — Latinos, African-Americans, immigrants, women, etc., because Joe believes in nurturing democracy, not thwarting it.

    Joe is a longtime volunteer at Project Cure, too — a charity that sends medical supplies to developing nations. You see, Dave, Aurorans and other people in CD6 actually want a Congressman with a conscience, a respect for the law, and a belief in democracy. They want a Congressman who talks to real people in Aurora — not just big oil companies (Coffman’s second largest contributor is an oil and gas fracking company called RIM).  The last thing we need in Aurora is someone like Coffman. We need Joe Miklosi.

    2. He should never have apologized for telling the truth, he said quote ‘he is not an American in his heart’  which is true and correct.   Do you people bother with books?  Books written by this president?  Books proclaiming he has sympathetic feelings for Muslims?  Did you notice he ‘bowed’ to the Arabs?  A sitting American president shouldn’t bow to anyone.  He also apologized to the Europeans for ‘America’s arrogance’  and America perhaps should be penalized for that.”

      He’s not my guy, the prez, but aparently yours.

  2. njcronk,    Are you kidding us.  I am going to give Dave Perry benefit of the doubt, and think for a few seconds he was writing satire,   ala Bill Mahar style.   Somehow as editor, his comments have become more pointed against Republicans, so I have to believe he went to the white house school of journalism.     When the newly retired generals and admiral came out to head up  Veterans against the War when George W. Bush was president, and we were in real honest to god war zone (congress did not have the guts to so declare)    your version went out the window.    And Democrats have not passed a budget since 2009, so how can Republicans be the stoppers.   Your words do not fit the situation,  and Tea Party are quiet but will be counted in November.   I don’t trust anyone coming out of Colorado legislation from the last 2 years.   Obama administration advocates taking benefits from those veterans who are retired, while promising those serving now he will take care of them.  Explain why 24% of the returning veterans are unemployed or underemployed, with 50% of college graduates did not get jobs in past 3 years.  

  3. Interesting that far-left guys like yourself, rely so heavily upon derisive words and phrases; I counted eighteen (or more), about 65% of the way thru the article.  Including:  Morons (just silly and mean-spirited to those actually having that handicap), freaky, lame. herd of —-; you get the picture.  Sad thing is, you have the germ of a good idea in the piece; but like most liberals feel it necessary to rely on vitriol rather than logic. 
     
    That may explain why you are the Editor of a “rag”, so lightly regarded that it has to be given away, to get anyone to read it.  The only redeeming feature of the Sentinel is the advertising coupons, which are sometimes useful.  

    — Jim Sullivan via letters@aurorasentinel.com
     

  4. I find your column very disturbing. You mention that President Obama is much more my President than yours, that he’s fought against gay rights just as long as I have, that President Obama has talked a lot about protecting the environment, but in the end big oil get their way. Lets understand that none of what your editorial states about my President and “Yours” is accurate!

    President Obama has little power to regulate big oil, currently the government policy makers (not Obama) have met to decide to take the speculators out of oil sales legally, Obama states he is for making marriage equal no matter man and man or woman and woman. YOU as our local editor should catch up with the current facts as mention earlier in this letter.

    Where is your comments about bone head Mike Coffman recently, you guys must be related!! I know you will not print my comments, but that’s ok as its your newspaper. Mr. Perry, you should do more research before you write your next comment!

    Anthony Mataya via letters@aurorasentinel.com

  5. He said and I quote “he is not an American at heart’  He should have never apologized for anything,  what he said was right and correct.  It was not ‘political’, but it was correct.

    Headline grabbers, you must be one Perry, don’t bother with the facts, only jump to conclusions with researching why and what was truly uttered.

    Obama wrote books, in them he professed being sympathetic to the Muslims and turning his back on white culture.  He ‘bowed’ to Arabs,   He told the Europeans that America has been arrogant and may be gettng what America deserves.

    Do a bit of research before you spout off Perry.  Coffman was right.

  7. Dave Perry,    With results in Wisconsin today,  we see that even hard nosed Democrat states  have people who are fed up.   FDR stated in letter when he supported workers unions, that public unions should never have collective barganing  or right to strike. John Kascih  in Ohio  and now Walker in Wisconsin started a trend,  and I do believe the federal power will be broken,  giving States their rightful place.  SO PERHAPS YOU SHOULD START WRITING OPINIONS-EDITORIALS MORE TO THE MIDDLE.   Newspapers are dropping sales and advertising is now on net,  and you may have to find a new career.    And I think you will find you have to ask people with money and power for a new job (career).  Lighten up, and write for Aurora citizens.    And paper might be worth small cost, instead of “free”.    

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