Mike Coffman Is A Deranged Crackpot, Which Is Different From Being A "Moderate"

I was doing some late night tweeting a couple nights ago when a report came over the transom about far right sociopath Mike Coffman going off the deep end at a campaign fundraiser. Since Blue America is supporting Coffman's Democratic opponent, Joe Miklosi, I was happy to get the word out. Here's what Coffman had to say at the Elbert County Fairgrounds-- unprompted-- which stunned even his partisan GOP audience:

“I don’t know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don’t know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he’s not an American. He’s just not an American.”

No one has mentioned if Coffman was high on drugs or drunk but when the story started breaking, his office issued a terse statement: "I misspoke and I apologize.” He misspoke? What is it he meant to say? "...that in his kidney he's not an American?" In his pituitary gland?

Then the next morning I woke up and one of my most trusted news sources, TPM, had the most bizarre tweets about the incident:


And what are they high on? Moderate GOPer? Mike Coffman? Moderate in what way? He only drinks after work? He only kills puppy dogs on weekends, but never during the week? They can't possibly be talking about his voting record. Mike Coffman is one of the most radical right extremists to have ever slipped into the United States Congress-- and that extremism is going to lose him his seat. He replaced Tom Tancredo and he's been more extreme than even Tancredo-- even on Tancredo's signature issue, immigration. Coffman has a 5.57 ProgressivePunch lifetime voting score on crucial roll calls. There isn't a single category of issues on which he could be described as "moderate" in any known universe. Example-- there are 8 subcategories that make up Labor Rights. Coffman scored 0.00. There are 7 subcategories that make up Justice for All: Civil and Criminal. Coffman scored 0.00. Health Care has 17 subcategories; Coffman scored a 0.00 in every single one of them. Housing policy-- o.00. From Family Planning to Fair Taxation to LGBT equality Coffman is consistent: 0.00. Words have meanings. Referring to a radical right extremist like Mike Coffman as a "moderate" turns the world on its head. Maybe TPM has looking for the word neo-fascist and the auto-correct thing kicked in?

And by the way, while we're at it, his opponent has been a leader in the Colorado state legislature for a progressive agenda that will return the state to a more moderate perspective across the board. Helping elect Joe Miklosi is a worthwhile goal-- one that redistricting has made very possible. The sixth district is no longer the red hellhole it was when Tancredo was being elected and reelected-- and when Coffman was picked to succeed him. This is now a classic swing district with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans and plenty of Independents. That's why Coffman attempted a half-assed apology so fast. Normal voters who haven't been brainwashed by Fox and Limbaugh don't cotton to that kind of talk-- nor to his kind of voting record. If you'd like to help Joe beat him in November you can help at the Blue America ActBlue page.