Joe Coors, a Republican who announced his run for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District on Tuesday, cited his motivation to stop the ever-expanding reach of government that’s harming the opportunity society.

“I’m running for Congress because the American Dream is rapidly vanishing as government expands its intrusion in our daily lives,” he said. “And I look at my four children [and] eight grandchildren and I wonder, are they going to have the same opportunity that I had when I started my family and career?”

Coors cited unemployment, the economy and the budget deficit as some of the biggest issues facing our country.

“The federal government has a staggering budget deficit well over a trillion dollars. And for the last three years, it’s projected to be that amount going forward for the next decade. A trillion dollars, that’s a thousand billion. If you spend a dollar every second of the year for the next 30,000 years, you still wouldn’t get to a trillion. It’s a staggering number.”

Coors will face three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter in November. The observations by Coors at Red Rocks Community College are a stark contrast with Perlmutter, who has consistently voted with Pres. Obama for more government and bigger deficits.

Since taking office in 2007, Perlmutter has earned the grade of “F” every year from the National Taxpayers Union and is a proponent of the death tax, which WhoSaidYouSaid documented in 2010.

The reports are intriguing: U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, in downtown Denver on Saturday, gets word that trouble is afoot at Occupy Denver. He heads there and consults with the Colorado State Police. [That accounts come from Nancy Cronk at ColoradoPols/]

Perlmutter, according to The Denver Post, engaged the crowd with a bullhorn.

“Obviously you’re making an impression,” Perlmutter said, the newspaper reported. “You’ve got to de-escalate this thing.”

“We want jobs!” a man shouted back. “Democrats won’t get elected anymore!”

El Presidente at People’s Press Collective cites some on-the-scene tweets from Peter Marcus, reporting that…

“Perlmutter was surrounded in the middle of an aggressive, confrontational crowd who were grabbing at him and yelling.”

What was Perlmutter trying to accomplish at what became a clash with police? [See 9News report above.]

We’re not sure but we’d like to see – and publish – any video of the proceedings that includes Perlmutter. Please send it to whosaidyousaid@gmail.com

In the meantime, we provide these reminders of Perlmutter’s evolution (or perhaps, revelation) as a class warrior, helping provide the tinder that fuels the inchoate Occupy protests seen in Denver and elsewhere.

Perlmutter is a proponent of the death tax, implying that inherited wealth is not the American Way. Government redistribution of that wealth, however, is apparently O.K. by Perlmutter.

Perlmutter practices the politics of resentment, blaming Republicans for the lack of immigration reform (even when Democrats had overwhelming majorities in Congress). Prior to the GOP landslide in the mid-term elections, he described Republicans out of power as driven by bitterness.

And, much like Pres. Obama, he tries to position himself as a centrist while veering left.

Perlmutter has described his 7th Congressional District as “down the middle politically,” while his voting record (at the time he won re-election in 2010) closely tracked that of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents perhaps the most far left Congressional district in the country.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., was on MSNBC this morning, discussing plans by the Colorado delegation to sit together tonight during Pres. Obama’s State of the Union address.

“Well, under the leadership of our senior Senator, Mark Udall, the Colorado delegation which is four Democrats and five Republicans [five Democrats and four Republicans] we’re, all of the House members and one of our Senators, we’re all going to sit together tonight. And frankly there’s been a lot more comity than people realize over the years. The Colorado delegation meets every month, we talk. We don’t agree always on politics, but we try to take a good tone and I think that’s an example frankly that the country can look at.”

Well I hope she’s right. But the State of the Union is largely about applause lines. Given the policy disagreements, the comfort that the Colorado delegation may feel going in may fade quickly. The House vote to repeal the Health Care bill, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and partisan dissent over budget cuts and plans to tackle the debt are likely to cause some uncomfortable moments.

I’m proud we have a delegation that works together relatively well, but meeting with your caucus once a month to discuss issues is a far cry from having TV cameras and commentators trained on your reactions.

Now, if only Pres. Obama would come up with a coherent plan for deep spending cuts (and tax cuts) that Republicans COULD stand up and applaud.

Documenting politicians, policymakers and activists in their own words is invaluable in putting them to the test – and informing the public.

Kelly Maher, a co-founder of WhoSaidYouSaid.com, described that as a key goal of the website, speaking on a recent new media and politics panel, hosted by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo.

“One of the purposes of WhoSaidYouSaid.com is to elevate the conversation – and change the conversation upstream,” Maher said. “But you can’t do that if you don’t know where people actually stand on things. And, so, you’re looking for those moments where people tell you what they actually, truly, believe. And what they’re going to do. Which then translates into policy decisions, which then affect all Coloradans.”

Some examples…

Gessler’s fair-elections wish list: photo I.D. and proof of citizenship, WhoSaidYouSaid, Nov. 17, 2010

Perlmutter on estate tax: “We’re not England. We’re not into landed gentry,” WhoSaidYouSaid, Sept. 1, 2010

Hickenlooper: “We’re about as low as we can go with taxes,” WhoSaidYouSaid, Aug. 25, 2010

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, Republican of Colorado, has said that his successor in the 7th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., is “not only wrong, he’s corrupt.”

Beauprez (whom I once worked for) made the statement when he endorsed Ryan Frazier, Perlmutter’s opponent, last month. It was picked up by The Colorado Statesman in an Oct. 22 article.

Beauprez won the newly drawn 7th Congressional District back in 2002 by 121 votes, less than one-third of a vote per precinct. When he ran again in 2004, he won the district handily.

In an interview I did with him Oct. 16, Beauprez ripped Perlmutter’s voting record as reflecting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s priorities and not those of the 7th Congressional District. You can read that here.

When I asked Beauprez about his remark that Perlmutter is “corrupt,” he said this…

BEAUPREZ: “You know, I served in Congress. And I think I know what self-serving, insider dealing looks like. The Washington Times exposed it in an above the fold front-page [2009] story. Ed Perlmutter stuffed inside legislation in Congress a provision that would benefit – give a tax benefit to a bank that he was a shareholder in – [New Resource] Bank, I think, is the name of it, in California. I don’t know, that’s insider dealing to me. That’s corruption to me. I think it’s inexcusable.

“Why it hasn’t become a huge story in the Denver media is one question, but why Ed Perlmutter would think he could get away with it is really the question. That’s not representing the people of the 7th Congressional District, that’s representing Ed Perlmutter’s interests.”

Perlmutter defends his actions in this statement on his website.

Read it for yourself. For me, it raised more questions than it answered.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., on the brink of an election that may see his party lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Monday that “Republicans are bitter that they’ve just been losing election after election.”

Perlmutter is running for re-election in the 7th Congressional District against Republican Ryan Frazier. [One of Frazier's campaign ads is above.]

Perlmutter spoke for about eight minutes this morning on David Sirota’s radio show on AM-760, including this exchange…

SIROTA: “Why do you think Democrats seem to be having more trouble in this election than they’ve had in the past two elections?”

PERLMUTTER: “Well, when you’re…I think it’s because there’ve been a lot of legislative steps taken, whether it’s the Recovery act, or financial reform, or the health legislation, or credit cards, where the other side has something to pick on. And so they’ve been picking on it. And they’ve been picking on it in a fairly disciplined way.

“The Republicans are bitter that they’ve just been losing election after election. And so they’ve really teamed up and that bitterness has shown up in these negative ads on TV [and] you know, some of the Tea Party rallies. And Democrats just have to remember, you know, you’ve got to keep going. Just because they’re screaming at you, doesn’t mean they’re right. And, you know, we’ve got to remember, you’ve got to just keep moving. If we’re going to change the direction of this nation, if we’re going to keep moving forward, you know, they’re going to try to intimidate us. But, we can’t let them do that.”

Podcast of interview at this link.

Residents of the politically diverse 7th Congressional District in Colorado would be shocked to learn that U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., votes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi more often than does U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, whose overwhelmingly Democratic district is primarily Denver.

Yet, that appears to be the case, based on an OpenCongress.org search tool [see below] that allows head-to-head comparisons of voting records.

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez (whom I once worked for) brought Perlmutter’s voting record to my attention. Beauprez – a Republican who has endorsed Perlmutter’s opponent, Ryan Frazier – was narrowly elected to the newly-created House seat in 2002 and re-elected in 2004. Here’s what he told me this month:

“Ed, you know, he’s supporting the stimulus that didn’t work. Bailouts that obviously failed and [that] people just despise. ObamaCare that people did not want. Financial reform that made capital that much more difficult to get at – and jobs that much more difficult to acquire. Where’s the plus signs? There aren’t any. Ed Perlmutter has voted with [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [President] Barack Obama more than even Diana DeGette did. Almost 100% of the time. Now, does anybody in the 7th Congressional District really think that being 100% in step with Nancy Pelosi is in step with the 7th Congressional District?”

Here’s a comparison of Congressional voting records through OpenCongress:

“Ed Perlmutter and Nancy Pelosi have voted together 300 times on roll call votes since January, 2007 in votes where neither abstained, representing a voting similarity of 99%, according to this OpenCongress analysis.

“Diana DeGette and Nancy Pelosi have voted together 296 times on roll call votes since January, 2007 in votes where neither abstained, representing a voting similarity of 99%,” according to this OpenCongress analysis.

So, both Perlmutter and DeGette are each at 99 percent. But Perlmutter wins my tiebreaker with four more roll-call votes in common with Pelosi. Wow.

U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter of Colorado think they’ve got a winning issue by smearing their Republican challengers with stimulus spending. But it reveals desperation by the Democratic incumbents who supported the flawed plan to begin with.

Salazar cries hypocrisy, saying a company co-founded by the father of Scott Tipton (a company Tipton says he has nothing to do with) received $12 million in stimulus funds. Perlmutter cries hypocrisy, saying a charter school co-founded by Ryan Frazier received $100,000 in stimulus funds.

And the cries of hypocrisy are amplified in news reports as if they’re meaningful because Tipton and Frazier say the stimulus spending was a waste.

Guess what? EVERYONE, either directly or indirectly, is a “recipient” of the $787 billion [revised to $814 billion] deficit-fueled stimulus spending because its effects are so diffuse. That was one outcome of the Democratic-led spree, advancing the culture of economic dependency, whereby anyone could be implicated in the receipt or pursuit of government funds – and therefore no one dare criticize it.

For that hit on current officeholders, see “Stimulating Hypocrisy: Scores of Recovery Act Opponents Sought Money Out of Public View,” a report from The Center for Public Integrity.

Yet, the real scandal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is explained in this Economist article, False expectations: the historic infrastructure investment that wasn’t.”

The stimulus was oversold by the Obama Administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress. And now its underperformance (such as a 9.6 percent national unemployment rate, higher than when the stimulus was enacted in February 2009) prompts incumbents who voted for it – like Salazar and Perlmutter – to deploy the stimulus smear.

Pres. Obama tried it himself during a July visit to Holland, Mich., to announce a new battery plant backed by stimulus spending. As part of his remarks, Obama called out U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican whose Congressional district Obama was visiting, who had voted against the stimulus and who was in the audience.

“Some made the political calculation that it’s better to obstruct than lend a hand,” said Obama, in remarks reported by The Washington Post “They said no to the tax cuts, they said no to small business loans, they said no to clean energy projects. It doesn’t stop them from [being at] ribbon cuttings — but that’s OK.”

See the cringe-inducing video clip above.

That’s our interpretation of this video clip of U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., getting touchy during Saturday’s 9NEWS debate with Republican opponent Ryan Frazier, who challenged Perlmutter on ObamaCare.

h/t National Review Online

—
Politico: Politics goes nuts

[Post revised and updated 10/18/10]

Congress skipped town without a budget and having ducked a vote on tax cuts. But still, the federal spending tap is gushing.

They Spend. You Pay!

WhoSaidYouSaid has launched billboards throughout Colorado with that pointed message: “They Spend. You Pay!” When the campaign is completed in October, the billboards will have been in 100 locations: seven in Fort Collins, seven in Grand Junction, with the remainder in the Denver metro area. Here’s a map of current billboard locations.

Here’s some recent coverage of the billboard campaign by The Denver Post: WhoSaidYouSaid catches its “They Spend You Pay” stride.

In the video above, you can see this cast of elected officials on the billboard, in front of a blank check:

President Barack Obama

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey

U.S. Rep. John Salazar


The billboards invite citizens to “Stop Payment” on reckless 
spending by visiting WhoSaidYouSaid.com and send “Stop Payment”
 notices to those officeholders. Federal spending has ballooned to $3.7 trillion, we have a $1 trillion budget deficit and are $13 trillion in debt.

Take some time today and send these representatives a “Stop Payment” notice.

For months, WhoSaidYouSaid has been documenting, publishing and commenting upon the statements of public officials, activists and citizens regarding the role of government, taxation, the economy and regulation.

Now it’s time to take action.

It’s critical to remember that we can easily communicate with our representatives. If you visit the “They Spend. You Pay!” portion of our website, you can send a “Stop Payment” notice to your elected officials. If there’s anything that we’re learning this year, it’s that those representing us may be finally paying attention to an outraged public.

Also, just for fun, we’re sponsoring a Facebook scavenger hunt to see who can capture and post pictures of the most billboards. You should play.