Bad Press Day for Colorado Dems

And about time, I should say. Why not take a minute to point out a couple of interesting stories highlighted in today’s Rocky Mountain News?

First, the latest in the controversy about Nayyera Haq, the staffer for Democratic Congressman John Salazar who verbally lashed back at Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo for defending the Pope’s right to free speech. The Rocky reports that Haq has taken a temporary leave from Salazar’s campaign.

Meanwhile, the Rocky took a miss on Haq’s unfair distortions of Tancredo’s comments as anti-Islamic and her role in inviting Islamic extremists to Capitol Hill, which have been documented by the local blog To the Right and the national blog Red State. And a Google News search for the name Nayyera Haq or Tom Tancredo turned up nothing from the Denver Post in the past five days since the controversy started brewing.

Speaking of Tancredo, his upstart Democrat challenger Bill Winter was busy removing the proverbial foot from his mouth this week for an apparent e-mail threat sent to fellow Democrat and Rocky media critic Dave Kopel in 2004 (Full disclosure: I work with Dave at the Independence Institute). (HT: To the Right)

Winter e-mailed Kopel denouncing the “Swift Boat hysteria” surrounding Kerry. Winter said that while President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney supported the Vietnam War, they did not serve in combat.

Kopel defended his writing about Kerry’s war record, which drew an angry response from Winter, who called Kopel a “rabid attack dog for Bush and Cheney” and ended with the line: “When the revolution comes, I’ll be looking for you, brother!”

You won’t find a more honest, straighter shooter than Kopel, who on more than one occasion has challenged my own work. At least apologies have been made and accepted, though Winter’s memory fails in trying to recall what he meant by the “revolution” line. Better to distract and mislead – that’s what people are looking for in a representative:

Winter has recently criticized Tancredo for his fiery rhetoric, including Tancredo’s suggestion last year that the U.S. could threaten to bomb the Muslim holy site of Mecca in retaliation for terrorist attacks.

About his own e-mail, Winter said, “We ask if it’s the sort of thing that a serious political candidate would say, but nobody seems to question the things Tom Tancredo says.”

Nobody? Oh, the media coverage of that remark was quite extensive. Even a local conservative blogger or two called it into question. (No, seriously, go do a Google search. See what else you find.) I can’t wait for the Dead Governors to call out Winter for his threatening e-mail. At least I have some expectations from the Guvs – I only anticipate a bizarre twisting of stories from the SoapBlox crew (such as this).

And when will that “watchdog” Colorado Media Matters start complaining about the Post‘s lack of coverage? Sorry … I can’t stop chuckling … Hee, hee, I forgot – in their little world, the media is universally biased to the Right (to the Right of the site’s purveyors, that is, which in many cases is also known as the mainstream).