DISQUS

Bob Schaffer most certainly didn't "make a mess" in the Marianas Islands. He did more thorough and more effective work than any Congressman before or since in searching out complaints of worker mistreatment.

The only mess has been made by the Denver Post which has used the worst sort of attempted guilt-by-association even when there is no real association.

I have written a series of articles shredding the terrible reporting and pure propaganda of the Denver Post, which you can see here:
http://rossputin.com/blog/?s=schaffer+real+cnmi...
(please read from the bottom article up)

Answering your questions Cara,

Here are a few way in which Jeff Crank differs from Doug Lamborn:

1) He understands business and has a lot of experience dealing with businesses, both from the Chamber of Commerce job and his own jobs in the private sector.

2) He understands the military


3) He's not in the pocket of trial lawyers


4) He has an IQ over 100


5) He won't cheat to win


6) He has more experience in DC, actually getting things done, than Lamborn does.

As far as differences from Bentley Rayburn:

1) He understands business and has a lot of experience dealing with businesses, both from the Chamber of Commerce job and his own jobs in the private sector.

2) Crank is a long-time resident, homeowner, and taxpayer in the 5th CD whereas Rayburn isn't.


3) Crank generally has more experience in every aspect of government than Rayburn.

It's far too early for this to be important As a Schaffer supporter, I too look forward to hearing his positions on the many important issues of the day.

But a few important points need to be made here:

First, it's far too early in the campaign for such issue positions to be critically necessary.  As both campaigns reach out for "early  money", the people whom they visit with know what the candidates' positions are, or they are told personally.

Schaffer will flesh out his positions fully and in due course.

I would also note that Udall can simply copy and paste issue statements from his existing House web page (although his House web page is unavailable this morning), so it's not exactly an accomplishment for him to have some issues up on his campaign page.

And as far as issues go, Udall's list is hardly impressive. Most of the issues he mentions are very "soft", and the details of his positions are generally without substance.

I also note that of the 157 bills Udall has sponsored since 1999, 136 haven't even made it out of committee, substantially worse than average.

All in all, your whining about Schaffer demonstrates your ties to Democrats more than any sort of actual news.  Udall's stuff is nothing new, and nothing he's actually done since the Senate stuff started, and Udall's record is that he doesn't really get anything done on issues anyway, so in a way there's little point in knowing what he thinks.