Washington Post: McInnis is out

I saw the rumors. Heard the concerns. Examined the denials. And I concluded it was all random guessing. But apparently not. The Washington Post is reporting that Scott McInnis will end his Senate campaign as early as today.

For what its worth, today's Denver Post merely says the Republican frontrunner is "still 'assessing' a run as the road toward a possible nomination has become bumpier."

UPDATE: So that happened.

Within nanoseconds, Progress Now Action announced the upcoming launch of backwardsbob.org, which will highlight the extreme positions of potential Republican Senate nominee Bob Schaffer. (Progress Now Action won Golden Dot awards for its efforts during the 2006 election, and had been targeting McInnis through McLobbyist.org.)

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a press release in which spokesman Matthew Miller stated, "Republicans in Colorado now have to start from scratch with a new candidate who will trail in both fundraising and political organization."

Assorted snark from the Coloradolib inbox

• McInnis to Schaffer: "But I don't want a primary!"
• Republicans to Democrats: "Hillary big like Hulk!"
• Linkhart to Denver: "I'm in. And I'm in to win."
• Tancredo to voters: "Immigration? Never heard of it."

Media showed McInnis even more favoritism than I originally thought

An update on "Denver media [heart] Republicans," which noted how the mainstream media had misleadingly equated Scott McInnis' questionable ethics with Mark Udall's wife's job as a Sierra Club lobbyist. It now turns out Mark Udall's wife isn't a lobbyist at all. Colorado Media Matters explains.

Scott McInnis is a lobbyist

And what a lobbyist!

Denver media [heart] Republicans

The mainstream media continues to give the GOP a hall pass. From the Rocky:

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., agreed to co-sponsor a bill that seems to be pointed at a past controversy involving campaign payments to the wife of former GOP congressman Scott McInnis, a potential rival.

That prompted a McInnis spokeswoman to jab back, mentioning that Udall's wife is a Capitol Hill lobbyist for environmentalists...

McInnis drew media scrutiny and complaints from Democrats when his campaign continued to pay his wife thousands of dollars per month to work as campaign manager even after he announced his intention to leave Congress.

Let's see here. McInnis may have obeyed the letter of the law, but he certainly violated its spirit. Meanwhile, Udall is married to someone who lobbies for environmental causes. It is dishonest and misleading to equate these two things, to write them off as tit-for-tat political bickering.

It reminds me of the Medina ad scandal, during which the media consistently balanced reports on the Beauprez campaign's alleged lawbreaking with reports on Ritter's decision to plea bargain immigrants.

It's on-the-one-handism gone into overdrive. Hopefully the voters can see through it.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Udall vs. McInnis, round one

The winner, Mark Udall.

What's the most vulnerable Senate seat in the country?

The open seat in Colorado. That's nothing Coloradolib readers didn't already know. But for posterity, from The Washington Post:

Allard's announcement jumps this race up to the top of Democrats' opportunity list. Despite the chatter about a candidacy by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Rep. Mark Udall should have the Democratic field to himself. For Republicans, former Rep. Scott McInnis is in the race, and his former House colleague, Bob Schaffer, is actively considering it. If those two men comprise the top tier of GOP primary candidates, expect a nasty fight between fiscal conservatives (McInnis) and social conservatives (Schaffer) within the Colorado Republican Party.

The good, the bad and the funny

Coyote Gulch's 2006 in Water is amazing and exhaustive. Scott McInnis' failure to live up to his charitable intentions is wrong and I'm glad PNA is calling him on it. But for sheer jaw-dropping weirdness, you can't beat this golden oldie on the right-of-right WorldNetDaily, which I stumbled across while searching for conservative reaction to Tancredo's candidacy. In it, the author opines that Tancredo is the best choice for President, if Mel Gibson doesn't run.

The first fake blog of 2007?

Run Wayne Run? It's a joke, right? Like the hilarious Students for Beauprez hoax? ColoradoPols thinks Scott McInnis is already campaigning for Allard's soon-to-be open seat:

Former Rep. Scott McInnis has apparently decided that he will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2008 provided that Sen. Wayne Allard retires. McInnis is holding off on any announcement until official word comes from Allard, who is not expected to run for re-election.

The hat-tip for the link to the Allard site goes to ToTheRight, as much as I hate to admit it.