This morning, Rossputin, wrote an essay in support of Jeff Crank or a hit piece on Lamborn and Rayburn. Take your pick.
I've made no secret of my dislike of the fact that there will likely be a primary in CO5 CD, and no secret that my dislike is based on the failure of the party to heal in election after election. The folks promoting this primary went out of their way not to heal after the last primary and have made no attempt to claim that they would heal if the 2008 primary didn't go their way.
That record suggests that someone who wants a dominant Republican party in Colorado, as I do, should oppose a primary like this as unnecessarily divisive.
As a retired Army officer, I took offense at much of Rossputin's argument. Essentially, he says that an officer who retires from the military has no right to select his home of retirement. If he goes to anywhere but exactly where he came from, he is, forevermore, a carpetbagger and can be expected on a moments whim to pick up and move again.
While a service member who leaves the service after a few years is offered transportation back to his "home of record" upon expiration of term of service, retirees are different. A retiree is offered transportation for himself, his family, and his household goods to his "home of selection." He has a year from the date of retirement to designate his selection.
Using Rossputin's definition, I'm a carpetbagger. Colorado was my home of selection, but before I made the selection I didn't have any of the ties that Bentley Rayburn has. I didn't attend school in Colorado. Rayburn attended the Air Force Academy. I didn't have family that lived here other than as a result of my military assignments. Rayburn has a brother here, according to Rossputin. I did and do own real property, but property can be sold quickly so that's not much of a marker. I've been retired and a resident for almost 18 years, but I went out of my way not to become a resident of Colorado while I was in the military for a number of good reasons.
One of the things that Bentley Rayburn did that I won't be doing is to attend the Leadership Program of the Rockies. I've made it obvious that I have great regard the program and the people who run it. I've done volunteer work for it, and will again if asked. I support it where I can, but becoming a student doesn't meet my personal needs at this point in my life.
Rayburn is also an El Paso county Republican bonus member. About 10% of the tables at the most recent Lincoln Day Dinner were populated by Rayburn supporters. It was by far the largest contingent.
Rossputin is arguing, whether he means to or not, that military retirees have no right to select their retirement home without being free of criticism from those who didn't do their 20 (or didn't serve at all). He would tag us all as carpetbaggers no matter how long we lived in our home of selection and say "See, I told you so" when (not if) we moved on as old age or employment opportunities would eventually require. It is a stigma we couldn't outlive.
Rossputin makes a big deal of the fact that Rayburn doesn't own a home yet. It is not apparent that he is willing to acknowledge a normal progression for a retiree who is a General Officer. Unlike colonels and lower level officers, there aren't that many billets for generals. Colonels can often arrange their last duty station to be the place they want to retire. Generals usually cannot.
Generals who don't retire at their last duty station move to their home of selection and are forced to rent, at least for a time. I have no idea what Rayburn's situation is, but his choice to rent for a year or two might be driven by a desire to have a custom house built, and the period it takes to have that house built. It is unfair to label him a carpetbagger based on his failure to immediately buy real estate.
Rossputin is also unhappy that Rayburn wears his religion on his sleeve. The truth is that all three, Lamborn, Crank, and Rayburn, have publicly claimed to be religious. Let's face it, the 5th CD is, and always will be predisposed to elect candidates who are happy to tell us and the Gazette what church they attend and how hard they pray.
About a year ago, I attended a political meeting where one office holder got up and told the crowd where he went to church and what other prominent political figures he saw in his church every Sunday. He stopped just short of passing out hymnals. Here in CO5CD, we get a lot of religious show, but we get it from every candidate, and about about equally. I'm not saying that it is bad. I am saying it is what it takes to get elected.
Rossputin's claim that military friends of Rayburn can't send emails without violating military regulations is, depending on the content and distribution, probably wrong.
Rossputin's last paragraph stops just short of calling Rayburn a scoundrel. Where is the evidence for his "guess" that if Rayburn loses he will leave town?
Worse, he is laying the groundwork for the Jeff Crank supporters to leave this election disaffected AGAIN if Lamborn wins. There are reports that Crank and Rayburn were in discussions as to who should run and Crank jumped the gun with his filing. If that is true, why would it just be Rayburn's fault if Lamborn won? Should it be Crank who "should have the courtesy to apologize, leave, and not return," and if not, why not?"
Anyone who doesn't understand why I would oppose this kind of primary on principle need only read Rossputin's essay with a critical eye. It oozes hatred for Doug Lamborn without any attempt at justification. In an effort to impugn the character of Bentley Rayburn it casts a wide net that disqualifies from office every past and future military retiree who might choose Colorado as their home. It demands an apology in advance for an action that hasn't occurred and might not occur. If it doesn't occur, how does Bentley Rayburn get his reputation back? Most dangerously, it lays the groundwork for future disaffection of a part of the party that already has a history of being vocally disaffected in a way that has been proven to cost up and down ballot elections.
We Republicans aren't a minority party by accident. We work at it.
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By now, my personal hot buttons ought to be well known. One of them is attacks, even accidental attacks, on the military.
Even if I weren't opposed to to a 5CD primary, this essay would still have been written. You don't say to an 18 year old: Go to an academy, do your 20 or 25 years, become a General, then retire and go to the back of the line. Rossputin is plainly trying to send Rayburn to the back of the line. You can't read his essay any other way.
The military forces people out at an early age. That goes for sergeants and generals both. If you want a quality military, there has to be life after the military. Good people won't want to retire at 40 or 45 and only be able to sit on their duffs.
Added 9/25/07 Rossputin did respond to this, and we answered his response.
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