Per the Denver Post, the following are two voice messages that Rep. Doug Lamborn left on the home telephone of Jonathan and Anna Bartha after they wrote a letter to the Woodmen Edition criticizing Lamborn for accepting $1500 from gambling interests.
FIRST MESSAGE: “Hello, this is Doug Lamborn calling for either Jonathan or Anna. Something very serious has happened. There was a letter to the editor that you both put in your names to the editor of the Woodmen Edition and there is something that is blatantly false in that letter…
“I would like to get together with you and show this to you and appeal to you as a brother and sister in Christ. You didn’t give me that opportunity but I am happy to overlook that and deal with you on that level because I think that is the right thing to do and show you where you made a blatant, wrong statement.
“Now there are consequences to this kind of thing, but I would like to work with you in a way that is best for everyone here concerned. So please call me at your earliest convenience. It is now 2:40 (p.m.) on Saturday afternoon.
SECOND MESSAGE: “Hello, this is Doug Lamborn again, I’m finishing up my message from a moment ago. I got cut off. It is critical that you get back to me as soon as possible on this because I’ll be going back to Washington here in a few days and I have to make sure that this is resolved one way or another. And like I said I’d rather resolve this on a Scriptural level but if you are unwilling to do that I will be forced to take other steps, which I would rather not have to do. So please call me. This is essential. Call me by tonight, Saturday night and we can get together sometime Sunday afternoon.”
Oh my. Consequences. What consequences? Well, Anna Bartha worked on the campaign for Jeff Crank, an opponent of Lamborn’s in the Republican primary race. And Jonathan Bartha works for Focus on the Family. Maybe Lamborn is threatening to call in a favor from Dobson? This wouldn’t be retribution would it? I mean, what would Jesus do?
The Post reported that when asked whether his messages were threatening, Lamborn said: “No, that is ridiculous. My hope, I failed, but I had hoped to meet with them privately and confidentially because lying is a serious matter. ”
Asked what he meant by consequences, Lamborn said: “When someone tells a lie, it just has bad consequences.”
Lamborn claims that he did in fact receive the contribution but returned it. Federal records show he received the money, but not that he returned it. So let’s hope that the very serious sin of bearing false witness does indeed have consequences. I hope we can get this Nazi bastard out of office sooner rather than later.
Props to the right wing Barthas for busting his chops! The blind beating the blind. We likey!
We wake this morning to the front page headline in the Gazette, AS PREDICTED, about Iran’s NUCLEAR AMBITIONS, replete with a scary OJ-darkened mugshot of Ahmadinejad.
My Darling asks: is there anything in there about Lamborn?
I’m happy to see a Republican Senator going down, this time without entrapment in a men’s room. But I can’t help thinking this is just the kind of distraction the real bad guys really need.
This is a front page story on AOL today. Daily Kos yesterday. Not news in Colorado Springs apparently. So sad.
Colorado Confidential has a transcript of the letter to the editor of the Woodmen Edition:
We are conservative Republicans and believe in the individual freedoms granted to us by our Founding Fathers. However, there are moral limits that caring individuals can embrace without sacrificing the value of personal fiscal responsibility.
Recently, we have discovered that earlier this year 5th District Congressman Doug Lamborn accepted a $1,000 campaign contribution from International Game Technology PAC. IGT is one of the largest manufacturers of gambling equipment in the world. Last summer, Congressman Lamborn accepted a $500 contribution from the operator of Bronco Billy’s Casino in Cripple Creek.
As a congressman who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and traditional family values, we’re hard pressed to understand why he has accepted money from an industry that tears at the social fabric of our country.
Congressman Lamborn also showed a lack of discretion earlier this legislative session when he voted against [Colorado Republican] Sen. Wayne Allard’s bill to stiffen penalties against the practice of dog fighting (he was the only member of the Colorado delegation to do so.) This bill passed by an overwhelming margin and has been signed into law by President Bush.
Jonathan and Anna Bartha