{"id":2458323,"date":"2020-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=325592"},"modified":"2020-05-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T06:00:00","slug":"john-colson-is-lying-all-right-if-republicans-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/john-colson-is-lying-all-right-if-republicans-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"John Colson: Is lying all right if Republicans do it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"406\" height=\"620\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/10\/john-colson.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/10\/john-colson.jpg 406w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/10\/john-colson-196x300.jpg 196w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">For those of us concerned that the Republican party leadership has gone wholesale for the idea that cheating is the only way to win elections, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (Republican from Windsor and chairman of the Colorado state party) has just added a large pile of proof for us to contemplate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Like President Donald Trump and many others, Buck seemingly believes that free, open and broadly accessible voting would be bad news for the Republican party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A week ago, news surfaced that Buck had pressured a Republican party functionary to illegally and fraudulently override election results in order to put GOP hack David Stiver on the upcoming primary ballot for the District 10 (Weld County) seat in the state senate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Buck\u2019s move came even though Stiver did not get enough caucus votes to make the ballot in the upcoming statewide party primary.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to <a id=\"N0x132ccf0N0x14dd2b0:N0x132ccf0N0x14829a0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/05\/06\/colorado-ken-buck-gop-primary\/?utm_content=tw-denverpost&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow&amp;utm_medium=social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stories in The Denver Post<\/a> and other outlets, while State Rep. Larry Liston won 75% of the relevant Republican votes in the district assembly, Stiver received only 24%, well under the 30% minimum for getting a place on the state ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The primary race at issue is to replace term-limited GOP State Sen. Owen Hill. According to news accounts of a phone conversation between Buck and Eli Bremer, GOP chair for District 10, Buck and the party\u2019s central committee wanted Stiver on the ballot regardless of what the party rules said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When Bremer declined to accede to Buck\u2019s demand, and announced he would consult a lawyer about the matter, Buck backed off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Buck, who with a couple of others are <a id=\"N0x132ccf0N0x14dd310:N0x132ccf0N0x1482be0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/05\/08\/ken-buck-republican-election-fraud-weld-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accused of election fraud and corruption<\/a>, now says that he was just following the central committee\u2019s lead, and that it could not be considered election fraud because \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I have a personal stake\u201d in the outcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But Buck is a lawyer, and he undoubtedly knew he was on legal shaky ground with his demand of Bremer, even though he was following the lead of his president, who in May warned that greater voter participation would hurt the GOP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Referring to relatively modest election reforms proposed by Democrats, Trump said on his favorite \u201cnews\u201d show, \u201cFox &amp; Friends\u201d: \u201cThey had things, levels of voting that if you\u2019d ever agreed to it, you\u2019d never have a Republican elected in this country again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I\u2019m not sure what, specifically, Buck hoped to accomplish in trying to get Stiver on the ballot by fraud, but I\u2019m pretty sure it was not an effort to broaden election fairness or voter participation. If anything, such a cynical ploy would only add to the declining faith in our elections that has become a sad but forceful part of politics in America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now, of course, Buck has taken his place in the long line of Trump loyalists willing to break laws or otherwise undermine voter confidence as a way of boosting the GOP, loyalists who range from former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Rep. John Ratcliffe, Trump\u2019s nominee for the job of director of National Intelligence, to our current U.S. Attorney General, William Barr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I know, it\u2019s hard to keep it all straight without a political-scam scorecard, but I\u2019ll try.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Barr, who is the equivalent of a mob consigliere in the corrupt swamp of Trump world, recently forced his minions to drop charges against Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about meeting with Russians during the controversy over Russian meddling on Trump\u2019s behalf in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Flynn subsequently \u201crecanted\u201d his plea, meaning he admitted to lying again, but this time he was just lying about lying, so I guess he figures that two lies must equal the truth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As for Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican who reportedly is a follower of the rabid, right-wing conspiracy-mongers called QAnon, he is now in his second round of being the nominee for the DNI job. He lied about his record the first time around, and had to withdraw his name from consideration, but now he\u2019s back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The inescapable conclusion from all this is that the GOP leadership, which is still smarting from any number of electoral defeats in the middle of the 20th century, believes that lying in the cause of electoral victory is OK if Republicans do it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It appears they have taken to heart the dictum of President Richard M. Nixon, who once famously told TV host Dick Cavett, talking about crimes committed in the Nixon White House, \u201cWhen the president does it, that means it is not illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now, though, that standard applies to anyone in the GOP leadership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Email at <a href=\"mailto:jbcolson51@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">jbcolson51@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/john-colson-is-lying-all-right-if-republicans-do-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of us concerned that the Republican party leadership has gone wholesale for the idea that cheating is the only way to win elections, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (Republican from Windsor and chairman of the Colorado state party) has just added a large pile of proof for us to contemplate. Like President Donald Trump [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 17:17:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}