This time in a televised local debate, in front of an audience of interested voters and party loyalists. A spectacular fail, and I'm not exaggerating.
"Legitimate rape", "Macaca", "47%", when we catch Republicans saying what they really believe, it's curtains. Tonight, at a local candidate forum, the Republican candidate for Pueblo County Commissioner essentially endorsed the Sandy Hook truther position.
Even his Republican cheerleaders, who showed up en masse to support their challenger, turned on him. The boos, gasps, and shouts of shock and contempt came from just about all of the ~200 folks in attendance. There may have been a few people with their tin foil hats in their pockets, but the very vocal outrage seemed unanimous.
The debate was essentially over at that point. The cheerleader applause after each of his answers was distinctly muted. Details below the cloud rising from his vaporized candidacy.
The guy's name is Dr. Tom Ready, a dentist, and his Democratic opponent is the incumbent Sal Pace, who's served in various elected positions including the Colorado state legislature.
Ready began an answer to one of the moderator's questions by talking about the ludicrously high electric rates in Pueblo county (they are) and then stated his belief that we should go back to coal because "coal is clean" (eye roll). During his two minute statement, Ready declared that the reason rates were so high was that a bill Pace voted for at the state level forced the local utility to dump coal plants for natural gas. Pace explained that he spoke directly with representatives of the utility in question before he voted, and they told him that they were planning to close their coal plant anyway, so the switch to natural gas wouldn't alter their rate structure.
It was in Ready's back-and-forth rebuttal comments that he nuked his candidacy. Again he went after Pace for his vote on that bill, which also mandated a minimum percentage of electric generation from green sources, like solar or wind, which gave the utility an excuse forced the utility to raise its rates. (my strike)
At this point I thought, "Ruh roh, he's got Pace on that one." It was going take a deft answer to squirm around that shot, since it's hard to tell low income folks that they must pay more for electricity so it will be cleaner. Further, the host of the debate, The Pueblo Chieftain (which is the local, decidedly conservative newspaper with massive market penetration) had been hammering that very point for months.
I was caught off guard when Pace completely ignored the expensive clean energy attack by stating that the two candidates had agreed to keep it clean before the debate started, but since Ready went there... Pace proceeded to ask him about stuff on Ready's Facebook page dealing with Sandy Hook being faked so a gun ban could be passed. Oh, and Pace pointed out that he has a connection to someone whose kid was murdered in that school shooting.
I expected Ready to deflect this easily with a quick, "Why are you talking about nonsense on Facebook, I asked you about voting to raise rates on low income Puebloans for the sake of "clean energy". Explain that vote."
But no.
Ready went for it, and began to claim that there is no proof that Sandy Hook actually happened. Unbelievable.
That was when the crowd erupted. There for a second I thought they were going to drag him out in the street and tar and feather him like he was a Wall Street banker. I've never seen spontaneous public outrage come out of left field like that.
Then he started talking about a video that showed the father of one of the "victims" walking into a meeting laughing and joking and coming out crying. "Explain to me why he would do that!" This yahoo actually tried to make the truther argument while his own people were jeering him.
Stunning.
When the moderator asked Pace if he had a rebuttal Pace quietly said, "I have no further comment." I swear I saw him wag his tail as he swallowed a canary.
I had to force myself to pay attention to the rest of the debate. Ready got only tepid applause no matter what he said after that. It was really a spectacular collapse. When the Chieftain posts the video, I'll link it, but I haven't found it yet.
Here's a snippet of how they reported it, immediately after the fact, on their website:
Ready had just criticized Pace and Democrats for higher energy costs in the state and Pace, reacting to Ready in a stern voice, said “I thought we agreed not to go negative, but what about your posting on your Facebook site linking to a story that questioned whether Sandy Hook really happened?”
Ready said he only put that link up because he called for open discussion. “I don’t think (the Sandy Hook shootings have) been proven. And what’s wrong with open discussion?”
After the debate, Ready said did not recall posting the link specifically, but “it would not be the first time I put something out there for discussion.”
The Chieftain is soft-pedalling it. Ready went full-on truther, and was justifying his opinion vehemently
to the crowd, as they booed, not to the moderator or Pace. It was only after he realized that he had completely lost the crowd that he tried to smooth things over with the "I was just putting it out there for discussion" bullshit.
Here's his Facebook page. Looks like the link is mysteriously absent...
Like I said, I'll post the video once it's up.
And to reiterate the point of this diary:
Historically, the way to defeat most politicians is to catch them lying.
The way to defeat our "Conservative" Republicans is to catch them telling the truth.
UPDATE x1 (09:00 MST 9/11/14):
Just got off the phone w/ the Chieftain. The video may not be available online for a week or so. The AV department of the local community college (PCC) shot the debate (that means it's being done by students), and fed it directly to Comcast, who showed it live on the local govt access channel. PCC will then process it, send it back to The Chieftain, and they'll post it. In a week (forehead slap). It also won't go into rotation on Comcast until the students have finished it.
I pointed out that "You guys might be fielding quite a few calls for that video shortly." I got a chuckle and a "Oh..., I know what you mean". They know this was a noteworthy incident, and not just a little debate stumble.
Soooo... if one didn't DVR it in the local area on Comcast (I didn't), there is no video, yet. Unless someone in the house shot it on their phone, and posts it to YouTube, which I have not found. In a couple of hours I'll call the managing editor (he moderates the debates) and see if they've decided to expedite this process.
If the national media comes a callin', a fire might be lit under someone somewhere. We'll see.
Should anyone find a version of it, link it, and I'll bring it up here.
Oh, and here's a link to another rendition of the events. A snippet, so you know I'm not lyin':
It was all good – up until the point when Tom went off the rails.
UPDATE x2 (09:40 MST 9/11/14): Thanks to cka & cosette, here's a video snippet.
This is edited, so you won't see the whole interchange. Further, the only live mics were in front of the two candidates and the moderator, so you can barely hear the crowd's reaction in this video. It was so loud I almost couldn't hear what Ready was saying after the audience began to unload on him. None of that impact is apparent in the clip.
UPDATE x3 (09:50 9/11/14):
Thanks to Im a frayed knot, here's another article about it. It links to the same YouTube clip. Nice photo of Ready in a tux on a motorcycle.
UPDATE x4 (10:06 9/11/14): Thanks to mj55, here's a more complete video.
This one is missing the setup accusation from Ready about the energy vote, but it has all of Pace's nuke, and most (if not all) of Ready's reply. Because this is from someone's phone, the audio is rough, but because it's from the crowd, you get a better sense of the reaction, although you still don't get the full impact :(
UPDATE x5 (00:30 9/12/14):
The Chieftain interviewed Ready at their offices in a previously arranged meeting on Thursday, the day after the debate meltdown. Snippets + my reaction in bold:
“I know those kids were killed,” Ready said of Sandy Hook. “But there are some facts that have not been proven. That’s all I was alluding to, period. It’s terrible.”
Which is terrible? The massacred kids or the massacred campaign? I can't tell from this quote.
“I think if you’re bringing up a personal (political) record and are telling the truth, how is that negative?” Ready said this afternoon. “Pace set me up.”
He's right, Pace set him up. But just because someone hands you a sword, it doesn't mean you have to fall on it.
Asked whether the comments hurt his chances to gain a seat for Republicans that just one candidate, Jim Brewer, has won in recent years, Ready said, “Well yeah. I had some lady come up to me and say ‘That was the worst thing I heard in my life.’ But it doesn’t kill my campaign.”
What's that wafting in from the kitchen? I think it's the smell of cooked goose...
Thanks for noticing and t & r 'ing this diary about a medium-sized city in southern Colorado. But remember the moral:
Get Republicans to tell the truth about what they believe.
The truth about what they believe, and what they really want to do, is their undoing.
UPDATE x6 (22:20 9/13/14):
The Chieftain released their video. Both video & sound are great, but as I said, you really don't get a feel for the audience reaction at all. Posted as an update for diary completeness.