GOP Rep Leaves Threatening Messages On Couple's Home Phone After Letter To Local Paper

[gatorboy]

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6781394

The following is a text of two voice messages that Rep. Doug Lamborn left on the home telephone of Jonathan and Anna Bartha.

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."

[malaise]

1. I love the brothers in christ part

These cristofascists are priceless.

[rosesaylavee]

2. Wonder what that LTTE said?

Must have been powerful stuff to evoke such a reaction.

[datadiva]

3. I read it in another post

It basically said the congressman accepted money from a company who owned gambling interests, and he also voted no to increase penalties against dog fighting. Nice Christian values kind of guy.


Edited to fix spelling, my bad.

[Kagemusha]

6. So this guy's threatening a libel suit then?

Sorta matters if it's true or not then, I suppose

[kestrel91316]

27. The original LTTE cited documentary sources to back up their

reason for being angry.

No libel anywhere to be seen. The pol just didn't like his dirty laundry being aired.

[Kagemusha]

35. If he's not threatening a lawsuit he's probably breaking the law.

Misdemeanors, I'm sure, but still, just making threats with no substance isn't something society encourages.

[BR_Parkway]

55. Craig pled guilty to a misdemeanor, which is the diff between Vitter and him

if you haven't already heard that talking point.

[Richardo]

4. Here it is...something tells me his 'gaming' contributors were not happy...

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6773515?source=rss

<snip>
Jonathan and Ann Bartha's letter to the editor of The Woodmen Edition
Article Last Updated: 08/31/2007 07:45:18 PM MDT


Jonathan and Ann Bartha's letter, which appeared in the Aug. 24 edition of The Woodmen Edition.

Editor,

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 also accepted a $500 campaign contribution from the operator of Bronco Billy's casino of Cripple Creek.

As a congressman who ran of 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 Sen. Wayne Allard's (R-Colo.) 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.

<snip>

[liberaldemocrat7]

37. His fundie supporters don't like that he really acts as an economic Republican.

This congressman poses as a christian and uses christ as a euphemism. He really acts as an economic Republican and leans too far in the direction of corporate power and interests, so when he gets caught violating the the twisted morals of the fundies who wrote that letter you get two members of two separate wings of the Republican party fighting with each other.

Oh, the Republican party has two wings:

The excessively corporate wing and the excessively religious wing. Neither appears moderate or liberal and both would destroy America if left unchecked.

Let those wings destroy each other, I say.

[supernova]

5. It's in that denver post link

further down the page is thier LTTE. They accuse him of taking a $500 donation from a business that operates a casino locally. And this couple, being good conservative christians, don't think that it supports "family values."

And what they got for their trouble was this behavior. Incredible. :wow:

This guy should be run out of town on a rail.

[aquart]

21. They are the ones who released the messages, right?

So they don't take kindly to threats, veiled or otherwise.

Since the donations are matters of public record, and the idiot congressman is not their minister and this is NOT a bible issue, wtf did the fool think he would accomplish? Except for getting publicity for what would otherwise have been merely another LTTE?

How awesomely self-destructive of the idiot.

[nedbal]

48. Jonathan Bartha is employed by Focus on the Family.

The Bartha's letter criticized Lamborn for allegedly accepting $1,500 in campaign contributions from the gambling industry. Federal records confirm the donations were accepted, but Lamborn said he returned them. He did not say when and The Post said there is no federal record of them being returned.

Lamborn's voice mails urged the couple as "brothers and sisters in Christ" and implored them to call him back to discuss their "blatantly false" letter.

Jonathan Bartha is employed by Focus on the Family. His wife, a board member of Falcon School District 49, worked for two months as a scheduler for candidate Jeff Crank during a bitter, six-way Republican primary race for the 5th Congressional District seat.


http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6786777

[rocktivity]

7. Well, why doesn't he just sit down and write and LTTE back?

I'll even give you a head start, Congressman: "To The Editor: I am writing in response to false allegations in a letter you published on September 1 by John Doe regarding my campaign contributions and voting record..." You know, like that!

:eyes:
rocknation

[rosesaylavee]

8. He'd have to leave out the threat then...

Come on, get with the Repug way of intimidation! You are thinking so pre-Sept 11.

:sarcasm:

[rocktivity]

12. And YOUR thinking is so pre-Steptember 17, 1787!

:rofl:
rocknation

[rosesaylavee]

18. What! No one expected

the American Revolution to have this long an effect.

:patriot:

[kestrel91316]

29. He can't. The allegations are true. The couple CITED SOURCES.

[rocktivity]

45. The allegations are true? AND documented?

Why are you bothering me with petty details?

:eyes:
rocknation

[jgraz]

9. He wants to resolve this on a "Scriptural level"

1 Samuel
15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Be afraid, be very afraid. :scared:

[Garbo 2004]

10. Previous thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1718245

[salin]

11. talking about that here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1718245

Includes a pdf with the letter - and the background on the reps beef - and the point that what the ltte said was true.

[NC_Nurse]

13. Jeebus, what an idiot!

Did he really think that was a good idea?
How do you "resolve this on a scriptural level"? Sounds creepy to me!

[havocmom]

15. A panicked idiot, to be sure

These weasels are sitting in the hen house with feathers and egg on their faces, trying to feign innocence and grace while making threats against the farmers that catch them in the act.

[truedelphi]

16. Well on a "scriptural level" wwe are resolving things

in IRaq - and the circular thinking is - "We are there to save them (from Saddam) and help them set up democracy."

And also "We have to do wars like Iraq because all Muslims are out to kill us - as they demonstrated on 9/11"

[NC_Nurse]

17. Yeah, but these folks aren't even Ay-rabs or Islam-o-fascists...

or whatever....so how does this apply to them?

Will they have a pray-off???

[truedelphi]

20. Please! Please! Don't ask me to explain them and the crap they spew

My head starts to spin around and I start spewing green substances just by thinking about their illogic!!

Any attempt to seriously EXPALIN their ideology would lead to immediate cardiac arrest and or brain implosion!

[NC_Nurse]

47. LOL!

:hi:

[ashling]

14. The comments posted on the link are right on

and the people who sent this LTE are conservative Republicans! Bet Doug didn't expect this to end up in the paper.

Sorry Doug, you are so screwed.

[havocmom]

24. I take his stupid attempt to browbeat them into doing his bidding as evidence of GOP tactics.

Seems like he is doing what he sees being done... trying to win through intimidation. Likely more and more of it is happening to GOP on the Hill as cheney gets pushed into a tighter corner.

Like ignorant, badly parented children, the GOP Congressmen are lashing out at legitimate critics like cheney/bush lash out at theirs. They seem to be trying to bully and intimidate like they are bullied and intimidated. They aren't even bright enough to see that, like the Christian Far Right, they have been used and are all disposable to the cheney/bush junta.

What threats must these hapless congress stooges be under, that would make them desperate enough to say and do the stupid denials and attempted bullying we have learned about just this week? The arrogance of Craig trying to intimidate a law enforcement officer by showing the arresting officer his 'I'm a SENATOR' card then asking "What do you think of that? and the stupidity of Lamborn trying the bully pulpit stunt, actually leaving voice mail messages with a couple of voters who expressed an opinion based on factual information shows there is much going on below the surface, even as the surface is erupting to a boil.

[AspenRose]

26. Don't forget Dominici and Wilson ganging up on David Iglesias in NM

Straight from the playbook, looks like....these people know no bounds to their arrogance.

[havocmom]

28. And they are all going down for it. Dupes to the last. cheney must be laughing his ass off

When will GOP pols get a clue that their goose is cooked anyway so they might as well stand up to the snarling president of vice?

[ashling]

36. hapless stooges?

What threats must these hapless congress stooges be under, that would make them desperate enough to say and do the stupid denials and attempted bullying we have learned about just this week?

Their stupidity exists independent of Mad dog Cheney

[havocmom]

42. Nah, they are mostly idiots who think they can get away with shit like Dick

just because they believed the BS the newt taught straight outta Goebbels' play-book

And I still believe they are feeling Dick's fetid breath down their necks or there wouldn't be such an increase in their desperation as his is increasing.

[williesgirl]

19. Typical Repuke Nazi asshole - rec'd

[niyad]

22. dougie is such an embarrassment that his own party refused to endorse him before the election. he

is truly one pathetic individual.

I thought, after the election, that, if nothng else, he would be a freshman rep from the minority party, and therefore, relatively quiet. guess I was wrong.

[niyad]

23. WOW--the woodmen edition, a small, neighborhood paper probably read by at least two dozen people.

[kestrel91316]

30. Yep. And now it's blowing up in his face. I give him two weeks before

he resigns.

[VP505]

25. Hope those people

have the fortitude to stand up to that RePuke bully and shove that threat down Mr Lamborn's throat with appropriate legal action, a House ethics complaint and lots of publicity. The public record is very clear that they were truthful in their statements, if Lamborn doesn't like it, tough shit!

[kestrel91316]

32. Hey, the couple doesn't need to be the ones to file an ethics complaint, maybe?

Since it's all gone public can't ANYBODY just jump in with an ethics complaint?

Anybody here on DU want to volunteer?

Anybody want to forward this whole story to every big city paper in the country, too?

Lol, we could drum him out in about two weeks, I bet.

[spanone]

31. 'Scriptural level ' Bwaaahahahahahahaaaa!

[knitter4democracy]

33. How's he going to do it on a Scriptural Level?

What that means is that he is to meet with them one-on-one and try to resolve it (which probably means to get them to rescind their "libel"). If he can't, then he's to take someone from their church, usually a pastor (but what if they don't all go to the same church?), and try again. If that doesn't work, the next step is to get them kicked out of their church.

I wonder what their pastor thinks about all this.

[gatorboy]

52. It's called a stoning.

It was all the rage in the Old Testament.

[rockymountaindem]

34. That's my man!

Good thing we elected him over his sane, well-adjusted Democratic opponent by a 60-40 margin :sarcasm:

I don't think he'll make it past the next Republican primary. Another dude named Jeff Crank (go ahead and laugh) is probably going to defeat him. Lamborn is making enemies all over the place and has lost what support he had among the Repub. base. Everybody should know that he only got 28% of the vote in the six-way Republican primary.

[niyad]

38. it's a pretty sad day when he can make doug bruce look almost sane.

[rockymountaindem]

46. Or make me pine for the days of Hefley

A good EPC Democrat once told me he wouldn't vote against Hefley because he wouldn't want to see who might follow him. He was right.

[ruggerson]

39. How is this resolved on a "scriptural level"?

Whack them in the face with the bible when they answer the door?

[hyphenate]

40. I don't know how relevant it is

but Jonathan Bartha works for religious extremist James Dobson's group, Focus on the Family. Whether that's good or bad, I have no idea, but perhaps it is in some way pertinent to the affair?

[havocmom]

43. At the least, it is delicious that the factions are carving each other up

We can just kick back and enjoy the modern day gladiators (<---:sarcasm:) battle it out over long weekends. What fun.

On a serious note, can't help but wonder what the hell Dick is up too while we all have our attention diverted to the latest side-shows. Seems he must be up to no good if he is letting his minions get ripped to shreds in the arena.

[tanyev]

41. Oh, but Lamborn is very concerned about abuse of power.

New House Majority Is Abusing Its Power
by Rep. Doug Lamborn
Posted: 02/20/2007

As a newly elected Republican member of Congress, I had high hopes that the Democrats were serious about using their newly found majority power to do business in a way that did credit to the American people. Though I knew I would not necessarily agree with or like the outcome of every piece of legislation, I hoped we could be proud at least of the manner in which we carried out the awesome task of setting national policy.

---------

While all of this may strike some as “inside the beltway” and inconsequential, it illustrates the deeper systemic problems facing our nation under Democratic rule. For the Democrats to shut nearly half of the entire House of Representatives out of the legislative process means that they consider the beliefs of the red half of the nation as not worthy of consideration. This is arrogance in the extreme.

These actions also demonstrate the new majority’s lack of respect for the democratic process. Enacting legislation that actually works for the American people requires thoughtfulness and dialogue, so all options are on the table. To reject that just because a numerical majority is available does a tremendous disservice to the American people.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19492



Surprise, surprise! Lamborn ran a "sleazy, dishonest" campaign.


Hefley stays out of race
Says he won’t back Lamborn because of ‘sleazy’ campaign


U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley declined Tuesday to reconsider his retirement and run as a writein candidate, but he won’t be supporting Doug Lamborn, the Republican nominee for his seat in Congress.

Hefley said he couldn’t endorse Lamborn because he ran a “sleazy, dishonest” primary campaign.

http://www2.gazette.com/display.php?id=1320995

[Disturbed]

44. The Rethug gang is full of these arrogant, stupid Assholes.

Their claim to be Christians is pathetic.

[progressoid]

49. What the f?? He's a Rep?

Holy Jeebus.

[B Calm]

50. Why is it republicans are never held accountable for this kind of behavior?

[Hawkeye-X]

51. What an asshole.

He needs to have his ass tossed out next year down in FundieLand!

[Jim Lane]

53. Frankly, I don't think that the messages he left were objectionable

He didn't say he was going to have goons beat them up or anything. He said only that he'd "take other steps". That covers a lot of ground.
* "I'm going to write my own LTTE and refute the blatantly false thing(s) in your letter, with evidence. You'll look like fools."
* "I'm going to file a defamation action against you."
* "I'm going to deflect attention from the truthful statements you made about me. Instead of addressing the issues, I'll denounce you as agents of the Democrats who are out to get me. That will convince many of your friends and neighbors that you're in league with the Islamofascists and the advocates of gay marriage."

None of these would be illegal. The first would be perfectly proper, the second would be permissible although arguably overkill, and even the third, although deplorable, wouldn't be illegal.

One interesting point about his first message is that it's what he would say if he were sincerely convinced that the couple had made an error of fact in their LTTE and that he could demonstrate to them that they'd made a mistake if he could just meet with them. If I were in his position, I wouldn't have included any religious tinge to the resolution of the matter, but otherwise I can see myself saying something pretty similar to this.

Sorry, but I just can't see this causing him much political damage.

[B Calm]

54. He called their home and threaten them! Sorry, but what

Rep. Doug Lamborn did, is not how you reply to a letter to the editor. Doug Lamborn is acting like a character you would see on the HBO Sopranos. Rep. Doug Lamborn needs to sit down, hold his temper, and write his own letter. This person is an elected official and should start acting like one.

[rucky]

56. It's the Jesus Mafia! n/t