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Boebert’s brutal month of June comes to a close with Frisch on attack over abortion, missed vote
Boebert with a backdrop of guns during a Zoom committee meeting in 2021.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has had a busy month of racking up headlines for what her constant critics and now even some of her far-right friends consider all the wrong reasons.
The right-wing Republican who represents most of Colorado’s Western Slope jumped the gun on trying to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden for policy differences, drawing friendly fire from Freedom Caucus cohorts such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, who reportedly called Boebert a “little bitch” on the House floor and accused her of copying her impeachment plan.
And then, heading into an election cycle that will undoubtedly feature some fierce headwinds for Republicans for stripping away reproductive rights, Boebert on Friday went after her most likely 2024 Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch of Aspen, for his family’s history as abortion providers.
Citing Frisch’s father, Dr. Melvin Frisch, an OB-GYN who worked as a public health physician and for Planned Parenthood, Boebert told FOX News digital that “abortion is the Frisch family business” that paid for his “privileged childhood and private schooling…” The FOX story also mentioned Frisch’s sister, who has followed in her father’s footsteps as an OB-GYN physician.
That all came the day before Saturday’s one-year anniversary of the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court overturning nearly 50 years of reproductive freedom under Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision – a highly controversial action that cost the GOP in the 2022 midterm elections.
On Monday, Frisch fired back in a press release:
“These kinds of personal attacks against my family have no place in our politics and do nothing to serve Lauren Boebert’s constituents,” Adam Frisch wrote in a statement. “Voters in CO-3 support individual freedoms and deserve the right to make their own health care choices without government intrusion. I am proud of my family for standing for women’s health care freedoms and providing reproductive health care, which includes helping women have healthy pregnancies and delivering thousands of babies throughout their careers.”
In November of 2022, when votes were still being recounted in Colorado’s sprawling 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Pueblo to Grand Junction and leans nine points Republican, Bloomberg News ran an election analysis with the headline “If Lauren Boebert Loses, Abortion Will Be the Main Reason”. She wound up beating Frisch by a mere 546 votes.
The Frisch campaign did not respond to requests for comment on Boebert’s one-woman impeachment crusade – a wedge issue for moderate Republicans in House districts Biden won in 2020. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was forced to scramble to keep the peace in his divided caucus and steer the impeachment push into committee hearings for the time being as Boebert issued a release crowing she was the “first House Republican in 24 years to initiate impeachment proceedings.”
Despite a 70% decrease in illegal border crossings in May, Boebert cited Biden’s “dereliction of duty” on the southern border with Mexico as her primary reason for impeachment, which is constitutionally reserved for treason, bribery of other high crimes and misdemeanors in the White House.
Monday, the Western Slope advocacy group Rocky Mountain Values hosted events in Montrose and Grand Junction for beleaguered Boebert constituents “to voice their concerns about [her] record of focusing on the wrong things — like her highly criticized attempt to impeach President Biden — instead of working to lower costs and make it easier for Coloradans to access Medicare and Social Security, lowering prescription costs, and increasing health care coverage.”
Boebert kicked off the month by missing a critical debt ceiling vote on a bipartisan deal to avert a global economic catastrophe. She then compounded her unexplained absence by saying it was a protest no-show despite video evidence to the contrary.
“As an elected official, Boebert has an obligation to answer truthfully to the district she represents,” Frisch said in a release. “CO-03 is home to hardworking families, veterans and seniors who rely on Social Security, VA benefits and more – all of which were directly impacted by this critical legislation. Why isn’t Boebert being honest about why she didn’t do her job and show up to vote? The people of our district deserve an answer, not more political games.”
A Boebert campaign spokesman did not return an email seeking comment on her no-show.
On June 5, the Colorado Democratic Party launched a campaign in southern and western Colorado called The 546 Project, named for Frisch’s narrow margin of defeat in 2022 and focused on pointing out critical policy issues they say Boebert is ignoring in favor of rage tweeting.
“Every member of Colorado’s Congressional delegation should be focused on advocating for Colorado’s water, in a nonpartisan way. Water is the lifeblood of our rural communities and the crisis on the Colorado River deserves a unified focus on results, not political posturing or useless tweets,” Democratic State Sen. Dylan Roberts of Avon said in the group’s press release. “Communities in my district are tired of political posturing: they’re looking for someone to get things done for Colorado’s water future.”
Asked about The 546 Project, National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar emailed: “Coloradans elected Lauren Boebert because she fights to protect their way of life – it will take more than a press release and wishful thinking to change that. Coloradans will never support an extreme liberal who attacks their way of life like Aspen Adam.”
Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib countered: “Lauren Boebert has spent more time promoting herself on social media and catering to extremists than she has fighting for her constituents. The only record of accomplishment she has is how many times she’s embarrassed us.”
Mid-month, Boebert did focus on an agency she’s been hammering on since she shockingly unseated five-term Republican Scott Tipton in 2020 – the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 8.3 million acres of federal land in Colorado, including the Eagle River Recreation Management Area. Boebert backed moving BLM headquarters to Grand Junction.
This month Boebert cosponsored H.R. 3397, a bill aimed at blocking a proposed new Biden administration regulation that would make conservation as valid a use of BLM land as cattle grazing, mining, oil and gas drilling and other extractive industrial uses.
“Biden’s bureaucrats at the Bureau of Land Management are proposing a rule that would lock up our public lands from multiple uses like grazing, mining, recreation, and energy production,” Boebert said in a press release. “This rule will harm western communities by halting fire risk-reduction activities, stripping grazing rights away from farmers and ranchers, and further waging war on American energy.”
Boebert in 2021 failed to properly disclose the earnings of her husband as an oil and gas consultant.
Eagle County Commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on the proposed BLM rule:
“I think for Eagle County, being able to have a ‘conservation lease’ to restore land that may have been degraded due to overuse, would be a huge benefit,” Chandler-Henry wrote in an email. “I see it as being a boon to ranchers as well — providing some additional management resources to make their grazing leases more productive. Conservation values are generally what are most important to us in a recreation economy. Creating land management plans based only on oil and gas, timber, extraction often doesn’t work well for Eagle County.”
The comment period on the proposed new rule has been extended until July 3. The House is now out of session until mid-July.
David O. Williams
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Bruce g
June 27, 2023 at 5:47 pm
Well researched and written David.