By Michelle Malkin • January 7, 2010 10:29 PM Sharing an e-mail from reader and fellow Coloradan Jayme, who writes about her congressman, GOP Rep. Mike Coffman. We don’t hear many stories of good guys in Washington these days. Coffman is one of them.By way of background, Coffman enlisted in the Army at 17, served in the Army Reserve while in college, transferred to the Marines, served on active duty until 1983, served in the Marine Corps Reserve, became a small businessman, served in the Colorado statehouse for two terms, returned to active duty in Iraq during the Gulf War, came back in 1994 and again joined state government, returned to Iraq on active duty in 2005, and then came home again to serve as Colorado Secretary of State before winning congressional office. It’s an extraordinary record of public service — and he has the character to match.
Jayme writes:
Michelle -
I feel really down on almost all members of Congress, for good reason. Therefore when one of them does something right, I want to share it with everyone. Sometimes I think we are too quick to lump all of the Congressmen into the same boat, when in reality some of them are really in D.C. fighting for us. Mike Coffman is one of those Congressmen.
We attended a townhall meeting with him this summer. They were scheduled to start at 6:00 pm. By 5:00 the entire room was full and there were people outside waiting to get in. Mike Coffman was notified and got there as quickly as possible so that they could start early and hold multiple meetings. He held 3 separate meetings so that everyone that wanted to could attend. We attended the final meeting and it did not end until about 9:30 (if I am remembering correctly). He was great and listened to everyone’s concerns on all sides.
I then heard on the news the other night about how he was running on Christmas day and had an accident. He broke his foot. The news story said that while he was trying to get home to go to the hospital that one of his constituents stopped him and wanted to talk about healthcare. What did he do….he stopped and talked to them with a broken foot.
Then today, my husband received a call from a staff member from Mike Coffman’s office. You can imagine our shock. We have been diligent in calling Mark Udall and Michael Bennet with absolutely no response from their staff, even when we are talking to them on the phone. They always respond, “okay. We will pass along your concerns.” There has never been anyone that has listened to us or responded in any sort of meaningful way.
The staff member that called my husband stated that they had received an email from him with some of his concerns about the fed and they wanted to follow up on it. They talked to him for over 10 minutes. I was so impressed that they would take their time to contact my husband and really listen to what he had to say.
I will never say that I think we should throw everyone in Congress out again Not when we have people like Mike Coffman fighting for us. I hope you can throw a word in for him somehow.
Thanks!
Jayme
