The Wall Street Journal’s scoop last week revealing the $400 million in cash secreted into Iran as apparent ransom for the release of American hostages would seem to offer the Darryl Glenn campaign a strong opportunity. So it’s odd that there’s been so little from his campaign on the subject.
The money was stacked onto pallets, loaded into an unmarked cargo plane and flown in under cover of the Obama administration’s narrative that the money was simply part of settling old business to clear the way for its historic nuclear deal with that nemesis.
While the, not even his own Justice Department believed this at the time, and Iranian officials are casting the money as a trade for the hostages.
But the Republican nominee for the job of unseating incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet didn’t seem to do much with the gift. As the story unfolded, Glenn posted a single tweet that the deal was unacceptable. His campaign website through Friday morning contained no news updates about the Iran story.
Perhaps he thinks it’s a non-issue. But the historic Iran nuclear agreement that serves as the backdrop to the ransom story , and so this latest development, even if complicated by Obama’s denial, seems perfect campaign fodder. Note: The Denver Post ; and Glenn, an Air Force Academy graduate and military veteran, on the trail and in his literature.
Bennet struggled for weeks to join fellow Democrats to back the agreement and took pains to craft measures to shore up U.S. support for Israel’s national defense to help explain going along with what he called a “flawed, but important step.”
Little wonder that he struggled with the decision. Back then, in the summer of 2015, Bennet had to plan for what horse-race experts predicted would be one of the toughest Senate re-election campaigns in the nation.
Sure enough, Bennetap stance launched what at times seemed like a thousand GOP primary contenders promising to defeat him.
But out of the gate, Glenn’s campaign did little to nothing with the story in any kind of way that drew big attention.
Odd.
I reached out to longtime Colorado Republican strategist and former party chair Dick Wadhams — who backed Jack Graham in the Senate primary — to see if I was missing anything.
“We would have jumped all over that issue,” Wadhams told me. “We would have made Michael Bennet own that issue.”
The Iran deal was controversial in Colorado, Wadhams noted. The quid-pro-quo appearance of the $400 million looks bad. If it is true that it was a ransom, it sets a horrible precedent and casts the nuclear deal as ill-conceived and out of touch. Itap bad politically and itap bad for fundraising. All over the country there are potential Bennet donors who could be turned off by a successful tying of his support of the deal to the $400 million ransom.
Detractors will likely call Wadhams’ analysis sour grapes for not being behind a successful campaign: another example of the GOP establishment not getting Glenn’s unapologetic-conservative-Christian-never-compromise purity.
I think he’s right.
Across the nation there is a war on for control of the Senate. Democrats need to pick up five seats to retake the chamber — only four if Hillary Clinton returns to the White House. But in the 10 races defended by Democrats, Colorado’s has dropped out of contention.
Glenn’s campaign lacks organization, cash and focus. In his speech at the Republican National Convention, Glenn didn’t take the opportunity to draw out Bennet, and his attacks of Clinton were the kind of crude, red-meat variety expected during a primary. Other Republican Senate candidates are trying to appeal to general election voters.
Recently it took Glenn about an old assault charge, even though the final narrative he presented should have been .
Perhaps he’s correct to let this gift go, but I can’t figure it out why his campaign seems so quiet about it.
E-mail editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett at cplunkett@denverpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @cplunkett
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