Twenty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Former Gov. Dick Lamm was remaining a Democrat — for the time being — but would be working hard to help Ross Perot’s Reform Party get its presidential candidate on the ballot in Colorado, and Lamm might be that candidate. “I think it’s really important that we get a third choice on the ballot,” he said. “The Reform Party gives us this wonderful opportunity to bring us some new candidates, whoever they may be. And it’s a breath of fresh air in this stale political year.” He noted that third parties had usually led to changes in the two major parties and said that was an underlying objective for the Reform Party. “I don’t think necessarily that we’re pushing for a third political party as much as I think that one of the two political parties ought to be eclipsed. I think that neither of those two political parties have enough vision to get America to greatness in the next century.” Coloradans who signed the petition would be able to keep their current affiliation and join the 1.3 million Reform Party members, who would all be able to vote for a presidential nominee. Unlike Democratic or Republican convention delegates, Reform Party members would be able to vote via several methods, including by fax machine, the Internet and “teleconference” sites set up around the nation for party members who couldn’t make it to California. Since the former three-term governor started flirting with the Reform Party — he termed it a “trial separation” — some Democrats were calling him a deserter and Gov. Roy Romer had blasted Lamm for being “enchanted” with the party. “Roy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do,” Lamm said. “I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do.” Dottie Lamm had also said she wouldn’t vote for her husband if he ran against Democratic incumbent Bill Clinton and presumptive GOP nominee Bob Dole. Lamm joked, “The three Lamm brothers all had the misfortune to marry a woman with a mind of her own — it’s terrible. She’s skeptical.” …

… House Speaker Newt Gingrich showed up for a $500-a-plate fundraiser for Republican Joe Rogers, who was running for the open 1st Congressional District seat — incumbent Democrat Pat Schroeder was stepping down after winning 12 terms — and had some bold predictions for the 1996 elections: Not only would the GOP pick up as many as 25 seats in the fall,but Rogers had a good chance of winning the heavily Democratic district. After all, Republicans Ronald Reagan, Bill Armstrong and Secretary of State Vikki Buckley had all carried the district. Gingrich talked about shifting the conversation from welfare reliance to helping down-on-their-luck Americans through the private sector. Drug use among youth had soared in the Clinton administration, Gingrich charged. “The reason, I believe, is that you went from a ‘Just say no’ attitude to a ‘Just say maybe’” While Gingrich spoke inside the DTC Hilton, congressional candidate state Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, held a rally across the street. She stood in front of a table laden with $36 worth of groceries, the amount that could be purchased with a 90-cent increase in the minimum wage, a proposal Gingrich opposed. “It’s time we have someone who’ll stand up for (working families), their parents and their children,” DeGette said. …

… Citing the Democratic commander-in-chief’s “acute lapse of courage,” state Sen. Mike Coffman called President Bill Clinton “unfit to serve — in any capacity” in a guest commentary. “How Bill Clinton skillfully outflanked his local draft board and successfully evaded military service during Vietnam has long been an embarrassment to many of our nation’s veterans,” Coffman wrote. But Clinton’s attempt to use his position atop the military chain of command to “side-step a sexual harassment lawsuit” — the World War II-era Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act protected military personnel from civil lawsuits while on active duty — really got Coffman’s dander up. “As president, his conduct has been no different from the younger Bill Clinton who confronted the dangers of Vietnam by rapidly retreating in the opposite direction. He has never hesitated to abandon an issue or to dump an ally if he feared not doing so might endanger his political future,” Coffman wrote. “A change in the political winds, however slight, will cause him to reverse his position faster than the ink can dry on the latest polling results.” As an example, Coffman pointed to Clinton “pander[ing] to the gay and lesbian community for their support,” stubbornly sticking by them “right up until the moment that it looked like a political weather pattern was forming that just might cloud up his reelection efforts.” No problem, Coffman wrote, the president “just enthusiastically reached out and grabbed [a] GOP proposal” to ban same-sex marriage. “A President Bill Clinton has never demonstrated the political courage to stand behind his convictions, assuming he has any,” Coffman wrote, adding, “As an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army or as an officer in the Marine Corps, it would have been an act of insubordination for me to have described our president as unfit to serve … However, as a retired military combat veteran, let me state that this president is unfit to serve this nation, in any capacity.” …

… State Sen. Joan Johnson, an Adams County Democrat, said she would resign her seat rather than serve the remaining two years of her term with El Paso County Republican Douglas Bruce, should the father of the tax-limiting Amendment One win election to the Senate District 10 seat. Bruce had successfully petitioned onto the primary ballot to challenge state Sen. Ray Powers, a four-term Republican from Colorado Springs in the August primary. There was no Democrat running in the district. Johnson, who worked against Amendment One in 1992, recalled that Bruce had called her a spate of names during the campaign, including dubbing her a “political whore.” “He’s an anarchist,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t believe in representative government. I could not serve with him.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com