Monday Afternoon Politicking with Hal Bidlack

Hal BidlackNo Democrat has ever been elected to Congress from Colorado's 5th Congressional District since the district was created in 1972, but Hal Bidlack is confident he can change that this year. A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Bidlack is running unopposed for the Democratic CD-5 nomination against the winner of a three-way GOP primary between incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs), Jeff Crank, and Bentley Rayburn.

In today's Monday Morning Politicking, Bidlack talks about why he thinks he can win in a heavily Republican district, his adventures dressing up as Alexander Hamilton, and his experience being in the Pentagon during the September 11 terrorist attack.

PolitickerCO: I was just wondering how you feel your chances are in the race. I know it's early, but what are you looking at down the road?

Bidlack: I'm looking at winning. I think that there has been a real change in this country. And you see it nationally with the turnouts in Democratic caucuses and Democratic primaries. Senator Obama, Senator Clinton, and before them Edwards, Biden - all those folks - [have] just this tremendous energy. So people who have never been involved in politics before are getting involved, which is exactly what's supposed to happen. People are supposed to get excited about things like that. And I think that the people in this district have had two more years of looking at Mr. Bush's politics, Mr. Bush's policies, and Mr. Lamborn - who is a good man, but I think he's just wrong on these issues - has supported more than any other member of Congress. He rates number one in voting with the Republican agenda 99.3 percent of the time. I don't even agree with myself 99.3 percent of the time.

So I think there's an opportunity here for voters to see two hopefully good men who are patriotic and want to do what's right. One has a vision that we've seen in the last seven years under President Bush; another has a vision that is -a budget how we're going to apply some common sense to critical issues like fiscal responsibility, how we can promise to take care of veterans who put themselves in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming back, having to wait months to get in the VA system. Or if they live somewhere too far away, they're told, "Oh, we'll take care of you if you drive three hours to get here." No. You take care of people who put themselves in combat with you. And I'm really troubled by the way that these folks have looked at the Bill of Rights and have ignored a whole bunch of it.

So it's a real opportunity for the voters to say, "OK, at the top of the Republican ticket, we have a man who promises to basically give you four more years of Bush politics. And you've got Mr. Lamborn, who I imagine if he's as proud of the 99 percent as he says he is, will continue to vote that policy path as well. But if you look at the last seven years, and you say, "You know, I'm not kind of happy. Gas prices were a $1.52-ish when Bush came into office. If you look at foreclosure rates, if you look at the war in Iraq at $12 billion a month, $435 million a day what we could be doing with that money, to say nothing of paying off the national debt. If you look at those issues, if you look at where civil liberties are, if you look at the fact that we have a president who has asserted that it's ok to listen to your phone calls if he says so he says he doesn't need a court order. It seems to me if you look at all that and you're happy then you've got McCain who will be a clone, and Mr. Lamborn, who will apparently not think for himself and will just do what he's told. But if you look at those same things, and you think, you know, we could do a little bitter, then maybe those folks will want to be part of my effort to want to bring change to Washington.

PolitickerCO: Have you been involved in politics before?

Bidlack: I have. I had 25 years in the Air Force, obviously, and officers don't do a whole lot of politicking. We argue about stuff among our peers but - When I was growing up, I grew up in a family that highly valued education and valued commitment to country. My dad was a sergeant in World War II, ended up on the Manhattan Project. Both my parents grew up as Iowa farm kids during the Depression. And what they said they remember more is the Dust Bowl - the agricultural collapse at the time. And we - my brothers and sister and I - were all kind of trained by our parents that you need to try to be part of the solution and you ought to be grateful to your country. So when I was in high school, I thought, all right, I'm going to college at the University of Michigan, I should do something for the country back. So I joined ROTC and was the only member of my - my dad was a draftee in World War II, did his four years during the war and then left with the GI Bill which was available, went to college and became a professor and a dean. So I thought, I'll do some time in the military and pay my debt back to my country, and we'll see how it goes. It went for 25 years, four months and 10 days. And so I retired in 2006 and was then in a position to then be able to get involved in politics again.

And it's always been my love - when I was six, I went with my sister to a shopping center to pass out Lyndon Johnson bumper stickers. And when I was 10 - this is like the ultimate uber-nerd moment - I remember giving a speech to my fifth-grade class on candidate Hubert Humphrey's nuclear non-proliferation treaty thoughts.

PolitickerCO: How'd that go over?

Bidlack: You know, in my mind as I look back now 40 years, I choose to remember standing ovations and confetti (laughs). But it's possible that they were going, "This is show-and-tell, dude. Where's your plastic G.I. Joe toy or something?" No, I remember standing there talking about - I remember my sister helping me write it. So I've always been interested.

Bidlack as Alexander HamiltonAnd, I do this other thing for the last 10 years or so where I perform as Alexander Hamilton around the country. I actually bought a costume, and go up, and people ask me questions - I never know what the questions are going to be ahead of time - and I give it my best shot and answer with a foundation of knowledge that I spent years honing, to be able to speak as that person might have spoke. So that's 10 years of really studying the founding of this country, and getting a real strengths of that founding generation and what they brought.

And you can't study the founding of this country without getting excited about politics, it seems to me. Because you had people who for the first time in human history, declared they were equal of the king. And the reason governments existed was to serve the people, not to serve the king. Thomas Hobbes said that life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short - I say he must've been fun at cocktail parties. But he said in his famous treatise called Leviathan - he said the only purpose of government is to give the people security, and they owe the government everything else. So basically, a king and subject. The king will keep you from being invaded; everything else you owe to the king. And then we had these 54 remarkable folks in Philadelphia say, "No - governments are for us. And when the governments are wrong we get rid of those governments and we have what Franklin Roosevelt called the perpetual peaceful revolution."

In November, probably Mr. Lamborn and I, or whoever the Republicans nominate, our names will be on the ballot and tens of thousands of people will go to the polls. And among the things they decide is who they want to represent them in Washington. And if they select Mr. Lamborn, he will return, and I certainly won't be barricading the door. And if I win, he certainly will pack up his office and leave, because that's how politics works. That very mundane, commonplace thing of people who once were leaders leaving and new leaders coming in, is a radical notion. It used to be done for most of human history with swords. And we're doing it with the ballot box. That's really exciting. But because it's so common for people to do that nowadays, people forget to get excited about it. It's an amazing thing that we do. And it's just incredibly exciting to be a part of it.

PolitickerCO: When you dress up as Alexander Hamilton, where do you go?

Bidlack: Oh, all over the country.

PolitickerCO: Do you do it as part of an exhibit?

Bidlack: Well, it depends. I've had clients -- federal judges, colleges, universities, libraries, pretty much any organization you can think of. The Web site is Hamiltonlives.com, if you want to see some of that stuff. I'm very proud that the first event - I was in the Pentagon when the plane hit, which was a very bad day. And the very first event in Washington after September 11 was an open house at the National American History Museum of the Smithsonian. And they hired me and several others to be those people. So I walked around the Smithsonian dressed as Hamilton. I've stood at the desk that Jefferson is said to have written the Declaration of Independence on.

PolitickerCO: The one he invented?

Well, I'll tell you in a second. There's a story to it. And it was one of those red, white and blue moments, because I think I was about to go to - it was Congressional family night. So Congressmen, their families, their kids, lots of things were open - Supreme Court, White House staff, it was only for those folks. So I'm walking and chatting with people as they go. And I was talking to a Republican Congressman from Texas - I think he was in his second term; I can't even remember who it was now. And he said that he was a congressman from Texas. And I said, "Well sir, I will tell you what I said at the Congress this is as Hamilton, Hamilton said, "I believe that three-quarters of them are mortal enemies of talent. Of the remainders three-quarters of them are contemptuous of integrity." And he looked at me and said, "Sounds about right." (Laughs). It's just - it's an amazing honor to me. All these people walking around here (his campaign office) came because they think that maybe something I have to say is worth listening to, maybe that's worth putting me in Congress to work for them. That's a tremendous sense of responsibility. It's very humbling.

PolitickerCO: The reason I asked if you had been previously involved formerly in politics - why this year? Why are you running for Congress after-

Bidlack: Sure. Well, it's the first election after I retired as an active-duty military guy. I think it's good rule that active-duty officers not run for Congress. I think that's a good rule. But I retired in September of 2006, so there was no opportunity, of course, to run in 2006. Plus Jay Fawcett was running; he was the candidate. I was happy to vote for him. And now, the very next opportunity, I am running.

PolitickerCO: Do you think - Jay Fawcett, you know, barely broke 40 percent last time. Do you think you have a chance of winning?

Bidlack: I do, I do. I think Jay did a lot of prep work, in a sense. Because before Jay, [former U.S. Rep.] Mr. [Joel] Hefley was very popular, the Democrat didn't have much of a chance, and I don't frankly think they ran very good campaigns. With Jay's campaign, I think Democrats in this district saw for the first time that, "Hey, there are two parties," y'know? And there can be strong Democratic candidates.

And I come into this, I think, as a fairly strong Democratic candidate. I mean, I was a professor in the Air Force, I worked at the White House. I was also a cop in the Air Force, so I've arrested felons. I'm a gun owner and believe in fiscal responsibility. It's kind of a Western moderate view which, depending on where I'm standing - if I'm standing in Berkeley, California, I'm a right-wing guy, and if I'm standing in the middle of Iowa, I'm a left-wing guy. It just depends. That's my issue set.

And I think that we've had two more years of the Bush politics, two more years of the politics of fear, that you should be afraid and only I can protect you; don't listen to anyone else. And that's a really un-American view in my thinking. We've had two years of Doug Lamborn, who voted 99.3 percent of the way with the Bush Administration. So it seems to me that there are a lot of people who are becoming more and more frustrated. And if you look at the pure registration numbers, it's about two-to-one Republican/Democrat. But there's a huge unaffiliated bloc - independents.

And there are a lot of Republicans, based on my talking to a lot of folks in the last couple of months - there are a lot of Republicans who are fed up with the neo-cons' way of looking at the world, in terms of making government bigger and more intrusive. I mean, the size of government in the modern era, if you will - post-World War II era - (was) smallest under Clinton! The reach of government has grown under President Bush. And people are told it's ok to spy without a warrant because we're at war - a not-declared war. So I think there are more Republicans who are like Chuck Hagel, the [Republican] senator from Nebraska, or Barry Goldwater, who was a conservative - and I'm a moderate - but he was consistent. And he said this just isn't the government's business, whereas these folks seem to think that everything is the government's business. So I think that Republicans - I think there are a lot of Republicans who feel that the last seven years, they've sort of seen their party kind of pulled away from them. And I think they want it back. And, hopefully, I can be the compromise that they can be comfortable with. I think they will. I think we're going to win...

...PolitickerCO: Where do you stand on abortion?

Bidlack: Personally, I am pro-life in the sense that as a father of three, I don't see how - from my point of view, I can't see how it's an appropriate thing. But, in terms of my politics, I believe so strongly in a right of privacy. And I believe if you can't control your own body, what privacy do you got? So I would say that I will vote primarily, I would think, pro-choice, simply because I can't conceive of the government having a right to decide what a woman does. You can agree or disagree with what she does, but there are certain things that aren't the government's business. And I think what you do in your private life is one of them...

...PolitickerCO: You said you were in the Pentagon during the attack. Where were you? What happened?

I don't talk about it much. It involves burns and head wounds and helping people like that. It was a day that I saw the best of humanity and the worst of humanity, because I saw the worst of humanity in terms of those guys flying that airplane in there, and the best of humanity because of how people responded. You know, it was remarkable.

Walking back after I did my little duty there, walking back to my apartment - because, you know, nothing was running - and there's thousands of people walking out of the Pentagon. And it was a hot day; it was a gorgeous day, it was just beauti-which is why they picked it. It was just an incredible fall day. And this one house, these George Washington students were just moving in. They said, "You want some water? Do you need some water?" I was in uniform. "Do you want to call anybody?" And the cell phones had been turned off - which makes sense, because they didn't know how the bad guys were communicating. So my family didn't know I was ok-they just knew there was an attack. And I didn't even work there. I was just there for a doctor's appointment. I worked at the State Department. So you saw this amazing goodness of people that day.

And I remember getting on the subway on September 12 to go to work. And it was silent. There was zero noise in the subway. And I wore my uniform for several days - because I normally worked in a suit and tie in the State Department, although I was a military officer. I mean, it was a silly thing, but I thought, "You don't win, you son of a bitch. We're still here. And we're coming."

Which is one thing that really-- frankly, one reason I'm really angry with President Bush. Saddam Hussein was a very bad man, but he had nothing to do with 9/11, as the investigation has shown over and over again. We went after the wrong guy. And if we take 160,000 troops out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan, we can find that son of a bitch. So I have a very personal reason also - in addition to all the other arguments you make - a very personal reason for being very unhappy with the way the war's been done. Selfish reason, but there it is.