Over at National Review Online, Colorado’s own Michael Sandoval explains the connection between the ironically-named Colorado Independent and the far-left propaganda organization ProgressNow as the Dependent slithers out an old story about an alleged rape which Weld County District Attorney and Republican candidate for US Senate, Ken Buck, refused to prosecute.

Sandoval points out that the local newspaper, the local police department, and even the Boulder County District Attorney’s office determined that Buck likely made the right decision to refuse to prosecute a claimed rape of a woman who got drunk and invited a guy to her apartment.  Not just any guy, but her former lover.  The decision was clearly a difficult one, given that the guy said that the girl said “no” at least once, but Buck seems on solid ground to have believed that a conviction would have been very difficult to obtain.

Although the story is old and being spun in a way which would make Goebbels proud, it’s par for the course lately for the Bennet campaign and its supporters who routinely make wild, baseless accusations, hoping something will stick, such as suggesting that Ken Buck wants to get rid of Social Security or that he wants to eliminate the direct election of Senators.  (I wish he held both of those positions, but he doesn’t – and Bennet knows it.)

In the meantime, Michael Bennet pretends to be a moderate, pretends to support lower taxes, pretends to have been part of some sort of solution rather than the Obama pawn, and thus part of the problem, which he’s consistently been.

The media are parroting the idea that Bennet is doing relatively better in 2010 than many Democrat candidates, perhaps hoping to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and suggesting that attacks on Buck, especially on the issue of abortion, are hurting Buck among women.

I continue to believe that Buck wins by a fairly wide margin, in part because I believe that women (and men) voters are not so stupid as (1) to believe Bennet’s charges, or (2) to think that abortion – or any other social issue – is really what this election is about.  Voting on social issues is a luxury reserved for people who have jobs, or at least feel economically secure.

That said, I’ve been disappointed in Ken Buck’s less-than-fiery rhetoric and his nearly passive debate performance on Monday night (brief summary and video archive HERE.)

Buck needs to wake up every day thinking about how he’s going to rip Michael Bennet’s throat out, rhetorically speaking.  Bennet has been a spineless disaster for the state of Colorado.  It’s unacceptable that Buck is letting Bennet get away with positioning himself as a moderate, or as anything other than the Senator from Obama.

I don’t know whether Buck is just too nice a guy or whether he’s getting this advice from his team, but I think his genteel style is a huge mistake at this time.  When I see headlines like “Bennet, Buck Soften Blows In 4th Senate Debate", I just shake my head.

Ken, you’ve said you’d be a fighter for the people of Colorado.  I suggest it’s time to start.