![\"Mike_Coffman\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Mike_Coffman-199x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nI told you last week that Michelle Ye Hee Lee is quickly becoming my favorite fact checker at the Washington Post<\/a> and once again she proves that she’s free of the political ties that bind many of the folks at the Post.<\/p>\n This week she examines the charges coming from “somewhere” in Washington, in regards to whether Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) is a combat veteran or not. <\/p>\n Coffman had a tiff with VA Secretary MacDonald when the Congressman was grilling MacDonald on whether the Secretary had affected any real change at the Department and MacDonald shot back that \u201cI ran a large company, sir, what have you done?\u201d<\/p>\n Well, Coffman was a Marine infantry officer in the 1st Iraq War in 1991 and then as a civil affairs officer in the 2d Iraq War. He earned the Combat Action Ribbon, so, of course he’s a combat veteran.<\/p>\n Ms. Lee asked our buddy, Dan Caldwell, legislative director for Concerned Veterans for America and former Marine;<\/p>\n [Caldwell said that] the generally accepted use of the term is for those who were \u201cwith a unit, in the military, on the ground, and you were supporting or directly engaged in military effort against an enemy in Iraq or Afghanistan or another combat zone.\u201d<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n \u201cThe bigger issue is, did somebody blatantly misrepresent their service \u2014 i.e., ribbons they didn\u2019t rate, lying about things they didn\u2019t actually experience, and even the larger issues of, \u2018What are the larger strategic implications behind the combat that they supposedly are engaging or aren\u2019t\u2019?\u201d Caldwell said. \u201cWe, as a veteran community, sometimes get hung up on these things that, at the end of the day, don\u2019t make a big difference.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, after examining his records and the legal, “official” definitions of a combat veteran, Ms. Lee gave Coffman the Post’s seal of approval;<\/p>\n The criteria for the Combat Action Ribbon that Coffman received requires proof he was in actual combat operations. Without having been there with him, this is the best measure to confirm his experience. We award Coffman the elusive Geppetto Checkmark.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I can’t ever remember any Republican getting a Geppetto, I’m sure that there have been some, I just don’t remember any. You might remember that Ms. Lee gave Mr. MacDonald 4 Pinocchios<\/a> last week for claiming that he’d fired a bunch of folks at the Department when he really hadn’t fired a bunch, just a couple of them.<\/p>\n By the way, if you’re wondering what Coffman thinks of the dust-up yesterday about Secretary MacDonald, Fox News reports<\/a>;<\/p>\n Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., called the misstatement an error but said “it doesn’t dim the fact that he served honorably.” <\/p>\n He said: “We should all take him at his word and Washington shouldn’t spend the next two weeks arguing about it. The Secretary has a job to do — clean up the scandal-plagued VA. This latest controversy shouldn’t shift one iota of focus away from that long overdue task.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"