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The candidates for the US Senate debated one last time this Saturday in Denver Colorado and Sen. Michael Bennett hit his Republican opponent for his extreme views on the issue of abortion and Ken Buck did his best to avoid answering the question. This is what happens as Rachel Maddow has been driving home for the last couple of weeks when one of these wingnut candidates runs to the right during their primary race and then has to run away from those views when trying to win the general election.

The San Francisco Examiner summed up this portion of the debate nicely.

Colorado Republican Ken Buck tried Saturday to steer the state's tight Senate contest away from social issues and toward the economy as he attempts to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Buck stuck to his hard-right positions on abortion and gay marriage in his seventh and final debate with Bennet. However, Buck insisted that voters care more about unemployment and government spending.

"We get caught on these social issues when the voters want to know about jobs, they want to know about unemployment, they want to know about spending," Buck said when asked to elaborate on his opposition to abortion rights, even in cases of rape and incest.

Bennet and the Democrats have swiped at Buck for his social conservatism. Buck repeated his opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage on Saturday, but he punched back at Democratic efforts to highlight those position instead of his promises to cut taxes and federal spending.

But the abortion question didn't go away. At one point in the KCNC-TV debate, also aired on C-SPAN, the candidates were allowed to grill each other, and Bennet laid into Buck for opposing abortion rights.

"Who's going to jail?" Bennet asked, referring to women seeking abortions.

Buck replied, "I don't think abortion's going to be criminalized anytime soon. ... You have tried once again to take this debate off-topic. Once again, I am going to focus my campaign on the issues Colorado voters care about."

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Republican Senate candidate from Colorado was put on the defensive Sunday after he compared being gay to the disease of alcoholism.

In a debate on Meet the Press, Buck told NBC's David Gregory that being gay, like alcoholism, was not completely determined at birth.

GREGORY: Do you believe that being gay is a choice?

BUCK: I do.

GREGORY: Based on what?

BUCK: Based on what? I guess you can choose who your partner is.

GREGORY: You don’t think it’s something that’s determined at birth?

BUCK: I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things, but I think that basically, you have a choice.

The Democratic opponent, Sen. Michael Bennet, quickly disagreed.

"I absolutely believe he's outside the mainstream of views on this," said Bennet.

After the debate, Buck tried to explain himself to reporters.

"I am not a biologist and I haven't studied the issue, but that's my opinion," Buck said. "I wasn't talking about being gay as a disease. I don't think that at all and I hope that no one would be that insensitive to try to draw that...I certainly didn't mean it that way."

In an earlier debate, Buck had expressed support for "don't ask, don't tell," saying the country shouldn't get distracted by "lifestyle choices."

BUCK: I do not support the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I think it is a policy that makes a lot of sense. It's not whether an individual is gay can serve in the military, the question is whether that individual can be openly gay in the military. It's one thing to deny someone access to the military and to a career in the military, it's another thing to -- for morale purposes and other purposes -- make sure that we are as homogeneous as possible in the military in moving towards the common goal of the security and the military action, as opposed to the distractions that are caused by allowing lifestyle choices to become part of the discussion.

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Republican candidate Ken Buck learned again that honesty is not always the best policy, at least not when you're trying to win a primary in a couple of weeks. Buck leads in the polling against Jane Norton but this probably won't help with his Tea Party base. Norton is as far right as Buck so Democrats have watched their missteps with some amusement.

KUSA U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck refers to members of the Tea Party who question the President's citizenship as "dumbasses" in an audio recording obtained by 9NEWS and The Denver Post.

The Colorado Republican candidate's voice was captured on a pocket tape recorder without his knowledge by a Colorado Democratic Party worker in a parking lot before a June event in Crowley County.

He had just come from an event in Pueblo where there was a reference to whether President Obama was an American citizen. The comment apparently comes without provocation from the Democratic Party worker, who has been following and videotaping Buck all over the state of Colorado for months.

"Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera," Buck said to the worker while laughing. "God, what am I supposed to do?"

Asked about the comments on Sunday at a political rally in Adams County, Buck said he wishes he had used different language and that he had not lumped all Tea Party members into one statement, but that he remains frustrated that some people are focusing on birth certificates rather than the country's $13 trillion debt and its $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

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The head of a watchdog group says the White House did nothing wrong by discussing possible jobs with several Democrats if they would refrain from challenging incumbents. Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the job discussions are just politics as usual.

In June and July of 2009, former President Bill Clinton asked Joe Sestak if he would be willing to take a White House appointment instead of challenging Arlen Specter's Senate seat. Republicans like Rep. Darrell Issa have demanded the Justice Department investigate.

White House counsel Robert Bauer argued in a memo Friday that the offer was just politics.

Less than a week later, it was revealed that White House chief of staff Jim Messina presented possible jobs to Colorado State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff if he didn't run against Sen. Michael Bennet.

Sloan told CNN's John Roberts that these types of offers happen all of the time.

SLOAN: There is really nothing improper in that. One of the things that is so odd about this story and the Sestak story is that people are surprised that the political appointments are given out for political reasons. Well that's how these jobs are given out in any administration going back to the beginning of administrations. Politicians get political appointments. Romanoff had apparently applied for a job through the transition office and Messina then called him to check in and see if he wanted those jobs. Obviously, Messina was doing it to try and keep Romanoff out of the primary. Although it was before he had announced that he was definitely running. But Romanoff declined and said he wasn't interested and wanted the Senate seat.

Republicans are just using the job discussions to attack the administration for political gain, according to Sloan.

ROBERTS: You are suggesting that there is nothing illegal about this. Republicans are taking a bit of a different attitude toward it. They have asked the Department of Justice to investigate the Sestak case. Now that this has Romanoff case has come out, do you think they are going to call for a full-blown investigation, maybe not just the DOJ but congressionally as well?

SLOAN: Absolutely. That's 100 percent certainly. This is a great issue for them to jump on, part of the reason is the Obama White House has said it was going to behave differently than other White Houses, more transparent, more ethical than everyone else. And this shows they were horse trading, just like everyone else. It is a great issue for the Republicans that want to dirty up the administration.

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I would like to see more stories like this please.

Maddow: But, first, it‘s time for a couple of holy mackerel stories in the news today.

If there is a benefit to the maddening Democratic Party failure on the issue of the public health insurance option, it could be the revival of the once believed to be extinct hard line liberal base. The AFL-CIO yesterday drew its own line in the sand by saying it would not support Democratic candidates who do not support the public option in health reform. And as David Sirota notes at “Huffington Post” today, threats from the left have shifted the rhetoric of incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Here‘s where Senator Bennet started. At a town hall meeting in Pueblo on Saturday, Senator Bennet gave flimsy support to the idea of the public option. He said then that he favored the option, but, quote, “As I stand here today, I think it‘s very unlikely that the public option part of this will pass.” In other words, he was saying he would probably vote for health reform without the public option.

Then, reports circulated that Senator Bennet will likely face a primary challenge from Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. And now, look at what Senator Bennet has posted at his Web site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D), COLORADO: I do support a public option as part of this.

(APPLAUSE)

BENNET: I have said I support a public option. I‘ve supported a public option. I support a public option. I‘ve supported a public option. Why? I also support having a public plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: So, the senator supports the public option after all. Yes.

You know, having been taken for granted and triangulated and on occasion just stomped on during decades of Democratic Party policy decisions, the left may be learning its lesson. If you don‘t lie down in front of the door, you‘re less likely to get used as a door mat.