Margarita pitchman Schaffer still searching for lost shaker of salt

Former congressman and twice-failed Senate candidate Bob Schaffer crows on his Twitter feed Thursday evening that the national media has picked up the story first reported a week ago by The Colorado Independent. It’s the story of a Fort Collins family with a taste for tequila, a homemade margarita recipe and the marketing savvy to bottle the blend and call it … Coyote Gold.

Maureen and Bob Schaffer pitch Coyote Gold margarita mix. (Screenshot/KDVR-TV)
Maureen and Bob Schaffer pitch Coyote Gold margarita mix. (Screenshot/KDVR-TV)
Here’s Schaffer’s Tweet: “Coyote Gold margaritas made national news this week. This clip on MSNBC, Denver tv, dozens of blogs and twitter http://tw0.us/YV

This is right after an entry urging a follower to buy a guitar songbook and “be singing along in no time,” because “Most [Jimmy] Buffet tunes are simple 3-chords.” (Or, you could find the music and lyrics to Margaritaville here.)

But what the proud margarita hawker doesn’t mention — no doubt in the spirit that any publicity is good publicity — is that the MSNBC appearance was on the Rachel Maddow Show, and it’s not flattering. Over a brief clip from a local Denver TV news story that aired Friday, Maddow says she first thought the product Schaffer is shilling, Coyote Gold, “was deer repellent … and felt really sad.” She also dredges up one of Schaffer’s more embarrassing moments from the 2008 Senate campaign, reminding viewers he mixed up Pikes Peak with Mt. McKinley in a television commercial.

Let’s watch:

The clip is from a truly surreal two-minute story that aired first on KDVR-TV and then in slightly different form on KMGH-TV (the two Denver stations, channels 31 and 2, combined news operations at the end of last year).

Reporter Eli Stokels gets to sample the silky, smooth concoction on air and almost gets Schaffer to admit the Senate campaign drove him to drink. “It would be an awful lot of fun to play along with you on this,” a laughing Schaffer says after Stokels baits his trap, “but the reality is, (Coyote Gold) didn’t play any role in the campaign.”

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