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Let’s All Talk About Curtis Coleman’s Divorce

Coleman
Coleman

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway, so let’s just get it the hell out of the way.

For weeks now, every time I would post anything mentioning the name “Curtis Coleman,” a Republican businessman who’s formed an exploratory committee to possibly challenge Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in 2010, I’d start getting comments and e-mails about Coleman’s “personal problems.”

It seems that, about 16 years ago, Coleman divorced his first wife and remarried. This probably wouldn’t be a big deal for most people, as it’s kinda common these days, but at the time Coleman was a Baptist minister. (I have no idea what the precise circumstances may have been or the timeline, and frankly, have no interest.)

And let me tell you, his former parishioners know how to carry a grudge. As I said, I’ve gotten e-mails and blog comments about it, and I know of at least one local journalist who received an anonymous package containing Coleman’s divorce records. I’m sure he’s not the only one.

Earlier today, Coleman was on KARN with guest host David Sanders, and while taking calls from listeners, a caller asked Coleman about his divorce from his first wife. (To my ears, the caller’s tone suggested a sense of personal betrayal, but that might have been a subjective hearing.)

Coleman dispatched the question pretty handily, I thought, or as handily as one could, talking about how difficult the divorce was for his entire family. Jason Tolbert at The Tolbert Report, who rather luridly frames Coleman’s divorce as a “Tim Hutchinson problem,” recounts much of Coleman’s response in a post this afternoon.

But Tolbert omits the most important point from Coleman’s answer.(My error — originally read Jason’s post on Blackberry and missed it). Coleman said that when he decided to make this run, one of the first people he went to talk to was his first wife, to ask her what she thought. (Clearly, Coleman is smart enough to know that this issue was going to emerge sooner rather than later.) He says that she told him, “I think you’ll make a great U.S. Senator…I will support you and I will vote for you.” (roughly quoted)

I don’t know Curtis Coleman. In fact, I’m not sure I’d ever heard of him till a few weeks ago when his name was floated as a potential candidate. I’d not even intended to address this issue, as it strikes me as a private family matter, but now that he’s laid it out there on the radio and it’s in the public sphere, let’s just say this: If Coleman and his family have processed the fact of his divorce, and his ex-wife is past it to the point where she says she’ll support him, then it may be well past time for his former parishioners to just let it the hell go.

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43 thoughts on “Let’s All Talk About Curtis Coleman’s Divorce

  • The problem with this is that Curtis isn’t someone that has lived what he says he believes. Curtis says he is running because of his family, but he broke up his family. Curtis left his wife, and he left the ministry after he realized that churches wouldn’t let him speak if he was openly having an affair.

    I don’t believe what Curtis says anymore. I trust people’s actions much more than their words. Sadly, Curtis’ life says something much different than his words.

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  • WTF has no idea what he/she/it is talking about.

    Why don’t you leave your real name instead of hiding?

    Go back to your bedroom in your Mom’s basement–play with your X-Box and shut up.

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  • Fourche River Rex

    You know what is the most shocking thing in all this? That people that actually give a rat’s ass about Coleman going ball deep in a stranger would be reading this blog…a blog well known for posting shots of Sirens in various states of undress.
    Three cheers for this blog! Huzzah! Hooray! Bully!

    Reply
  • Go Gilbert Go

    I’m with WTF on this. I knew Curtis when he was a minister. He taught that your family is your most important relationship on this planet. He failed to live that principle in his personal life. Curtis had an affair with a much younger woman and left his wife and the ministy. That isn’t a man that I really put much faith in.

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  • David Kinkade

    Good point, Rex. Given the level of degeneracy on this blog, I might not be the person Coleman wants going to bat for him.
    D.

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  • Everyone screws up at least once, even ministers. Seeing how this was 16 years ago, I’d have to say let it go obviously his ex-wife is over it as she has voiced her support for him. Besides, he’s almost certainly gotta be better than Lincoln.

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  • Hey in case you guys missed it….We are all human and make mistakes…. If he is without sin than may he cast the first stone….If you dont agree with Mr. Coleman than dont vote for him.

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  • I want to know how he will be better than Lincoln? What will make him a better US Senator than her? Make no mistake, she drives me nuts, but really, how is this guy gonna vote or whats he gonna do that will be so much better than Lincoln? Same applies to Gilbert?

    You think you will have a more effective Senator if they are a freshman in the minority with their party out of the WH?

    Just looking for some logi—–ooops. nevermind. who am I kidding….

    Reply
  • David Kinkade

    Br549,
    For the purposes of this post, I zeroed in specifically on the question of the divorce, because based on what I’ve seen and heard thus far, and as some of the comments here suggest, that appears to be a big obstacle in some people’s minds. The questions you raise were addressed in some detail in the rest of his interview with Sanders yesterday (hopefully KARN will provide an archived version soon), and Coleman does lay out his preliminary argument for his candidacy at his website. But those issues weren’t the topic of this particular discussion.
    D.

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  • christian reader

    According to many Christians in AR if King David were running for office he would be a no good dirty rotten scoundrel who is not fit for office. They apparently do not care that God said David was a man after his own heart. Coleman made a mistake but it was not near to the extent of King David and yet God still considered David a good man worthy to lead after a time of punishment. When will we Christians except men as flawed individuals who are still capable of serving and doing God’s will. We all are flawed and yet God can use us to great things. How many strong candidates will we run off because of the greatest failure in their life. How many of you would be found worthy if your greatest failure or mistake was made public a dragged through every newspaper and radio show in the state. It is time we pull the plank out of our own eye and quit judging others for their sins when the act of judging others is as equal a sin as divorce in God’s eyes!

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  • I know Kinkade has a huge following and all, but isnt it a little much to go around referring to him as “King David”????

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  • Go Gilbert Go,

    How do you know he had an affair? Huh? Tell me, oh wise one. Were you there? Did you see it? I guess since you think he did, then he did?

    Well, I think you are an idiot, so you are. I don’t know you are one, but I think you are. See, I could be wrong about you because I don’t KNOW you, and you are wrong about Curtis Coleman because you don’t KNOW what actually happened.

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  • Go Gilbert Go

    Clay,

    Curtis was disciplined by my church, First Baptist Church of Little Rock, for his affair. That is how I know about it. His adultry isn’t a secret. It is know by 1,000’s of people.

    I may be an idiot, but I KNOW what happend with Curtis and Elizabeth.

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  • menapotstirrer

    All hail KING DAVID!

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  • What gall FBC of Little Rock has in doing such a thing. Have you people never heard of love and forgiveness? It’s a church NOT a government entity or company where people can be displined. How stupid.

    I am a Christian, and if I were new to town and wanted to attend a Baptist church-it sure wouldn’t be there after hearing that. Who are they to judge him? Lets say for argument sakes that he did have an affair, then where is the forgiveness? Lets say he didn’t–then FBC is basically trying to destroy a person’s life. Do the people of FBC not know the passage about judging another?

    And, how does a holier than thou church like FB go about doing that to a member? Spreading untrue rumors to run the member off? Boy…how Christian!

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  • Clay,

    You ask “have you ever heard of love and forgiveness”. I ask have you ever read 1 Timothy Chapter 3? If not click on my name and read what God says it takes to be a leader in the Church. The standard that Curtis was held to wasn’t some arbitrary rule we came up with. It is written in God’s Holy Word.

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  • yep. Id say yall got her beat!

    Reading this reminds me of that time I tried to eat a soup sandwich….

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  • Authentic Frontier Gibberish

    As an avowed Atheist, I say we hang him.

    I heard the words “baptist minister” and that’s all I needed.

    Reply
  • David Kinkade

    Yeah, I know, this pretty much turned into the worst comment thread ever. Now we just need someone to call someone else “Hitler” and we can call it a week.
    D.

    Reply
  • Bill from Sheridan

    You’re mother had some trouble like Curtis’ with her church when you where born she tells me. Do you know much about that?

    Reply
  • I was waiting for such comment threads to get started again! I’m sure we’ve all missed the ridiculousness that resided during the (all be it cut short) 2005 Gov primary and the 2006 Lt. Gov’s primary. Please, oh please, let us beat each other down as we did then. As we all remember it turned out so wonderfully last time.

    Reply
  • I see that the Gilbert Baker attack machine is in full force and he hasn’t even announced that he is running yet.

    “Run, Gilbert, Run,” please keep making these kinds of comments about Curtis Coleman. In the process you will be hurting Baker’s chances with all the undecided voters and Curtis Coleman supporters just in case Baker is lucky enough to win the primary. I wouldn’t vote for Baker now if he was the nominee just because of you. In fact, I will campaign against him.

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  • Tason Jolbert

    How is this for irony? I heard tonight that the caller who asked Coleman the divorce question was none other than GOP party boy Chris Caldwell, son of Rick Caldwell and who also worked on Huckabee’s presidential campaign.

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  • Dogtown Dude

    Everyone has failed to mention that Huckabee’s HuckPAC headquarters are located in Coleman’s Safe Foods complex out on Northshore Drive in Maumelle!

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  • It’s not the divorce that gets me, it’s the fact he was a Baptist preacher. That alone should disqualify someone from holding public office.

    A pastor is not an ordinary occupation; it’s a job where you judge, instruct and even condemn your fellow Americans for nothing more than reading the Bible differently or not at all.

    Do you really want a legislator who would put the Bible above science? Who would take a 2000 year old book, call it the literal inerrant infallible word of God, and therefore use it as the primary basis for decision making?

    Reply
  • Run Curtis Run

    That would be an issue, but I doubt he is a Biblical literalist. The Baptist were split by dogmatic fundementalist that really believe the Bible is without error. If he is a moderate Baptist, then creation in a literal six days, Adam and Eve and most of the miraclous acts listed aren’t generally accepted and are up for debate.

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  • Taser Jake

    Didn’t Curtis meet his new squeeze (the one he dumped his wife for) while working for Huckabee? Huckabee’s minions now run Curtis’s campaign. Rex/Brenda/Jason are pulling a Clinton, putting this out there themselves so they can call it “old news” later. They will be blaming it on another candidate before long.

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  • Action Jackson

    With the old Huck re-trends running the show, Gilbert will win because he has Clint Reed and Richard Bearden. This primary will be a classic Huckabee v. Hutchinson (proxy) battle. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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  • Let’s see. Hmm. The last I checked Asa and Tim Hutchinson lost their last respective states races lead by Reed and Bearden. Huckabee came up short for Prez, but didn’t the Rex/Brenda/Jason win 2 races for Huckabee during the time that the Hutchinson’s were losing?

    So, Action Jackson’s logic is flawed.

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  • It’s one thing to be a Christian and believe in God. It’s another to be a Christianist and believe you are God. I’m assuming all the commenters critical of Coleman didn’t vote for Reagan either.

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  • This Huckabee Hutchinson thing is going to be a battle royal. I put my money on Clint Reed though. Time magazine listed Reed as one of the 5 most important people in the country last year. He’s got the skills, the contacts and the resume to win this thing. I wouldn’t want to be Curtis Coleman after Clint finishes with him.

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  • Clint was great in driving around Tim Hutchinson in 2002. He could parallel park with the best of them.

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  • Gilbert Baker apparently thinks it’s no big deal to electronically fingerprint all our kids in the school lunch lines, which by his accounting is going on in no less than 9 school districts across Arkansas right now.

    Any parents reading this should ask their kids if they are having their thumbs scanned in the lunch line. You wouldn’t know, because the schools aren’t required to tell the parents that it is going on.

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  • His personal life has nothing to do with his run for the Senate. This happened years ago. No one is perfect. Who are any of us to judge him??? And, what difference does it make if he was a Baptist minister?? Geez, some of you people really should get a life….

    Reply
  • Authentic Frontier Gibberish

    AD79,

    This is Arkansas- I’m supposed to vote based upon my religious beliefs, not on the issues that might actually affect me. As a strict Scientologist, I am offended by the Baptists. Xenu would be very, very upset if I let this outrage stand.

    Reply
  • He is a liar and a narcissist. That’s what I thought these people meant when they said he has personal problems. He obviously doesn’t know how to run a business.. much less his personal life. He is a socially challanged individual and under minds everyone. Maybe he would make a great politician after all!

    Reply
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  • Steve Mackey

    So, apparently there are some who believe that if someone gets a divorce, they are to be discarded and can never do anything with their lives? Where did that idea come from? I don’t read that in the Bible. Sounds like there are folks around here who like to talk about forgiveness on Sunday morning, but have no idea how to live it during the week.

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  • If you voted for Clinton then shut up, you see what you got there. People of all walks of life get divorced, or live unhappy lives because they think they have to, no one really knows what happens behind closes doors so who is to say what the truth is about this issue of his divorce. I for one am glad to hear straight forward answers/comments he made on a recent tv highlight.
    O yeah, look in the mirror how would you look in a public investigation.

    Reply
  • James Laubler

    This is why we need a FULL disclosure by him. If we are going to support him with dollars, we need to know if he is electable.

    It would be nice to hear from his X-Wife.
    It would be nice for HIM to throw out the details. I’ve heard rumors, too, about how it happened. I don’t want rumors.
    If he has a problem being distracted from his commitments, we need to know. He won’t be effective in D.C. if he gets involved again.
    Is it a one time thing or has it ever happened before.

    I sure am glad I’m not running. Phwew. Yet for the grace of god, there go I. But, it IS an ISSUE on electability.

    Reply

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