Post Applauds Marostica for Pragmatism

by: Colorado Pols

Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 13:36:32 PM MST

It's always refreshing to see an elected official shed partisan politics in favor of pragmatism - even if the delivery is botched.

Such was the case this week under the gold dome when Sen. Don Marostica broke ranks with state Republicans in supporting a bill he believes would be good for Coloradans.

Unfortunately, he then spoiled the moment with an offhand remark. No matter. It takes a brave Republican to question the efficacy of anything that might have to do with the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which is just what Marostica has done.

Working as a member of the Joint Budget Committee, which controls the state's budget, has taught the second-term legislator that sometimes ideology has to bend to pragmatism.

Marostica wants to repeal the state's 6 percent spending cap, known as Arveschoug-Bird. When told that prominent Republicans such as the Independence Institute's Jon Caldara, former Senate president John Andrews and former state treasurer Mark Hillman want to kill the effort to remove the spending limit, Marostica told a Rocky Mountain News reporter: "They're has-beens. They're losers."

Reaction was swift. Marostica had to go, principal's-office style, to a meeting with GOP chairman Dick Wadhams. Rumors blew through the assembly that Marostica would be stripped of his JBC post.

So why is toe-the-party-line Josh Penry the standard for the GOP instead of Marostica? Why, indeed. Marostica can now go back to voters in 2010 and tout his role in trying to make things better in Colorado. This is the way back from the wilderness for the GOP, but instead they tout people like Penry who do nothing but put forth obstructionist politics.