January 16, 2010 12:29 AM UTC

Pop Culture Analogies, or CO Politics: 101

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• by: irkedbyzealots

As I was struggling to explain to a non-political junkie friend of mine what’s up with the players and policies in CO, I came up with the following analogies. How’d I do?

Romanoff v. Bennet: Andrew Romanoff is the Conan O’Brien of CO Democratic politics. Like Conan, Romanoff put in his dues and waited while others in the Party got the spotlight. When it seemed like it was finally his time to get the spotlight, higher-ups appointed someone else to the job. If one progressive moderate votes just like the other progressive moderate would, and one comedian tells jokes just like the other comedian does, does the public really care whose name is on the ballot? Time will tell whether Andrew will seek vengeance by selling Colorado down the river, a la Conan’s Craiglist posting of “The Tonight Show.” Still not sure which appointer comes out ahead in this analogy — Bill Ritter or NBC?

Payday lending:Payday lenders are to the financial services sector what the “rights for eggs” people are to the pro-life community — bad for business. Rumor has it, CO’s payday lending community has hired dozens of lobbyists to kill any bills that may be introduced this session that would restrict business as usual. Just as “mainstream” bankers, mortgage brokers and other financial service providers distance themselves from the predatory tactics of payday lenders, “mainstream” pro-lifers like National Right to Life, the Catholic Conference of Bishops, and Focus on the Family have yet to endorse the “definition of person” strategy. They get it: Going for an all-out ban on abortion is an overstretch, and while everyone has different opinions about abortion, the vast majority of people (ahem, 72% of Colorado voters in 2008) think banning all abortion — even in the cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is at risk — goes too far. And if you took a straw poll of friends, family and the average Coloradan on the street, here’s betting they don’t begrudge bankers, mortgage brokers, etc. the right to make an honest dollar, but they do think the exorbitant rates payday lenders assess just aren’t right.