November 05, 2010 11:08 PM UTC

Rumblings Over White's JBC Ouster?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Sources tell us that the replacement of moderate GOP Sen. Al White on the Joint Budget Committee with conservative firebrand Sen.-elect Kent Lambert isn’t being received warmly–by legislators on both sides of the aisle, or business and other lobbying interests with considerable sway over Republican politics. Nobody has told us that a reversal of the GOP Senate caucus’ vote yesterday is being considered, but the move is being described as an indication that Senate Republicans plan to make the resilient Democratic Senate Majority’s life, not to mention the JBC in particular, as miserable and unproductive as possible.

It’s not like Lambert is an unknown quantity to the JBC, having previously served there representing the House. He has drawn much criticism for wasting the committee’s time on ideological pedantic lectures that have little or nothing to do with the issues at hand–we note he won’t agree. It’s a much bigger problem, though, to lose the moderate Sen. White than it is for Lambert to switch from one seat on the committee to another, and they can’t keep both.

Based on the nonplussed reaction they appear to be getting, they picked wrong.

Remember, this is the representative who actually proposed in legislation that the state order the Treasurer to start hoarding gold Glenn Beck-style. He’s neither qualified to speak nor serious about addressing the state’s fiscal problems, and unanimously bouncing White from the JBC for Lambert is a pretty clear signal that the Senate Minority as a whole is not serious either.