September 02, 2012 05:56 PM UTC

When They Can't Admit What Everybody Knows

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Of the many snippets we were forwarded this week about Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s latest attempt to challenge the citizenship of voters he “believes” may not be legally registered–a campaign headed for failure as the results appear to make a joke of Gessler’s dire predictions–this audio of an exchange between Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert and attorney Mark Grueskin is perhaps the most revealing.

Recorded at Wednesday’s hearing on Gessler’s challenge procedure:

Can’t see the audio player? Click here.

MARK GRUESKIN: I have to ask a question. I think you’ll agree with me that this is a pretty important and publicly riveting issue. Why isn’t the Secretary here?

DEPUTY SOS SUZANNE STAIERT: He’s out of town.

GRUESKIN: Where is he?

STAIERT: Where is he?

GRUESKIN: Yeah.

STAIERT: He’s not in Colorado.

GRUESKIN: Is he in Florida?

STAIERT: You’d have to ask his communications specialist.

GRUESKIN: I’ll bet that somebody at the table knows the answer to my question.

STAIERT: Yeah, but we’d be willing to bet there might be security issues with that so… [Pols emphasis]

GRUESKIN: Well, I doubt it because, see, I know he’s in Florida. Because he’s in Florida, ironically the day you put this rule out, he was talking to the Republican National Lawyers Association, as part of their “showcase panel.” Talking about voter IDs. So on the very same day that this process comes out, he’s talking to his Republican cohorts, getting other lawyers ready, from around the country, to do election day…stuff.

“Security issues?” Here’s a photo from the Denver paper posted by Lynn Bartels the same day of this hearing, of Gessler sporting his Colorado RNC delegate cowboy hat and a wide grin. As Grueskin says, on the day that this proposal was published by Gessler’s office, he was headlining a panel for the National Republican Lawyers Association’s Election Law Seminar.

How can there be “security issues” with admitting something that’s published in the newspaper?

It’s not the first time “security” has been used to make excuses for the merely politically unsightly, but it’s one of the more silly examples we’ve seen without a mistress or deleted Tweet involved.

Gessler was–wait for it–at the Republican National Convention because he is a–wait for it–partisan Republican. Perhaps the question people should be asking is, what about this quixotic search for “illegal voters” makes it a problem for Gessler’s subordinates to admit it?

The answer is obvious, but this little clip throws it into embarrassingly sharp relief.