January 03, 2017 02:57 PM UTC

Take Note: Colorado Republicans Suck Up To Trump

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• by: Colorado Pols

A Gray Television wire story from last week via KJCT-TV contains a true rarity: quotes from Colorado Republican lawmakers regarding President-elect Donald Trump! Make a note of these for posterity, in the likely event things get less clear down the road:

Colorado’s Congressional Delegation is weighing in on the Trump transition and their vision for the next session of Congress…

“I had the opportunity to sit down with Vice President elect Pence and to be able to hear his vision,” Rep. Tipton explained. “I believe that we have so much common ground.”

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) was in that same meeting. He says he’s never felt more optimistic about working with Trump. [Pols emphasis]

“This is a man who will solve problems and a man who is action oriented,” Rep. Buck said. “I think that’s exactly what we need in this county [sic].”

Got that? Trump is “exactly what we need in this county.” Typos aside, we have little doubt that Rep. Ken Buck knows folks in Weld County who agree.

And that brings us to Colorado’s top-ranking Republican, Sen. Cory Gardner–whose whiplash-inducing turnabout on Trump since calling for Trump to pull out of the presidential race in October has barely amounted to a speedbump since the election:

Senator Gardner joined a surge of high-profile Republican leaders calling for Trump to step down, following the release of a video showing Trump making lewd comments about women. Now, Gardner says that’s all in the past.

“I have spoken to Mike Pence, I have spoken to Reince Priebus and obviously we need this to work,” Gardner said.

“Look, I think if President-elect Trump, if his administration will be reflective of the speech that he gave after he won. If that is the way he governs, I think this country will be a better place, a stronger place,” Gardner reiterated.

“So much common ground.” “A better place, a stronger place.” “Exactly what we need.”

There’s really not much to add to these rosy comments today, except to note that they were made voluntarily. There’s going to come a time in the next few years when these words will be relevant once again to voters: either positively, in the case of a successful Trump presidency, or not. Although Gardner and other dissenting Republicans felt the freedom/responsibility to call for Trump to withdraw from the presidential race in October, that freedom has been taken away by Trump’s victory–and the more pressing need to stay relevant after the election went in a direction almost no one predicted.

All we can do now is wait and see how long it takes until Gardner and friends have to eat these words.