February 01, 2011 08:53 PM UTC

Kent Lambert Loves Him Some Sweeping Statements

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• by: Colorado Pols

This may not rate in the annals of Colorado’s most embarrassing political statements ever (former Sen. Dave Schultheis has most of the top spots locked up in perpetuity, after all), but we thought you’d be interested in the reaction of Sen. Kent Lambert yesterday to a federal court in Florida’s rejection of the federal health care reform law. As you know, this decision from Judge Roger Vinson evens the federal court rulings for and against health care reform to 2-2, and makes a Supreme Court showdown…well, it was always pretty much inevitable, wasn’t it?

Anyway, this ruling cooked off a predictable round of back-slapping and anti-Democrat histrionics on the right, including here in Colorado at the Republican Study Committee of Colorado level. And naturally, wherever there are anti-Democrat histrionics in the churn, you’ll find Lambert.

The link goes to a blog post that quotes conservative pundit Mark Levin, who, while discussing the fact that the judge did not issue an injunction against the federal government continuing to implement the law, says it should still be treated like one. Big time:

“I’m not going to accuse this administration of sedition, but it’s coming pretty damn close to the line!”

Somewhat closer to reality, the Colorado Independent reports:

Dede de Percin, executive director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, said the ruling is neither surprising nor all that important.

“These lawsuits trying to block health care were intentionally filed in districts known to have ultraconservative judges, so we’ve won two and lost two and I consider that a victory.”

She noted that the decision did not include any injunctions stopping states from continuing to implement the reforms. “Until this gets to the Supreme Court, these decisions are a lot of smoke without any substance,” she said.

So, our point here really isn’t about the merits of the challenge to the federal health care reform law, although we know that will be a lively topic. We think what’s noteworthy here is the apparent compulsion on the part of Lambert to find the most nutty, vitriolic, over-the-top commentary he can find from someone more prominent then himself…and Tweet it to the world. It happens a lot.

Your reaction is “so what,” isn’t it? Something about how you expect this from Lambert? For those of you who would like to see the Republican Party regain its dominance in Colorado politics again, we submit to you that the jaded reaction every time a Republican says something completely ridiculous is part of the problem. That this is expected behavior from so many Republicans today is a large piece of the puzzle they try, and fail, to solve at the polls year after year.

Because at some level, every Colorado Republican pays for Lambert’s sullying of the brand; this was amply proven during the recent dust-up over school breakfast funding, for which Lambert quite enthusiastically served as the perfect villain. It works both ways, as surely as the recent midterm “shellacking” was a “referendum on Obama.” Perhaps the only way it could be worse is if Lambert had a higher profile–perhaps he’d like to move up to Congress?