April 10, 2011 05:45 AM UTC

In Which Ryan Call Displays Wadhams-Grade Mendacity

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• by: Colorado Pols

Check out this video clip from 9NEWS’ Your Show interview with new Colorado GOP chairman Ryan Call this week–who was it trying to make those cuts to education smaller again? Really?

Host: Can you provide some more instances where Republicans have reached across party lines at the state level?

Call: Well even most recently–and the budget bills, I think, give a great example of that level of cooperation in terms of trying to find some common ground and compromise. Not everybody is always happy with the outcome, and that’s often, maybe, a good measure that not everybody got what everybody wanted. And for example, here in Colorado, originally the Democrat governor, Gov. Hickenlooper, had proposed about $335 million in cuts to K-12 education. Republicans came back and said, ‘that’s not how we want to prioritize our spending in this state.’ [Pols emphasis] And so they countered, and we ended up compromising with limits of cutting only $250 million.

So, uh, that’s a pretty imaginative rewriting of history to say the least–after Republicans uniformly praised Hickenlooper’s proposed budget cuts to education, after Don Beezley’s charter/squatter bill, or Republicans on the Joint Budget Committee voting against school breakfast funds…every Republican education-related talking point for the last fifty years…

Here’s just one of dozens of news reports that make a liar out of Call–Durango Herald:

“Republicans are introducing bills that would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, money we don’t even have,” Pace said.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans – who are still in the minority – blame Democrats for the fiscal crisis because of their insistence on minimizing cuts to schools… [Pols emphasis]

The highest praise for Hickenlooper, a Democrat, comes from Republicans. Both McNulty and Kopp say they will try to defend the governor’s budget plan that deals a large, permanent cut to public schools. [Pols emphasis]

Really, folks. This is industrial-strength, lucid and audacious prevarication. It’s so far over the top and out of character, yet delivered with such a sincere deadpan, that you almost have to admire Call’s chutzpah. We understand why Republicans would use Hickenlooper’s budget proposal as cover for these unpopular cuts–but to claim credit for protecting public education?

That’s just too much. The “Tea Party” is going to freak, and nobody else is going to buy it.