January 11, 2022 02:45 PM UTC

Stay Classy, Hugh McKean (Trigger Warning)

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Sen. Faith Winter responds with strong words for Minority Leader Hugh McKean:

Yesterday @hmckean took to the radio and compared the imposition of fees to fund transportation improvements to rape. As a survivor of sexual assault this is abhorrent. Disagree with me on policy but how dare you do this to sexual assault survivors. Do better. #copolitics

— Sen. Faith Winter (@FaithWinterCO) January 12, 2022

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Each January in these few innocent days before the Colorado General Assembly convenes and the usual partisan mudfest we’ve come to expect ramps up, we always watch to see whether minority Republicans might perhaps be willing to engage more constructively than the acrimony and (attempted) gridlock that has characterized Republican engagement efforts in the legislature in recent years. In 2018 and again in 2020, as readers know, Republicans in Colorado endured humiliating defeats that have relegated them to the least amount of power wielded in the state since FDR was President. This would among normal people in normal times inspire a change of tactics.

Interviewing with conservative talk radio blatherator Jimmy Sengenberger yesterday, GOP House Minority Leader Hugh McKean put those hopes to bed. He couldn’t even make it to the opening gavel before attacking Democrats with awful language:

MCKEAN: Maybe they’re [Democrats] coming around. Maybe they realize that they have been just raping the people of Colorado [Pols emphasis] and telling them that they ought to pay more to get their Amazon packages delivered and pay more in gas tax and pay more and business license fees and everything. And suddenly they’ve woken up!

Safe to say, this is not the kind of rhetoric that builds bridges across the aisle. Yes, McKean faced an ouster attempt at the conclusion of last year’s session on account of not being sufficiently combative as Minority Leader. But this is, well, a dreadful overcompensation.

Looks like Minority Leader McKean will kick off the 2022 legislative session with an apology tour.

That, or we’re in for one nasty session.