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May 13, 2012 06:53 PM UTC

Special Session Rhetoric Getting Ugly Fast

  • 10 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

GOP Rep. Spencer Swalm shares a decidedly cynical view of the legislative special session convening tomorrow morning–writing in this weekend’s Centennial Citizen:

In this country, elections are the usual method for resolving important public policy issues.  However, given Gov. Hickenlooper’s decision to convene a special session to deal with what he must believe is a civil unions “emergency,” he has apparently come to the conclusion that such issues may now be properly resolved in response to a cursing, screaming mob making death threats in the chambers of the Colorado Legislature…

The governor attempted to cover his call for a civil union special session by including in the agenda a number of bills that had wide bipartisan support and which could have been dealt with during the last day of the regular session. Given that a three-day special session is going to cost taxpayers more than $70,000, this is a very costly smoke screen to circumvent the usual legislative and electoral process. Has he forgotten that we have an election this fall and that if voters don’t like what was done on civil unions they can elect new representatives? [Pols emphasis]

Moreover, it is not as if that this rejection of what is only the latest effort to advance the cause of civil unions came entirely out of the blue.  As recently as 2006, Colorado voters rejected the functional equivalent of civil unions when they turned down Referendum I by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.

The governor has also apparently lost sight of the fact that having bills die on the last day of the session is nothing new.  In fact, Gov. Hickenlooper stood silent as Senate Democrats killed numerous important bills as time ran out on the 2011 session.  Was the difference last year the absence of a howling mob?

Pretty short on minced words, don’t you think? Gov. John Hickenlooper’s call for a special session to deal with a number of bills that died in Tuesday’s shutdown of the House, including civil unions, was of course not provoked by the outburst from the House gallery after it was announced the House would remain in recess past the midnight deadline. That is in fact a rather stupid and irresponsible allegation for a member of the legislature to make after the extremes House leadership went to last Tuesday night to ensure Senate Bill 2 didn’t get a vote.

And it doesn’t inspire confidence that this second chance given to Speaker Frank McNulty and his one-vote House GOP majority by Gov. Hickenlooper will be taken with the seriousness self-preservation interested politicians should feel. McNulty’s act to thwart to the majority of his own chamber has become a major public relations disaster, wrecking a narrative of bipartisan cooperation over other issues that was politically quite valuable. In that respect, the line from Rep. Swalm about voters taking care of the problem could be the truest part of his whole rant.

At the very least, you now know how constructive one of them is planning to be this week.

Comments

10 thoughts on “Special Session Rhetoric Getting Ugly Fast

  1. The Republicans are fucked. Their core supporters and major funders say we must not have Civil Unions. The majority of voters, and close to half of registered Republicans say we should have Gay Marriage.

    My guess is they go for the money and keeping incumbents in their safe seats over a shot of a continuing majority in the House.

  2. Has he forgotten that we have an election this fall and that if voters don’t like what was done on civil unions they can elect new representatives?

    Nope, he probably hasn’t.  And it’s a very short distance to a House majority.  In the meantime, this special session either gets civil union passed or energizes supporters of civil union to get out the vote and open their wallets to take back the House for Dems in November.  As for all those states that have passed anti-equal marriage rights amendments, most of those votes weren’t exactly just last week anymore and the landscape on this is changing at lightening speed, just like electoral demographics.

    So, nope, I don’t think anybody has forgotten anything except maybe a fading far right dominated GOP. This isn’t going to be a repeat of 2010, which was not the success here that it was in so many other purple states in the first place. And our Governor and Senators don’t even have to run this time, freeing up lots of Dem bucks and volunteers.

    Now I yield to ArapG to tell me how desperate I must be to say such things and how great this is for the GOP.

    1. The GOP is standing on principle. There is some disagreement but we remain conservatives and allies first. The GOP is a true big tent, compared to a Democrat Party that is defined by its litmus tests.

      I’m comfortable with where we stand today.

      1. Please, name the occupants of this “big tent”.

        Hint: You can leave out racists, homophobes, older pissed off entitled white men with arthritis, and angry teabaggers, strapped and ready (for what?).

        I’ll save you the problem of naming the above obvious “demographics” so you can concentrate on some anomalies.

        As far as “principle”?

        Hate, meanness and intolerance aren’t  “principles”, they’re diseases.

        From your previous posts, it’s easy to see how you’d be comfortable with discrimination.

        It’s obviously your nature.

  3. Yesterday I received a robocall from 202/599-8821, explaining with great “passion” how our Governor is wasting taxpayer money with a special session designed to “give elevated status to a morally bankrupt special interest group”.

    Paraphrasing, obviously. But those words were in the call.

    republicans at a national level, obsessing over this like little kids and old men, as usual, forgetting about the big picture, wallowing in an outdated social mores discussion that’s unimportant by contrast to real issues.

    And not by accident.

    republicans have played the shell game, diverting to the tried and true “social issues” that are divissive and passionate at once for decades.

    But they’re too cute by half this time. This “divissive issue” is a loser for them.

    The old people, sure, the zanies, the evangelical droolers, yeah, but the majority’s asking what’s the big fuss about.

    This is the mess that’s going to screw them, and they did it to themselves.

    You simply can’t preach for hate everybody, gays, women, poor people, minorities, the ever shrinking base of pissed off entitled whites like agop and the dumbed down young snarkies like ‘turd won’t carry the load.  

      1. Honestly, I wasn’t really listening until the over the top rhetoric got going full blast, then got angry and hung up.

        So I missed the end, where they probably id’d themselves.

        But I’m serious, it was a really mean call.  

  4. His district is not nearly as conservative as it once was. He narrowly squeaked by a less well funded Democratic opponent in 2008, and the more he comes across as “stupid,” “irresponsible,” and unconstructive, the more likely he is to be fighting a losing battle in 2012.

    I can’t think of a single thing that Rep. Swalm has actually accomplished since he was elected, to tell the truth. He is too doctrinaire and shrill. Perhaps ArapaGOP will beg to differ, with specifics?

    I take offense at Rep. Swalm’s description of the disappointed CITIZENS in the House Chamber as the House GOP tried to run out the clock with ridiculous filibustering as a “cursing, screaming mob making death threats.” There were a lot of people chanting “Shame On You!” Hardly cursing: you hear lots, lots worse at a typical Broncos game. There was one – ONE – person who said something totally out of line about “you should die” – and he was rightfully ejected. Shame on Rep. Swalm for so blatantly fibbing about what really happened.

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