June 15, 2007 04:19 PM UTC

Denver Post Hails "New Musgrave"

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s the nicest thing resident provacateur Karen Crummy has written in years.

She’s serving coffee to constituents and holding “listening sessions.”

A staunch conservative, she is criticizing the president and having her photo taken with Democratic Rep. Mark Udall.

Bipartisanship has emerged as a favorite buzzword.

Welcome to the new Marilyn Musgrave…

“It’s a clearly calculated, born-again political image,” said John Straayer, political-science professor at Colorado State University, which is in Musgrave’s 4th Congressional District.

So far Musgrave’s new image hasn’t translated into votes. During the current Congress, she’s voted with her party 96 percent of the time, according to a vote database on WashingtonPost.com.

That makes some sense, considering voter registration in her district is generally 40 percent Republican, 25 percent Democratic and 34 percent unaffiliated. And no Democrat has won the seat in 25 years.

But even with the Republican edge, Musgrave has had to fight off Democrats to keep her seat since first elected in 2002…