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December 05, 2007 06:21 PM UTC

"Welcoming" Douglas the Bruce

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Newly-minted Rep. Doug Bruce could be the best thing to happen to statehouse Democrats since Joe “Per Diem” Stengel, as the Denver Post’s conservative columnist David Harsanyi writes:

Surely, the best news Colorado Democrats have heard in a while was the reappearance of conservative über-villain Doug Bruce.

Bruce recently won a party appointment – voters would have had more sense – to fill the House District 15 seat in northeast Colorado Springs.

It’s not all negative for the Right, I admit. On entertainment value alone, throwing the vitriolic Bruce into a mix – where he can go toe to toe with equally nasty folks like, say, Michael Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs – should provide for some wonderful melees.

In the end, though, constituents will witness a huge waste of time.

And for the Republican Party, it’s just another illustration of why ineptitude has placed it in the minority… [Pols emphasis]

In fact, to state that Bruce has brought scorn upon himself is to state that you peddle in understatements of astonishing absurdity.

Principle is one thing, but Bruce considers anyone who fails to strictly adhere to his philosophy – often not very ideologically conservative at all – as “phobic” monsters.

The anti-Ronald Reagan, then. Instead of a joke, there is almost inevitably a personal attack. Instead of reasoned response, there is nearly always an emotional acting out – the same emotion-based logic he chides liberals for adhering to.

More than that, he has an inability to work not only with enemies, but with allies. Is this the type of representative Republicans believe will convince a skeptical public that leaner government is better government?

Unfortunately for David Harsanyi, that never stopped them before.

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19 thoughts on ““Welcoming” Douglas the Bruce”

  2. BBBBWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

    Any chance of getting that televised channel up by January? This is going to be better than Saturday Night Live.

    New Name..Colorado House of Represenatatives: The New Sesame Street!

    Oh, Colorado Springs just capitolized the E in Embarrassment!

    BBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHH!

  3. the high-level hypocrisy continues.

    Mr. Anti-Government wants to be sworn in late (after January 13) so that he can serve an addtional two years.  Now some of us would like to have him around longer, but it does speak to his hypocrisy.

    What an ass.

    Here’s the link to the story in the Rocky, which is actually a story in the Gazette.

    http://www.rockymountainnews.c…

    1. Maybe Madden and May should run a bill to prevent this technicality from happening again. You know Bruce, he likes to create laws and then skirt them. If this is what the future of the CO GOP holds, then they are in big trouble.

      Maybe Pols should run an “At least he’s not your legislator…” on Bruce.

  4. It just amazes me that the local Party organization is shooting itself in the foot this way.

    Several high profile Colorado Springs Republicans (including one or two or three on the City Council) have privately expressed great frustration with the local party leadership, apparatus, and direction and have indicated they may declare themselves Independents.  Is this the lame-brained action that may push them over the edge?

    Also, if Schaffer has any hope of winning in 2008, he has to carry El Paso County by a big margin.  Angering a bunch of moderate Republicans does not seem like a smart move when taken in the context of Party unity for a major State-wide race.    

    1. I’m not sure what the relationship is between Bruce and Schaffer.

      Are you suggesting that because Bruce was elected by the party to serve out the HD 15 seat that large numbers of Republicans in El Paso county will vote for Udall?

      I’m missing a step in that logic.

        1. The news reports indicated that Bruce got 44 votes, Perry got 16 votes and Hasbrouck got 6 votes from the vacancy committee.  From where I sit, that does not seem like even a close vote, so I guess your position is that 44 out of the 66 folks (2/3s) who sit on the vacancy committee are unrepresentative of local Republicans.

          If Republicans are frustrated with the local Party and believe this vote does not represent them, it sound like those frustrated Republicans are AWOL when it comes to participating in their own party.  Rather than protest by voting for Udall wouldn’t it be easier/better to become involved in the local party?

          1. Many of the vacancy committee members I talked to voted for Bruce to get him out of EPC.  Short sighted, yes.  But understandable.

            In all honesty, this is Bruce’s best shot to retain his power.  I don’t think he would have been re-elected to his county commissioner’s seat.

            I’m not even so sure he’ll keep his new seat.  If the party rallies around a candidate with similar views but a better mode of operation, Bruce is gone.

      2. As a former Goldwater Republican chair of the Jefferson County Party, I can tell you that we will suffer only so long with this new party of non-conservative, power hungry, hypocritical, wanting to mandate the most personal decisions in your life Party.  I stayed as a Republican for 10 years after I witnessed the absolute insanity of these people as a deletgate to the 1992 Republican Convention.  The thing that finally caused me to leave the party was the idiocy of the Schaivo case.  It did so with many of my friends.  Republicans in El Paso may be slower to catch on, but there is always a triggering event.  And whether you believe it of not, when you leave the Republican Party, it’s like being an ex-smoker.  You are rapid on how you feel.  In a state already trending Democratic, Doug Bruce’s election is just another bone to radicalism and will turn off not only marginal Republicans in El Paso, but all over the state.  The Repulbicans just set themselves back another 10 years.  I’m 52 and the Democratic majority will last until well after I am dead.  Can you say California, only 10 years later?

        1. The last time Democrats held both houses and the governor’s office was more than 50 years ago.  The last time Democrats held the governor’s office, they were in charge for more than 24 years.

          History may repeat itself unless the public reacts badly to what seems to be the priorities of the current administration — (1) promote unions as job #1 (political payback); (2) higher taxes for schools but no insistence on improvement in education; (3) higher taxes ($1.1B) and higher health insurance premiums ($1.2B) to reform health care; (4) more money/taxes for state government but no change/improvment in government services (Ref C); and (5) nice words but no substantive delivery on the promises made in energy and global warming.  Who knows what the next legislative session will bring…

          In my opinion, the only thing that will bring the Republican party back to its senses is active involvement of its members in party politics.  The party got to where it is by letting social issues (e.g., Schaivo, abortion, illegal immigration) dominate policy, straying from the core principles and the apathy and/or withdrawal of many thinking Republicans.

          In my view, the core principles of the Republican party are (or should be):

          1.  Integrity/Moral Grounding.  Leaders should be of the highest integrity and have strong moral grounding.  If they are not, they should be jettisoned.

          2.  Individual Liberty & Responsibility.  Individuals should be free to make their own choices and bear the responsibility for those choices.  Government does not exist to protect you from yourself; government should not meddle in your personal or family life.  Lots of folks in both parties say this but don’t practice it.

          3.  Free Enterprise.  Society is made better off by promoting competition rather than regulating or restricting competition.  Democrats do not believe this.  Government’s role should be to provide the basic institutions that facilitate voluntary exchanges (e.g. property rights, contract law, tort law, etc.) rather than regulate exchanges.

          4.  Limited, Accountable Government.  Government should be fiscally responsible, limited in scope (defense (internal & external), protection of individuals unable to protect themselves, legal institutions), and accountable (i.e., if we spend more on schools, then an accountable government would ensure that the performance of those schools improves).

          5.  Rule of Law.  We are a nation of laws and not men.  That means everyone — including the government and elected officials — obeys the laws and plays by the rules.  

          I am frustrated by folks who “protest” by withdrawing from their party rather than wading into messy local party politics (they always have a reason why they can’t change things or got tired of the fight) because that means their views become  marginalized and the folks who do not represent their views get elected.

    2.    Or if you want to go back a generation, is he any worse than Mary Ann Tebedo and Charlie Duke?  

        El Paso Republicans enjoy an embarrassment of riches…or at least the embarrassment part.

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