December 21, 2007 11:36 PM UTC

"Kudos" for What? Being Losers?

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• by: Colorado Pols

If this is the sort of thing that Colorado Republicans are going to hang their hats on in 2008, it’s going to be a long year. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports:

Statehouse reporter Ed Sealover reports that minority-party Republicans may not be winning a lot of political battles at the Capitol these days, but they’re earning kudos nevertheless.

Ten Pikes Peak-area legislators recently received the Colorado Civil Justice League’s 2007 “Common Sense in the Courtroom” award, in part for voting against bills that would’ve allowed bigger lawsuits against businesses.

The league is a business litigation coalition that wants to limit liability. The recipients, all Republicans: Sens. Andy McElhany, Dave Schultheis, Bill Cadman and Tom Wiens, and Reps. Bob Gardner, Stella Garza Hicks, Larry Liston, Marsha Looper, Victor Mitchell and Amy Stephens.

It’s no surprise that Republicans can get the support of “business litigation coalitions” who support limiting consumer protections, but that’s the sort of issue that tends to have the reverse effect on actual voters. “Kudos” like these remind us of last year’s ugly fight over homeowner protections against builders–Republicans looked great to a few big donors, but it was a major strike-out with the voting public.

Republicans looked quite a bit better a few days ago when they stood on the same podium with statehouse Democrats explaining how neither side had plans to get crazy in 2008 with big tax hikes or suicidal budget cuts–and how bipartisan consensus on many important issues like education and transportation remained possible. This sums up best what the public wants to see in leadership regardless of party affiliation: progress, restraint, cooperation. The stuff Republicans used to win with, and now lose without.

We’ve said countless times that Republicans have a natural advantage among Colorado’s conservative-leaning independents, and this remains a GOP-plurality state. Republicans lost their way by appearing too ideologically inflexible, unresponsive to changing responsibilities and conditions, not to mention hypocritical in far too many cases.

One of the two paths illustrated by these press events ends in another disaster at the polls in 2008. Which will the Colorado GOP take?