January 25, 2008 07:13 PM UTC

Bruce Makes the New York Times

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• by: Colorado Pols

This, complete with gratuitous East Coast snark about the “rough and tumble” West, was probably inevitable.

In the week leading up to his first day on the job, State Representative Douglas Bruce, a Republican, got into a lengthy dispute with the Democratic speaker of the House over the time of his swearing in…

On the day he took office, Jan. 14, Mr. Bruce did something more contentious. He delivered a swift kick to the knee of a photographer for The Rocky Mountain News who was snapping his picture during a ceremonial prayer. Mr. Bruce refused to apologize. The paparazzi, he defiantly told members of the House, would not leave him alone.

The kick was captured by a television camera, splayed across the Internet and led to a legislative inquiry that ended Thursday when Mr. Bruce, an antitax crusader from Colorado Springs who was appointed by his party to fill a vacancy, became the first member of the Colorado General Assembly to face censure…

The situation harks back to a day when Western statehouses were halls of brawling, boozing and ill repute. [Pols emphasis] Some legislatures, like that of neighboring New Mexico, have not entirely shed that reputation. But though political divisions can be bitter here, modern-day Colorado lawmakers have mostly remained civil toward one another…

Still, veteran lawmakers and members of the press corps here say the General Assembly used to be decidedly more rough and tumble, with a steady supply of beer and liquor available to legislators and occasional shenanigans and practical jokes.

“On the last day of the session, the air would be perfumed with alcohol,” said Fred Brown, a retired Capitol bureau chief for The Denver Post…

Throughout it all, much to the exasperation of fellow Republicans, Mr. Bruce has maintained that he had done nothing wrong.

Once again, Doug Bruce puts Colorado’s best foot forward.