January 27, 2009 05:29 PM UTC

GOP: Failing To Take Job Seriously?

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re not even through the first month of the legislative session, but we see a pattern emerging–Republicans with seemingly no interest in doing their jobs.

For starters, the Rocky Mountain News reports:

A bill that would have forced local communities to discontinue efforts to protect children from gun accidents was defeated during a hearing in a Senate committee on Monday.

Senate Bill 74 would have prohibited safe-storage ordinances in Colorado and allowed the sale of guns and accessories manufactured in Colorado to be exempt from federal laws. It was killed by the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on a 3-2 vote…

Chris Olson, spokesman for the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, said the proposed law was unconstitutional because it would have pre- empted acts of Congress.

…Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, said he sponsored the bill because of concerns that the Obama administration would crack down on gun rights. [Pols emphasis]

“People are really concerned there is going to be some type of ban on sales of firearms in Colorado,” Brophy said.

So it doesn’t matter that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest a new firearms ban is coming, and that the only thing driving this hype about “Obama taking your guns” is a bunch of fringe AM talk-show hosts. True, the gun industry also doesn’t mind.

But since this bill would directly contravene federal law and would therefore be DOA on passage, what was the point of introducing it? A red meat fact-free appearance on the Mike Rosen Show? That’s got to be it because there’s absolutely no other sane reason.

Yesterday, a GOP state senator angrily grandstanded all over a routine highway safety measure because it would fund public service announcements on seatbelt usage…in Spanish.

Last Friday, Republicans attacked Governor Bill Ritter over his suggestion that Colorado’s federal Supermax prison might be a place to house detainees from the ordered-closed Guantanamo Bay detention center, employing some of the most hyperbolic, incendiary Bush-era fearmonger language they could find. Even the conservative Rocky Mountain News editorial board found their hand-wringing laughably over the top.

When it was disclosed late last week that Colorado was in line to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to help stave off the worst budget cuts anybody can remember, Republicans demanded the cuts go ahead anyway, as if the federal government had no plans to intervene. A week before, anticipating the Governor’s thankless situation, Republicans hypocritically warned about “preserving” the exact same tax exemptions they had voted to zero out during the last, much milder, budget crisis.

We know there are many of you who will write this off as the “usual” partisan wrangling and grandstanding we see every year in the legislature. We’re not so sure: it seems worse this year than in prior years, more obstruction-minded, more determined than ever to exact cheap shots on Democrats instead of, well, legislating. And this juvenile bullshit sucks up oxygen under the Gold Dome while Colorado faces its gravest crisis since the Great Depression. We realize this is not the case with every Republican legislator, though it seems the ones who are determined to obstruct at every step are squelching the ones who aren’t.

And it won’t be forgotten…we’ve said it again and again and again. Republicans lost control of this state because in the voters’ eyes, they didn’t do anything. The same thing is happening now – instead of trying to form compromises on important legislation that they could then take credit for in 2010, Republicans just devolve into rampant silliness. Again.