July 15, 2009 11:33 PM UTC

Denver Post Shuts Down Own Reporter's Spin

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• by: Colorado Pols

Denver Post reporter Karen “The Shiv” Crummy: “Scandal! Pay to play! The humanity!”

Denver Post management, however:

Gov. Bill Ritter has employed one of Denver’s top law firms – and his former employer – to help his office manage the legalities of applying for and spending the roughly $8 billion chunk of federal stimulus money directed to Colorado.

By hiring Hogan & Hartson earlier this year through a no-bid contract, the governor has attracted criticism, which will no doubt resurface once the governor’s race heats up. But it appears Ritter acted appropriately, and critics should give the governor the benefit of the doubt…

Hogan & Hartson’s Washington, D.C., office has an entire team of attorneys focused on the stimulus act.

So when Ritter needed reliable analysis of Washington’s hastily thrown together spending bill, [Hogan & Hartson] made understandably good sense to the governor.

According to The Post’s Karen E. Crummy, Ritter’s office has paid Hogan & Hartson about $40,000 since April. The state could have used staff at the attorney general’s office at one-sixth of the hourly rate Ritter’s former employer is charging, but we question whether the chronically overworked staff [Pols emphasis] was prepared to react as expeditiously as needed to this extraordinary spending bill.

Some $8 billion is at stake, and the amount spent with Hogan is a mere fraction of that.

Of course, if you think the stimulus is some kind of giant rip-off that you would have turned down anyway, no amount of reason is liable to convince you–and Bill Ritter is probably not counting on your particular vote in the first place. We still think even the refutable trouble Ritter caused himself with this contract could have been avoided, but it’s refreshing to see the press piecing together the mitigators on their own: even if it’s the editorial page policing the newsroom.