August 18, 2011 12:25 AM UTC

"Dr. Evil's" Advocate?

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• by: Colorado Pols

From a Huffington Post report yesterday:

A lawsuit filed in late May of this year by 34 past and present lawmakers seeks to overturn the amendment. The suit challenges TABOR’s constitutionality on the grounds that rigid tax and spending limits obstruct the General Assembly’s obligation to govern. After TABOR’s passing, state representative Doug Bruce, the measure’s champion, said TABOR “was the most important event in Colorado since statehood.”

TABOR’s critics say the measure has deeply harmed education funding and public health programs in the state.

In the interim since 1992, Bruce has staunchly defended the measure. His political activities in the state have also included numerous other anti-tax initiatives, hiding from subpoenas, illegally practicing law, and failing to pay taxes (no surprise there)…

Nevertheless Doug Bruce is ad nauseum gleeful over Gov. John Hickenlooper’s request this week, as the named defendant in the case, for the lawsuit challenging Bruce’s 1992 Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) as an unconstitutional usurpation of legislative power to be dismissed. Hickenlooper has likewise, as we’ve discussed, weighed in against a suit from rural school districts challenging the constitutional adequacy of Colorado’s education funding mechanisms.

As governor, of course, Hickenlooper has an obligation to argue the state’s case, and defend the efficacy of state law. Beyond that, there are legitimate arguments for defending the process from being declared constitutionally broken–at the federal constitutional level with the TABOR lawsuit, or at the state level with Lobato vs. Colorado. They all boil down to one central premise: “the system can work.” We really do think that everyone who values both the democratic and republican (lower case) aspects of our system should be receptive to this idea.

But in both cases, can Hickenlooper prove it works; or has Bruce already proven otherwise?