September 24, 2015 11:33 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Sept. 24)

• 9 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Can Ben Carson say something ridiculously stupid every day this week? He’s sure trying. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Congress has spent a lot of time doing very little since they returned from the August recess, and they may have to put in some overtime this weekend. As Mark Matthews reports for the Denver Post, lawmakers are calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to get a little tougher with his gavel:

Colorado’s three U.S. House Democrats joined with about 120 of their party colleagues this week in asking that Speaker John Boehner keep the lower chamber in session — every day — until a deal is reached to avert a government shutdown.

The request from Reps. Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis comes just days before an Oct. 1 deadline in which Congress and the White House must agree to a stopgap spending bill or else close down federal agencies.

Elsewhere, Politico is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is preparing his “final strategy” for avoiding the second federal government shutdown in three years:

It’s make or break time for Republicans to avoid a government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday afternoon is expected to set up his end-game to avoid a politically disastrous lapse in government funding. He will likely make his move immediately after an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood fails in the face of Democratic opposition, according to sources briefed on his plans.

McConnell can also box out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) from attempting a filibuster if the GOP leader acts quickly after the failed vote; otherwise Cruz could try to delay McConnell’s plans to jam House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) with a do-or-die vote on a clean stopgap spending bill, or continuing resolution. But Senate GOP leadership is confident they can rebuff any Cruz maneuvering.

We’ve probably said it before, but it deserves repeating: How can Sen. Ted Cruz simultaneously run for President while doing everything in his power to shut down the federal government? Ted Cruz for President: Because the Government Should Just Stop Altogether. 

► Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, telling lawmakers that “Legislative activity is always based on care for the people.” The Pope also spoke passionately about acting on climate change, welcoming immigrants, ending the death penalty, and fixing the widening gap between the lower and middle class and the richest 1% of Americans. The Washington Post has an annotated copy of the Pope’s speech available online.

► Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith is taking a serious look at running for U.S. Senate in 2016. The Republican sheriff is getting some good press out of D.C., particularly from National Journal and its daily “Hotline” political briefing. Smith is the first story in this morning’s “Hotline,” which notes that he has “a team of consultants already lined up.”

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Nearly one year ago, the Denver Post endorsed Republican Cory Gardner for U.S. Senate, saying in part that “Gardner’s election would pose no threat to abortion rights.” Gardner, of course, is now a U.S. Senator and has been regularly voting in favor of anti-choice legislation — including a late-term abortion ban that came up in the Senate earlier this week.

Newspapers across the country regularly make questionable endorsements in their editorial pages, but rarely do they come with statements of fact that are so completely wrong.

► Greg Ellison of the Summit Daily News considers the possibility that the next President could re-criminalize marijuana in Colorado.

► Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were in Denver on Wednesday for a public hearing related to President Obama’s new clean air regulations. As Bruce Finley explains for the Denver Post, residents and elected officials alike are demanding a tougher approach on tightening methane regulations:

Those rules are designed to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels before 2025 by requiring new and modified facilities to plug leaks.

Stopping emissions from tens of thousands of existing oil and gas wells — not just new ones, as proposed — “is the central issue,” Lafayette Mayor Christine Berg told the EPA panel of four.

“People have had it with the oil and gas industry creating regulations for themselves,” Berg said later. “We need to find alternatives to fossil fuels.”

► The Colorado Water Conservation Board is sifting through comments as it finishes up the state’s first-ever Colorado Water Plan. A final draft of the plan is due by Dec. 10.

► Colorado’s two largest universities had vastly different responses to calls from Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) to halt the acquisition of particular types of fetal tissue for research purposes.

► Residents in Garfield County are voicing their opposition to new oil and gas drilling proposals in the Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development near Glenwood Springs.

Elsewhere, Gov. John Hickenlooper answered questions about the likely outcome of lawsuits from oil and gas companies seeking to overturn local fracking bans in Ft. Collins and Longmont.

► The Colorado Springs Independent takes a look at the shady organization formed to fight against a proposed tax increase from Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers. IACE Action is either really against taxes, or strongly in favor of potholes.

► Congress doesn’t care about poor people because poor people don’t care about Congress, says Sean McElwee for Vox.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Longtime Colorado politico Katy Atkinson, who handled communications for some of the most visible campaigns of the last decade, died today after battling cancer. Atkinson was 60 years old.

► Republican Presidential candidate Jeb! Bush is kicking his political promise-making up a notch. If elected President, Jeb! says he’ll cut…pretty much everything.

ICYMI

► Uh, sir, your crazy pants are leaking. Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson says that the Republican Party has done a much better job than Democrats of “getting over racism.” No, seriously, he really said that.

► Even the staunchest supporters of GOP Presidential candidate Carly Florina will grudgingly admit that her time as CEO of Hewlett-Packard was pretty much a disaster.

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