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September 29, 2015 11:48 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Sept. 29)

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  • by: Colorado Pols

MoreSmarterLogo-300x218Today is National Coffee Day, because it can’t just be a Tuesday. 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 continues to debate potential funding options for the Aurora VA Hospital project — options that ideally don’t include a federal shutdown. What does our own Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) have to say about all this? Well, whatever House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller tells him to say. From Mark Matthews of the Denver Post:

Coffman, who sits on the House veterans committee, said Miller decided to introduce the bill in spite of his reservations.

“He went forward certainly without me,” Coffman said in an interview Monday morning.

Later in the day, however, his office asked to clarify his statement and make note that Coffman supported Miller. [Pols emphasis] 

“No doubt, I strongly believe that the House approach is right, but my guess is that there will be a compromise that lands somewhere between the House and Senate versions,” Coffman said in a statement.

Remember this when Coffman pretends to be taking a leadership role on the VA Hospital project. Coffman is the Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee for the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the still-incomplete hospital sits smack dab in the middle of his district…yet the Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee (Rep. Miller) is telling Coffman what he can say about funding plans.

 

► Three right-wing members of the Jefferson County School Board are facing a November recall, and it certainly appears as though they’ll go down kicking and screaming. The right-wing majority is now completely shutting out the other two School Board members.

Perhaps Ken Witt, John Newkirk, and Julie Williams have seen the writing on the wall chalkboard. As Marianne Goodland reports for the Colorado Independent:

Regardless of the outcome of the recall…

That was the mantra repeated on Sunday by the politicians, school board candidates and conservative education reformers attending an Americans for Prosperity education-reform strategy session.

 

► State Sen. Tim Neville tells John Frank of the Denver Post that he is definitely running for U.S. Senate in 2016…though Colorado Pols readers already knew this.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers wants to raise taxes in order to fix potholes in the city. The right wing of the Republican Party is not happy about this, and they’re doing their darndest to defeat an upcoming ballot measure.

 

► How far afield has the Republican Party gotten when it comes to climate change issues? As  New York magazine reports, they are in a class by themselves in the United States:

On Tuesday, Jeb Bush proposed to eliminate the Obama administration’s regulation of carbon pollution, and, in keeping with his self-styled goal of “growth at all cost,” proposes to make any further climate regulation essentially impossible. In any other democracy in the world, a Jeb Bush would be an isolated loon, operating outside the major parties, perhaps carrying on at conferences with fellow cranks, but having no prospects of seeing his vision carried out in government. But the United States is different. Here in America, ideas like Bush’s fit comfortably within one of the two major political parties. Indeed, the greatest barrier to Bush claiming his party’s nomination is the quite possibly justified sense that he is too sober and moderate to suit the GOP.

Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.

Pfffttt…and people said the earth was round, too!

 

► Congressman Jared Polis (D-Boulderish) represents a district that includes the University of Colorado-Boulder campus, but it probably wouldn’t be enough to get him a ticket to the Oct. 28 GOP Presidential debate at the Coors Events Center. As the Boulder Daily Camera reports:

Congressman Jared Polis on Monday called the limited number of seats available at the Republican presidential debate being held at the University of Colorado next month “insulting” and urged debate organizers to make more room for CU students.

Some 100 tickets are being made available for CU students and employees for the debate being held on the Boulder campus on Oct. 28. Students last week began criticizing the debate organizers for the limited number of seats open to them.

 

► You could say that Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) is a real policy wonk — but only because he likes to take multiple sides on every policy issue. From the Colorado Independent:

In a September 18 guest commentary piece in The Colorado Statesman, Republican Rep. Mike Coffman explained his June decision to be the lone Republican co-sponsor of the House Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, writing “Women’s rights shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

Yet, in the article, Coffman didn’t mention his party-line vote on the very same day his piece was published to defund Planned Parenthood – an organization whose logo he has used in campaign videos.

For anyone even remotely familiar with Coffman, this should come as no surprise. After all, this isn’t the first time that Coffman has written a guest editorial for a newspaper, only to take a completely different course of action in Congress.

 

► Our friends at “The Fix” want to know “Why isn’t anyone talking about Jeb Bush’s terrible poll numbers?” Well, let’s talk about it!

In April, one in every four likely Republican primary voters nationally said they would support Jeb Bush for president, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. Today, just seven percent say the same. And, it’s not just the NBC-WSJ poll…

…That’s a remarkable — and remarkably steady — erosion of support unmatched by anyone still running for the Republican nomination. The only person to experience anything close to that sort of drastic drop-off was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who ended his candidacy last Monday.

So, why is no one talking about Bush’s struggles — particularly given that he is the best known candidate in the field and was widely regarded as the frontrunner when he got into the race in June?   I put that exact question to some of the smartest minds in the Republican party who aren’t currently working for Bush or any of the other 14 announced candidates.

We won’t spoil the ending by giving you the answers, but here’s one: Jeb! is counting on being the last realistic candidate standing once the smoke clears in the GOP Primary.

 

► The United States still has only two major political parties, but one of them is no longer interested in actually governing, says The Atlantic. Republican Senators are apparently no longer interested in dealing with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, either.

 

► Congressional Republicans may not be able to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, but surely the recent debate over women’s health issues has been harmful for Planned Parenthood. Right? No? Oh. As the Washington Post reports, poll numbers for Planned Parenthood have actually gone up in the last two months.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Colorado Republican Party Chair Steve House supports stem cell research advances, which won’t make him very popular with his base.

 

► You may have missed the kickoff event, but there’s still four days left to participate in Denver Startup Week.

 

ICYMI

► Colorado won’t have the political jokes to itself much longer. On Thursday, recreational marijuana sales will begin in the State of Oregon.

 

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

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