The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels writes for The Spot:
Remedial bill reading, anyone? The suggestion [yesterday] raised the hackles of Rep. Amy Stephens.
The exchange between Stephens, a Monument Republican, and Rep. Jack Pommer, a Boulder Democrat, came as the two tangled over House Bill 1193, which would repeal the tax exemption for out-of-state retailers.
She wanted Pommer to explain the Senate amendments to the bill, and asked several times because she didn’t believe he had answered her questions.
“If you don’t understand the bill I would suggest you read it again. I think it is pretty self explanatory,” Pommer said. “If you don’t understand it, I suggest you ask for help. But I’m not here to do remedial reading.”
Stephens was furious and let Pommer know it.
“It’s absolutely uncalled for. It’s absolutely rude. And it’s a putdown in civility, sir,” she said.
Afteward, Stephens said she planned to write a letter to the speaker because she believed the comments were sexist…
Most people who know Rep. Jack Pommer will concede–at least when he’s not in earshot–that he is absolutely capable of being an asshole. We’ve heard enough stories about Pommer coming completely unglued on persons of either gender, though, that we don’t imagine for a moment this was a ‘sexist’ putdown–it’s just Pommer proudly displaying his inability to suffer fools gladly, which he would he done as abruptly to Mike May or anybody else. And if you haven’t noticed, things have been a little heated at the Capitol lately.
So, here’s our understanding of what happened: the bill Amy Stephens was claiming to “not understand” was, naturally, one of the tax exemption repeal bills that passed this week. Every one of these bills has been subject to over-the-top, drawn-out-to-the-limit obstruction attempts from the Republican caucus–this exchange occurred while the House was debating GOP motions to reject the amendments made by the the Senate and ship the bill back for still another round of debate, which had slightly less than a snowball’s chance in hell of happening.
After these exemption repeal bills have been debated and recriminated ad nauseum into the wee hours of the morning, and passed both houses, no legislator can plausibly claim to ‘not understand’ them–and Stephens was surely not going to hear anything that would change her “no” vote, was she? There’s nobody we’ve talked to who seriously thinks Stephens’ ignorance-feigning delay tactics were anything but exactly that. And once Pommer responded to Stephens’ lame, pedantic, repetitive requests with his trademark brusqueness, cries of “sexism?”
That’s just cheesy, and if you’re to take this seriously at all (we don’t, and based on this report few others do either), if anything she disrespected authentic victims.
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Well, we could hope.
“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” – Alfred North Whitehead
He’s a Democrat!
Isn’t that the point of this blog?
In Jeopardy, Pommer would kick Stephens’ ass.
He would also kick the ass of just about everybody else in the Legislature, but that probably says more about the brainpower in the Legislature than Pommer’s own smarts.
and pretending to not know what was going on.
is that she is a Republican so she is expected to lie. It is in their DNA to waste time and lie to prevent any progress in solving our most difficult problems.
I just glad the guy didn’t bitch slap her for being such a tool. Now that would be sexist.
One of the great joys I get out of reading this website is to read about a donkey who makes an ass out of himself, and a ColoradoPols writer who comes along with a broom and a bucket to try and clean up the mess. Do you know how many amendments were offered or when they were offered? Of course you don’t. You also try to add fuel to the fire by claiming these bills have passed both houses. If so, why are they still debating? Why isn’t the bill on Ritter’s desk? “There’s nobody we’ve talked to that…” Seriously? Who was your conversation with – that voice you hear in your head when you start spinning the facts?
The point is this – there is a level of decorum and civility expected by our legislators. You can agree to disagree based on ideology, etc but leave the breakdown of civility for the Doug Bruces of the world, with whom Pommer now belongs on the same platform with.