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February 12, 2008 03:50 PM UTC

Tuesday Open Thread

  • 34 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“You’d think he was running for First Lady.”

–Bill Clinton on George H.W. Bush, 1992

Comments

34 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread

  1. http://www.gjsentinel.com/blog

    McInnis for governor?

    By Mike Saccone | Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 01:15 PM

    Former Republican congressman and state lawmaker Scott McInnis said he is open to mounting a challenge to Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010.

    McInnis, who served six terms in Congress and five terms in the Colorado House, said he has maintained his interest and involvement in politics since leaving public life.

    “You always keep you powder dry,” McInnis told Political Notebook.

    That said, McInnis noted that Ritter could be difficult to tackle, given the state’s recent history of re-electing its governors.

    Nonetheless, McInnis said the governor’s pushes to freeze school district tax rates, hike the state’s vehicle registration fees and increase the state’s severance tax could wear on voters.

    “Those kind of things begin to stack up,” McInnis said. “I think (they) can put the governor in a weaker position.”

    McInnis said it might be too early to say he will challenge Ritter at the polls nearly three years from now, but it is too soon to say no.

    “You never say never,” he said.

    1. How on earth do they expect the citizens to be upset about an increase in the severance tax? People in this state thing the energy company’s profits are too low?????

      Whoever runs against Ritter will be the Rollie Heath of the 2010 election.

      1. Ritter’s proposals to raise fees and such will certainly damage his stock…it’s high enough that it really doesn’t have anywhere to go but down.  It’s just a question of how far it goes down.

        1. Get used to hearing that. In two short years he has proposed more “fee” increases and tax increase that the average voter can’t keep up.

          Every other day he is in tha paper talking about a need and the importance of the voters to open up their wallets and piggy banks to feed his machine.

          On top of that he is having to cancel campaign promises he made like “health care for all”

          I am thinking after another 12 monthes of increased unemployment, higher taxes and “fees”, buy offs for Unions and support for radical job cutting Enviro’s that Ritter won’t have the easy Beauprez cake walk he had in 2006.

          And don’t even get me started on his support of Illiagal immigration.

          Colorado stills has 130k more Republicans and he is governing like he only represents Boulder and Aspen.

          1. Does Illiagal immigration pertain to just women crossing the border ?  Because if that is the case, you could just call it illegal immigration, and you could include men in your numbers too, and that would be much higher, and therefore, would create much more fear.

            Just a suggestion.

          2. Which jobs were cut by whom?  Or is that just something you cut and paste from somewhere.  Name a few Colorado jobs lost to environmentalists, and be specific please.  When and where?

            Otherwise I will have to conclude that you are just pulling that one out your…err…ear.  

          3. Every other day he is in tha paper talking about a need and the importance of the voters to open up their wallets and piggy banks to feed his machine.

            This strikes me as incoherent demagoguery.

            What machine? For instance, does he have a lot of friends in the transportation business he can steer billions of dollars to?

            If by machine you mean government services and infrastructure well, that’s not his machine, it’s our machine.  

          4. but since no one else has made this point… if immigration didn’t hurt him in ’06, and since it’s not hurting McCain all that much now, why will it hurt Ritter in 2010?

            I know you don’t have the intellect to answer, but prove me wrong if you can.

          5. …fess up, you are a rebadged BitterOnRitter.  No one besides him/you has taken such an anti-Ritter attitude.

            If the guy brought peace in the middle east, you would be pissed off.

            I’m starting to find your claims without validation and vague use of words tiresome.

            Oh yeah, in case you didn’t notice that Ritter won in 2006 despite the R registration advantage.  

          6. Talking bad about their beloved fee (tax) raising Guv will surely bring them out from under the rocks.

            I had the exact same thoughts as you, especially after reading the Post the past few days.

            People are even writing in to the editors talking about the new TAX GOVERNOR.

            Like you say, he apparently doesn’t have any idea that the state consist of more than Boulder and a few ritzy mountain towns.

            Typical liberal.

            1. A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports in August 2007 showed Ritter’s approval rating at 60%, while 36% were disapproving and 4% remained undecided. (found on answers.com)

              Meanwhile, our president mustlook back wistfully on when his approval rating was 36%. According to an AP-Ipsos poll on Feb 8th, he’s at 30%. So who doesn’t know about their constituencies?

              By the way, “don’t piss off the lefties? Neither of you are worth it.

              1. That’s the point.  Ritter’s stock is high enough it’s reasonable to think that it has no where to go but down.

                His push for fee increases and such isn’t going to help him.  Is there anyone here who would honestly argue that raising fees and/or taxes is going to make what was his 60% approval rating go up to 70%?

                The question is, how much of a hit can his ratings take before he’s in danger?  Ritter must think he can weather the storm.  Time will tell if he’s right.

          7. Would you mind backing up your claims about increased unemployment and “radical job cutting enviros?”

            According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during the 2nd & 3rd Qtrs of 2007, there were a total of 414,928 people laid off in the private non-farm sectors for an extended period of time in the US.

            Of these lay-offs,

            -24% were because of “business demand” (ie, contract cancellations, competition, excess inventory)

            -7% were because of “organizational changes” (ie, change of ownership or restructuring)

            -46% were seasonal workers

            -0.6% were because of “labor disputes”

            -0.02% were because of “government regulations”

            In other words, people get laid off because the folks that make these decisions want to make more money (nothing wrong with that, right?). They hire people when this means making more money. They fire people when this means making more money.

            People do not get laid off because of “enviros” (or unions).  

    2. this guy loves showing some leg to reporters more than anybody else. And only in Grand Junction are reporters so desperate for column inches that they keep falling for this act. McInnis last won an election in 2002. Every election since he has danced around acting like he will jump in and “save” the republican party and every time he has decided against it. As every day goes by more and more voters have no idea who he is and what he did in office. This guy is out of the game whether he likes it or not.  

  2. what a tool!

    no more gov’t loving AGs turned Senators.

    Where can I get a deal like the Telecoms?

    Has any shown that the illegal things the Telecoms didn’t do (but need immunity from, of course) actually did anything?

    1. Someone Else for Senate, 2010!

      Salazar’s redeeming quality, aside from “electability”, was his qualifications as AG of this state.  He has utterly failed to live up to that qualification during his time in the Senate.  To say I’m disappointed in him doesn’t begin to do my feelings justice.

      If the Telecomm industry feels they didn’t do anything wrong, then they can own up to it in court.  If they did and it was good faith, then the government can back their defense and pay their fines.  And if they didn’t even bother acting in good faith, then they can own up to the damages.  There was never any legislation legitimizing their actions, so no legislation should cover their butts now in defending their (theoretical, never-admitted, supposedly harmless) actions.

    2. I am just sick.

      The bitter irony is that after blaming everything on W for six years the voters finally gave the Dems a majority, only to find that a critical fraction of them are co-enablers of the imperialist-authoritarian-corporate state.

      There may not be a damn thing anyone can do to alter the trajectory of this empire but it would give me small satisfaction to take Nighthorse Salazar out of public office.  

  3. Ok, sent via email to both campaigns:

    Note: This email is from Ben DeGrow and me jointly

    Hi;

    We think an online debate like the one the CD-2 Democratic candidates participated in would be a really useful event for the voters of our state. And I think both of you would enjoy it as it’s different from all of the debates you have participated in so far. You get a number of positive things from participating:

    • It’s different, and that means you will get attention (press, blogs, and individuals) from the event.
    • Voters who use the web to research candidates find it very useful.
    • It will have a positive impact on your campaign.

    In terms of format, we think the format we had for the CD-2 debate worked great. With that said, if there are changes that you both want, we are open to improvements.

    The big question we think is who picks the questions. We would like to do it like where the questions are a combination of ones submitted to dave’s blog and ones we came up with. Ben and I would each select 6 questions for a total of 12. We do think asking for suggestions works well both because we get some very good questions and it makes all the people who submitted questions feel as they are part of the process (they are). And while we may be biased, we think our questions are also very good for the format.

    We would like to hold this anytime in June or July (except July 3/4) that is convienent for both of you. It will take 1 hour of your time and you can participate from any location as long as you have Internet access.

    If you are not familiar with us, I write the blog Liberal and Loving It and was also voted the #2 blogger of the year on ColoradoPols. I am a moderate Democrat and my mother has been in the Hawaii state house for 12 years (she’s a Republican). Ben writes at the blogs Mount Virtus and Schaffer v Udall and is a center-right Republican. (In other words, we represent the extreme edges of the middle that you two need to win.)

    Please reply all with your response.

    Thanks – dave/ben

        1. Udall has no problem delineating his positions on issues like Schaffer.  Schaffer is trying to fly below the radar hoping people won’t learn enough about his extreme right wing positions on issues in the past.  Someone else on this blog called it a stealth campaign.  I have to agree.

          Udall has participated in a Q&A with ColoradoPols in the past and I don’t think he’ll be evasive at all in participating in David’s online debate.

          One of them is who he is and the other is trying to be who he is not.

  4. I am not sure she would do it, and I agree she backed away in 2006. It is interesting that the rumblings from the party folks are getting loud for her to join the fight in 2010.

    Jane Norton has street creds and Colorado might respond to electing its first female Governor she would most likely get a free pass from the party with no primary.

    I see 2008 as another tough year for Republicans but at some point the public will tire of the Dems. Remember having all the power is a blessing and a curse. 2010 would be a likely swing back year.

    1. except in the R’s dreams, of course.

      That’s only the first of Ritter’s term and the leg has been Dem only a couple of more years.  Except for poli-wonks, the public is still quite happy with the Dem agenda and performance.  

      I don’t doubt that someday the Dems will be pushed out, but the pendulum doesn’t swing that fast.  At the national level, the Dems ran congress for over sixty years before the public got pissed off enough to change the balance.  The Pubs? A whopping fourteen year run.  

  5. A BIG “tip of the cap” to Charles Gilford and the rest of the UCSU folks for trying to keep things civil.

    A major “wag of the finger” to my fellow CU students who apparently don’t think being civil is fashionable.

    Funniest moment of the night had to be when Benson called Tim Gill (not that more than a handful of stundents know who he is) “one of the big time gays in this state.”  His intention was to point out that even political polar opposites like Gill are supporting his candidacy…he obviously could have done it a wee-bit better…

    Anyway, another good forum as we continue the dog and pony show that will lead to the President Benson era at CU.

  6. I was responding to NEWSMAN’s diary about John McCain’s questionable dealings with Comcast and after spending considerable time on my response, found the diary removed.

    If you removed the diary as unsubstantiated, you might be interested to note that the (poorly-written) article was based on an investigation published by the Associated Press in 2005.  The allegations are real and substantial, even if the dramatically negative connotations of connections to Soros and Heinz-Kerry were ridiculous.

    Administrative removal seems to have been unwarranted based on these substantial claims.

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