If you forgot to set your clock back one hour on Sunday, you could always just save yourself the trouble and move to Arizona. 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).
► DON’T MAIL THAT BALLOT!!! If you still have your ballot for the 2015 election, which concludes tomorrow, please don’t put it in the mail. Instead, click one of the following links for more information on ballot drop-off locations.
Visit GoVoteColorado.com to check your voter registration status or to print out a sample ballot. You can also check out JustVoteColorado.org for more information. For more details on local school board elections, check out ProgressNow Colorado’s voter guide.
► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) played his role today in a political theater production about his endorsement of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for President. Gardner tried to downplay a growing controversy about Rubio’s clear disinterest in doing his actual job of U.S. Senator, but this is the same guy (Gardner) who in 2014 criticized then-Sen. Mark Udall for a handful of missed meetings. D’oh!
► Gardner voted ‘NO’ on a two-year budget bill that was passed on Friday, and Marco Rubio even showed up to work to add his own ‘NO’ vote. Colorado’s other Senator, Democrat Michael Bennet, supported the legislation that keeps the U.S. from falling off of another fiscal cliff.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► Former Florida Governor Jeb! Bush is trying to press the “reset” button on his fledgling campaign for President. Our friends at “The Fix” consider the odds that a “reset” will really work for the onetime Republican frontrunner:
Jeb Bush and his campaign want you to know one thing: He gets it. He knows he needs to reset his campaign after a series of disappointments of the fundraising, polling and debating variety. His speech this morning in Tampais meant to be the visible symbol of a fresh start — a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin again.
“Our story is about action,” Bush says in a draft of the speech shared with reporters. “Doing, not just talking. Listening, not just lecturing.”
The message and its intended target is clear. ‘I’m the guy who has done things for the conservative cause,’ Jeb is saying. ‘Marco Rubio? He’s a guy who just talks a lot.’
Implicit in that message is that Bush is not the orator or communicator that Rubio is. But talk is cheap — as Republicans found out over the last eight years with President Obama. Jeb is a doer; Rubio is a talker — just like Obama.
I get it. It’s smart, politically. But I am not sure it will work for one reason: Jeb is still Jeb.
But…but…Jeb!!!
► Four people were killed in a Colorado Springs shooting on Saturday. All four people were killed by bullets, fired from guns.
► A new contract is in place to (theoretically) complete the Aurora VA Hospital project. As Mark Matthews reports for the Denver Post, the new completion date is scheduled for 2018:
Even if the hospital is ready before 2018, it still would represent a major setback for the VA and Colorado veterans. At one point, the VA was shooting to finish it by February 2014, according to a 2013 report by the Government Accountability Office.
“I obviously wish it would be a lot sooner,” Coffman said. But he said he still felt much better now that the Army Corps was managing the work. “I have confidence in this date for the first time.”
This must be a relief for Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora); it’s hard work pretending to be doing your job as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
► Tom Tancredo says he is quitting the Republican Party (yes, again). The longtime Congressman from CD-6, onetime Presidential candidate, and two-time candidate for Governor explained his decision in an opinion piece for Breitbart:
By insulting the grassroots, the GOP leadership has set upon a suicide mission. The problem is that failed leadership is allowing Obama to destroy the Constitution and take the whole country down the drain. Well, count me out.
The Boehner budget deal is the last straw, and enough is enough. I cannot any longer defend this transparently dishonest charade called the Republican Party.
What I will do instead is join the largest political group in the nation, unaffiliated Independents. In Colorado, they outnumber both “major” political parties.
Fine, but all we really want to know is this: Will Tancredo still get to attend the Coffmangate parties?
► Colorado Republicans are planning a “hearing” about Planned Parenthood for Nov. 9. The far-right Republican Study Committee of Colorado wants to spend about 6 hours discussing the same thing over and over again, but Planned Parenthood politely declined to participate.
► Ryan Frazier is still contemplating a 2016 campaign for U.S. Senate? Whatever.
► Colorado lawmakers are trying to finalize legislation intended to deal with cleaning up old mine sites throughout the state.
► The Republican National Committee is mad about debate formats and NBC and…well, they’re just mad. This is all nonsense, of course, but Republicans like to fight amongst themselves whenever possible.
► Rest in Peace, Fred Thompson. The former Tennessee Senator and longtime actor often portrayed elected officials on the big screen. Thompson died on Sunday at the age of 73.
► The undefeated Denver Broncos had no trouble beating the previously-undefeated Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. The 7-0 Broncos are now among the top four favorites to win the Super Bowl; Vegas bookmakers list the Broncos at 8-1.
Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!
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Thank you Senator Benmet.
And, yes Mongo, D = good.
R = bad.
hey!!!
Democrats rush to take over GOP's canceled debate slot.
Let's see, which party wanted more debates? Doesn't object to journalists doing journalism and asking tough questions? Wants to reach out to the Spanish speaking world? Yes…that would be my Democratic party.
GOP canceled their 2/26/2016 Houston debate with NBC, probably thinking, "That'll show them! Those meanie moderators will be sorry now!" It would have been a financial blow to the network, as they would have had to scramble for programming and ad revenue.
Democrats are negotiating to take it over. Heh. Who's sorry now?
One of many Bennet votes that prove it actually does matter whether you vote for Bennet or a Republican or under vote, giving a Republican a better chance. Just say yes to Dems. No to Rs. Heck, I'm willing to say yes to HRC and that's gonna to smart some.
How so? The vote was 64-35. Bills still pass the Senate 63-36.
As I've explained before, there is never any "one" that matters. All the votes that contribute to a pass or block matter. Your irrational hatred of Bennet, even when he votes in support of the Obama agenda and with the majority of Dems (which happens to be most of the time) and even though unaccompanied by anything like a similar degree of hatred for Obama with whom he (as he is with almost all other Dems in the Senate) is as close on the issues as any two pols who are not in fact the same person could be, is so over the top there's really no point in attempting rational discussion on the subject.
If you were to advocate that all Dems fail to support all Dem pols who vote almost identically to Bennet on the grounds that they are no different than Rs and, nationwide, they took your advice on congressional races as well as races for the WH and Governorships you'd soon find how much it does matter because we'd only have 3 or 4 Dems at most making it into the Senate and a Republican in the WH and every state's Governor's mansion. Why? Because Bennet is completely average and typical. There is nothing about him that explains your singling him out as anywhere close to being a dramatically and exceptionally worse Dem Senator compared to the norm. Nada.
You said "one of many votes" that proves it matters that Bennet is in office. Then you say there is never "one" that matters. I'm not saying you don't have a point, I'm just saying you're making it badly in this case.
You then presume to talk about my "irrational hatred" of Bennet. I don't even dislike the guy– I don't know him. I simply think he's not a good representative for me. I also don't support much of the Obama agenda, so Bennet voting along with the president isn't valuable to me. In fact, I've said before that I don't support the president on many issues, although I don't express it as hatred because I don't hate Obama either.
I also never suggested that everyone across the country believe what I do, I just said what I believe. I also explained exactly what led me to my decision, in addition to his support for other issues which I deeply oppose, his support of CISA was the final straw for me. You claim I singled him out, he's the only Senator of mine that's running and the only person I, therefore, have this problem with.
I also never suggested that Bennet is not average or typical. I said that I wouldn't vote for him because I believe what he's doing is wrong. I also made clear that I, myself, am neither average nor typical in my beliefs or in my conviction that letting things remain the same, playing defense, will only get us more of the same– a slow erosion of personal rights, workplace gains, and economic status perpetuated by a Democratic party that either doesn't believe what I do or isn't willing to say it.
I'm sorry you have so much trouble with simple English. Of course that means that vote was one of the many Bennet has cast demonstrating support for the Dem agenda. It cannot accurately be read to mean that it was the one vote that put anything over. I'm done. This is ridiclous.
I simply disagree with you that one Democratic vote is going to make the difference one way or the other with what policy comes out of a body where 60 votes are necessary to get work done when the House is in opposition. I simply disagree with you that electing Democrats "for the block" is more important than sending a message that we need real policy changes that make real peoples' lives genuinely better. I simply am willing to take a harder stance and say that it's OK to suffer for a while under a Republican political regime I fundamentally disagree with than one which pretends to agree with me and, in a "death by a thousand cuts," slowly transfers my power and livelihood into the hands of corporations and corrupt government institutions by fostering rather than replacing our reliance on fossil fuels, by enacting trade agreements that destroy our industry, by privatizing our public schools, and by creating laws which leave any semblance of privacy that we might enjoy in tatters.
I don't think you agree, and that's a reason for us to come to different conclusions, but it's not a reason for you to call me stupid, irrational, and hate-filled.
Funny. Don't know how you can disagree with me on something I never said and entirely miss pretty much everything I did say but ….OK. Let's just at least agree that there's no point in continuing this … whatever it is… because we aren't even having this discussion in a common langauge. Go in peace SCat.
Of course there’s Bernie Sanders’ first ad as well:
Not so fast with the unified debate rebellion:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-debate-demands_563811c4e4b079a43c0468ea
Can Republicans get it together to govern anything?
Koch Brothers special treatment of press pays off with special treatment from Morning Joe and Morning Mika:
Caveat Emptor: Cory Gardner is a Koch favorite as well.
D'oh! Should've looked here before posting a diary. Tancredo's perpetual in then out thing is getting tiring. For those still in the GOP it's got to be a bit of a slap in the face.