You’ve only got one week left to finish Leprechaun-proofing your house. 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).
► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump continues to hold a slight lead over Sen. Marco Rubio in recent polling conducted in Florida. Voters in Rubio’s home state apparently don’t have a lot of excitement left in the tank, as the Washington Post reports:
A majority of Florida Republicans, 59 percent, think Rubio should bow out of the presidential campaign if he does not win the state’s primary; 33 percent say he should keep running.
► Republicans in the state legislature have been making all sorts of questionable maneuvers this session, as they continue to struggle to find a balance between their far-right base and the business and economic interests that they always pretend to represent. For example, here’s Rep. Polly Lawrence (R-Douglas County) with a passionate argument in favor of offshore tax loopholes used by Colorado companies to avoid paying state taxes.
And then there’s the Republican-controlled state Senate. After the House passed legislation to re-authorize parental leave in the workplace — the same bill that made a fool of Rep. Kevin Priola last month — HB16-1002 was promptly assigned to a Senate “kill committee” and made to go away.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► There are conflicting reports about the near-term political future of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has spent the past couple of weeks repeatedly driving his Presidential campaign into a brick wall. It no longer seems a viable question to ask “if” Rubio will drop out of the GOP Presidential race, but rather “when.” As conservative reports Byron York noted on Twitter yesterday, the rest of America seems to have gotten the hint that Rubio has cratered:
Rubio stadium event in Hialeah. Stands empty; crowd in one end zone. pic.twitter.com/9zj0xslwSA
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 9, 2016
► Another poll is out showing that Americans want the U.S. Senate to confirm a new appointee to the Supreme Court — you know, since that’s their job and everything — but voters are getting a bit surly with their responses:
A new poll finds that Americans want a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and would rather have actor Tom Hanks and Super Bowl winning quarterback Peyton Manning over Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump to make the pick.
The new PPP poll done for Americans United For Change and provided to Secrets, also found that voters are evenly split between pop singer Taylor Swift and Trump over who should make the pick. However, they chose Trump over Mickey Mouse to select the next justice…
…The poll from Public Policy Polling said that 56 percent want the vacant seat filled by Obama. Only 40 percent agree with Senate Republican leaders.
AUC has released other polls showing that the Senate Republican deadlock over filling the court vacancy hurts some GOP Senate candidates and the new poll conducted this week bolsters that.
► Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in another debate last night. The Washington Post lists four reasons why Sanders won the Miami debate.
► Yes, Congress has seemingly perfected the art of partisan bickering, but as the Colorado Springs Independent reports, Colorado’s U.S. Senators aren’t as bad as you might have thought:
According to the study, Sen. Michael Bennet, who is facing more than a dozen Republican challengers in the 2016 election, isn’t the unyielding liberal that Republicans make him out to be. Nor is Colorado’s other senator, Cory Gardner, unwilling to compromise.
The study found Bennet to be the 23rd most bipartisan Senator. Gardner was rated slightly below Bennett, as the 27th most bipartisan. Remember, since there are 100 members of the Senate, that means that both Colorado’s senators rate as pretty cooperative — at least compared to their peers.
► Congressman Jared Polis (D-Boulderish) continues to push legislation to modernize procedures for applying for FEMA relief funds. Experts in Colorado believe the bill will be a big help in dealing with wildfires.
► As the Associated Press reports, Colorado Democrats are facing an uphill battle in the State Senate as they try to ban so-called “gay-conversion therapy.”
Supporters say that because conversion therapy has been denounced by psychology’s governing bodies, the state shouldn’t license therapists who do it.
But Republican opponents have said the ban could limit speech rights. Some challenged psychologists who testified about conversion therapy by comparing being gay to being alcoholic.
Yep, we’re still listening to that sort of argument from Colorado Republicans.
► Students in Douglas County are taking action in voicing their opposition to the high teacher turnover rate in this conservative school district. Turnover at Ponderosa High School in Douglas County reached a staggering 21% last year.
► There will be just four Republican candidates on stage in Miami tonight for the latest GOP Presidential debate…and it may be the last time in 2016 that we see a field with more than 2 Republicans on stage. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich may both be out of the race for the Republican nomination once Florida and Ohio, respectively, cast their ballots on Tuesday.
► February 26, 2016. You should mark that day on your calendars, because it may symbolize the exact moment when Marco Rubio’s Presidential campaign drove off a cliff.
► All three County Commissioners in Chaffee County (Southern Colorado) have decided to renounce the Republican Party and change their voter registrations to read “Unaffiliated.”
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Bipartisan Superhero Michael Bennet in the news can only mean one thing: his team found an "accomplishment" of the boss, sent a news release around the world, and Democrats everywhere swooned.
This confirms my view of the inherent worthlessness of being "birpartisan".
Why is it worthless?
Because this is the most obstructive set of Republicans the nation has seen and Bennet just can't quit them. They've hurt the economy on purpose with their anti-tax, anti-government theories and Michael Bennet has played along with the sequestration bullshit (that's loved by everyone who touts bipartisanship) and his weak-kneed support for austerity and his constant pandering to Independents and Unicorns.
And when he asks Liz Warren to come to Colorado to save his campaign, just like Mark Udall did, he'll have to admit he completely disagrees with her condemnation of her hideous colleagues and the special interests that give them life:
Here's the speech defining those with whom Bennet yearns to be bipartisan:
Here are a few things Bennet and Udall could've said over the years to blunt the radicalism of Colorado Republicans.
You know what Zap? I'm not even going to click. Enjoy your obsession.
Hey, it's a free country.
I'll be damned…the Republican candidates are debating substantive issues.Tariffs, immigration policy, Social Security.
I'm pretty sure most of them are lying their asses off most of the time, but at least they're talking about the issues and not playing stupid one-upsmanship insult games.
The crowd seems oddly disappointed, like the audience at a Jerry Springer show, deprived of the spittle-and-fist-flying climax to the big revelation.I've heard. I never watched that show, of course.
I would be interested to know who Taylor Swift would pick….no, really…
IIRC, Taylor is a Hillary loyalist. They planned a fundraiser together last fall, but it never happened. Taylor is all about Taylor, and will make alliances accordingly.
Hillary needs a great catchy anthem to pull in the pop culture crowd, but there's nothing out there yet that I'm aware of.
For some reason, no major music stars have felt like creating a big, catchy fundraising song for her. Wonder why that is?
On the other hand, I kind of like "Feel the Bern". Or this version:
CHB, Voyageur, I'll dedicate this one to you. Happy Friday.
There was a whole TV series called "Bern Notice." Unfortunately, it argued "When you've been Berned" it's a bad thing. But maybe we can revive it and let Fiona blow up more stuff, starting with Mario Rubio's campaign. Oh, wait, that's already been blown up… by Mariio.
Well, there is aways "Pie in the Sky."
While this is, no doubt, true, I have always been impressed with the young woman. While am too old to directly relate to the subject matter of her material, she is a singular talent as a songwriter, singer, and performer.
There is, however, a different side to her. We have here in GJ a young girl who has terminal cancer and has captured the heart of the community. During the coverage of her story it was revealed that meeting Taylor was on her bucket list, but she is far too sick to travel. Within days, Taylor Swift quietly slipped into Grand Junction and spent significant time with our young music fan and her friends. The media knew nothing of it until she was long gone. It was certainly not done for publicity.
I think the superstar is adult enough to know what to do when one, who has been given so much, can help a soul so sorely beset with travail. I think one with a heart so kind might make a good choice in selecting a judge
The #Players gonna play, play, play, play play, play and the #Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Shake it off, shake it off…
Jeezuz …
… that just may have been enough to push me back into the Sanders camp …
Ewww. Maybe I can sneak over to my brother's house and steal his old collection of El;la Fitzgerald's vinyls. I need a serious antidote to that
Ask and you shall receive, Voyageur…
That was lovely. My (half) brother is 13 years older than me, so while I lived in a Phillips county that was then all white, except for a "Mexican" family that moved in my junior year in high school, he was off in the army where he served with a lot of black NCOs, (He retired as a master sergeant. ) I spent a summer with him at Fort Bliss (El Paso) and actually got to hang with some of them. Gene had Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington while I was proud of having every Kingston Trio album made. She sure puts Taylor Switt to shame, not to mention that clumpy "feel the bern" nonmusical.
you recall…I said this…
I didn't know that Taylor Swift had done such a kind act. Kudos to her.
Uhhh, somehow I feel Paul Robeson's legacy is safe…