April 30, 2019 09:55 AM UTC

As Democrats Govern, Republicans Complain and Watch Movies

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

We wrote yesterday about a busy final week of the 2019 legislative session, in which Democrats were pushing to complete work on important issues while Republicans continued their strategy of gleeful obstruction.

As Nic Garcia reports today for the Denver Post, Senate Democrats finally got fed up with Republicans insisting that bills be read at length and trying to run out the clock rather than doing the job voters elected them to finish:

Parliamentary fireworks exploded in the Colorado Senate late Monday as Democrats attempted to advance their agenda in the waning days of the legislative session and Republicans continued their effort to run out the clock on a handful of bills they object to.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, invoked a rule to limit discussion on bills, ultimately leading to an all-night marathon that included preliminary approval of two bills that seek to tackle climate change and train workers for clean energy jobs.

The State Senate was in session until 5:30 am this morning as Democrats methodically moved forward with legislative priorities on issues such as Climate Change — issues that Democrats campaigned on in 2018 and voters approved in wide numbers. This made Senate Republicans very unhappy, of course, which led to a snarky line from exactly the wrong messenger:

Senate Republicans have taken the approach that one of the only levers of power they have after losing the majority is the ability to slow bills down by talking about them for hours on end and having bills read in full. So, they took umbrage at Fenberg’s procedural move.

“They pushed the nuclear button,” said state Sen. Ray Scott, a Grand Junction Republican. [Pols emphasis]

Why is it so rich to hear Senator Ray Scott complaining that Democrats “pushed the nuclear button”? Because Sen. Scott spent part of his day on the Senate floor Monday afternoon WATCHING A MOVIE ON HIS PHONE:

You can see, unambiguously, that Scott is watching a movie — with earphones, no less — and Scott did not deny this to 9News. Scott responded to 9News with a snarky comment about trying to stave off boredom, or something, but this story on “Next” ran at 6:00 — long before Scott shook his fist and dialed up his “nuclear option” comment.

(SIDE NOTE: It appears that Scott is watching a Mark Wahlberg flick called “Mile 22,” which was so poorly-reviewed that it’s difficult for Scott to claim that this was more interesting than what he was supposed to be doing.)

Why does Sen. Scott care if the Democrats dial back debate on legislation in order to get work done before Sine Die on Friday? Scott isn’t even paying attention anyway.

Scott’s theatrical whims are yet another laughable #FAIL in Republican obstructionism this session, in which the minority party does everything in its power to avoid doing its job and makes even less effort justifying their indifference.