February 10, 2012 11:00 PM UTC

BREAKING: Laura Bradford Swept Under Rug

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Party time again at Gold Dome High:

Probably, but that won’t stop anyone.

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As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports:

A House ethics committee looking into possible violations of Rep. Laura Bradford over a traffic stop last month dissolved itself today, saying there clearly was no evidence she did anything wrong.

The panel, made up of three Republicans and two Democrats, said the Denver Police Department made it clear that the Collbran Republican did nothing wrong other than to be issued two traffic tickets.

It’s been reported that Rep. Laura Bradford, following the dismissal today of the ethics committee investigating her January 25th traffic stop, subsequent allegations that Rep. Bradford invoked legislative immunity to evade arrest for DUI, then the stunning reversal by Denver Police, who now say that the original reports from a 28-year veteran of the force were a lie…anyway, Rep. Bradford now has no desire to disaffiliate from the GOP! This is all wrapping up pretty neatly, in marked contrast to the way she was ready to blow up her caucus only a week ago.

And even though nobody’s heard from the original police officer who made the first allegations that Bradford had invoked immunity, and no resolution to the (presumably active?) investigation by DPD into why those untrue allegations were made, or why an unnamed junior officer is believed over a 28-year DPD veteran–“there clearly was no evidence Bradford did anything wrong!” Despite the admitted three glasses of wine, the reckless driving charge, the special treatment either voluntary or involuntary that halted further DUI tests, the gun…

We would have at least omitted the word “clearly,” folks. We’d say the ethics committee disbanded because the situation was so muddy, it left them with little to investigate.

Somewhere between Bradford’s convenient line today that three glasses of wine didn’t leave her tipsy and the committee’s summary dismissal of the ethics complaint against her, we’re reminded of politicians who complain bitterly about Amendment 41, Colorado’s lobbyist gift ban. Some of these people really have no idea how it all looks to the public outside their little Gold Dome bubble. We’re not worried about a “whitewash,” so much as this becoming part of the folklore that makes ordinary citizens everywhere resent their government–while reporters, cops, and politicians pat themselves on the back for how well they “handled the situation.”

They sure did, folks. They sure did.