Yesterday, at yet another long and unfruitful redistricting committee meeting, Republican Senator Greg Brophy (R-Wray) repeatedly asked the Democrats to quit playing games and start drawing the damn map. 

They refused.

Democrats, after watching their maps get ripped apart for their all-out assault on rural Colorado at the previous meeting refused to budge and instead spent the time lobbing rhetorical bombs at Republicans, accusing them of nefarious plots and other baseless attacks meant to filibuster what was supposed to be a productive meeting. 

Dems had so angered rural Coloradans that more than a few of them drove several hours to the Capitol to voice their frustration, only to be muzzled by Democrats who refused to hear their testimony. 

Democrats were in no mood to hear from the public. They had a script to follow.

Sniveling freshman Rep. Dan Pabon (D-Denver) was apparently tapped as the errand boy of Julie Wells and other behind-the-scenes Dem operatives, playing the race card accusing Republicans of trying to destroy Hispanic voting influence and hiding their real intentions with their maps.

Brophy, who has seen his fair share of partisan waterboys over the years, called Pabon and Democrats on their games, exhaustedly asking them to end their operative-written talking point script and get down to brass tacks. 

Lynn Bartels described the back and forth on Twitter: "Love the GOP strategy here. We can draw what you want. Why isn't a Democrat saying OK,  let's draw it this way."

In the end, Democrats were unable to agree to draw their map in public. They had to "check with leadership." Since when did a committee tasked with drawing a map with public input have to ask "permission from leadership" to do their task in public? This is quite clearly a stalling tactic, aiming to force Republicans to allow the map drawing process to play out in private. 

Republicans came ready to deal. Democrats came ready to stall.