Hey, Sen. Bennet, your hypocrisy is showing. Earlier, Bennet criticized the political theater behind government shutdowns and even went so far as to introduce a bill to address it, yet now he is fabricating a phony crisis about a possible government shutdown to raise money for his struggling campaign. Part of the problem or part of the solution, Senator?
Bennet today sent a fundraising email that said:
“Right now, we’re on a collision course with another government shutdown that threatens to derail our economy and jeopardize the futures we dream about for our children — and no one’s talking about it.”
He doesn’t give any more details about a possible shutdown other than that. To which shutdown is he referring?
The Denver Post article covering Sens. Bennet and Gardner’s legislation to prevent government shutdowns by threatening to arrest Senators featured Bennet saying the following:
“Get to work or get arrested. That’s the threat that Colorado’s two U.S. senators are leveling at their fellow lawmakers as a way to cut short, and maybe even prevent, future government shutdowns. On Thursday, Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Cory Gardner plan to introduce legislation that would impose strict rules — including the possibility of arrest — on the Senate anytime one or more federal agencies were thrown into shutdown mode.”
“Here’s what we expect,” said Bennet, who spoke in his Washington office alongside Gardner. “The members of the United States Senate would understand that … if they shut the government down, they will suffer consequences.”
… “No other enterprise that I have ever worked in produces the kinds of self-inflicted wounds that this institution has been producing over the last several years,” Bennet said. “And this is a way of trying to address that.”
Bennet even wrote an op-ed in Steamboat Today on the bill and his opinion on the political theater of government shutdowns, saying:
“This type of political theater hurts our economy and competiveness, puts our safety and international reputation at risk, and most importantly continues to erode the American people’s faith in their government….”
So, it’s bad when the Republicans use threats of government shutdown as a means of political theater to achieve goals (with which we don’t entirely disagree), but it’s ok for Democrats to gin up the same political theater to raise money for troubled campaigns? Glad we know the rules now, Senator.