Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

If you’ve been feeling whiplash with all the movement around school choice legal fights, you aren’t alone. The last two days, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled on two major school choice lawsuits in the past two days. Yesterday, SCOTUS ruled on Trinity Lutheran, as explained by the Denver Post ed board:

“The high court argued that Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources was wrong to prevent Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia from taking part in a program that uses shredded tires in playgrounds to protect against scrapes and bruises. The church operates a preschool and hoped to replace decidedly less-cushioning pea gravel. Its application for the program ranked near the top of a list of competitors, meaning it would have won on the merits, but officials reading their state’s constitution, and its inclusion of so-called Blaine Amendment language, disqualified the church.”

This overview was part of an editorial on why this case could mean good news for the Douglas County voucher case, which, this morning, SCOTUS sent back to the Colorado Supreme Court to consider given the ruling Trinity Lutheran case. In this case, SCOTUS is offering the Colorado Supreme Court a chance to get this case right. If it rules the right way – according to Trinity Lutheran – Douglas County voucher programs can proceed. If it doesn’t, the case may go back to SCOTUS to get another hearing.

Both cases are dependent on something called Blaine Amendments, something we’ve covered extensively. Blaine Amendments are a not-so-veiled attempt at religious bigotry, particularly against Catholics. From the Denver Post editorial:

“The language, a holdover from the 19th century, was meant to isolate Catholic schools during a time of heightened Protestant prejudice. Colorado’s version bars any funding that helps “support or sustain” any school “controlled by any church or sectarian denomination,” a high bar indeed. This despite the fact that when lawmakers inserted the Blaine language in 1876, it was common for other religious-based instruction to receive support in public schools.”

This ruling means that the Douglas County case is the best chance that our country has at righting this intolerable religious bigotry. Unfortunately, all four of Douglas County School Board’s pro-school choice are up for grabs this year. The teachers union, which has made this race a top priority as we first reported, has to take just one of these seats and this opportunity disappears. The stakes are high in Douglas County and national eyes are watching.

In a hilarious tweet, 9News reporter Brandon Rittiman nailed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for being lazy. According to a site called DiffChecker, which compares text differences between two text files, regardless of whether a legislator voted against the American Health Care Act, like U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, or for the AHCA, like Rep. Scott Tipton, the messaging was the same. Here is Rittiman’s tweet:

No matter whether you voted AGAINST #AHCA (like @RepMikeCoffman) or FOR it (@RepTipton)– the @dccc spins it the same:#COpolitics #9NEWS pic.twitter.com/UEBoQwTtYQ

— Brandon Rittiman (@BrandonRittiman) June 26, 2017

In response, DCCC national press secretary Tyler Law said, “Nailed It.” Um, not exactly Tyler. Could he be any more craven and cynical? This damned if you do, damned if you don’t approach to politics is one of the big reasons people hate politicians. Law isn’t winning hearts and minds – or votes – he’s just alienating average voters. So, good luck with that in 2018.

Private businesses have had to cutback, lay off and slash jobs while desperately trying to stay in business during the Obama administration, all while paying more in taxes and watching the government bloat with newer and higher paying jobs.

Well, the piper is calling and now it’s time for bureaucrats to line up for pink slips. And yes, we will feel that out here in the West.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said this week he wants to cut 4,000 jobs from his department that hosts 70,000 jobs, with about 1,000 coming from the BLM that has nearly 12,000 employees.

But not to environmentalists who want to kill private sector energy jobs, and they need these government sheep to do their dirty work for them.

To PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, the prospect of cutting Interior Department jobs is just one step short of murder, a “starvation diet.”

“According to Trump’s fantasy plan, BLM is supposed to achieve energy independence before its coffee break, stimulate rural job creation by lunch and do it with substantially less resources,” Ruch said. He predicted that reductions of that magnitude would likely require layoffs.

The Park Service is dealing with proposed cuts in a typical manner — through emotional blackmail and threats of closing parks early or eliminating some visitor services.

Government workers have avoided cutbacks and losses for decades by pleading to the media to convince the public those jobs are needed or it’s the public who will suffer.

But after eight years of Obama administration job loses in the private sector, we don’t expect to see much sympathy.

I hate you, Colorado Peak Politics

On May 5, the Colorado State Senate voted down the re-appointment of Heidi Hess to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. So, then, why is Hess still on the commission? That’s the question that Senate President Kevin Grantham is grappling with.

“It’s mind-boggling that the governor would just choose to ignore the (state) constitution’s plain language. It calls into question the governor’s respect for the institution.”

Republican legislators originally voted her down because she advocated for suing business owners instead of finding positive resolutions to civil rights issues. Hickenlooper’s response to the head scratching? Come up with a convoluted legal response that still allows him to keep this trial lawyer advocate his pick on the Commission. Here is what his spokesperson said when pushed on the matter:

“A spokeswoman for the governor said that state law says ‘when an appointee is not confirmed by the Senate, the last person to hold the seat … continues to serve until the governor appoints a successor.'”

So, the governor, in theory, could just never appoint someone else and keep his person on the Commission in perpetuity, which is clearly not in the spirit of the law.  But whatever it takes to make Democratic donors happy.

At today’s Focus on the Family visit from Vice President Mike Pence, activists dressed up as pilgrims and ambled about looking at their cell phones. Just kidding, the women at the protest were dressed as characters from the Handmaid’s Tale, a feminist tale of male-dominated dystopia. Or something. We’d probably know if we watched it. We were more interested when we thought it was a historical drama like Downton Abbey. But we digress.

Apparently, dressing as the oppressed women from this fantasy movie? TV show? activist webinar? was meant to show the Vice President that women were passionately displeased by his existence. Instead, they showed him that their passion for equality (is that what they’re protesting?) can be tamed by one thing – their cell phones.

Check out the footage that Revealing Politics caught here:

Note the woman with an “Abort Mike Pence” sign – and what’s up with the cat ears? This must be a Laura Chapin production. Nonetheless, what loving and compelling arguments from a group of desperate losers who continue to lose because their message is so tone deaf.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner came out swinging against critics of the Better Care Reconciliation Act Thursday who criticized the plan about five minutes after it was released.

It’s so annoyingly partisan and we’re glad he called them out, and not just Democrats, but a few members of his own party.

“It’s frustrating that instead of actually reviewing the legislative text some have decided to immediately oppose the bill before it was even introduced. This deserves serious debate, not knee-jerk reaction.”

According to the Denver Post, “reading the bill — let alone understanding it — is a process that could take hours, given its length of 142 pages.”

But not for wannabe Democratic governors like U.S. Reps. Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter. We grabbed these tweets more than eight hours after the plan was distributed.

Senate #HealthcareBill was written in secret by a small group of GOP senators, ignoring the democratic process.The end result is disastrous.

— Rep. Ed Perlmutter (@RepPerlmutter) June 22, 2017

Does anyone including the media really think senators are all gathered around computers typing up the bill, proofing it, and then making 535 photocopies of it to distribute?

We’re pretty sure it’s compiled by committee staffers, and then actually goes to the congressional printer and then distributed.

Congressmen should know better. And then there’s Polis:

At its heart, #Trumpcare is a tax cut for billionaires and special interests disguised as a healthcare plan.

— Rep. Jared Polis (@RepJaredPolis) June 22, 2017

Not only is this tired rhetoric just that, but the big tax cut is that people who can’t afford to buy insurance won’t be taxed for it.

What else is actually in the bill? To be honest, we haven’t read it beyond the tax cut so we’ll have to get back to PeakNation™ on that.

Vice President Mike Pence will be in Colorado Springs Friday for the 40th anniversary celebration of Focus on the Family.

It won’t be a public event because of security concerns, but KOAA News 5 will carry the event live at 11 a.m.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner will also get some face time with the vice president during an evening reception.

Pence will also swing by Schriever Air Force Base and tour the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

We expect his reception will be warm, and the news coverage negative.

We started an office pool to bet on which national activist group will interrupt the day’s events with a pathetic PR stunt. We pulled the only name out of our fishbowl and expect it to be a winner.

Here’s a hint, it starts with D-E-M-O-C and ends in R-A-T-S.