Let’s review. What happened besides Rep. Douglas Bruce leveling his latest effrontery at Mexican migrant workers as “illiterate peasants?” Well, there was that mob of TV and print reporters who proceeded to chase him around the building, asking him to Please! Please! elaborate. Oh, and a couple other minor little things, like efforts to strengthen consumer rights, protect tenants against slumlords and make health care affordable.But who wants to cover that stuff, when Mr. Bruce is around to drop another Bomb?
When Bruce, the famously acerbic author of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, was running for the state Senate eight years ago, Mike Feeley, the then-Senate Minority Leader, offered up this prediction: A Bruce under the Golden Dome could single-handedly bring basic government operations to a screeching halt.
“He has no impulse control, he can’t sit quietly and listen to anyone else’s opinion,” Feeley said. “If your 4-year-old acted like Doug Bruce does, you’d correct him.
“He will be a disgrace and embarrassment, even more than [former El Paso County state senator] Charlie Duke was. Charlie could at least shut up.”
Among other things, Duke, a Colorado Springs lawmaker who served in the 1990s, reported hearing the cackling of the devil “forcing its puppets to do its bidding” from the ceiling of the senate chambers — which would be enough to shut anyone up.
Back in 2000, Bruce narrowly lost his campaign for the state Senate to Ron May. Late last year he was appointed by 44 Republicans to an open seat in the House of Representatives after May left office early and Bill Cadman ascended to the Senate. And Feeley’s prediction of long ago, is, to a degree, coming true. Since January Bruce has done nothing but generate headlines for kicking people and calling them names.
As we’ve noted, there’s nothing really new in that department. Over the years, Bruce has described various officials as “cockroaches,” “dim bulbs,” “biased and prejudiced,” “armchair critics who don’t know squat” and even “pathological liars.” He has called his own supporters stupid morons. And, the media just can’t resist his nasty quips and jabs.
But surely, the 99 other lawmakers, plus Gov. Bill Ritter and a legion of agency heads and Capitol staff, as well as other state elected officials, would far prefer the media to focus on issues of substance.
For example, staffers at the Capitol on Monday sent out alerts announcing progress on numerous fronts:
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