Month: September 2023

(Colorado Peak Politics)

It looks like the bloom is off the rose and the popularity of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is wilting among some of her top Western Slope supporters.

The “Beetlejuice” incident in a Denver theater was cited this week by Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis as he explained why he’s pulling his long-time support of his fellow Republican.

Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“I’ve done nothing but defend Lauren Boebert for the last two and a half years against what I felt were unfair attacks. However, Boebert’s recent behavior is simply indefensible. I’ve heard people say that there is differential treatment between her actions and other Democrats, but that’s a poor excuse for her behavior. This isn’t a personal attack on Lauren but rather a reflection of the profound respect I hold for the office she occupies,” Davis said.

It’s not enough for Republicans to advocate for conservative values, Davis said. Republicans elected to office must also embody those values as well.

Boebert initially denied she was vaping during a performance of the musical, and said she was just singing and being too loud.

The theater released numerous video clips of the incident, including shots of the congresswoman vaping during intermission, and being groped by her date whom she has since dumped.

Davis is throwing his support behind GOP challenger and local attorney Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Democrat freshman U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen is having a meltdown over the looming government shutdown, seemingly unaware such threats are an annual thing on Capitol Hill with the media hyperventilating weeks in advance.

She told Colorado Politics:

“It’s really problematic for not only people in the short-term and the chaos that it creates, but this is detrimental to our economy immediately, and it also has significant long term effects globally. We’re supposed to be the strongest democracy in the world, and we continue to lose credibility and our position in the world when we can’t even do our basic functions.”

The freshman lawmaker is woefully ignorant the government has shut down 14 times for a period of days since 1980, when it was determined government agencies did not have the authority to continue operating during these funding gaps.

And that’s what this is, a funding gap. Not the end of the world.

What she decries as “absolute insanity,” is Democracy making the sausage.

Just look at fellow freshman Democrat U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo who represents the state’s new 8th Congressional District.

She seems blissfully unaware of the ongoing budget negotiations, as she goes about her day meeting with bankers and posing for photo ops with Colorado’s freshman U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper meanwhile is positively giddy with excitement over the possibility of a brief shutdown,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

That Denver Public School board member always demanding transparency from others is now being sued in federal court for refusing to be transparent with his own constituents whom he’s blocked from his social media accounts for years.

Of course it’s PeakNation’s favorite manchild, Auon’tai “Tay” Anderson.

Anderson was blocking constituents even before the Democrat-controlled state legislature passed a law this year allowing politicians to ban constituents from seeing their social media accounts.

The constitutionality of the legislature’s action is questionable and could be decided this term by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Anderson is being sued by a DPS parent who says Anderson violated her First Amendment rights by blocking her from posting on his Facebook page.

Ironically, the post that got her banned was when Anderson demanded transparency about the firing of Kurt Dennis, McAuliffe International School principal, and posted his demands on Facebook, reports KDVR.

“But in a democratic society, it is not just the responsibility of those in office to ensure transparency, it is also the duty of the public to demand it,” Anderson wrote.

In response to the Facebook post, Eve Chen, a parent of a Denver Public Schools student, commented, “Where can I email to ask for an unrelated investigation report against you as a taxpayer? As a taxpayer, I think I am entitled to read that too.”

Boom! Off she went into ban land,

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

(You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.)

I fly to Dallas a little too often.

When I go for personal reasons, like to visit my daughter, I’ll take Frontier Airlines. I’m willing to be treated like luggage in exchange for a $30 one-way ticket. Yep, I gamble I might spend my night camped out at an airline gate waiting for the new flight crew, or a missing mechanical part, or forgotten paperwork, or whatever.

I once waited two hours for them to empty the sewage from the plane. I’ll assume that one was worth the wait.

For those interested in the hospitality reviews: DIA’s mostly carpeted terminals are a luxurious 5-star overnight stay compared to the rather utilitarian, Motel 6-laminated floors of the DFW Airport.

If I’m going for business, I’ll pay more to fly United or American to increase the odds of getting there on time. No guarantee, just increased odds.

But I have another option I’ve wanted to try, but could lose the chance.

If I wanted to shell out a few extra bucks I could fly JSX airlines right out of convenient (for me), smaller Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport just off of US-36 in Broomfield.

JSX is the closest to a personal jet a middle-class schmo like me could ever afford. They fly small regional jets, give free snacks, free drinks,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Fort Collins is leading the way in truth-busting claims by Gov. Polis and Democrat lawmakers that passing Prop HH will magically keep property taxes from increasing.

Exhibit A is ballot issue 2b asking their voters to jack up their own property taxes to subsidize affordable housing for … not themselves.

Granted, those who can barely afford their mortgages and property taxes as it is will obviously vote against the tax measure.

But those who don’t own property yet think socialized housing is a swell idea will turn out in droves.

The progressive hypocrisy of increasing housing prices as a response to increased housing prices is lost on them.

If approved, the city will raise levies three mills, which would cost average homeowners another $120 a year to generate $11 million for affordable housing.

Golden is also looking to raise property taxes by nearly $300 a year to hire firefighters.

If voters reject Prop HH, which is very likely, Colorado’s property taxes will go through the roof until the Democrat-controlled legislature passes a legislative fix like they should have done this year.

Instead, they pulled a bait and switch with Prop HH that pretends property taxes won’t increase (see Golden, Fort Collins, and every other locality with the power to raise property taxes).

But in exchange for pretending property taxes won’t increase, the state will also eliminate everyone’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) refund over a period of years.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Sanctuary City Denver is in a panic because migrants are once again pouring over President Biden’s open border after amnesty was announced for half a million Venezuelans already here abusing the asylum system.

Only Sanctuary City is not miffed with Biden for smashing the already fragile immigration system to create chaos and gain a half million new voters.

It’s Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s fault for not being able to handle the influx of 50,000 border crashers just in the last week.

We’re being invaded. https://t.co/xoW1TWIXNi

— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) September 27, 2023

No, Denver isn’t mad at the progressive advocates who have helped some 20,000 migrants make their way here since December.

It’s the 1,500 migrants Abbott sent us in May, and the recent busloads carrying about 300 migrants that has noses tweaked.

Because that’s a political statement, insists the Denver Post:

Abbott and other Republican governors have been busing migrants arriving in their states to states and cities led by Democratic leaders, in part to make a political statement.

Abbott’s so-called political statement is that Texas can’t handle the burden alone and is sending migrants to sanctuary cities where they are welcomed.

“President Biden’s continued refusal to secure our border invites thousands of illegal crossings into Texas and our nation each day,” said Governor Abbott.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Amid much media hullabaloo, a group called “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” (CREW) recently filed a petition in a Colorado trial court demanding that former President Donald Trump be disqualified from the Colorado presidential ballot on the grounds that he is an insurrectionist. CREW seems to exist largely to sue Republicans, especially Trump. Several years ago, for example, it launched a groundless suit accusing him of violating one of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses.

CREW’s filing was, of course, followed an appeal for donations to—you guessed it—”protect our democracy.”

The CREW lawsuit is one of several seeking to disqualify Trump as an “insurrectionist” because of his actions in the wake of the popular vote in the 2020 presidential election. However, these suits face so many legal hurdles that they raise the question of whether they are really about justice or about fundraising and publicity.

This essay enumerates some of those legal hurdles.

A clarification: As regular readers of my columns know, I am not a Trump partisan. And unlike most who write in this area, my original constitutional research is not crafted to benefit particular political causes. I examine the evidence, and the chips fall where they may.

The basis of the “disqualification” suits

The disqualification suits are purportedly based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This section disqualifies insurrectionists from holding most public offices.

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