I have honestly spent considerable time trying to understand this one. My first instinct was to just jump on Twitter yesterday morning and flame @KyleClark per usual, but I was like no, okay, let's piece this out. #copolitics https://twitter.com/CRobertBuchanan/status/1197919693740208130
Being a crotchety old bastard, I remember how George W. Bush ran for office on a platform of cutting taxes. The first Bush tax cut bill was signed into law in June of 2001, which would have been amazingly clairvoyant "9/11 relief." #copolitics
Likewise with the 2003 Bush tax cuts passed almost two years after the 2001 recession ended--which itself began well before 9/11. These tax cuts were no more "9/11 relief funds" than the JFK tax cuts were "Vietnam War relief funds." It's just nonsense. #copolitics
Despite this I still tried to give @JustinWingerter and @kyleclark the benefit of the doubt, maybe the funds were originally designated for some kind of security-related post-9/11 purpose? But Gov. Owens' EO for the funds proves that wrong. #copolitics https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/d02103.pdf
The only thing that I can figure is that the Republicans who pitched this somehow convinced them the Bush tax cuts were "9/11 relief," and nobody is going to take back this prima facie ridiculous statement now that prodigious journo egos are invested. #copolitics
Hickenlooper's defense in this complaint has cost the state $40,000. That's a story, like it was when Gessler cost the state ten times that amount. Hickenlooper's a big boy, and @spkrmcnulty is using standard waypoints in the ethics process for hits like we would. #copolitics
And I'll say this, too: everybody benefits from a good primary. If the presumptions about Hick's dominance are correct, he'll prove it again. And it's the natural consequence of being the presumed frontrunner that you're going to get ratf*cked from all sides. #copolitics
I'm actually a big fan of Amendment 41. Partly because Amendment 41 drives @lynn_bartels buggy, but mostly because it provides oversight that would not otherwise exist at all. It's imperfect, but I wouldn't trade it away. #copolitics
Because I support Amendment 41, I would be a hypocrite if I criticized the ethics complaint process simply because it's being used to scrutinize a Democrat. From what I've seen Hickenlooper is largely in the clear and the process will bear that out if so. #copolitics
If we could get through this process without egregiously misinforming the public like nonsensically spinning the 2003 Bush tax cuts into "9/11 relief funds," that would be better for everybody--the media, the candidates, and the voters. Thanks and back to the studio. #copolitics
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