Oh, how we love lists, especially when a couple of our state’s pols land on a national list of “8 politicians who will make you feel good about politics.” All the more so when it’s the assessment of an all-knowing Beltway insider like Politico’s Chris Cillizza.

…But wait a minute: Did he say politicians who actually will make us feel good about politics? We gotta know more about how he figures before we even get to the Coloradans on his list. Here’s Cillizza on that:

The first 96 hours of President Trump’s tenure have been filled with claims, counterclaims, accusations of bias, outright falsehoods and lots of other things that make people hate politics, politicians and everything about Washington.

…There are lots of politicians doing it – by and large – right, working to represent their constituents and views with a modicum of humility and humor, not to mention a commitment to finding solutions, not just calling out problems.

OK. So, who are the Coloradans? Well, both are Democrats, but Cillizza actually splits the difference on the overall list, with four members of each party on his roster. It just so happens the two Coloradans hail from the left side of the aisle, and neither of them will come as a surprise fellow Democrats. Cillizza writes:

Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.): Bennet was never supposed to survive his first race. He was appointed to fill the seat of then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in 2009, when he was a total unknown in the state. But Bennet won his first race in 2010 and then won again in 2016. He’s on the quiet side and doesn’t seek tons of national press – a rarity for a successful politician from a swing state. But Bennet is smart and serious, and the Democratic Party would do well to study his formula for victory as it tries to remake itself at the congressional level.

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.): I talked to lots of politicians in 2016 about the state of politics and where we need to go from here. None impressed me more than Hickenlooper. He has had his ups and downs as governor of Colorado but was in the final three to be Hillary Clinton’s vice president. Hickenlooper is refreshingly open and transparent – about his successes and failures – and brings a much-needed small-businessman’s perspective (he founded a brewery before running for office) to the Democratic Party. They should be listening to him more.