Once again, the great writers at Colorado Politics have made my job more difficult by providing a wide range of stories I’m sure you are waiting with bated breath to hear my comments thereupon (useless knowledge tip of the day, “bated breath” comes from the old term “abated breath,” meaning held, lessened, or reduced. I guess that makes sense).

From a purely partisan point of view, I’m delighted to once again report on a CoPo story regarding the continued fracturing of the Colorado Republican Party. Actually, quite similar to how the Democrats do it (both here in Colorado and lots of other states), the party is nominally run by the “central committee,” (CC) which sounds Marxist as heck, but so be it.

They, in turn, elect the individual state party leaders who handle the day-to-day operations of the party, but the fundamental power to pick leaders and establish policy is, at least in theory, in the CC.

And by the way, on no fewer than 10 separate occasions during the past seven years I’ve taken potshots, I mean I’ve carefully analyzed the GOP CC and found it wanting. And did you know the term “pot shot” comes from references to a hunting game with a shot gun? The wide blast of the shotgun made it easier to kill game to cook in, you guessed it, a pot. So, a potshot is an easy shot.

Today we find, for the second time in as many years, as reported by ace reporter Ernest Luning, those outside the leadership of the Colorado GOP want to convene a special CC meeting (which would, others insist, be illegal under the party’s bylaws) to try and oust the current GOP party chair, Brita Horn (which, forgive me, sounds like a cool kitchen appliance). The outsiders want to limit her ability to spend money, among other things.

Those currently in power argue the petition recently submitted by the anti-Horn faction didn’t follow proper procedures, to include using the wrong form to collect signatures. If all this sounds familiar, it is because just about two years ago, Ms. Horn tried to ram through a similar vote of no confidence on then-chair Dave Williams (who does not sound anything like a kitchen appliance). Williams even got a court decision on his side, ruling the meeting Horn and others had held was not legal. Words like “coup” and “corrupt” were bandied about. The article is well worth reading, and I can’t help but think at least some of these GOP troublemakers would fit into the current Trump administration easily, what with constant calls for power being seized and such.

Lastly, I also want to draw your attention to another CoPo article, this one in my favorite section, Out West Roundup. It seems we have a nominee to serve as the new head of the Bureau of Land Management. And guess what? A guy who is soon to be in charge of roughly 10% of U.S. land, including roughly 30% of Colorado, at roughly 8 million acres here. Heck, poor Nevada is about 85% BLM land.

BLM lands have many uses, such as recreation (I’ve camped on BLM lands west of Colorado Springs), as well as grazing, at the ridiculously low cost to the rancher of $1.35 per animal per month. So, grazing a cow on lands that belong to all of us costs the rancher a whopping $16.20 for a year. That’s just a tad over what a single 50-pound bag of cattle feed cost, so that’s a deal.
BLM lands have traditionally been protected by Democratic administrations, and the GOPers have yelled, drill-baby-drill. So, I’ll give you a guess at what type of person the current corrupt administration in Washington picked to run the BLM? Shockingly, it’s former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico. Pearce is a vet (that’s good) but his background before congress was in the oil supply business. In other words, the fox may well be back in the henhouse, when it comes to permits and other extractive technologies.

Lastly, and briefly (Editor: good!), I want to draw your attention to an honorable thing the GOP is doing or at least is being forced to do by an honorable few in Kansas. You have been hearing about Texas, yet again, deciding the constitutionally established 10-year cycle for redrawing congressional districts (based on the census, reflecting real movement of people) means nothing.

Instead, they will, with their complete lock on the apparatus of state government, do yet another out-of-cycle redistricting in the hopes of drawing new lines to eliminate five districts that lean Democratic. This is stunning rank partisanship, wherein elected officials try to choose their voters, rather than the voters choosing their representatives. Any party seeking permanent, uncheckable, unopposable power should be feared.

By redrawing lines, partisan folks can redraw to cut up Dem areas, merging them into larger GOP areas. This is bold, vile and truly un-American.

So, happily, California and a few other states are going to counter the Texas power grab by redrawing their own lines to get rid of GOP districts. Both sides are wrong to do it, but here, like the elementary school playground of long ago, it really matters who started it.

Well, while a few other GOP states are jumping on the limit voter rights bandwagon, at least deep-red Kansas won’t be joining them. There is only one Democrat out of the four-person Kansas delegation to the U.S. House. Radical Trumpers in Kansas called for a special session, with the sole goal of tweaking the district lines to rid the state of any Democratic input. They literally wanted to gerrymander any voice other than their own out of power. Happily, a small number of the GOPers saw this for what it truly is: a reprehensible grab to permanent power. So, huzzah to those brave few, whom, I’m quite sure, Trump will target in their next primary elections.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.