In times of trouble it is easier to be a Democrat politician than it is to be a Republican politician, and especially to be a social conservative politician.
Democrat voters have shown time and again that they will quickly forget and forgive the most outrageous conduct by a politician.
Republican voters are largely unforgiving, a lesson that too many social conservative politicians don't seem to learn no matter how often the voters teach it to them.
Recall Mark Foley? In trying to save that seat for him in 2006, the Republicans in Congress very likely surrendered 20 seats that they could have won. By any standard his conduct was wrong, but no one had the political courage to say so.
In 2008 the El Paso County Republican Party leadership got a similar lesson when it tried to publicly claim that John Newsome hadn't done anything that should get him thrown out of office. The Republican primary voters disagreed by a 20% margin.
So far, only Rep Marsha Looper has had the courage to fully object to what happened in the Colorado Senate these last few days.
Rep. Marsha Looper, of Calhan, was one of the few Republicans willing to publicly take her party members to task.
"What are they doing over there?" she asked, referring to the Senate. "I find their comments inappropriate and offensive, and I question their motives."
If other Republican office holders don't publicly object, don't publicly distance themselves from the comments of Senators Dave Schultheis and Scott Renfro, it will cost the Republican Party dearly in 2010.
Don't believe it? Read this editorial from the Denver Post.
It's unbelievable that hateful comments about gays and HIV-infected women don't merit a public smackdown, yet Marostica's venture into political name-calling does.
Yet it goes a long way toward explaining why Republicans are the minority party in this state and, if they don't wise up, could be for a long time.
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