Sanity From The Leadership, Insanity From The Gazette

The one thing that has concerned me about the future of the Republican Party is the reluctance of anyone in the leadership to publicly criticize the remarks by Dave Schultheis and Scott Renfro of a few weeks back.

State Senator Josh Penry has now made some very welcome comments to Denver 9 News:

The basic reality on some of these important and basic public policy issues, including the social issues, is that there are people of good faith on both sides," { Josh } Penry said. "We have to have a spirited debate but not in a way that denies the basic humanity and dignity of people who see the world differently."

{ Josh } Penry, who said he would decide this summer if he would be a candidate for governor in 2010, was critical of comments made by two of his Senate colleagues earlier this year. Sen. Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley) came under attack when he recently said homosexuality was a sin akin to murder. Just a couple days later, Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) voted against a measure requiring testing of pregnant women for HIV, a disease he said "stems from sexual promiscuity."

Penry said both comments were "callous" and led to a perception that Republicans were exclusionary rather than inclusionary.

Meanwhile, Kristi Burton gives us the opposite advice in Sunday's Gazette (not online).

It's not just about economics and national security.  It's also about moral issues. The public obviously doesn't believe Republicans when we avoid moral issues; they're smarter than that.  People will vote for a party and a politician who is not afraid to take a stand on the moral issues of the day.

Curiously, her byline doesn't mention her authorship of Amendment 48 which got only 25% of the vote.  She now wants to be known by this information: "Burton is a 21-year-old law student and a Bonus Member to the El Paso County Republican Party.

Kristi Burton lives in her own little world.  She clearly doesn't recall the campaigns of Bob Beauprez and Bob Schaffer.  Both are social conservatives and both lost convincingly. Pete Coors actually did much better than either despite the fact that "values voters" wouldn't vote for him.  The last social conservative to win a major statewide office was Wayne Allard, and he beat a lawyer-lobbyist.

Before that, Bill Owens won by 6,000 votes in his first race for governor.

"Some people will vote for a party and a politician who is not afraid to take a stand on the moral issues of the day," but the number who will isn't enough to carry statewide or even in a majority of districts.  If it were, our government would look very different today.

Comments

[tykle]

Ms. Burton needs to be reminded that conservatives/Republicans are not the only ones, "...who [are] not afraid to take a stand on the moral issues of the day." Liberals, Democrats, and others are taking a moral stand every day when they speak up about gay marriage, stem cell research, assisted suicide, and the other hot-button issues of today.