Speaker McCluskie's Fumble
The Colorado Speaker's terrible decision – and why I think she did it.
I have to hand it to Colorado Politics’ Reporter Marianne Goodland for accurately reporting what happened on Monday as Colorado’s Speaker of the House turned away the families of six hostages and victims of Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel. Her reporting was fair, accurate, and well worth the read before you indulge the remainder of my rant.
For those not residing in the Centennial State, you may have not heard of the chaos that erupted during the special legislative session in December as freshman legislator and self-proclaimed “abolitionist” Elisabeth Epps of Denver decided to throw a fit over her divestment amendment being thrown out, resorting to yelling at Ron Weinberg, a Jewish Republican, from the gallery as he spoke about October 7th from the well.
Monday marked Speaker McCluskie’s darkest hour, leaving even ardent supporters questioning her decision. One does not need to support Israel’s response to the October 7th attack to recognize the cruelty of Hamas and its human impact.
While I absolutely think that Speaker McCluskie made the wrong decision – and sincerely hope that her staff did their job in playing out this public relations fiasco as a strong possibility – I do understand her thought process.
Speaker McCluskie is truly between a rock and a hard place. The progressive wing (a poor term for this group of legislators, but not much else comes to mind) of her caucus wants to cast her aside, viewing her as being too moderate of a leader for a state that has apparently made the decision to disregard the opposition party as an option entirely. On the other side, some percentage of House Republicans would undoubtedly revel in the opportunity to participate in the ousting of a Democratic Speaker.
Speaker McCluskie is buying time, juggling while balancing, attempting to keep the House resembling a chamber of functionality. Understanding the chaos artists that have now entered the chamber, the Speaker believed that by hosting the October 7th families she risked another multi-hour fight that could earn some terrible press.
I don’t envy her.
With that being said, the Speaker took what would’ve been another embarrassing moment for members like Epps and shouldered the entire burden on herself, and in doing so, sent a terrible message.
Now, the Speaker must do what almost no politician is willing to: reverse course. In an ideal world, that would begin with inviting the families back to the House on another day, telling the media that her quick decision was the wrong one with a broader, righteous view of maintaining decorum in the House.
We don’t live in an ideal world, so what I hope the Speaker will consider is to lead with courage moving forward. Lead, as you were elected to. If that leadership results in your ouster, at least you went down fighting for something worthwhile.
All leaders fumble on occasion. It’s repeatedly mishandling the ball that gets you sent down the depth chart.