If Washington lobbyist and anti-government goon Grover Norquist knows so much about Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, he should debate its merits here in the land of crumbling highways and fading universities and colleges.
Instead, Norquist says he’s willing to debate Gov. Owens so long as it takes place in – can you imagine? – Washington, D.C.
Norquist, head of the ingeniously named Americans for Tax Reform, has been awfully free with his advice on how Coloradans should vote on Referendums C and D. He is infamous as the fellow who said he wants to shrink government to where it could be drowned in the bathtub.
Now Norquist has summoned Owens to Washington, with an aide saying Norquist is awfully busy but would try to find time. That’s the respect that Colorado gets from folks like Norquist. Imagine if Owens wasn’t a card-carrying Republican.
Owens responded Wednesday. “Grover, this is an issue of critical importance to Coloradans,” he wrote in a letter. “A discussion of the issues more than a thousand miles away from our state in your office would serve no purpose.”
Norquist leads the predictable group of outsiders who have spent this campaign telling Coloradans to take their medicine – starting with $400 million in state budget cuts next year. They are anti-tax zealots who don’t have to pick up the pieces should these two referendums fail.
Most of the out-of-state crowd has been content to send money rather than deign a visit, but lobbyist Dick Armey did the honorable thing. The former Texas congressman flew in and debated Owens in a fair faceoff.
Meanwhile, the Golden-based Independence Institute was in court yesterday, defending its refusal to identify the anonymous donor who paid for its “no on C” radio ads. It came out that an unnamed non-profit, based in an unidentified city, gave the institute an in-kind donation of $200,000 for the ads. State law gives voters the right to information on campaign contributions – before an election.
