The happiest gang at Gov. Bill Ritter and Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien’s Inaugural Dinner on Friday night? The Ritter kids.
August, Abe, Sam and Tally had smiles as wide as their dad’s margin of victory.
“How could you not have a great time?” Abe said.
“It’s incredible,” August said. “And kind of overwhelming.”
“I’m just focusing on tonight,” Tally said. “I’ll worry about the rest later.”
The rest is fun too. Living in the Governor’s Mansion, they say, is “awesome.”
The rest of the crowd at the pre-dinner reception at the Colorado Convention Center was pretty happy too. “I am the biggest liberal in the world,” said Tai Beldock of Erico Motorsports. “To have (Ritter) win and the Democratic Convention coming to town. … I’m partying tonight!”
The crowd was made up of myriad supporters – with lotsa judges, lawyers and former Ritter co-workers. The boldest names were at a VIP reception with the guv.
Them Dems
Not everyone is jumping up and down over the Democratic National Convention coming to Denver in August 2008. Look what happened in Boston when the Dems invaded in 2004. Says Wikipedia: “Widely announced rapid transit and road closures provoked thousands of area businesses (even outside the city) to shut down for the duration, and tourists who would normally have visited Boston at that time stayed away in droves. Furthermore, the anticipated gain in business in the restaurant trades never materialized, as security and other considerations kept the delegates to restricted venues. The Boston Globe estimated the economic loss to the city inflicted by the convention to be in the tens of millions of dollars.” I’m still excited.
Ride ’em
Eleven guys are signed up to ride Crazy Daisy – a mechanical bull – to raise money for Concerts For Kids. They gather Wednesday night at the Fillmore, which includes a concert from Blue-Collar comic Bill Engvall and The Railbenders.
Last year, Denver Councilman Charlie Brown stayed on Daisy for 45 seconds – in a leg cast. He told me the next day, “I’m walking like a man with a new suit of wooden underwear. That bull was a beast with a belly full of bedsprings.”
This year the brave boys include sportsman/comic Sam “Mule Train” Adams, drag queen Nuclia “Ladies Man” Waste, hotelier Walter “Wild Thang” Isenberg, the Denver Newspaper Agency’s Tom “Smokin’ Gun” Botelho, Opie Gone Bad’s Jake “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” Schroeder, attorney Willie “Slick Willy” Shepherd, Prime One Twenty One’s Scott “Slim Pickens” Fickling, Denver DA Mitch “Ragin’ Cajun” Morrissey, Frontier boss Jeff “Naughty By Nature” Potter, and, of course, Charlie “Colt .45” Brown.
City spirit
Skedded to play Cheyenne Frontier Days in July: Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Neal McCoy, Los Lonely Boys, Ronnie Milsap, Big & Rich … Oh Brudda Dept.: If you add $2 to your $82 Aspen ski ticket, the two bucks go to fight global warming, and you get a special green ski pass to show the world you care … Sez who: “I don’t have to look up my family tree, because I know that I’m the sap.” Fred Allen
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at denverpostbloghouse.com/husted.
