Say Whatever You Want in the Form of a Question

Senator Ken Salazar joined a group of Democrats in blocking a bill that would have raised the minimum wage because Republicans had tied to it a permanent cut in estate taxes. The vote is considered a setback for conservative Republicans who had put an inheritance tax cut at the top of their agendas.

So, Gov. Bill Owens has apparently gone insane. He thought it would be a good deal to toss around racial stereotypes on the Mike Rosen show yesterday. As Chris Frates of The Denver Post reports, even fellow Republicans couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens on Thursday defended former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm’s remarks that Asians and Jews have more ambition than Hispanics and blacks, saying he wished his three children had more of a Jewish and Asian work ethic.

“There are many days … when I wish they’d have more aspects of Jewish and Asian culture. I wish they’d get up earlier in the morning, I wish they would work harder and in many respects that’s what we do see out of many of the Asian and the Jewish culture,” Owens said on a talk-radio show.

Colorado Republican Party chairman Bob Martinez called the remarks by Lamm and Owens racist. He said he was “flabbergasted” by Owens’ comments. “What he said is racist and bigotry,” he said. “Even if it’s a positive stereotyping, it’s wrong.”

The best part about this story is poor Dan Hopkins, the governor’s spokesman, trying to defend his boss. Hopkins said that Owens was just responding to a question from Rosen, as though that should make any difference in the world.

“I think that Mr. Martinez needs to really carefully understand what the governor was saying in that he was responding directly to the CSAP scores,” Hopkins told the Post. “There was no stereotyping.”

Let’s review, shall we? It’s perfectly okay to say something blindingly stupid, so long as you are just responding to a question. If you say something dumb out of the blue – that’s a problem. But if you just respond to a question, you’re free and clear.

Try it yourself.

Q: Do you think UFOs exist?

A: Not only do UFOs exist, but aliens are in control of the governments in the United States, France and Bulgaria. 

See, there’s nothing stupid about that. We were just responding to a question.

A new Web site has been set up for people to report voting problems in Tuesday’s primary. ReportVotingProblems.org is coupled with a toll-free number (866-383-7913) where voting concerns can be reported on Tuesday.

The national arm of the Christian Coalition is apologizing for negative mailings sent out by a Colorado chapter in the Republican primary for congress in Colorado Springs (CD5). Mailings purporting to be from the Christian Coalition in Colorado have been critical

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