Wading Trepiditiously into the Season of Sleaze

It all started with retiring Rep. Joel Hefley’s refusal to endorse the Republican candidate who is seeking to replace him, in one of the most conservative districts in the country.

“I feel that [Doug Lamborn] ran the most sleazy, dishonest campaign I’ve seen in a long, long time, and I cannot support it,” Hefley told the Colorado Springs Gazette. It seems Hefley didn’t appreciate the spurious attacks on his hoped for successor, Jeff Crank.

And what the former chairman of the House ethics committee unleashed – unwittingly or wittingly – was a sleaze fest of monumental proportions. The word has become the must-use of the season.

It did sound so shocking when the elder statesman of Colorado’s congressional delegation put it to use, but now – and we say this, as Bob Beauprez might say, “trepiditiously” –