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The Beats

A short list of select topics

Poll: Trust in Republicans tumbles to new low

Fewer than one in four Americans trusts Republicans more than Democrats to deal with serious national problems, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Thursday. The 23 percent confidence level for the GOP is the lowest rating for either party in at least 26 years, the Post reports.

The ‘Trials of Ted Haggard’ coming soon to a TV near you

It’s been more than a month since Ted Haggard’s been in the news, but the fallen pastor is back now, thanks to filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi and HBO. Apparently on Jan. 29 they are going to show us what it was like being Haggard post-scandal, moving around from houses to motels and such during the period after the founder of New Life Church was brought down in a gay sex and meth scandal.

Poll: Hickenlooper leads the pack to replace Salazar

Public Policy Polling adds more grist to the mill with a survey of Coloradans preferences among the potential candidates to succeed U.S. Senator Ken Salazar who was tapped to become secretary of the Interior by President-elect Barack Obama Wednesday.

Who will wear the hat? Sizing up the possible replacements for Salazar

Tuesday morning, at least a dozen Democrats looked in the mirror and saw the next U.S. senator from Colorado. Trouble is, all but one of them were seeing things. With the announcement the state's senior senator is President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be the next secretary of interior, it falls on Gov. Bill Ritter to name Sen. Ken Salazar's replacement. Within hours of news leaking that Salazar would give up his Senate seat, the names of prominent — and not-so-prominent — Democrats emerged. Some are serious contenders, some would be top picks under different circumstances, and a few, like Academy Award hopefuls, are happy just to be nominated.

Yankee media ask: ‘What’s with the hat?’ as Salazar gets Cabinet nod

Sen. Ken Salazar's Western attire probably came as no surprise to home-state watchers when he appeared in Chicago Wednesday to accept President-elect Barack Obama's nod as secretary of Interior, but East Coast media bigwigs have been wrestling with the fourth-generation Coloradan's appearance — complete with bolo tie! — all afternoon.

The rules of being Ken Salazar’s cowboy hat

Those wacky Beltway types. Even as Sen. Ken Salazar was being introduced as the new secretary of the interior, the pundits were wondering whether his cowboy hat would be too “provocative” for the office. And this amusing, if utterly inaccurate claim from MSNBC anchor David Shuster: "I hear from one of our correspondents that you're not supposed to wear a cowboy hat like that indoors unless you're at a square dance or an indoor livestock auction.”

Republicans salivate at chance to take on Salazar’s replacement in Senate

Republicans are lining up for the chance to mount a challenge in 2010 to whichever Democrat wins appointment to a Senate vacancy created by Sen. Ken Salazar's upcoming resignation to be secretary of the Interior. Two prominent statewide officeholders -- Attorney General John Suthers and U.S. Attorney Tom Eid -- came close to throwing their hats in the ring just hours after President-elect Barack Obama announced Salazar would, indeed, be a Cabinet nominee, The Denver Post is reporting. Add their names to a roster of the usual suspects, and the state GOP could have a rousing primary on its hands for a race thought only recently to be a steep, uphill climb.

A ‘modest’ pay raise for Morrissey? It’s all relative

Just in time for Christmas, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey is “poised” to receive a $32,000 salary increase in 2009, bringing his annual pay to $177,000. His spokesman calls the raise “modest,” and says “if you want skilled people with the expertise who are going to provide that core government function of public safety, there does have to be fair compensation.” Um, OK. Let’s consider it another way: The proposed salary is more than twice as much as the $80,004 that Colorado Attorney General John Suthers earns, nearly twice as much as the $90,000 that Gov. Bill Ritter is paid — and far more than the $149,000 that Colorado U.S. Attorney Troy Eid currently makes.

Ag-nominee Vilsack speech at CU Law hints at ethanol, trade and labor stances

Way back in late 2006 former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack ran for the democratic nomination for president — for a whole three months until he gave it up in Feb. 2007. While on the routine nationwide criss-cross tour to make the case for his candidacy Vilsack, long known as a pragmatic centrist, launched into a rather fiery Q&A following a speech at the University of Colorado Law School. Those remarks could serve as an interesting predictor of Vilsack's approach to food, farming and energy as Pres.-elect Barack Obama's newly nominated U.S. Agriculture Secretary.

Obama announces Salazar is his pick for interior, Vilsack for agriculture

As expected, President-elect Barack Obama made it official Wednesday morning in Chicago: Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar is his choice to be the next secretary of the interior. At the same press conference, Obama announced former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack will be his nominee for secretary of agriculture — an appointment rumored as recently as last week to belong to Salazar's brother, Rep. John Salazar. The two are "guardians of the American landscape on which the health of our economy and the well-being of our families so heavily depend," Obama said in his introductory remarks.
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