Michael Bennet has been mocked on the right and left as the state's "unelected" senator. He was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter and has never held elected office before. He may be an insider for his history of government employment and long association with wealthy influence-wielders like
Phil Anschutz, but he is no career politician. Needless to say, in the era of the Tea Party, this is a good thing. He views the goings on in Washington with welcome freshness during this especially charged first act of the Obama administration, where the politics of health reform have highlighted the ugliest aspects of the legislative sausage-making process.