Nobel Peace committee tilts left, maverick politician switches parties, miracle team wins again. Please, tell me something unexpected. Gore winning the prize, Stafford becoming a Democrat, and the Rockies beating Arizona don't qualify. (Just kidding about the Rox; I would never take our wonder boys for granted, things just sound better in threes.) As for Rep. Debbie Stafford (D-Aurora, gotta get used to typing that), my onetime GOP legislative colleague, there are no hard feelings here. Her buoyant spirit and active faith always made it a pleasure to work together. Like Sinatra, she does things her way, endearingly if sometimes maddeningly.
I see Butch Montoya is already mass-mailing the Democratic caucus with gripes about them welcoming Debbie, what with her not embracing illegal aliens as he feels an orthodox Dem should. But they will find, as Republicans found in welcoming Ben Campbell years ago, that there's simply nothing orthodox about this kind of person, so get used to it. Rep. Stafford's religious fervor and conservativish views on some issues may do her new party good.
It concerns me that she is the second Colorado Republican this week, following Congressman Tom Tancredo on the 9th, to contract what I called in a Wednesday post, Dobson's disease -- "disagree with me on (fill in the blank) and I'm out of here." Multiply that impulse far enough and we'll end up with no political parties at all.
But on balance, I'm inclined to say to my friend Debbie what Winfield Scott urged Lincoln (who fortunately disagreed) to tell the seceding Southern states: "Wayward sister(s), depart in peace.
[Cross-posted from PoliticsWest.com]