When the chair of House State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee, Paul Weissmann, agreed to postpone until tomorrow the committee vote on lifting TABOR spending restrictions in return for nixing much of Amendment 23, Doug Bruce probably sighed a bit of relief.

The relief isn't so much that TABOR will be saved.

After all, one way or another, the measure will probably get to a vote on the November ballot. But rather, Bruce's relief could be that enough of his fellow Republicans agreed with him that gutting TABOR would be unwise no matter the concessions Democrats made on education spending.

Today Democrats acknowledged that they were still "counting votes" and are a little bit short of the votes necessary to pass the compromise measure in the legislature.

In case you missed it, Bruce has a somewhat questionable reputation amongst his fellow lawmakers. Much of it is well-deserved and self inflicted.

But some fellow Republicans, including House Minority Leader Mike May, have almost gone out of his way to criticize Bruce for every gaff or stumble he has made.

Some GOP types are guessing now they know the reason why.

"When Referendums C and D were proposed Republican leadership's biggest gripe with Governor Owens was that he didn't get education spending reigned in," says one statewide leader. "They were OK with TABOR getting stripped, as long as the Democrats agreed to push over Amendment 23."

Our source went on to say that much of the criticism of Bruce thus far from the GOP might be the result of a deal struck by Democrats with Republican leaders to introduce the tax compromise on TABOR and Amendment 23. In other words, GOP leaders knew the compromise would be introduced late in the session and that Bruce would oppose it, so they spent their time discrediting him in order to ease its passage.  

"Republicans leaders in the legislature have been pretty quiet on the issue so far," continued our source. "They are probably testing the winds to see it they can afford to support this compromise in an election year. They've already taken care of the only opposition so far to it by ganging up on Doug Bruce."

"I can't imagine the bulk of the rank and file Republicans supporting a repeal of TABOR under any circumstances," said an anti-tax activist about the proposed compromise. "The Republicans would face a revolt of such proportions that they could say good-bye to the pipe dream of regaining the majority in 2010."

"It makes no sense to me that those of us on the right give up the protections of TABOR in order to relieve the mess caused by the left, even if it would eliminate the unwise Amendment 23," he concluded. "I would much rather offer up whole sections of the state government for elimination in order to free up the required funds for Amendment 23.  In the meantime, the left will think twice before pushing for another spending requirement."