Colorado: Betsy Markey

Here's how some major bills fared recently in Congress and how Colorado's congressional members voted, as provided by Thomas' Roll Call Report Syndicate.

HOUSE

The Colorado delegation District 1: Diana DeGette (D) District 2: Jared Polis (D) District 3: John Salazar (D) District 4: Betsy Markey (D) District 5: Doug Lamborn (R) District 6: Mike Coffman (R) District 7: Ed Perlmutter (D)

CONSERVATION

For: 282/Against: 144 Members failed to reach a two-thirds majority for passing a bill to give wilderness protection to 2.1 million acres in California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia and protect federal land in other states.

Former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave will lead a new antiabortion initiative dubbed “Votes Have Consequences” that will target members of Congress in the 2010 election cycle who support abortion rights.

In a case of supreme irony, Musgrave intends to rip a page from the hardball playbook used by the Defenders of Wildlife. The environmental group that was credited with helping to defeat the three-term Republican congresswoman with intense local organizing and a $1.6 million barrage of TV attack ads — a strategy that was roundly criticized by Republicans.

Musgrave and her new boss, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, told the Coloradoan they would mimic the same scorched-earth tactics:

“We need to know that the person that we defeat has a scalp that we can hold up high and say their pro-abortion leadership is why they lost,” Dannenfelser said.

A bill seeking to eliminate secret union ballots for workers has not yet received the full support of all of Colorado's newly elected congressional Democrats.

While Rep. Betsy Markey, a Fort Collins Democrat, has pledged her support as a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, her fellow newly elected Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet of Denver, and Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder, have yet to announce whether they will support the controversial Employee Free Choice Act.

"Rep. Markey supports the Employee Free Choice Act. She supported it during her campaign, and she is supporting it now," Markey spokesman Ben Marter told the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

CNN political analyst Paul Begala regaled a festive Colorado Democratic Party on Saturday night with jabs at George W. Bush and Rush Limbaugh, whom he challenged to run for president in 2012.

He cracked numerous jokes about Limbaugh, especially focusing on the conservative commentator's weight. Then, chiding Bush, he described a new swing set that President Barack Obama has installed for his daughters at the White House.

"It's so much better than the one that George W. used to play on," the former adviser to Bill Clinton said. He described Bush, who has returned to Texas, as "all hat and no cattle.