Colorado: Bush

WASHINGTON — In one of her earliest appearances before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Gale Norton, President George W. Bush's first interior secretary, proclaimed in 2001 the need to "explore the entire smorgasbord of different options" when it came to domestic energy production.

But what was actually on the buffet was telling: Drilling off the coast of Florida, coal extraction in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah and exploring for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Now fast forward eight years, to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's first appearance before the same Senate committee last week.

He laid out maps that showed wind-energy potential across the West; talked about tapping geothermal energy underlying states including Idaho and Colorado; and evoked the vision of a high-tech "super- electron highway" that will connect "renewable-energy zones" on public lands to homes in California or New Jersey.

Three Grand Junction Republican state lawmakers are standing their ground with a vow to fight to the end against meth, except Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry may want to reconsider the Alamo-inspired drug war battle cry. The 33-year-old politician could be collecting government retirement benefits before ever holding a victory parade — Colorado ranks eighth in the nation in per-capita methamphetamine use.

SB 231, which passed the Senate today, extends the Colorado Methamphetamine Task Force through 2014 from its planned sunset next year. Penry’s fellow co-sponsors state Reps. Steve King and Laura Bradford and Democratic Rep. Judy Solano from Aurora were touted in the press release this afternoon to promote the bill’s bipartisan sponsor bona fides.

The unanimous support for state Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak on Sunday was a far cry from her first election to that position four years ago, when the upstart eked by a sitting chairman with just four votes.

The central committee's resounding change of heart as Waak sought a third term came as no surprise.

The Democrats control both state legislative chambers and the governor's seat, just graduated two of their own to U.S. Senate positions, carried the state for President Barack Obama and registered 240,000 new Democrats in the process.

Waak said she can provide some continuity as party leaders work to bring new voters into the fold, and she credited her team of county chairs for the successful run.

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.