Colorado: Florence

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter speaks at a press conference on the campaign trail in September. (File Photo/Naomi Zeveloff)

ColoradoSenateNews.com is at it again. The partisan communications operation of the Republican Colorado Senate Minority Office issued a gleeful press release Monday applauding “Ritter’s change of tune on Gitmo detainees.” The release includes an audio clip that appears to represent Gov. Bill Ritter suggesting Guantanamo Bay prisoners should be sent to Pakistan rather than housed at the Supermax federal detention facility in Florence. Except that’s not what Ritter said on a radio broadcast Monday morning, and the audio clip included on the ColoradoSenateNews site — while presenting itself as a seamless statement from Ritter — edits out a lengthy discussion that narrows the topic considerably while also criticizing the Bush administration for bungling the cases against many of the Gitmo detainees.

DEMOCRATIC HOUSE/SENATE CAUCUS

House Speaker Terrance Carroll leads a free-flowing discussion with fellow Democrats and gubernatorial staff on this sessions’ legislative priorities.

CARROLL: Alright people, quiet down. Let’s get to the important business of the day.

REP. JOE RICE: The budget?

CARROLL: No, our annual Super Bowl pool. It’s five bucks a square, and I’ll need your money by 5 p.m. today. Now, about our legislative agenda and our priorities for this session. Any ideas?

REP. CHERYLIN PENISTON: Cats! We need to make sure all cats have proper identification!

CARROLL: Um, okay. But I was thinking more in lines of how we, as Democrats, can help the economy.

Among his first actions as President this week, Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison to be closed within the year with all detainees relocated. Normally, this would be a minor blip on the radar screens of most Coloradans, but Gov. Bill Ritter has announced his support to move detainees to the ADX supermax prison in Florence, sparking controversy among residents and lawmakers alike.

The initial knee-jerk reaction to oppose Ritter's proposal makes sense; who wants a bunch of suspected terrorists in our state? Resistance has been expressed by some of our state's brightest political stars, including state Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, who referred to Ritter's suggestion as "welcoming a pipeline of enemy combatants into Colorado.

Beyond the immediate problems posed by moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to Colorado’s federal supermax prison, Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said it could set a problematic long-term precedent.

As we and others have noted, Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about making Colorado a possible target for terrorist attacks as well as other short-term issues.

Penry, however, told Political Notebook and other reporters today that such a move also could effectively make Colorado “the other side of the pipeline for enemy terrorists” over the long term.

Penry said he and even some Democratic state lawmakers have concerns about a one-way express from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq to the Florence facility or other Colorado prisons.

“This is not a partisan issue,” he said.

*Penry photo shot by Political Notebook.