I can’t decide if the late Ken Gordon is rolling in his grave in mortification or in laughter after Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman outed him for once describing the Senate as a “humor wasteland” and saying he couldn’t find a fellow Democrat to tell joke to when he arrived in 2001.
Was it really that Democrats were so dull or that Gordon, a new senator who had served in leadership in the House, suddenly found himself a bit player in the upper chamber where Democrats now ruled for the first time since 1962?
Congress Ed Perlmutter got a kick out of walking into the Rocky Mountain PBS station for a debate and finding a Sesame Street book on the cover table. Big Bird was on the cover, and had just been mentioned in a presidential debate. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
I scanned the 2001 Senate roster to see which Democrats were serving then to see if they were as dour as Gordon recalled.
Ed Perlmutter of Jefferson County was the president pro tem. He’s now a congressman. I’ve covered three of his four congressional campaigns and he doesn’t come across as dullsville. Doug Linkhart ran for Denver in 2009 and had enough of a personality to win a “Survivor” type forum. Jim Dyer of Durango. Jim Dyer? My god, he still makes people laugh when he returns to visit. I scanned through more names of Democrats. Bob Hagedorn, Pat Pascoe, Joan Fitz-Gerald, Terry Phillips. OK, OK. So the caucus wasn’t exactly Comedy Central.
But as esteemed columnist Mike Littwin noted, no one enjoyed Gordon’s jokes more than Gordon himself. Gordon, who served as Senate majority leader before leaving in 2008 because of term limits, died unexpectedly last month at the age of 63.
The late Ken Gordon
Cadman, a Colorado Springs Republican and one of the funniest guys to ever serve in the Legislature, revealed Gordon’s comments last week during a GOP uproar over whether Democrats had tried to pull a fast one with a gun bill.
“It was nice to run into you at the airport,” Gordon had written Cadman. “I hope you are doing well. It is rare to find someone in elected office who has a sense of humor and you always were available for me to share something humorous. I remember when I first came into the Senate there was literally not a single Democrat I could tell a joke to. It was a humor wasteland.”
In fact, Gordon said, Republican Sen. Mark Hillman of Burlington was the only one he could share humor with until Democratic Sen. Dan Grossman of Denver arrived. (Clearly, Gordon didn’t spend enough time with Republican Sen. Andy McElhany. Fun-ny!)
Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman
Gordon also outlined what he called “Gordon’s axioms,” or advice for lawmakers.
“If you abuse the rules in order to prevent the minority party members from accomplishing anything that reflects the values of their constituents, then you create a deep and bitter resentment. This resentment will come back to haunt you in myriad ways. Abuse of the rules does not show strength, it shows weakness,” Gordon wrote.
Gordon had served his entire eight years in the House in the minority.
Senate President Morgan Carroll, D-Denver, said no rules were broken and if Cadman has asked her about the situation before going to the microphone and later holding a news conference she could have explained that. Republicans still believe some hanky panky occurred, but Cadman said the next day a perfect storm of events happened and there was an “absence of malice.”
Gordon might be thrilled to know in this case Democrats had the last laugh.
Article source: http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2014/01/20/ken-gordon-senate-humor-wastelend/105145/