REP. DOUG BRUCE: WE DON'T NEED 5000 ILLEGAL PEASANTS IN COLORADO

"HOW DARE YOU!"

Gavel cuts Bruce short
Springs legislator silenced after 'peasants' remark
Chris Barge and Alan Gathright
Originally published 12:59 p.m., April 21, 2008
Updated 05:52 a.m., April 22, 2008

Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

Rep. Douglas Bruce sits at his desk in the House at the Capitol on Monday. Bruce was ordered to leave the podium earlier in the day for calling temporary migrant workers "illiterate peasants."
Rep. Douglas Bruce wanted to make it clear he didn't like Rep. Marsha Looper's bill establishing a pilot program to expedite temporary visas for seasonal farmer workers.

A week ago, he composed a statement in which he would dub it the "Illegal Alien Importation Act."

He got no further than three lines into his multiple-page missive on the House floor Monday before being gaveled down for saying Colorado doesn't need "5,000 more illiterate peasants."

The Colorado Springs Republican's words drew an audible gasp from lawmakers.

"How dare you," said Rep. Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, who was chairing the floor debate. She ordered Bruce to leave the speaker's podium.
Afterward, Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, called Bruce's comments "premeditated bigotry."

"He came prepared to be a bigot today and I find that insulting to the entire body," Carroll said. "More importantly it's insulting to the entire state."

Carroll said the remark could result in a formal ethics complaint that would require a hearing and possible suspension, censure or expulsion.

Carroll and other lawmakers said the behavior was "par for the course" for Bruce, who marked his first day at the Capitol in January by kicking a Rocky photographer.

Stormy beginning

His refusal to apologize for the kick made him the first lawmaker in the state legislature's 131-year history to be formally censured.

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said Bruce's impact on his own party has been disastrous.

"Because of his behavior issues, when he speaks, it costs us votes," May said referring to Republicans. "It's hard enough to be in the minority as it is without having that anvil hanging around our necks."

Bruce said Monday that he doesn't care if his own party doesn't appreciate him.

"To me it doesn't mater," he said. "If I'm the only person in this building that cares about the truth, fine."

Bruce defended his "illiterate peasants" line as a factually accurate description of the estimated 5,000 immigrant farm workers who would be allowed into Colorado under Looper's bill.

House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, rolled her eyes at that defense. Many immigrants who come to America to work are literate, she said.

"And the word peasant? What's he going to do, say, 'Let them eat cake?' I've never heard people in civilized society call people peasants."

The trouble with Bruce, Madden said, is that he sees the world in black and white and you're either with him or against him.

"He doesn't add any facts to the conversation," she said. "He just adds his demagoguery, and he rarely if ever wins an argument. He's ineffective because he's so obnoxious."

*Click on the title of this post to read the rest of the article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News. The rebuttals to Bruce's remarks are classic responses of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS lacking rational reasoning or fact*

DEUTSCH Übersetzung verfügbar in den "Anmerkungen" Abschnitt von diesem Beitrag.