Easy -- Governor in Absentia.

No other state in the union would allow their chief executive to avoid the budget problems facing his or her state, as Colorado has allowed Owens to skate free on the issue.

The record is simple -- since last fall, the legislature from both sides has publically stated that the state will hit the fiscal wall, and the problems have to be fixed.

The Chief Executive's primary role in cases like this is to roll up the sleeves, get to work, negotiate, knock heads if need be, propose, knock more heads, GET SOMETHING DONE.

The media's role in grown-up states is to hold the Chief Executive accountable for doing so.

Colorado? Owens has avoided the issue entirely. Just as he's avoided every issue this calendar year (waiting for evidence otherwise from anyone).

And our illustrious local fourth estate has happily abetted his vacation. (The Post didn't even bother to try to find Owens for a quote today, no less hold him accountable. The Rocky, of course, simply mumbles support for Owens on the issue. Even Bob Ewegen, while suggesting our new ad campaign be 'Welcome to Colorado; the Clueless State', leaves his Owens-less-ness off the hook.)

If the state were a corporation, the shareholders would have booted this CEO long ago, as the share price collapsed to -- what, 1/3rd what it was a year ago? 1/10th what it was six years ago?

If we were a grown-up state, the press would never let the CEO off the hook this way.

Remember all that as our undereducated sons and daughters line up for the only jobs out there, at Wal-Mart and prisons...

Which is, of course, EXACTLY the outcome the right-wing controlling Colorado wants. Just like the South in the sixties -- no money in a state divided between the rich and the rest of us, for anything but prisons and asphalt (oops, we're $30 billion behind on that little liability);

So you happened to fall asleep in December, 2000, and you've just woken up. You look around. Education -- hmm, college more out of reach to more people than ever. Public school kids tested, tested, tested, but less money available for teachers and more crowded classrooms than ever.

Economy? Oops, 1.5 mill or so fewer jobs today AND wages down substantially over the four years-- although the rich have to pay fewer taxes. Oh, and the largest national deficit ever.

Health care? 44 million uninsured and exploding health care costs forcing life vs. care choices on all but the rich.

National security? We went to war in Iraq under false pretenses, which focussed the world's hatred on us to an unprecedented extent -- AFTER we were attacked on our home territory, which generated the most goodwill America has ever enjoyed. Gonzo. And to make us safer at home, we created the biggest multi-headed monster in the history of big government, called the Homeland Security Agency.

somewhere in a U.S.-indebted, but not torture-unfriendly, country.

An al Qaeda operative confesses to Qaeda/Iraq ties after days/weeks of .... intense "pressure" to do so.

Which becomes the ONLY basis for all the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfled claims of ties.

But the operative recants the confession later.

Which we don't know until secret bits of the Senate Intelligence Committee's reports are leaked.

So, no WMD, no ties, no imminent threat. But we do open up an easy-to-access training ground for newly-minted jihadists from around the world. And, focus the anger of the Arab world more clearly on us.

But Bush campaigns blithely on his war or turrer.

And asks, "Is that a submarine in your pocket, or..."

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was on hand to explain that this is an, um, Al-Qaeda hunting, um, submarine --

Do you think this thing will fit up the Rio Grande, a la Tom Tancredo?

But you might not want to work for them:

Does this sound much like the easy ride Halliburton wants out of the other side of its mouth?

Thank goodness that the Vice President is their ex-CEO, who can keep the billions of dollars of no-bid Iraq contracts flowing, or I guess they'd really be screwed...

But they're firing back...predictably, at Michael Moore:

And they didn't forget John Kerry, whom as you can imagine they do not endorse:

We are waiting for some 'buy a Prius!' PSAs brought to you by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that Middle Eastern beachhead of democracy, which by total coincidence is both a fast friend of the Bush family and the country of origin for 15 out of 19 9/11 hijackers...

Remember Bush' record as Governor of Texas? His record as appointed President?

Right...

Bush calls Kerry an underachiever...

It's going to be all attack, all the time, since there is no record to defend.

Except for mebbe the new $454 billion deficit....

Looks like the right-wingers controlling the place win this round. Hello Mississippi, here comes Colorado (in all the quality of life rankings, that is...)!

Did the signature process for the initiative start too late? Hmm...

... the Pakistanis were supposed to deliver bin Laden just before Kerry's speech.

They're aiming for Bush' convention speech now.

Speaking of convention speeches, anyone remember Bush' four years ago? Didn't think so...

More College Republican whining.

To quote from Clinton's biography, the Colorado College Republican/ Jessica Peck Corry /David Horowitz platform is straight from the segregationist south of the early sixties:

When's Owens back from Rove's bullpen in Boston? He can tell reporters who bother to ask him 'no' on this, too;

Right-wing definition of 'grandstanding' = progress.