Not like State Representative Matt Knoedler's going to let some kind of "reasonable standard of efficacy" or claim that "this is not a problem anyway" get in the way of stamping his name on Colorado GOP Nativism Hysteria Session '06, but this is pretty descriptive of what's happening.

Election officials split on voting bill

Two Jefferson County officials offer vastly different takes on an anti-illegal-immigration proposal that would require proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote.

Rep. Matt Knoedler, R-Lakewood, said he sees no problem requiring future applicants to provide a passport, Social Security card, birth certificate or naturalization papers.

But Susan Miller, elections director for Jefferson County, shivers at the idea, saying she believes the proposal will have consequences that could delay voting results and tie up already overburdened election officials.

Other county clerks and election officials share her concern, saying lawmakers have offered a flawed proposal to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

Knoedler manages to respond without smiling:

Knoedler noted that even if the number of illegal immigrants registered to vote is small, that still is a concern...

Some pretty weak-minded nonsense going on here, you think for a moment. What's the point? As a "small-government" conservative, why push for some onerous new paperwork requirement that your own people are telling you is problematic and unnecessary?

Then you realize that Matt Knoedler's bill exists only to provide bullet points for a subsequent Trailhead Group robo-call. What a gold-nugget setup: "Rep. X supports allowing illegal aliens to vote." When in fact Rep. X was only listening to outraged public servants who say a voter citizenship 'verification' bill is problematic and unnecessary.

It's not far from there to the realization that this whole "extraordinary session" is about developing fresh attack lines for the Coors/Benson attack machine, and the Democrats have swallowed the bait. I submit to you that by embracing the special session, the same mistake is being made now as when Alice Madden said 'Sure! Even though they did nothing election-related and the Republican Secretary of State says you don't have to file anything about this Research and Democracy outfit, go ahead and file it anyway! The Republicans would never be so hypocritical...'

She knows what I mean. By the time this is over so will Andrew "I got Bill Owens right where I want him" Romanoff.