This is my first diary, so please bear with me.
This just came out on MSN, written by Kevin Cirilli for The Hill.
Governor Hickenlooper thinks Colorado made a mistake legalizing pot, because:
Nobody ever did it before.
OMG!
If I could've waved a wand the day after the election, I would've reversed the election and said, 'This was a bad idea,’ ” Hickenlooper said Friday on CNBC's “Squawk Box.”
“You don't want to be the first person to do something like this,” he said.
Hence, my label for him: Chickenlooper.
I didn't invent that, I stole it from someone else.
He said that he tells other governors to “wait a couple of years” before legalizing marijuana as Colorado continues to navigate an unknown, nonexisting federal regulatory landscape for the industry.
I sure wish Colorado would elect a real Democrat for Governor...and for Senator, too, for that matter.
We have a couple of great Congress people: Ed Perlmutter and Diana DeGette. The rest are corporatists and sellouts.....and Republicans. Senators? Pphhht. Don't even ask.
And we do have some truly outstanding State Congress people and Senators.
But Governators? Not a one has been worth a tinker's dam.
This pot thing clearly illustrates Chickenlooper's biggest weakness. He's a coward...with money. And some powerful corporate backers.
He has failed to stand up for worker's rights (Colorado is a right-to-work-for-less state, has crushing workmen's comp insurance requirements for entrepreneurs who want to go out on their own, and failed to support card check). He has failed to stand up for better health care. He has failed to stand up to the gun rights bullies, even after Colorado suffered TWO (2) spectacular mass shootings, one involving high school students. And he continues to cave to fracking interests statewide, even in the face of extensive environmental resistance and proven harm, which threatens Colorado's environmental aesthetics and tourism industry. He even did a commercial where he claimed to drink fracking fluid. If it had really been fracking fluid, the benzene would have killed him the same day. And he only gives lip service to wind and solar. the only reason he keeps winning is because his Republican opponents are so much worse.
Hickenlooper came into office on his reputation as an affable local entrepreneur, but it has become obvious that he is a puppet for powerful, local interests. He doesn't have the courage or the vision to be a leader who takes bold steps and break new ground on critical issues. Pot legalization needed to be done a long, long time ago. Enforcement of pot and drug laws have been a major drag on local economies and law enforcement budgets for a long time, and created criminality where it never should have been. This societal ball-and-chain needed to be removed, and now he's whining about having to deal with it.