Massie takes the L:

I’m not going to shed any tears for Massie. He did one good thing and deserves credit for that. I will note is that Trump has threatened to primary Lauren Boebert over her support of Massie, but it’s too late for this cycle. So whether she gets a credible primary challenger in 2028 will be in interesting indicator of Trump’s power over the Republican Party.

Trump is a sicko, and of course he had to obliterate Massie over the Epstein legislation. So when I compare his defeat to Democrats’ response to Jared Polis’ commutation of Tina Peters’ sentence, I’m not holding up the Republican Party as a shining example of virtuous party discipline. But I will say that for a political party to be successful, some degree of party discipline — by which I mean agreement on a set of principles — must be upheld. Most importantly, a party can’t tolerate a candidate who says one thing to the face of party members and then uses weasely tactics to do the opposite, which is what Jared Polis did.

A quick review: Tina Peters’ sentence was sent back to the trial court after a successful appeal. Polis said he’d wait to see how Peters’ appeal shook out, but instead he commuted her sentence shortly after the state legislature went out of session, not to reconvene until next January, a few days before Polis’ term ends. I think Polis should be impeached over this, but as he well knows, it’s a heavy lift that would require a 2/3 vote of the legislature to call a special session.

This is something we see quite frequently from a certain set of elected Democrats: once they’re in office, they tend to use all of their cleverness to do something that the base clearly doesn’t want. When it comes to something the base wants, that cleverness quickly evaporates. Polis and Fetterman are extreme examples, but I’m sure you can think of others. It’s a key difference between the current Republican Party and ours. A lot of our electeds are quick to abandon their principles with little fear of consequences, while elected Republicans who ignore the whims of their god-king Trump are subject to the consequences that Massie experienced last night. Neither of these things are good.

That said, Colorado Democrats are clearly pissed. Part of that is due to the primaries being a little over a month away. Sen. Michael Bennet, who’s running for Governor, quickly said that he wouldn’t appoint Polis to fill out the rest of his term if Bennet was elected. His opponent, Phil Weiser, the current Colorado Attorney General, also condemned Polis’ action. Sen. John Hickenlooper was quick to disavow Polis’ action, as was his primary challenger Senadora Julie Gonzales. Even Rep Diana DeGette, usually quite silent, had an uncharacteristically harsh statement. Other Democrats who aren’t facing a primary challenge, including Reps. Brittany Petterson and Jason Crow have also criticized the decision.

Words are easy, but over 400 Colorado Democrats have signed a party complaint seeking to have the party censure Polis and not invite him to speak at any of their gatherings. Senadaora Gonzales, and DeGette’s primary opponent, Kiros, have signed the petition. Notably absent are signatures from Bennet, Hickenlooper, Weiser, DeGette, Petterson and Crow. Given the difficulty of calling a special session, censure is the least the party should do about Polis.

Melat Kiros, DeGette’s primary opponent, is also calling for impeachment, which I think makes her the only one of the incumbents and primary challengers listed above:

Polis put Colorado Democrats in a bind. Is it worth impeaching him, which requires a 2/3 vote even to get started? I think it would be a good, healthy exercise for the party that would at least send a message to other Colorado Democrats, if not Democrats in other states.

I guess your attitude on this depends on where you think we are in the struggle against MAGA at the moment. If you think that the most important thing is concentrating on winning the next election to the exclusion of all else, then impeaching Polis is a waste of resources. If you think that there’s a serious risk that the party hierarchy is thinking that they can get away with saying whatever they want to win an election, then pulling tricks like Polis did, then impeaching Polis, and spending a lot of money and effort on primaries, is worth the effort. At a minimum, censuring him seems like a no-brainer that a lot of the establishment Democrats in Colorado aren’t willing to support, which is concerning to say the least.