PolitickerCO: GOP leadership attacks on Bruce tied to budget deal with Dems

This is certainly interesting.

In case you missed it, Bruce has a somewhat questionable reputation amongst his fellow lawmakers. Much of it is well-deserved and self inflicted.

But some fellow Republicans, including House Minority Leader Mike May, have almost gone out of his way to criticize Bruce for every gaff or stumble he has made.

Some GOP types are guessing now they know the reason why.

"When Referendums C and D were proposed Republican leadership's biggest gripe with Governor Owens was that he didn't get education spending reigned in," says one statewide leader. "They were OK with TABOR getting stripped, as long as the Democrats agreed to push over Amendment 23."

Our source went on to say that much of the criticism of Bruce thus far from the GOP might be the result of a deal struck by Democrats with Republican leaders to introduce the tax compromise on TABOR and Amendment 23. In other words, GOP leaders knew the compromise would be introduced late in the session and that Bruce would oppose it, so they spent their time discrediting him in order to ease its passage.

"Republicans leaders in the legislature have been pretty quiet on the issue so far," continued our source. "They are probably testing the winds to see it they can afford to support this compromise in an election year. They've already taken care of the only opposition so far to it by ganging up on Doug Bruce."

Is this true? It's hard to say but it certainly seems plausible. Mike May's very public and vociferous criticisms of Bruce have always struck me as a bit surprising. They've always seemed to have a personal edge to them. I assumed this was merely because May finds Bruce to be a drag on his Party and their agenda. Now it appears that they were deliberate attacks to undermine Bruce's credibility for the specific purpose of getting Speaker Romanoff's budget deal through.