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And you thought it was just Jim Welker stinking the place up.

Legislator blasts colleague as racist, 'disgrace'

Rep. Rosemary Marshall called Rep. Dave Schultheis a racist, a "son of a b---- and a disgrace to the chamber" on the House floor Friday, saying she felt he made light of an e-mail sent to a colleague that spoke of lynching.

"I seem to get my annual chewing out from Rosemary each year," Schultheis, a Colorado Springs Republican, said later. "I don't know what her problem is..."

Don't you, Dave? That's funny, because I have a pretty good idea what her "problem is."

On Thursday, Schultheis suggested that Carroll was "making a big issue" out of the e-mail before verifying that it actually was sent by a Minuteman member.

Schultheis, a member of the Minuteman Project, said there is no proof that the e-mail came from a bona fide Minuteman.

On Friday, he stood by his opinion that Carroll was "blowing the issue out of proportion," and called Marshall's attack uncalled for.

Marshall, who is black, later said she has had enough of "blatant racism."

"In this day and age, for someone to make light of a reference to lynching a black man is sickening," the Denver Democrat said. "With Schultheis, racism is his common practice. My words met his level of understanding."

Here's the thing, friends. We've got several members of the legislature -- Dave Schultheis, Bill Crane, others -- who are gun-toting Minuteman Project members personally. We've got an email obliquely calling for the lynching of an African-American legislator, over comments he made about the Minutemen.

And we've got Minuteman Rep. Dave Schultheis insisting on the Colorado House floor that it's "blowing the issue out of proportion" to be upset about a call for the lynching of one of his colleagues in defense of this organization he belongs to.

If you see a huge and obvious problem with what's going on here, put your hand up. Colorado is north of the Mason-Dixon line, right?