Progress Now Action

Most of you have heard about Rep. Doug Bruce's shameful display of trailer-park bigotry on the Colorado house floor Monday.

Rep. Bruce's reference to migrant farm workers as "illiterate peasants" was immediately gaveled down by Rep. Kathleen Curry, who was presiding over the hearing, and she isn't sorry for having done so. While there may not be any formal sanction appropriate for Rep. Bruce's latest breach of decorum, at the very least Rep. Curry had the obligation to make clear that his statement was unacceptably offensive and discriminatory, and that it brought disrepute on the House the moment it escaped his ample head.

Predictably, trying to preserve some kind of standard of decency in the House has earned Rep. Curry a round of threatening phone calls:

A Western Slope state lawmaker has requested the Colorado State Patrol provide her with additional protection because of the number of threats sent to her this week by anti-illegal immigration advocates.

Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, said after she gaveled down Rep. Doug Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, for calling Mexican immigrants "illiterate peasants" during a Monday debate, she was bombarded with threatening messages via e-mail and telephone.

"The hate mail is off the charts, and there's issues with people in terms of this response," Curry said. "It has really bothered me."

She said hundreds of threatening, acerbic messages have clogged her cell phone's voicemail and her e-mail inbox.

"We attempted to restore decorum to the (House) chamber," Curry said. "There are people out there that felt that was so inappropriate, they thought it was OK to threaten (a lawmaker)."

Curry said after she gaveled down Bruce and forbade him from speaking at the microphone, she remarked, "How dare you!" in reaction to Bruce's subsequent comments.

As a result of the threats, Curry said she also has asked the State Patrol to keep tabs on her family's Gunnison ranch.

It's not like we needed another example of the kind of thuggish, un-American scumbags who tend to gravitate to nativism as an outlet for their perceived injustices. The fact is that no public official should ever be subjected to physical threats, certainly not for gaveling the infamously offensive Doug Bruce.

Over at Pols it's been suggested that everyone send an email to Rep. Curry thanking her for standing up to this jerk, and against the kind of bigoted ignorance Bruce represents. Just did, and so should you...