In a March 6 article about a proposed Republican state Senate resolution that “calls for the Colorado legislature to publicly support the troops in Iraq and points out the successes of the war,” the Rocky Mountain News quoted Sen. Mike Kopp's (R-Littleton) baseless assertion that state Democrats “don't want to have a debate about the surge in troops.” The article further quoted Kopp as saying, “We (GOP) are giving unqualified support to our troops. We just want them to win.” However, at no point did the article quote a Democratic legislator or offer a Democratic response to Kopp's implication that sponsors of a state Senate resolution opposing President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq do not want U.S. troops “to win.”
As the News reported on February 23, Democratic state Sens. Ken Gordon (Denver) and Ron Tupa (Boulder) are the primary sponsors of a resolution opposing Bush's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq. As the News noted, a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives opposing Bush's plan for troop escalation had passed the previous week, but Senate Republicans, including Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard, blocked a similar resolution in that chamber.
According to the March 6 News article, by staff writer April M. Washington, “Republicans upset with a Democratic resolution on the Iraq war now have their own. Sen. Mike Kopp, a Gulf War veteran, introduced a dueling resolution that calls for the Colorado legislature to publicly support the troops in Iraq and points out the successes of the war, including the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.” The News further reported:
The Littleton Republican's resolution is meant to answer the Democrats' resolution criticizing President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.
“They (Democrats) don't want to have a debate about the surge in troops,” Kopp said. “What they really want is a protest. We (GOP) are giving unqualified support to our troops. We just want them to win.”
While the News noted that "[t]he Democratic resolution by Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, urges against troop buildup" and stated that "[f]ourteen Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors, including House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder," not a single Democratic legislator or proponent of the Gordon-Tupa resolution was quoted in the article. The article also did not note that the Democratic resolution included statements explicitly supporting American troops.
In contrast, a March 4 Denver Post article reported, “Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, who usually prefers to contain floor debate to state issues, has said she supports having what will no doubt be a long and contentious debate on Iraq because the war has become a state issue by siphoning money for health care and education.” The Post added:
Tupa said the resolution's aim is to put the state on record with some 25 others in opposition to Bush's plan to deploy more than 20,000 additional troops.
Tupa's original proposal, he said, detailed some of the “untold millions of dollars that are no longer coming back to the states” for important programs such as education, Medicaid and the emergency relief recently denied farmers hit by blizzards this winter. But the version introduced last week is shorter, mirroring a resolution passed last month by the U.S. House.
Many Republicans are expected to loudly oppose the resolution as an inappropriate message to send when troops are still in the field.
But Tupa says the resolution “first and foremost is a statement in support of our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Although most resolutions are heard only on the floor, Tupa has requested a committee hearing March 14 so supporters and opponents can be heard.
