Interview with Doug Bruce

Conducted on April 23, 2008 at Cool River in the Denver Tech Center. This transcript is verbatim except where a specific representative or person was mentioned or named – in those instances; I took the name/s out and substituted a generic pronoun. Where a certain situation was referenced, I took the liberty of condensing the incident and only recording his comments on the incident, not the entire recap of the incident.

Opening Conversation…

“Historically, for 130 years the republicans have been known as the stupid party, that’s a matter of historic fact. The ponderous, slow moving, gullible. The democrats were the party of government. They loved government, they loved manipulating things, control freaks. The republicans just want in general to be left alone. The most successful republicans are in the private sector, who very rarely want to go into government – because why should they put up with all this crap and all these mediocre people? Egomaniacs who aren’t as good as they think they are. So, I could give you 500 examples of the hypocrisy of this place.”

[In reference to a situation where he said “I” at the microphone (when voting) and was told that was against the rules – but stated that others do it all the time]

“There’s a big difference between tradition and house rules. These people are sickos. They’re vicious.”

Do you consider yourself vicious?

“No, I haven’t done anything vicious. I took that civility resolution that they passed. I said, even though this may seem like a symbolic resolution, I took it as a personal pledge and publically made commitment – that’s why I want to sign on to it. It’s not just a symbolic piece. I’ve honored the resolution. No one can point to any instance where I called any other member any names in public – they kept saying I’m attacking them – go back and play the tape because I always speak very carefully. I’ve never attacked anybody. I’ve attacked the bill and because it’s their bill, they feel bad and because they feel bad, they say ‘he must have attacked me’ therefore they claim that I attacked them – and I didn’t. You know? These people lead active fantasy lives. Thinking of ways that I am…well they started building all this up in December – even before I got there. They could not stand – they don’t want me there because they want someone who is pliable and doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

[in regards to him not swearing in on opening day]

“Where’s it say that you have to be sworn in on opening day? It doesn’t. If I waited until January 14, I’d have an additional 2 years. They didn’t want me to be there two hours – much less an additional 2 years. They kept attacking me in the paper saying I was gaming the system, doing something illegal - an impermissible loop hole bla bla bla. I had page 8 of the court decision, all a legislator has to do – to avoid a partial term counting, is to wait one or more days after the term starts. That’s what the judge said! I knew the term limits law and they didn’t. I asked them to show me the law where it says you have to be sworn in on opening day – and of course they couldn’t. So I did it [waited] and they never forgave me for that.”

Do you enjoy negative publicity?

“I don’t care one way or another about publicity. I’m glad I got publicity for the bill yesterday – 1325. [Regarding immigrant farm workers] That’s what I was trying to do I was trying to tell people in a pointed way that this bill is a really, really bad idea. Immigration policy is a disaster and a disgrace and here we are not only failing to stop it, but waiving people on through with a piece of paper. We say come on over, sign here and promise us you’ll leave in four months and two weeks after you get here we’ll get you identification.

So anyway, they never got over that and that’s why they did that ridiculous set up thing with the photographer. You can see it on the video – I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the video? The Post guy signaled to the News guy, and then they both signaled to the camera guy who stepped on my family bible to get a better angle.

He stepped on your family bible?

Yes. What do they care about religion? What do they care about disrupting a public prayer? And they moved the camera angle from them so they would catch my reaction because they knew they were going to break their promise that they made to me twice to not take my picture during prayer. The censure said Representative Bruce, but I wasn’t a Representative then, I was a private citizen. I didn’t know, by the way, they actually do the prayer before they call the house to order because they believe in this phony separation of church and state saying they don’t want the government officials associated with prayer. So how could I disrupt the order of the house when the house hadn’t even been called to order? There are a dozen different reasons why this whole thing was such a disgrace…it’s hard to have any respect for the people.

Respect for the people in the House of Representatives?

“Yes. The members. Look we had a committee of 6 that heard the evidence and they told the other 58 how to vote. They didn’t get a transcript – they didn’t get anything. I tried to make my defense – they cut me off because they invented a 10 minute rule that I didn’t know about – I was only a third of the way through. Then I asked to have my written statement put in the record and they had to have a vote on it and they voted not to allow my statement in the record…and that’s in the record. The fact that only seven people said that my defense for this historic, first ever, event [censure] should be in the record…you know first time in history. If you know anything about the legislature, one week afterwards of course, [another representative] committed a crime and there were four prior suppressed incidents all having to do with having done the same thing in bars over the past 7 years but they refused to confirm it because it violated their sexual harassment policy. It was a violation of their embarrassment policy that they would suppress that stuff. But did they ever censure him? No, they let him quietly resign – they didn’t censure something that was a criminal act committed against a lobbyist.”

“Two incidents – [another representative] calling me a demagogue on the floor of the house and then calling all unmarried [pregnant] teenage girls ‘sluts’ and it was said in both cases, the same impossible defense, that [the representative] didn’t mean the word. ‘I didn’t mean to say that’. So he was thinking ‘ice cream’ and he said ‘sluts’, and then he was thinking ‘chocolate cake’ and he said ‘demagogue’. What a preposterous defense. He didn’t say he lost his temper, he said he didn’t mean to say the words. Now, if he had turrets syndrome, then he could come up with that defense…but I don’t think it’s plausible.”

“Prior to that, if you read my defense in this thing called the nudge – 7 pages I gave to all the members on their desk. But you see, it’s not part of the record, so 50 years from now, it will sound like a sitting legislator – they won’t even know what he did, it just says ‘physical contact’. What does that mean? Physical contact. It could just be a pat on the shoulder. I have people all day long coming up to me and poking and prodding me. I’m just saying, that’s the way people are.”

And is that offensive to you?

“It’s not offensive to me, I just despise the hypocrisy. I tried to prevent the disruption to a public prayer, in a discreet way, as a private citizen to a private citizen who had broken 2 promises that he had made. To say that there was the highest sanction, besides expulsion, is just ludicrous. These people are nuts.”

[In reference to other specific examples of incidents where elected officials weren’t censured or punished]

“Did anything ever happen to them? No. Nothing ever happened to anybody that’s done things that are a hundred times worse.”

So why has it happened to you?

“Because they’ve built up this big scene about how I’m Godzilla – you know the person who ate Denver or something and they’ve been building up to…”

WHY?

“Because I wrote tax limitation. Because I can defeat them at any fair argument, I know more about tax law and most other things than they do. They don’t like the fact that I’m not here graveling at their feet, and they don’t like my personality – lots of people don’t like my personality.”

What’s wrong with your personality?

“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with my personality – I just said lots of people don’t like it. There’s a difference.”

OK, why do people not like it then?

“Because I am compulsive about telling the truth. Regardless of who it inconveniences. That’s why I’ve brought up 30,000 lies in the legislature. [reference the safety clause on legislation in the Colorado House of Reps] I don’t understand why this isn’t a national scandal – why we don’t have TV cameras from all the national news sources talking about what an obscenity this is.”

What is your ultimate agenda?

“I didn’t know I had an ultimate agenda. To do the right thing I suppose, to do good.”

What is your IQ?

“I don’t like to say.”

Ok, but are you a member of Mensa?

“I dropped out of Mensa – it was too boring for me.”

What is it that you are trying to say to the world?

“They should get involved and change their government. I’m shaking people up and letting them know what’s really going on. They are selling us down the river and people don’t care. That’s my burden…I care and people think there’s something wrong with that.”

You said at one point that the Democrats are the party of emotion, that they were going on ‘emotional binges’ Do you consider emotion all bad?

“We have to weigh everything against the constitution…it really has nothing to do with emotion.”

Who do you trust and confide in?

“My brother and a few people I know in Colorado Springs. I have 3 close allies in the House of Representatives. No one is as courageous and foolhardy as I am – but those few are willing to swim against the herd with me. That’s really sad [that there aren’t more]”

And the Military Resolution that you were the sole “no” vote on? What was that about?

“I don’t believe in sponsoring anything…it’s just saying ‘me too’. I have a right to not vote.”

You’ve expressed disappointment with the House Leadership – on both sides of the Isle. Why?

“Most of the leadership didn’t want me here and they are now supporting my opponent. I have a shortcoming on my image, but I have all the other ‘I’s.”

Other “I’s”?

Yes, Integrity, Intellect, Issues, Impact and Image. I am short on image.

Do you value social graces?

(laughs) “I value common civility. But I’m not sure others do… I no longer close my eyes during prayer…the last time I did that look what happened.”

What is your highest value?

“Integrity, honesty and self respect. Other components are to be honorable and not to be ashamed of your behavior. Some people would say ‘But Doug – you do so much to be ashamed of everyday!’ I would apologize if I thought I did anything wrong – if I lied or something. I compulsively tell the truth. I’m not craving popularity – most people crave approval. I’m in the ‘brains group’– not the prom king or queen.”

Do you feel like you’ve been misunderstood?

“Literally, yes. But I don’t want to sound pathetic.”

“One of the other things people don’t like about me is that I know how to frame things to diffuse their arguments. We need people in office who aren’t afraid to lose – so long as they are in the battle on the basis of principle.”

Closing comments.

“I think I’m helping the Pro-American cause. I’d like to get the republicans back in the fight. I’m helping them focus on principles – we should focus on doing what’s right…not whether we are liked or whether we can win a popularity contest.”

Tags: Colorado House of Representatives, Douglas Bruce, Tax Limitations