https://twitter.com/#!/danielpetty/status/200095462705991681
North Carolina wasn’t the only state grappling with the gay marriage issue tonight.
KDVR-TV reporter Eli Stokols, Denver Post political reporter Lynn Bartels, and others live-tweeted late tonight as Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, state GOP leaders, and the rest of the Colorado legislature came to an insurmountable impasse on a hotly-contested civil unions bill — along with dozens of other bills:
https://twitter.com/#!/EliStokols/status/200076312726085632
https://twitter.com/#!/EliStokols/status/200084034624290816
https://twitter.com/#!/EliStokols/status/200088415872626688
https://twitter.com/#!/lynn_bartels/status/200086010309251072
https://twitter.com/#!/pmalonecolo/status/200088293075992577
https://twitter.com/#!/Johnschroyer/status/200096250002030592
https://twitter.com/#!/Johnschroyer/status/200096925796667392
The story:
A bill to allow same-sex couples to form civil unions died on the calendar late Tuesday, taking down more than 30 other measures with it in a dramatic game of political chicken in which no one would blink.
When Republican Speaker Frank McNulty acknowledged there was an impasse and abruptly ended his news conference on the House floor, Coloradans watching in the gallery started chanting: “Shame on you! Shame on you!”
Everyone was kicked out of the gallery after someone yelled, “I hope you (expletive) die!”
The stunning turn of events on the second-to-last day of the 2012 session had been brewing since Thursday, when a Republican lawmaker voted with Democrats to pass the civil unions bill out of committee.
Social conservatives who believed the bill would die in the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee for the second year in a row were enraged and lobbied McNulty and House Majority Leader Amy Stephens to use every procedure to kill Senate Bill 2.
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Progressive Democrat Rep. Jared Polis is on a tear:
https://twitter.com/#!/jaredpolis/status/200094574356611073
https://twitter.com/#!/jaredpolis/status/200097673091629056
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