Update:   I posted Ross Kaminsky’s response to my questions at the end of this blog post.

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On KHOW radio Friday, U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck said voters can “absolutely” count on him to vote his conscience. (Listen to Ken Buck @6:50)

Normally, you might think this would be a good thing. But when it comes to Ken Buck, and you recall his conscience-laden opposition to abortion, even in the case of rape and  incest, you realize that Ken-Buck-voting-his-conscience may not be so great for women.

Given how desired women are by political campaigns in Colorado, it’s astonishing that Buck is already doing what he did during the last election. That is, trying to say abortion doesn’t matter; no one cares about it.

As Buck told the Colorado Observer when asked if his abortion position had changed:

Buck: You know, what I believe is Congress has voted to ban late-term abortions, and I’m one who opposes late-term abortions, and voted to ban federal funding for abortion, and I’m one who opposes federal funding of abortion. I’m tired of people talking about issues that are not relevant to the public. I’m a pro-life candidate.

How is abortion not relevant when pretty much everyone agrees Buck lost last time because of abortion and women’s issues?

And politics aside, abortion issues are addressed in the U.S. Congress. In addition to countless bills that go nowhere, but create PR fodder, the issue gets real-time play. Remember in 2011, funding for Planned Parenthood was at the center of negotiations that almost led to a government shutdown. Federal money for the United Nations Population Fund, whose health services are a life saver for tens of thousands of impoverished people, was also under attack by Republicans with a conscience.

With any luck, reporters will respond to Buck’s nonsensical no-one-cares-about-abortion defense like Gloria Neal did during a televised debate on CBS4, when Neal asked Buck, “Will you really make a raped woman carry a child to full term?”

Buck said that “we need to stay focused on the issues that voters in this state care about, and those are spending and jobs.” Neal responded:

“Social issues are important to the voters in this state. I am one of them. So I need you to answer that question, because in addition to votes and jobs and all of that abortion is very important, and when you start talking about rape and incest, that is important to the voters. So, please, answer that question.”

Buck then said:

“I am pro-life, and I don’t believe in the exceptions of rape and incest.”

That’s the kind of questioning I’d like to have seen from KHOW’s Ross Kaminsky.

So what if Kaminsky is a fellow conservative. If he’s going to demand that Ken Buck vote his conscience, he should dig into what Buck’s conscience would do to women.

Partial transcript of Ken Buck’s appearance on KHOW Friday. (Listen to Ken Buck @6:50)

Kaminsky: Can I count on you, Ken Buck, that if you get in the U.S. Senate, and there’s some vote.. [and] you want to vote yes, and Senate leadership asks you to vote no, can I count on you to vote yes? Can I count on you to vote your conscience?

Buck: Oh, you absolutely can. I have to tell you. I think that’s a huge problem in Washington DC. And I’m not just talking about bipartisanship. I’m talking about people who are doing the right thing regardless of special interest groups, regardless of their future.

I asked Kaminsky why he didn’t ask Buck about abortion:

Kaminsnky: Although I do not share Ken Buck’s conservative views on “social issues,” the issue I was trying to raise was not abortion (though I knew it would come to mind for many people) but rather my impression that so many politicians (with Democrats seeming slightly worse than Republicans) vote the way leadership tells them to vote rather than casting a vote which fits both the legislator’s views and his constituent’s interest. Noting an amusing video from May, 2009, even ultra-liberal David Sirota complained about both Senator Udall’s and Senator Bennet’s vote flipping, where they both voted “no” on a measure then switched to “yes” after asking permission from Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Republicans are far from politically pure, and I disagree with them on many things, but I prefer to elect someone whose votes are mostly predictable based on the candidate’s stated principles rather than someone who will be a marionette for leadership, regardless of party.

As for following up with an abortion question, three things: One, I ran out of time. Two, Ken made it clear that he learned from 2010 that he’s going to focus on issues he thinks the electorate cares most about, which right now (in my view) are economics/jobs, health care, and terrorism.

Three, what could Ken answer that everybody doesn’t already know about him?

Laura Carno, whose organization donated over $55,000 to recall Sen. John Morse, has been claiming Morse is an extremist on various conservative talk-radio shows.

Yet on “Politics and Guns” July 23, she said of Morse that, before this year, “you wouldn’t have been able to guess that he was a Democrat.”

So Carno’s problems with Morse are very recent, lending credibility to The Denver Post’s view, as expressed in an editorial titled “John Morse Recall Is an Abuse of the Political Process,” that the recall effort an extreme over-reaction to a policy dispute.

The statement invites questions for Carno about whether she thinks The Post is right that the Morse recall is a “perversion of a process that should be reserved for corruption and incompetence.”

Here’s a partial transcript of the radio interview, as well as the audio:

Carno: @31:52  Yes.  That’s correct.  And that’s one of the common questions that the recall committee got when they launched this,  “Why don’t you just let him finish out his term?”  So, there are a couple answers to that.  One is, he didn’t get everything he wanted in the last legislative session.  And just as a reminder to your listeners, Senator Morse was a very moderate Democrat.  You wouldn’t have been able to guess from his legislative agenda from the previous terms that he’d been in there,  you wouldn’t have been able to guess that he was a Democrat.  He is former law enforcement.  He had some good pro-police bills,   pro-military bills.  He even sponsored in 2007 a reciprocity bill for  Conceal /Carry holders for Colorado – a very pro-gun bill.

Click Here for Audio

Last month, Rep. Cory Gardner said he’d block an extension of the federal debt ceiling to “reduce the size and scope of government.”

Today, Gardner stated on the radio that he’d allow the government to shut down, by holding up annual budget negotiations, in order to repeal Obamacare, explaining that “if the government gets shut down, it’s going to be the President’s decision to do so.”

KOA’s Mike Rosen let Gardner’s salvo go by as if Gardner were talking about the weather.

Rosen: “Perhaps we can talk about some other items on the agenda, such as the current dispute, even with the Republican Party, about whether Republicans, who have a majority in the House, ought to take a stand now, as the continuing resolution question comes up, take a stand on Obamacare, and refuse to fund it, while at the same time, agreeing with a continuing resolution that would allow the rest of the federal government to operate. Have you got a position on that?

Gardner: I want to do anything and everything I can to stop Obamacare from destroying our health care, from driving up increases in costs. Whether that’s through the continuing resolution, I want to defund everything that we can….

Rosen: There’s a political concern that if the Republicans stand their ground on this [repealing Obamacare], they are going to be blamed for shutting down the government.

Gardner: Well, I think if the government gets shut down, it’s going to be the President’s decision to do so. I believe that we don’t need to shut down the government because we ought to just lift this health-care bill out of the way and let America work.

Listen to Gardner saying he’ll shut down government to repeal Obamacare 8.1.13

Rosen should invite Gardner back for a full discussion about the economic and political ramifications of a move by the House Republicans to block funding Obamacare and shut down the government in the process.

The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels wrote a good blog post yesterday reminding us that “gun kingpin” Dudley Brown, who once opposed trying to recall lawmakers because of their votes on gun bills, is now buying ads in the recall election.

To fill out the story, I offer you Brown’s more expansive thoughts on recalls.

Here’s what he told KFKA talk show host Scooter McGee Feb. 19, at about the 11 minute point in the video.

Brown said lawmakers will be “up for re-election in 2014 anyway,” “it’s enormously expensive” to recall lawmakers, and he “might as well burn the dollars.”

SCOOTER McGEE:  All right.  Then having said that, Dudley, why are we not immediately demanding a recall of our politicians who are violating the Colorado Constitution when it comes to the unalienable right to keep and bear arms, whether it be for a tyrannical dictatorship, against each other, or hunting or sporting purposes?  Why is this madness –

DUDLEY BROWN:  Well, if you’re asking from the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners standpoint, why we aren’t asking for a recall, is because one state representative, who is going to be up for re-election in 2014 anyway, you have to go out and gather petition signatures.  And you have to gather them based on the number of votes that they received in the last election. It is a enormously expensive task.  And with all due respect, you don’t have that kind of money.  Neither does Rocky Mountain Gun Owners!  We don’t have that kind of money!  That would be inasmuch lying to people [inaudible] money for us to go out and make the effort to gather signatures of five or six or seven or eight Democrats in the statehouse.  That’s stupid! I might as well burn the dollars!

Full transcript and video here.

Conservative blogger Ari Armstrong published a post Sunday with the headline: “Will Senator Morse clarify his remarks on gun owners having ‘sickness’ in their ‘souls’?”

This should be corrected because, in March, after Morse’s quote was being twisted by opponents, Morse did “confirm” his statement on the Colorado Senate Democrats’ YouTube page.

There, Morse confirmed the obvious, that, when he quoted Martin Luther King in a speech during the gun debate in the State Legislature, he was referring to violence in society as a “sickness in our souls.” He wasn’t referencing gun owners, he wrote.

Morse: I would like to thank you for taking the time to write me to confirm what I said during the gun debate.  The quote that is being circulated is absolutely inaccurate. The quote was from Robert F. Kennedy in a speech that he made the day after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.  It says, “Violence breeds violence, repression breeds retaliation and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.”  This quote was used in reference to the violence of our current society.  I have attached the link to the actual speech with the transcript below.  You will see that I never reference gun owners. In fact, I am a gun owner myself and deeply believe in protecting this right.  Again, thank you for your time and concern.

I criticized radio hosts John Caldara and Peter Boyles for spreading the misinformation that Morse said gun owners have a sickness in their souls, when in fact, Morse was referring to violence as a sickness in society.

As Armstrong points out, I did not quote Morse’s entire speech. I should have done this, so I’ve provided the entire text of Morse’s speech below.

Armstrong claims that Morse is insinuating that gun owners have a sickness in their souls, even though Morse is a gun owner.

Even if Morse didn’t own a gun, it would be senseless for him to make such a ridiculous accusation, given how many people in America own guns. The accusation against Morse defies both common sense and the words he used in his speech, such as: “This debate on reducing gun violence in this country needed to happen, and it finally is happening.”

Anyway, I think any fair-minded person would read the following text and conclude that Morse was not accusing gun owners of having a sickness in their souls. I’m sure Armstrong and I agree on this: You decide.

Text from President Morse’s speech on Friday, March 8.

Under current law in the United States, gun dealers and manufacturers are immune from liability even when they are negligent.  No other industry enjoys in the country this protection.  This immunity is the direct result of a powerful lobby, that ironically is subsidized by our own government and taxpayers through the military and police.  We have experienced the power of this lobby over the last three months.

In the wake of 6-year-old children being shot in the face, the gun lobby has actually argued we need more guns and managed to convince Coloradans that they will lose their guns if we impose even reasonable restrictions on firearms.  They have argued that the mental health system is broken and needs to be fixed, but have not introduced a single piece of legislation to address mental health either in Colorado or nationally.

Robert F. Kennedy, after MLK’s assassination, said:

“Violence breeds violence, repression breeds retaliation and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.”

Cleansing a sickness from our souls does not come easily.  It is gruesome.  During the last three months we have experienced hatred and vitriol that I haven’t seen since I was on the street as a police officer.  This has included wishing rape, torture and death on legislators and their families.  It’s reached its heights just this week as we’ve been considering these bills in committee and we’ve been preparing to consider them today on the floor. Sickness.

Change has not ever come quickly in the United States and our system is designed to make sure it doesn’t.

We have made strides today, strides that will save lives.

Strides that stop bullets piercing more children’s bodies, strides that stop criminals from getting guns, strides that stop domestic abusers from killing their partners with a gun and strides that will stop massacres of 85 people including our children with a 100 round magazine.

This debate on reducing gun violence in this country needed to happen, and it finally is happening.

I am proud to be a Coloradan and proud to represent these Colorado values.  We proudly stand here today as Coloradoans who want the killing to stop and the cleansing to start.

Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my motion and move that SB 196 be laid over until May 10th.

CORRECTION: The “metrosexual liberals” quote was originally attributed to Sen. Brophy, when it was in fact stated by the KNUS host Kirsta Kafer.

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Last week, ColoradoPols posted a publicity photo of Sen. Greg Brophy and his family, all brandishing big guns.

The Pols post caught the attention of Brophy, who commented on KNUS’ Backbone radio over the weekend:

Brophy: And then those goofs – you know, those lefty goofs over at ColoradoPols — pitched a fit oh, sometime this past week, over a family photo that we have from back in 2011, where every member of the [sneezes] – excuse me, out in the country, — every member of the family is holding [whispers] a scary black gun, a scary black gun.  And it’s a beautiful photo, and we had a great time.  We shot hundreds of photos that day, right after Christmas when we had the whole family together for the first time in ages.

And they had to make a big deal out of it, you know.  And, you know, my guys, [inaudible] wanted to clean some of that up, and I said, “No.  You know what?  Firearms are part of the culture of rural Colorado. It’s a part of the culture of my family, and if you follow me on Twitter, which is @SenatorBrophy, or on Facebook – Greg Brophy.  You know, we’re out at the farm right now today.  My brother happened to come down for a family reunion, and guess what we’re doing.

Brophy told the Backbone audience that he was proud of the photo and even promoted it on social media after Pols posted it.

Host Krista Kafer responded: “I looked at that photo, and my first thought was, “It’s kind of like a family ‘Charlie’s Angels’, you know?”  Because you have all the guns at different levels, or different kind of pointing – no gun is pointing at a human being, but they’re all pointing in different directions.  And then I had this vision of these Metro-sexual liberals in Denver looking at that photo and being horrified. And being like, “Oh no!  He’s got guns!” [BigMedia emphasis]

I have to say, Brophy’s family looks nice, even with the firearms, but there’s a big problem here: Kafer is wrong about the guns not “pointing at a human being.”

I guess the fact that I’m an aspiring metrosexual gives me the ability to see that the girl on the left is almost certainly pointing his gun at the leg of the boy next to him.  (H/T to Pols commenter Ross Cunniff, who pointed this out on Pols.)

This is one reason I’m scared of guns and proud of it. Accidents happen, even when pros like Brophy or Dick Cheney are in charge.

Brophy hands out the guns to his family, and he has no clue that one of his kids is pointing a big black gun at the other one–or if not at him, way too close for comfort. Yes, it could happen.

Brophy’s daughter could have shot his son.

Yet, on the radio, Brophy said: “You treat guns like they’re loaded all the time…. the reality is, that those of us who have grown up handling firearms – you know you treat them all like they’re loaded, whether they are or they aren’t.”

Brophy: And we have a lot of fun doing [the photo].  I’ve got[ten] a lot of response.  You know.   I’m just going to punch back, because – you know, I am what I am, and I’m proud of who I am and I’m proud of where I come from.  And so I actually re-shared that photo on Facebook again yesterday and it just exploded!  I mean, people were just sharing it all over the place and commenting about it all over the place.  And, you know, it’s—the hard core Left can want to take away everybody’s guns and think that guns are demonic.

Backbone Radio host Krista Kafer, who interviewed Brophy, owes it to her listeners to get Brophy back on the show and ask him about how his family photo could possibly demonstrate the proper safety rules for guns that Brophy told her he lives by. It’s a serious question.

Incidentally, don’t you think Brophy is a bit of an aspiring Metro-sexual himself? He’s even moved temporarily to Denver. Kafer should ask him if he thinks there’s any chance he’ll be giving up his guns as soon as the Capitol Hill, Metro-sexual culture seeps into him.

Update 7/24: Self-described “GOP Rabble-Rouser” Dave Williams of Colorado Springs tweeted, in response to the question of who recruited Herpin: @BigMediaBlog Bernie was personally asked by EPCGOP Chair Jeff Hays. Hays told a crowd of about 20 precinct leaders that he made that call.

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In her Facebook post, first reported by ColoradoPols yesterday, explaining why she dropped her campaign to run in a recall election against Sen. John Morse, Jaxine Bubis cited pressure from “high-ranking legislators” and “the Party.” She said she was sorry for caving.

Ironically, just a couple days before Bubis’ apology yesterday, her Republican opponent, Bernie Herpin, was on the Jeff Crank show bragging about how the Republican muckety-mucks were essentially begging him to run against Morse, even after Bubis was in the race.

Herpin was happily in California, he said, with his wife and grandkids. He was slowing down, even took the train out to the Golden State.

Then, Herpin responded to a phone call:

Herpin: “…I get a call from a person I know and respect saying, Bernie, we need you. I came back into town, met with the Republican leadership and some folks. This issue was too important for me to say no and sit on the sidelines.”

Herpin on the KVOR Crank Show July 20 2013

Who called Bernie? Crank didn’t ask, but I’m sure a lot of people would like to know.

But the internal party politics here can distract from issues near and dear to the GOP heart, and TABOR is certainly close to the left Republican ventricle, including, you’d think, the left ventricle of GOP stalwart Jeff Crank, who sat down with Bubis “over a glass of iced tea” and pressured her to get out of the Morse race.

So I was surprised that Crank, who told listeners he’s a “long-time friend” of Herpin’s, Crank said nothing when Herpin told him “there are some issues with TABOR that even folks who support TABOR will stand up and say, like the ratchet-down effect, those kinds of things, but TABOR has helped Colorado survive.”

So maybe there’s more that divides Republicans in El Paso County than just gossipy details like the name of the person who phoned Herpin, after he’d “hopped the train” to California, and told him how much the Republican Party needed him back in the Springs.

Herpin on the KVOR Crank Show July 20 2013

Follow Jason Salzman on Twitter @bigmediablog

KNUS’ Steve Kelley put some good questions to GOP Rep. Kathleen Conti Friday:

Steve Kelley: What’s the state of affairs of the Republican Party of Colorado?

Kathleen Conti: Well, the Republican Party is—you know, we have just a strong chasm. You know, there’s those on the far right. And there’s those on the not-so-far right. And it seems to me sometimes that our chasm is a little bit wider than those on the Democratic side….

Kelley: Is the Republican Party [as Peter Boyles says] an ugly baby right now in Colorado?

Conti: I certainly hope not….

Conti raises a good question, and Kelley should get into it with her on a future show. Which party in Colorado has a wider chasm?

Conti is the Republicans’ Minority Caucus Chair in the State House, so she knows what she’s talking about. Her party consists of a sharply divided “far right” and “not-so-far right.”  Those in the center and left-leaning are so scant as to be irrelevant.

Democrats, as Conti points out, are different, aren’t they? They’re mostly in the center with a straggler on the not-so-far-left.

The Dems are centrists on immigration (ASSET, driver’s licenses), abortion (pro-choice), renewable energy (efficiency and moderate mandates), gun safety (common-sense background checks), gay rights (civil unions, marriage), sex ed (yes), voter registration (convenience with secure voting), taxation (when necessary), etc., etc., etc. (Here’s a nice visual representation of some of these.)

The Colorado GOP comes down just as Conti said, on the far-right and not-so-far-right, with a wide and vocal chasm running down the middle.

A hatchet might be a better word for what separates the two right wings of the GOP but, like I said, Conti is in leadership, so she knows her caucus. So let it be “chasm.”

In any event, you can’t make much of a list of  issues where the Democrats are on the far left and not-so-far-left. and Republicans are in the middle.

As someone who wants the Dems to move left, I wish you could. But face it, you can’t. It’s a centrist/right party.

And “hatchet” doesn’t come to mind when you think of most of the Democrats’ disagreements.

Kelley (who’s now on KNUS 710 AM from 1 to 4 p.m.) should ask Conti to tell us her thinking on the “chasm” (and the hatchet) in more detail, including an explanation of where she stands on the chasm scale.

Appearing on KNUS’ Peter Boyles show yesterday, Scott Gessler lit into top Colorado Democrats, saying he thinks Senate President John Morse said “stuff like, people who own guns are a mental sickness.”

Gessler also agreed with Boyles, when he said Gov. Hick delayed the killing of murderer Nathan Dunlap because Hick couldn’t have gone to NYC “cocktail parties and fundraisers” because people would have said, “‘That’s the governor that executed the black man.’”

“That’s right,” Gessler responded to Boyles baseless characterization of Hick’s Dunlap decision.

Listen to Scott Gessler on KNUS 710 AM Peter Boyles 7-16-12

I’m sure Boyles, given his former place of honor in Denver journalism circles, would like to know Morse did not say gun owners are a mental sickness.

When the  Independence Institute’s Jon Caldara misquoted Morse on the “mental illness” line, I pointed out that there’s no way you can construe Morse’s  reference to a Martin Luther King speech as an attack on gun owners. ColoradoPols made the same point.

So, Pete, you owe it to decency to correct Gessler on air.

Boyles should also give Gessler air time to clarify why he believes Hick gave Dunlap a reprieve because he was worried about what would be said at New York cocktail parties and fundraisers.

I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t be interested in hearing more detail on that one.

Boyles said he’d be having Gessler on his show repeatedly, so he’ll have plenty of chances to get into it with Gessler on this.

Here’s the relevant portion of Gessler’s appearance on KNUS’ Peter Boyles’ show July 16. Listen to Scott Gessler on KNUS 710 AM Peter Boyles 7-16-12

Boyles: They are the recall targets simply for their grab on the Second Amendment. Make some of that clear, please, if you would, Scott.

Gessler (@ 5 min 15 sec in linked audio above):  Sure. So John Morse is the president of the State Senate. And I think he said stuff like, people who own guns are a mental sickness.

Boyles: Yep. Yep.

Gessler: Something along those lines. Really rough stuff. And then Angela Giron, she hails from a pretty democratic district in Pueblo. But it’s pretty conservative. And I think people there still value their Second Amendment rights in that life. And so people decided to recall her as well. And so they are very contentious. I think they are the first recalls of Colorado legislators in Colorado’s history. We’ve had lots of recalls for other offices….

Boyles (@ 9 min 45 sec in linked audio above): I don’t believe he could have shown up in New York City—it’s almost like a Tom Wolfe Mau-Mauing the flak catchers. He couldn’t have walked into their cocktail parties and fundraisers and somebody say, ‘That’s the governor that executed the black man.’ He couldn’t have done it.

Gessler:  That’s right.

Scott McInnis recently tiptoed into the shark-invested world of Denver journalism, where plagiarists are rooted out and hung up to dry.

In an exclusive interview, McInnis told KOA radio’s Colorado Morning News that our state did the right thing by not purchasing an espensive tanker fleet to fight forest fires. He said Colorado should be concerned about the expense and that various options should be evaluated.

Siding with former-McInnis-enemy The Denver Post as well as Rep. Doug Lamborn on the matter, and butting heads with current gubernatorial candidate Greg Brophy, McInnis had this conversation with KOA co-host Steffan Tubbs @ 3:57 :

TUBBS: You’re clearly still on top of issues that go on here in Colorado… to some people it’s unfathomable that a state with so much vegetation, wooded areas, national forests, –like Colorado, that we don’t have an air fleet based here, in this state. Is that a mistake? And has it been a mistake in the past? And would you say you support – no matter where the money comes from, get the money and put a fleet of aircraft here that can quickly respond to the wildfire?

MCINNIS: No, I don’t think it’s a mistake. I mean, it’s easy to talk about putting an air fleet together, and you know, when you have a big fire and people want to a fire station on every corner. I mean, the reality of it is is that It’s very, very expensive and you’ve got a lot of political questions that need to be asked. For example, if we’ve got a fire going in Colorado Springs and we’ve got a fire going in Glenwood Springs, where do you send the fleet? And how many airplanes do you have? And what if our neighbor right next door, Wyoming – if we’ve got a plane up there in Wyoming, would a governor dare send a plane to Wyoming to assist our neighbors, even though we didn’t have a fire in Colorado, and all of a sudden a fire breaks out in Colorado and our aircraft are somewhere off –. I mean,there’s a lot of implications in this. And it’s not just a budget item, it is a huge budget item. Aircraft – I mean, you have to be working those aircraft all the time, and that’s why so many – the Federal government, that’s why a lot of those aircraft are so dated and so on, is because it’s very expensive to keep that up to speed. So, I know right now at the height of this fire and this horrible disaster we’ve suffered, the temptation is to buy more fire trucks, buy more air fleets, make all kinds of commitments. But we need to let it calm down, give it a few weeks, and then really ask the questions, “Okay, we have the airplanes. Now how do we decide who gets them? And how do we decide how many we get? And how do we decide what we do with the people – you know, those planes, they probably fly – I don’t know, what? — fifteen days a year, maybe thirty days a year. What do we do with the other eleven months of the year? I mean there’s a lot of questions.

Listen to Scott McInnis on KOA CO Morning News 7.3.13

McInnis also said on KOA that the reason for the “intense fires” is “we don’t harvest wood like we used to harvest it.”

He added,”They should have thought about this [fires] when we were so tough on the lumber companies that went up there.”

“Musings on wood,” was the response of @Copeakpolitics when I tweeted McInnis’ remarks last week.