House crazy

Fresh off his his censure for kicking a photographer during the House's morning prayer, Rep. Doug Bruce added massively to his Grandmaster Jerk points today. The Rocky:

Rep. Douglas Bruce did it again.

The Colorado Springs Republican last month outraged fellow lawmakers by kicking a Rocky Mountain News photographer during the morning prayer on the House floor in his first day as a representative. Colleagues voted to make him the first state lawmaker in history to be censured for dishonoring House decorum and basic decency.

Today he infuriated fellow lawmakers by being the lone legislator who refused to cosponsor a Joint House-Senate resolution honoring Military and Veterans Appreciation Day. He would not say why he did it.

“Today we were honoring people who died for our country, who served our country, and Douglas Bruce is spitting in the eye of every veteran who served our country, and it’s a disgrace,” said Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. “I’m so angry I can’t even talk right now.”

Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genessee, said he’d never seen a colleague refuse to cosponsor the annual resolution.

“Some of our veterans have sacrificed all for their country,” Witwer said. “The least we can do is say thank you.”

And that's his own party.

Democrats were also stunned and dismayed.

“I feel like I want to say to him what we used to say in the McCarthy era, ‘Have you no shame?’” said Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver.

It was a catchphrase, like "smell you later."

The rookie lawmaker has often protested other ceremonial resolutions, including an annual one honoring President Ronald Reagan’s birthday, as a waste of lawmaker’s time that could be better spent working on legislation.

Yet Bruce did cosponsor resolutions honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Colorado 4-H Day.

He's nuts.

Update: Bruce has been kicked off the House veterans and military affairs committee.