Denver's Hickenlooper Snubbed for His Own Superintendent

Who does John Hickenlooper have to give a free beer to get a Senate appointment around here? Despite being a 9:1 favorite in Political Machine's odds chart for Colorado Senator, the Denver mayor was passed up by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

And who's going to Washington in his place? Why none other than his own school superintendent...

Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to name Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to fill a Senate vacancy that will be created by the promotion of Sen. Ken Salazar to Interior secretary in the Obama administration, sources told The Associated Press.

What a dis to Hickenlooper! Not only does he get leapfrogged on the power ladder, but he misses the chance to fill the "goofy name" void created by the Senate's loss of President-elect Obama.

And speaking of other voids created by the departure of Obama, the white supremacists in our midst will be pleased to learn that Bill Ritter has courageously picked a white man for the job despite the presence of a far more qualified minority candidate.

Although in fairness to Bennet, he's been pretty darn good at his current job. Reports our own Greg McNeilly:

Bennet has been Denver's Superintendent since 2005. He's balanced the school district's budget, despite a 20% decline in funding and has instituted several reforms including a teacher merit-based pay type system.

Nice work by Bennet, although we don't recommend that he raise the concept of merit-based pay in the Senate. Any governing body that has somehow harbored Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) for 27 years and Thad Cochran (R-MS) for 29 years obviously has little interest in on-the-job performance.