Colorado Republicans continue to resemble the child who touches a hot stove, burns his finger, and proceeds to touch the stove again. No matter how many times they get burned, they never seem to learn from their mistakes.

Conservative Republicans are still eating their own by calling out fellow Republicans whom they don’t consider “Republican enough” – nevermind that those Republicans are the only ones who are actually winning elections. Nobody eats their own like Colorado Republicans.

Meanwhile, conservative Republicans in Colorado just keep on beating the radical social issue drum, even though nobody is listening. It was their insistence on talking only about divisive social issues like abortion and gay marriage – while ignoring pleas that they actually govern the state – that cost them control of the state legislature and the governor’s office. Needless to say, they’ve learned very little from those mistakes.

Conservative Republican Sen. Dave Schultheis recently linked to something called “The Homosexual Activism Overview” on his Web site, apparently insistent that gay people are the main scourge on our state.

When conservative Republicans aren’t blaming gay people for the world’s troubles, they manage to find still other antagonists. Earlier this week top Republican lawmakers called a press conference to announce that Coloradans won’t be willing to pay more to support higher education…because of Ward Churchill. Seriously.

As The Boulder Daily Camera reported:

Leading Republican lawmakers Tuesday said taxpayers will likely be leery of approving tax increases to fund higher education, partly because of the Ward Churchill debacle playing out at the state’s flagship university.

The GOP’s skepticism follows a weekend higher-education summit held in Colorado Springs. More than 40 of the state’s leaders, including university presidents, presented ideas to pump more money into colleges and universities, which studies show have been severely underfunded.

Senate Republicans say that if there are any pitches for higher taxes, they would likely fall on deaf ears until school leaders can demonstrate greater accountability with the money they already have.

Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, said the Churchill dismissal case is eroding the public’s confidence in higher education…

Ward Churchill is eroding the public’s confidence in higher education? Really?

I’ll grant you that Churchill is an abrasive figure that is certainly not beloved by many people in Colorado, but how many folks outside a few who remain obsessed with the man are really still thinking about the CU professor? When was the last time you had a conversation with someone and the topic of Ward Churchill came up? I can honestly say that it hasn’t happened to me in years. Literally years.

See, the fascination with Churchill shows how out-of-touch Republicans remain in Colorado. They really, really want to keep talking about Churchill, while everybody else really, really doesn’t care anymore.

As long as Colorado Republicans keep touching the hot stove, they’ll keep getting burned. Someday they’ll figure it out (theoretically, at least), but until then, Democrats will continue to control politics in Colorado.