COLORADO
Rocky Mountain News
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
February 11, 2006
Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald was puzzled. In 2003, a sex-abuse bill in California passed without a peep from anybody. Her bill, based on California's, has provoked nearly all-out war with the Archdiocese of Denver.
So on Thursday morning she punched in a call to John Burton, the former California senate president pro-tem, who had carried the bill.
"Hey, John," Fitz-Gerald said. "Remember when you told me how your bill got passed 'zero to nothing' (overwhelmingly)? Did you ever have a letter read in every church in California about what a terrible thing you're doing?
"No? The Catholic Church in California didn't fight it at all? Well, I guess you can't give me any advice."