Wake-Up Call: King for a day

Both Governor Bill Ritter and Lieutenant Governor Barbara O'Brien were out of town yesterday (he to the Western Governors' Association meeting in Utah, she to an education confab in North Carolina). And who did that leave in charge?

By the Colorado Constitution, the State Senate President. But Brandon Shaffer, who won that post after Peter Groff resigned near the end of the session, didn't have a chance to pardon anyone or do anything very quasi-gubernatorial during his reign of error. Unless you count answering calls from the Denver Post's Lynn Bartels and apologizing for his $4,300, two-day team-building retreat for Democratic leaders last week, which Republicans argue should have been funded by the Democratic caucus, not taxpayers.

Go, team!