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Allard out to win one for 'the Gipper'

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 4, 2007 at midnight

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Wayne Allard is going to challenge Democrats' spirit of bipartisanship in coming months by pushing for legislation to give a Republican icon, former President Ronald Reagan, a rare, artistic honor at the U.S. Capitol.

Today, the first day Democrats held Senate majority control, Allard introduced a list of 15 bills, including one that would give Reagan, affectionately known as "the Gipper" for a 1940 movie role, a place of honor inside the Capitol, alongside the likes of former President George Washington and others.

The bill calls for adding an artistic rendering of his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, where he challenged former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down that wall." Similar legislation didn't move when Allard first introduced it last year, back when Congress was under Republican control.

Allard hopes it could move now, even with Democrats in control, because the new session began with so much talk of bipartisanship.

"Reagan appealed to both Democrats and Republicans," Allard said. "All we can do is try."

Among Allard's other proposals was legislation that he and fellow Coloradan, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, introduced Thursday to establish a national veterans' cemetery in the Pikes Peak region around Colorado Springs, which has become such a popular place for military retirees.

Beginning his third-year in office, Salazar was making his debut appearance holding the ceremonial gavel and presiding over the Senate chamber while Allard listed his proposals. In his own speech later, Salazar didn't address any of Allard's proposals specifically, but he stressed the need for members of both parties to work together on issues like energy, education to immigration.

In the next two years, Salazar said, "the politics of division, of the past, are politics we will be able to transcend."