In case you missed it, Cory Gardner was all over the Sunday news shows. At first glance, it seemed like vintage Cory, with Gardner — who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee — smilingly deflecting all tough midterm-election questions from Chuck Todd on Meet the Press and from Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union.

I mean, we’ve seen the act so many times before. Gardner puts his white teeth to work in distracting the viewer as he consistently ignores questions while pretending he is actually answering them.

It’s a gift, I guess. It certainly got him all the way to the U.S. Senate and into the bottom rungs of Republican leadership there.

But as I kept watching, I realized this wasn’t vintage Cory at all, despite the familiar act. This was barely-veiled, out-of-control Cory, who seemed to be gutting his own carefully constructed political career. Whatever my disagreements with Gardner politically — and they are many — I’ve always regarded him as a talented politician with a good read on the political zeitgeist.

Read the full column at ColoradoIndependent.com.