Per Internet, a petard (French, of course) is a small bomb, perhaps best thought of as a primitive grenade. We use hoist in a manner seemingly inconsistent with a bomb, but whatever: we are all familiar with the expression, and this is a truly instructive and HAHA moment for the tax-cutting crowd that would prefer there be no consequences to such cuts, except IMMEDIATE NATIONAL PROSPERITY SOMEHOW.
In Colorado, we suffer under TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill Of Rights: one of those pernicious amendments to a state constitution passed in the Contract On America 90s. This amendment limits state spending and mandates tax refunds, such that voter override is required on a near continuous basis to adequately fund, say, education. And the author/perpetrator of TABOR is one Doug Bruce, whose other hobbies include, natch, tax fraud.
Here comes the good part: Bruce has filed suit against his defense attorney for what Bruce considers misconduct in handling his appeal of that fraud conviction.
The attorney, David Lane, has this to say about it (emphasis mine):
Lane said he was about two-thirds of the way done with Bruce's case when he was fired, so he returned the remaining third of the retainer to Bruce.
"That's not a particularly long time," Lane said of the delay for the opening brief. "We met every single deadline imposed upon us by the Colorado Court of Appeals. The fact that the court doesn't move as fast as Douglas Bruce wants it to is probably because there are not enough dollars to adequately staff the Colorado Court of Appeals due to the TABOR Amendment."
D'OH! If only more people who have deliberately helped break government paid direct consequences for so doing.