It’s a good thing for Gov. Jared Polis that history or, at least, Wikipedia will have the last word on his political legacy. Because if it were up to President Trump, that last word — blasted out to millions via social media this week — would be “sleazebag.”  We’re not entirely sure what the president meant by it, which, as first reported by our news affiliate the Washington Examiner, Trump had included in his denunciation of Colorado’s chief exec on Truth Social Wednesday. Did it reflect some deeply held enmity or just a passing mood of the moment? Perhaps we should leave that question to those in the presidential inner sanctum whose job it is to pace the floor nightly and monitor his famously impulsive missives. Suffice it to say his smear of Polis was ridiculous and more than a little inappropriate — assuming it even was intended to be taken seriously. But the president’s outburst on a topic he seems to care a lot about — the imprisonment of discredited former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — is telling in a different way.  Not because of Trump’s dim view of Polis or his sympathy for Peters, who was duly convicted last year of multiple felonies after granting unauthorized access to election machines.  It’s telling because of our governor’s familiar penchant for keeping everyone guessing.  In this case, Trump has been public for months about his displeasure at Peter’s nine-year sentence in a state prison. More recently, his Federal Bureau of Prisons contacted Colorado’s Department of Corrections, requesting Peters be transferred from state to federal custody.  Earlier this month, Colorado’s Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein wrote Polis, urging him to deny the federal request.  Just last week, a state Corrections Department spokesperson told news media the department isn’t seeking to transfer Peters for the time being. Hardly a definitive statement. Gazette columnist and political sage Dick Wadhams called that “a pathetically worded statement” so wide open “you could drive a truck through” it. Through it all, Polis hasn’t had much to say. Wadhams notes Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick, a Democrat in Polis’ hometown, called his silence “deafening and offensive.” Wadhams put it bluntly for Gazette readers on Monday: “As President Donald Trump tries to bully Colorado into releasing convicted and imprisoned Tina Peters to federal custody, a silent Polis appears to have dived under his desk.” Perhaps the ever-politicking Polis sees some strategic advantage in triangulating both sides against the middle with his silence. Or, maybe he reasons it’ll all blow over without his input. It’s even possible he just doesn’t care all that much about the flap as he prepares to enter his last year in office. Sure, that’s all speculation, but the governor’s by-now-trademark caginess on testy topics almost begs for conjecture. And it of course leaves the door open to a hair-trigger tweeter like the president to presume without proof in his post to Truth Social, “The SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters, who was unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do, cheating on Elections, out of jail!”  In fact, neither Polis’ resolve on the matter nor his role in it have been established yet. Maybe that’s the way the governor rolls. But it’s going to make a lot of people restless. It even can draw a potshot from a sitting president. ...read more read less