PolitickerCO.com interviewed Schaffer in Westminster last Tuesday. Schaffer was accompanied by his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, who jumped into the conversation at several points.
PolitickerCO: The campaign's been fairly quiet about the whole Mariana Islands controversy since it came out in the Post about a week or so ago. What's your take on this whole controversy and how it's played out?
Schaffer: Why don't you describe the controversy?
PolitickerCO: Well, just that the Post put out a series of articles detailing how, one, you went to the Marianas Islands and it was funded by or organized by Preston Gates...
Schaffer: Really? Was it?
Wadhams: No.
(Editor's Note: Schaffer's trip, according to the Denver Post, was not paid for by Preston Gates, jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff's former law firm. According to the Post, it was paid for by the California-based Traditional Values Coalition, which Schaffer described as a religious group "concerned with human rights." The Post also reported that "Later investigations have shown that in many instances, TVC - which claims to represent 43,000 churches - acted virtually as a political arm of Abramoff's lobbying operation.")
Schaffer: Why don't you take the opportunity to substantiate your comment just now?
PolitickerCO: Sure, sure. This is just -well, what is your take on the controversy? Why don't you fill me in?
Schaffer: Why don't you describe the controversy?
PolitickerCO: The controversy?
Schaffer: Yeah.
PolitickerCO: Well, just what's been in the papers, and there's a whole series of things - and I'm not asking you so much to talk about the controversy itself, but how's it's played out and what the reaction's been in the media and -- that's what I'm going for.
Schaffer: Well, the Denver Post has a hard time arriving at a factual and truthful representation of a 1998 event (Editor's Note: Schaffer visited the Marianas in August of 1999). And that probably causes controversy for the Denver Post. Maybe you should take it up with them.
PolitickerCO: Just trying to get your take on it. Just trying to get your take on it.
Schaffer: I'm not sure what "it" is. I'm asking you to describe that.
PolitickerCO: The controversy-the reaction to the Denver Post articles. That's what I mean by "it." And what you see as the effect--
Schaffer: Jeremy, if you're going to ask me-anyway, now listen, I love questions. I love talking about campaigns. If you've got something you want me to answer, you've got to tell me what you want me to answer.
PolitickerCO: I'm trying to tell you right now. I'm asking what your take is on the reaction and the effect of the Denver Post articles on this topic- that's my question.
Schaffer: I think it's probably hurt the credibility of the Denver Post.
PolitickerCO: Why?
Schaffer: Well, because when any news organization fails to report accurately and completely on any topic, readers tend to, um, assign lower and lower levels of credibility to reporters that make no pretense for objectivity - a political reporter, any kind of reporter.
PolitickerCO: What specifically - when you say inaccurate, what do you mean?
Schaffer: Things that they stated that were not true.
PolitickerCO: Like what?
Schaffer: You can, uh...Well, there were several. But frankly, I'm not here to talk about the Denver Post. If that's an interest to you-I mean, it's nice that you ask about the Denver Post, and I've made some comments, but you probably ought to talk to the Denver Post about their stories, their reporting, their controversies. I'm just not hired by them to do that.
Yes, it's really that weird--the whole interview goes on like this. Was this the plan for Schaffer and Wadhams--to try to make a reporter for a blog feel stupid? Because it sure doesn't take Schaffer and Wadhams very long to get hostile in what was a very obvious innocuous question to start of with.
Or maybe the strategy was to give Schaffer a new identity: Temperamental jerk. Because no unbiased person could read this interview and think that Schaffer and Wadhams were anything but unnecessarily hostile and aggressive.
Either this is a joke, or Schaffer and Wadhams have just completely f***ing lost it.
