July 14, 2011 06:54 PM UTC

Wadhams Still Sick of "Crazies," Possibly Including Rick Perry

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• by: Colorado Pols

A brief item we didn’t want to miss, from the Washington Post via the Colorado Independent:

In a piece that surveys Republican establishment players on the GOP presidential primary field, which has drawn half-hearted commitments among big donors, the Washington Post says Texas Governor Rick Perry is making a lot of moves that signal he’s ready to take the leap. The GOP players Perry has been spending hours calling up tell him the field remains wide open. In the end, though, the Post writers land on former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, who is measured in his response. Indeed, after the licks Wadhams took in Tea Party Colorado last year, he sounds almost circumspect.

“[The establishment] isn’t just sitting around waiting for Rick Perry specifically,” Wadhams told the Post reporters. “They just want to get it right, and they’re going to be thinking with their heads in addition to feeling with their hearts.” [Pols emphasis]

If that sounds a lot like the lecture former Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams on his way out the door after abandoning his re-election bid, it’s probably not a coincidence. The aftermath of the 2010 elections in Colorado, where hard-right grassroots movements undermined a more electable Senate candidate (at least according to conventional wisdom) and Wadhams became hopelessly entangled in the GOP’s disastrous gubernatorial primary, most likely has changed his thinking about the “Tea Party” and strident personalities like Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

But given the underwhelming nature of the current GOP field, Republicans may be in no position to listen to Wadhams–which again sounds like a replay of last year in Colorado, scaled up…