The story that U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer and Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams wish like hell would go away keeps chugging along, as the Denver Post reports this morning:
Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction, chided Schaffer for voting in May on a matter affecting a company owned by a major campaign contributor.
Using Schaffer’s own words from a previous meeting of the Board of Education, Huttner suggested a policy that requires members to disclose campaign contributions from officers of companies with business pending before the board.
“We are here today to give Schaffer the opportunity to begin to clean up his act,” Huttner said at a news conference.
In response, Republicans launched an attack on Huttner.
“Michael Huttner is nothing but a sleazeball who has engaged in character assassination for years,” said Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
Walt Klein, Schaffer’s top campaign consultant, called Huttner a “bottom feeder.”
The level of invective Wadhams and Schaffer are reacting to this story with is helping keep it alive, based on sources we’ve talked to–the media seems to be as offended by their profane non-answers as the liberals at Progress Now must be.
On second thought, Progress Now shouldn’t be too upset, since according to their web site two Board of Education members, Karen Middleton and Evie Hudak (both Democrats) have signed their conflict-of-interest pledge.
Our view: Wadhams and Schaffer apparently thought simple badmouthing of Progress Now with the press would kill this story, but they’ve seriously miscalculated. If they had just ignored Mike Huttner and his troublemaking crew instead of getting so visibly upset with their accusations, the major dailies may never have written about it. As it happened, they have kept the story interesting with their pissy responses–while failing to respond even once to the actual charges.
Wadhams is screwing up the management of this story in a strikingly similar manner to the way he bungled the response to George Allen’s macaca gaffe–refusing to acknowledge any of the facts, profanely trashing the other side. And we saw the result on Election Day 2006…
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Isn’t that the perfect description of Dick Wadhams?
Yeah, perfect. Takes one to know one.
Listen up CRP! I’m willing to do stupid things, say stupid things just like Dickie for half his salary!
I want to see every rant and read every profound thought of the man behind Macaca Allen – to the minute.
Did anyone notice something here? Pat Fiske usually speaks on behalf of Schaffer. Now, it is Walt Klein. Where is Pat Fiske? Did he leave?
We don’t see Pat Waak taking on the media when/if a Dem stumbles, do we?
“Help me….I can’t stop myself…..must run campaigns…not my job…..”
and even if they did, they’re expected to fend for themselves.
Well said and Dems do a better job at it!
It looks like Dick’s way too long press honeymoon has come to an end.
He’s been away too long. You bring an outsider in, who goes where the best paycheck is offered, and this is what you get–a low quality chair. He’s starting to make Martinez look good and who ever thought we would say that?
He’s so inept it actually creates sympathy. (Maybe that’s his actual plan.)
Maybe! Wait…I’m betting he’s not bright enough to come up with that kind of devious plan.
He doesn’t get anything anywhere very well any more. Good thing for Dems he still gets jobs.
Micheal Huttner is a political person in a responsible position that requires him to whack R’s. The macaca kid was a college student doing an unexciting campaign task. He also was a minority. Macaca was framed as a racist word. The Allen campaign never created a focused reply to be used over time. They kept shifting the response to the point where any explanation became a joke and therefore unbelievable.
The next stage in VA was the generation of related stories such as rehashing Allen’s college days when he was said to have exhibited racist behavor–whether true or not it enhanced the macaca story. The story went on so long that when he finally apologized it was not seen as being real.
Schaffer has put himself in the same bad place. You’d think Wadhams would have learned something from the last time.
You have to have some ego to get anywhere in politics, but too much ego leads Wadhams Syndrome – the inability to admit to yourself the simple truth. It’s too important for Wadhams to “win”; he can’t stop trying, even when it’s long past time to give up and try mitigating damages.
Let me get this straight. Schaffer is ousted as a hypocrit and is asked to sign his own proposed accountability pledge for conflicts of interests, and parasites like Wadhams and Old Man Walt Klein call Huttner a sleaze-ball and bottom-feeder?
Hey folks, the Walt & Dick show is about to start. These guys will protect the worst of them by attacking any who defy them.