August 04, 2008 11:24 PM UTC

Dems Ridicule "Macaca Meltdown"

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The Rocky Mountain News reports:

Two Democratic groups today ripped Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s campaign manager for using foul language when talking about Democratic opponent Mark Udall.

But campaign manager Dick Wadhams said he has nothing to apologize for.

The Colorado Democratic Party called on Schaffer to “clean up the sleaze in his campaign.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee described Dick Wadhams’ comment as a “bizarre, vulgar outburst.”

“We can only assume that Bob Schaffer’s friends on the far right will be disappointed with his campaign’s sleazy comments,” the DSCC said in a release.

Wadhams was quoted in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News in a story about Udall, a congressman from Eldorado Springs, missing the initial vote in Congress on whether to adjourn for the summer.

“We’re going to shove a bunch of 30-second ads up his ass [disambiguated by Pols] on this issue over the course of the campaign,” Wadhams said.

Wadhams laughed today when heard Democrats attacked him for his comment.

“I embrace what I said Friday. I have no apologies. I won’t back down at all,” he said. “If Democrats want to embrace Boulder Liberal Udall who missed votes in Washington so he could fund raise in Colorado, let’s have that debate.”

Udall had promised during a debate with Schaffer to vote against the adjournment until Congress considered energy legislation. He missed the initial vote, but voted “no” during the official vote two days later…

Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams is finding himself the target of Democratic scorn today, after comments printed in the Rocky Mountain News over the weekend. You’ll recall that Wadhams promised to Rocky reporter Lynn Bartels that the Schaffer campaign was “going to shove a bunch of 30-second ads up his ass” (referring to opponent Mark Udall) over last week’s abortive “missed vote” brouhaha.

Is that the way that well-adjusted people talk about each other? On the record? Where children might hear? The Colorado Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee say no, and think “Wadhams’ bizarre, vulgar outburst” harks back to previous moments in his career (see title)–two releases follow.

We do think that Wadhams’ frequently profane rantings on the record could eventually be a problem for Schaffer, if they are repeated in front of enough genteel conservative voters. We know some El Paso County soccer moms don’t appreciate this kind of talk, even if it’s about the Democrats.

Though our personal view is that if you threaten to shove something up somebody’s ass for a mere 30 seconds, you’re mostly poking fun at yourself.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

Matt Farrauto

(303) 623-4762 Office

(505) 235-0419 Cell

mfarrauto@coloradodems.org

August 4, 2008

COLORADO DEMOCRATIC PARTY CALLS ON SCHAFFER TO CLEAN UP THE SLEAZE IN HIS CAMPAIGN

Waak: Time for Schaffer to Start Running a Campaign Worthy of Colorado

Denver, CO – Colorado Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak called on Bob Schaffer to clean up his campaign, after Schaffer’s campaign manager was quoted in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News threatening to “shove a bunch of 30-second ads up [Mark Udall’s] a**.”

“Coloradans deserve to know if this is the kind of campaign Bob Schaffer is going to run – obscene, ugly attack politics that do nothing to deal with the challenges people are facing, and frankly are just plain offensive,” said Waak.  

“Voters have made it clear this year that they’re sick and tired of this kind of thing, but it looks like Bob Schaffer hasn’t gotten the message.  We learned two things about Bob Schaffer this weekend – that he is pledging to run negative ads between now and November and that his campaign is describing them with words that can’t even run in the newspaper.  It’s time for Bob Schaffer to clean up the sleaze coming out of his campaign and start running a campaign worthy of the people of Colorado.”

Schaffer’s campaign manager made the statement in response to Congressman Mark Udall voting Friday against Congressional adjournment, as he had pledged to do, in an effort to keep Congress in session to consider comprehensive energy policy reforms.

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Campaign promises to “shove a bunch of 30-second ads up [Udall’s] a**”

Long-suffering Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer suffered another setback Saturday when his campaign manager Dick Wadhams – who earned national fame for guiding former Senator George Allen from a presidential frontrunner to a national laughingstock – suffered his own “macaca meltdown,” telling Lynn Bartels of the Rocky Mountain News, “We’re going to shove a bunch of 30-second ads up his a** on this issue over the course of the campaign.”  Wadhams’ bizarre, vulgar outburst came in response to Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall voting against a Congressional adjournment – as he had pledged to do, and, oddly, how Schaffer himself had urged.  There was no immediate response from the many conservative organizations with ties to Schaffer who have long decried a breakdown in the country’s morality.

“Poor Bob Schaffer just can’t stop sabotaging his own campaign.  First he gets involved in a series of scandals, and now his campaign manager is having his own ‘macaca meltdown,'” said DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller.  “We know this is a difficult time for Wadhams.  August 11 is the two-year anniversary of George Allen’s Macaca moment, and the memory alone must be causing Dick to break out in hives.  We can only assume that Bob Schaffer’s friends on the far right will be disappointed with his campaign’s sleazy comments.  This sort of obscenity has no place in a campaign that should be about the issues.”

Schaffer’s second Senate campaign, four years after his first effort went down to defeat in a primary, has suffered from a series of self-inflicted wounds.  First, Schaffer told the Denver Post that the U.S. could benefit from a guest worker program like the one implemented in the Northern Mariana Islands – which led to statewide and national publicity for Schaffer’s previously unnoticed trip to the islands on a junket paid for by a front group by jailed-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  Then Schaffer and Wadhams produced a campaign ad in which the Ohio-born Schaffer professed his Colorado roots by gesturing to “Pikes Peak,” the mountain on which he proposed to his wife.  Unfortunately, the mountain shown in the ad was Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, something most lifelong Coloradans might have noticed before paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to air it in a television ad.  Schaffer followed up that doozy by becoming embroiled in a Congressional earmark scandal, which, bad as it was, paled in comparison to disclosures that he had personally profited from an oil deal he negotiated in Kurdistan that violated official U.S. government policy and which national security experts said hurt Iraq’s stability.

Bob Schaffer on morality in society:

“Virtue and morality are necessary for the ‘American experiment’ in democracy to work, and it is the primary responsibility of parents to instill these values into their children as they grow into productive and contributing members of society.” – Bob Schaffer, 2004 US Senate Campaign Website

“People who are worthy of our respect hold themselves to high moral standards in every area of their lives. When the camera is not rolling and they are behind closed doors, good people are faithful. Good people are kind to everyone, not just their friends. They know that wrong actions always hurt someone. They know that wrong deeds diminish the doer as well.” – Bob Schaffer, Congressional Record, 10/14/98

“‘Moral’ means it is about right and wrong. ‘Moral’ means it is about good and bad. I try to teach my children about right and wrong every day, and their mother does too. It is the most important thing we teach. I want them to grow up with a clear sense of right and wrong. I do not want them to suffer from the same confusion that many others are suffering right at this moment.” – Bob Schaffer, Congressional Record, 10/10/98