August 07, 2008 05:35 PM UTC

Wadhams To Shove Ads Up McCain's Ass?

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• by: Colorado Pols

“This guy was fundraising…and missing votes. That is reprehensible.”

That was Bob Schaffer campaign manager Dick Wadhams’ justification for his now-infamous assertion that Schaffer was going to “shove a bunch of 30-second ads up [opponent Mark Udall’s] ass on ‘this issue’ over the course of the campaign.”

The ‘issue’ was, if you recall, missed votes on energy.

Better keep those latex gloves handy, Dick, as the AP reports:

Republican candidate John McCain on Wednesday called on Congress to return from its summer recess to address immediately the U.S. energy crisis, though he missed numerous energy-related votes in the Senate last year.

McCain, campaigning on energy and economic issues in southern Ohio, said that as president he would tell members of Congress “not to leave town, not to take their vacation or pay raise” until they passed legislation to ease the burden of high energy prices on consumers.

The idea of forcing Congress to deal with energy issues could open the Arizona senator to charges of hypocrisy. The liberal-leaning League of Conservation Voters gave McCain a “zero” rating for 2007, saying he had missed all 11 votes related to such critical energy topics as automobile fuel economy, offshore Virginia drilling, refinery construction, renewable electricity mandates, energy efficiency, liquefied coal, support for biofuels… [Pols emphasis]

Lesson: sometimes, context is the biggest pain in the ass of them all.