June's GOP Asshat of the Month
He may not be a household name, but Dick Wadhams, campaign manager for Virginia Senator George Allen, made an ass of himself twice in the past week attempting to "swiftboat" Allen's Democratic challenger James Webb, a former Republican and Secretary of the Navy. Ever since Webb unexpectedly won the Democratic primary on June 13, it's become clear that Allen's campaign realizes it could have a battle on its hand. They made that clear on Monday when Wadhams questioned the patriotism of his boss' opponent based upon Webb's opposition to the war in Iraq and the gimmicky Congressional resolution on flag burning.
The response from the Webb campaign (specifically campaign spokesman Steven Jarding) was astounding in both its immediate release and its aggressive, aint-gonna-take-no-shit tone. Here were Jarding's exact words: "George Felix Allen Jr. and his bush-league lapdog, Dick Wadhams, have not earned the right to challenge Jim Webb's position on free speech and flag burning. Jim Webb served and fought for our flag and what it stands for, while George Felix Allen Jr. chose to cut and run. When he and his disrespectful campaign puppets attack Jim Webb they are attacking every man and woman who served. Their comments are nothing more than weak-kneed attacks by cowards. George Felix Allen Jr. needs to apologize to Jim Webb and to all men and women who have served our nation."
Wow! Democrats with the backbone to stare the Republican slime machine in the eyes and say, "Go straight to hell, scum!" I didn't realize such creatures existed, but I hope they're breeding!
Thankfully, Wadhams was not quite satisfied with the ferocious flogging Jarding delivered his way on Monday. Rather than slither back underneath the rock where Republicans come from, Wadhams hurled more slime at James Webb later in the week, this time with even more infantile accusations and even more embarrassing consequences. Webb had been a technical consultant for the war film "Rules of Engagement", to which Wadhams attempted to discredit Webb for by childishly referring to him as a "Hollywood movie producer".
Again, Jarding wasted no time delivering the needed retaliation with the ferocity of a sledgehammer to the mouth: “What part of ‘Rules of Engagement’ did George Felix Allen Jr. and his insensitive mouthpiece Dick Wadhams not respect – military service? Patriotism? Honor? Valor? We know that George Felix Allen Jr. spent much of the Vietnam War years on a dude ranch in Nevada and chose not to serve, but his continued silence as his key staff dismiss military personnel and their patriotism is beginning to shine a very unfavorable light on Senator Dude Ranch.”
Making matters even worse, it appears that the real apostle of Hollywood in the Virginia Senate race is Wadhams' boss, George Allen, who had a cameo role in the Hollywood Civil War film, "Gods and Generals". Oops!
It's pretty obvious that once Republicans start oozing their slime, Democrats can't afford to take the high road and refuse to dignify the accusations with a response the way that Michael Dukakis and John Kerry did. To some extent, it's sad that the Democrats are forced to stoop to the Republicans level, but the politics of personal destruction clearly work on the low-lying fruit of the American electorate unless they're swiftly and aggressively repudiated. And while climbing into the Republican pigpen and getting muddy isn't always the preferred course of action for those in the political world who are civilized (i.e. Democrats), there's a priceless level of satisfaction that comes from the opportunity to expose Republicans as the hypocritical filth that they are. Certainly, Steven Jarding accomplished that end against the obviously amateurish Dick Wadhams, who is probably spending his July 4 weekend in a fetal position recovering from the wounds that he all but begged Jarding to inflict upon him, and by proxy, upon his boss.
The response from the Webb campaign (specifically campaign spokesman Steven Jarding) was astounding in both its immediate release and its aggressive, aint-gonna-take-no-shit tone. Here were Jarding's exact words: "George Felix Allen Jr. and his bush-league lapdog, Dick Wadhams, have not earned the right to challenge Jim Webb's position on free speech and flag burning. Jim Webb served and fought for our flag and what it stands for, while George Felix Allen Jr. chose to cut and run. When he and his disrespectful campaign puppets attack Jim Webb they are attacking every man and woman who served. Their comments are nothing more than weak-kneed attacks by cowards. George Felix Allen Jr. needs to apologize to Jim Webb and to all men and women who have served our nation."
Wow! Democrats with the backbone to stare the Republican slime machine in the eyes and say, "Go straight to hell, scum!" I didn't realize such creatures existed, but I hope they're breeding!
Thankfully, Wadhams was not quite satisfied with the ferocious flogging Jarding delivered his way on Monday. Rather than slither back underneath the rock where Republicans come from, Wadhams hurled more slime at James Webb later in the week, this time with even more infantile accusations and even more embarrassing consequences. Webb had been a technical consultant for the war film "Rules of Engagement", to which Wadhams attempted to discredit Webb for by childishly referring to him as a "Hollywood movie producer".
Again, Jarding wasted no time delivering the needed retaliation with the ferocity of a sledgehammer to the mouth: “What part of ‘Rules of Engagement’ did George Felix Allen Jr. and his insensitive mouthpiece Dick Wadhams not respect – military service? Patriotism? Honor? Valor? We know that George Felix Allen Jr. spent much of the Vietnam War years on a dude ranch in Nevada and chose not to serve, but his continued silence as his key staff dismiss military personnel and their patriotism is beginning to shine a very unfavorable light on Senator Dude Ranch.”
Making matters even worse, it appears that the real apostle of Hollywood in the Virginia Senate race is Wadhams' boss, George Allen, who had a cameo role in the Hollywood Civil War film, "Gods and Generals". Oops!
It's pretty obvious that once Republicans start oozing their slime, Democrats can't afford to take the high road and refuse to dignify the accusations with a response the way that Michael Dukakis and John Kerry did. To some extent, it's sad that the Democrats are forced to stoop to the Republicans level, but the politics of personal destruction clearly work on the low-lying fruit of the American electorate unless they're swiftly and aggressively repudiated. And while climbing into the Republican pigpen and getting muddy isn't always the preferred course of action for those in the political world who are civilized (i.e. Democrats), there's a priceless level of satisfaction that comes from the opportunity to expose Republicans as the hypocritical filth that they are. Certainly, Steven Jarding accomplished that end against the obviously amateurish Dick Wadhams, who is probably spending his July 4 weekend in a fetal position recovering from the wounds that he all but begged Jarding to inflict upon him, and by proxy, upon his boss.
posted by Mark at 10:34 PM
2 Comments:
It seems that Democrats will be "forced to stoop to the Republicans' level" after the Republican-friendly ruling on the Texas redistricting by the High Court. From what I've heard from friends here, if Democrats want to remain in power, they just cannot "play nice" while the Republicans gerrymander Democratic seats away; they gotta stoop to the GOP's level and try to gerrymander Republicans in Democratic states out of their seats. It'll be interesting to see what will happen to the 20 House seats in the California delegation that are currently Republican-held, provided they are still GOP-held after November; things could be different for the 11th and possibly the 4th (Doolittle has ties to Jack Abramoff, as does Pombo, and his opponent is from the Band of Brothers) and remote chances for the 26th and 50th, and maybe a couple more seats under our radar screens that could become competitive in the next 4 months. Repubs in Illinois, New York, and some other solid blue states would also have to beware as well.
I'm a little torn on this premise. This kind of partisan gamesmanship is not popular with the majority of Americans who desire competitive elections rather than 435 rubber stamp victories for incumbents every two years. At least in the short term, I think a policy of mutually-assured destruction would be our best bet, where we agree with Republicans not to pursue further mid-decade gerrymanders in our states so long as they don't in theirs. We'd be getting the best of that deal if it came to that because geography and present legislative reality is on the GOP's side here.
California would be very hard-pressed to squeeze out even one more Democratic district than the 33 it already has on the current favorable map. We might be able to get one more out of Illinois, and after November, two more out of New York. Beyond that, the picking's are awfully slim. Michigan could potentially have three more Democratic districts, reversing the 9-6 GOP majority to a Democratic majority, but both Houses of its Legislature are hopelessly Republican and even Democratic Governor Granholm is in serious danger for the fall. Ditto for Ohio which is still likely to be solidly Republican at the Legislative level even if Strickland wins the gubernatorial race for the Dems. The pickings are equally slim for Pennsylvania, where the Dems' may pick off incumbents in suburban Philly even without a gerrymander....but then have very little chance of carving out further Democratic enclaves in the T-shaped Republican bastion.
It's Republicans have the whip hand in the gerrymander wars, particularly with the Court's willingness to uphold the Voting Rights Act ensuring majority-minority districts and thus further centrallizing Democratic control in urban centers. Just think how much fun Republicans will eventually have in Georgia and North Carolina if they're able to centrallize all the blacks in 90% Democratic strongholds and all the Republicans in 60% GOP districts. In North Carolina and Georgia alone, we probably stand to lose five or six Democrats in the event of redistricting (GA could conceivably redistrict us out of two or three seats today, while NC certainly will when the anomaly of a Democratic Governor and two Democratic Legislative Houses ends). Beyond that, GOP gerrymanders would steal away additional seats from us in Tennessee, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, and probably New Jersey.
Now if the GOP takes the cue and starts redistricting mid-decade, then we should follow suit and steal a couple seats here and there. Nonetheless, this is a one step forward and two steps back numbers game for us, at least at this point in time. The best outcome we can hope for the Republicans conclude that Tom DeLay's efforts in Texas turned out so unfavorably for him that it's not worth going through again. It's probably not too much to hope for....at least for now.
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