Dick Wadhams...Rove 2.0? Jim Webb+óGé¼GÇ¥Political Kryptonite!

A new article about Senator George +óGé¼+ôFumbles+óGé¼-¥ Allen+óGé¼Gäós campaign manager, Dick Wadhams (pictured at left) is out in the September issue of Washington Monthly. Cleverly titled Rove 2.0, the article starts with the basic premise that all Virginians, especially Webb supporters, should be eager to hear: +óGé¼+ôDick Wadhams is the next Republican maestro of cutthroat campaigning. Can Democrats figure out how to stop him?+óGé¼-¥

The print version of the article available at your local newsstand displays a creepy black and white photo of its subject, who looks more like a mischievous, hung-over sewer rat than the clever political strategist the author tries to make so compelling a case for.

After a brief description of what Webb watchers already know: Webb enters race late; wins primary; an early Zogby poll shows Webb within striking distance a week later and Larry Sabato+óGé¼Gäós +óGé¼+ôominous reading+óGé¼-¥ or Allen+óGé¼Gäós below 50% approval rating; we are treated to the +óGé¼+ôgenius+óGé¼-¥ of the Wadster who calls Sabato +óGé¼+ôbiased,+óGé¼-¥ then short-circuits Zogby by calling him +óGé¼+ôa joke+óGé¼-¥ who had +óGé¼+ôlong-ago been discredited.+óGé¼-¥

In the continuing trend where Republican smears and media manipulation are reported as displays of brilliance, the ensuing media brawl is somehow boiled down to:

+óGé¼-ªSabato and Zogby had now been cast, however unwittingly, into partisan roles. Forget politics as bloodsport; this was negative campaigning raised to a fine art.

And who is responsible for such +óGé¼+ôfine art+óGé¼-¥? Get ready for the drum roll:

To describe Wadhams, a 50-year-old Colorado native, as indispensable to Allen+óGé¼Gäós political future is almost to understate his importance. Democrats discuss Wadhams in fatalistic tones, with a kind of grudging respect; Republicans wax downright reverent. Both sides view him as Karl Rove+óGé¼Gäós heir-apparent. Still, the race in Virginia is as crucial for him as it is for George Allen. If Wadhams steers Allen to victory, he+óGé¼Gäóll probably manage Allen+óGé¼Gäós national campaign in 2008, effectively assuming the Turd Blossom+óGé¼Gäós mantle.

More importantly, to Virginia voters at least, the next few sentences read:

But if Jim Webb manages to defeat Allen, a Republican incumbent and top-tier [snicker, snicker] presidential prospect, it would mean more than the death of the senator+óGé¼Gäós presidential hopes. It would mean that Democrats may have finally found the political kryptonite they need to counter the winning strategy that GOP superhero consultants, like Wadhams, have used to carry their party to dominance.

That+óGé¼Gäós right, Jim Webb is political kryptonite! But why is a candidate+óGé¼Gäós campaign manager being likened to a superhero? Superman, no less?

Shouldn+óGé¼Gäót that spot be reserved for VA+óGé¼Gäós junior Republican Senator George Allen, the actual candidate of +óGé¼+ôtop-tier+óGé¼-¥ presidential timber and Iowa born wanna-be? Or has the entire media establishment and Washington Monthly editor Rebecca Sinderbrand, who dug deep into the Allen campaign to research this article, finally realized the truth about Republicans in general, that they run empty-headed suits incapable of independent thought, and this Virginia Republican Senator more specifically.

Allen certainly doesn+óGé¼Gäót come across as much of a critical component in his own campaign other than just a figurehead, but many media analysts, besides Sinderbrand, certainly portray Wadhams as the devious man behind the curtain ready to assume Karl Rove+óGé¼Gäós role of leading America down another road of wanton abandon.

No doubt, the article is an interesting read, I recommend everyone who is inclined to buy magazines to at least buy this one. Sinderbrand essentially gives Virginia voters a rap sheet on Allen+óGé¼Gäós campaign manager and his crass, but so-far successful style of democracy-killing campaigning.

Here we learn of Wadhams dirty tricks, which include giving his opponents outrageous labels. In the 2004 race, where John Thune played the part of successful puppet candidate, Wadhams called South Dakota Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle:

a +óGé¼+ôpathological liar,+óGé¼-¥ a farm-boy turned effete Michael Moore groupie who had reliably +óGé¼+ôembolded Saddam Hussein.+óGé¼-¥

In addition, Sinderbrand tells us of the infamous campaign stunt where boxes of bumper stickers carrying the slogan +óGé¼+ôVote Daschle, Vote for Sodomy+óGé¼-¥ showed up at a countless number of churches throughout South Dakota.

And while Wadhams +óGé¼+ôwas careful to distance himself personally+óGé¼-¥ from these sleaze-ball tactics, like those that were disgustingly run against John McCain in South Carolina in 2000, he was only too gleeful to talk about them to local media.

Which is another thing we learn about Wadhams, he is a desperate media whore, eagerly jumping in front of a microphone or camera so he can get more face time with the press because he believes he is more important than his weak-kneed, empty-headed candidates who are afraid to do anything but putter around on the campaign train parroting whatever Wadhams tells them to say.

Instead of sticking in the background like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, who did their dirty work behind the curtain, +óGé¼+ôWadhams seeks out the spotlight.+óGé¼-¥

He+óGé¼Gäós even so desperate for camera time he+óGé¼Gäós willing to scream till his face is purple:

When Daschle[+óGé¼-£s] communication director+óGé¼-ªtried to squeeze in a media hit after an election-related court-house faceoff, Wadhams stood just off camera bellowing +óGé¼+ôBullshit! Bullshit!+óGé¼-¥ like an outraged baseball fan cat-calling a major-league ump.

I mean what kind of desperate loser would do this? But I guess this is what passes as political genius in our day and age. Pretty sad.

Further examples of the Wadsters+óGé¼Gäó +óGé¼+ôsavy+óGé¼-¥ include his +óGé¼+ôunderstanding+óGé¼-¥ of new technology (the internets), which +óGé¼+ôsets him apart from nearly all his peers.+óGé¼-¥ (Are you kidding me? How weak is the competition of over there in the Republican Party?) His ability to +óGé¼+ôflood+óGé¼-ªthe zone with slash-and-burn press releases+óGé¼GÇ¥dozens a week+óGé¼-¥ and his fondness for putting his lips near the ass of every reporter within earshot of his desperate, prattle which in today+óGé¼Gäós world is called genius and leads reporters to describe the sociopaths who double as +óGé¼+ôGOP superhero consultants.+óGé¼-¥

If you+óGé¼Gäóre curious to do some more reading on Wadhams+óGé¼Gäó personality disorder this should fill you in a on all the salient details of whatever else he is capable of.

After a brief list of Wadhams most successful campaigns (Conrad Burns MT Senate, Wayne Allard CO Senate, and John Thune SD Senate), and the devious tactics that he employed and his one loss in nearly 30 years of campaigning (Ben Nighthorse Campbell CO Senate), we are treated comments of sublime disingenuousness that only a consummate liar could deliver without a blush or a leering smirk:

Going negative gets you a bad rap,+óGé¼-¥ Wadhams [tells Sinderbrand.] +óGé¼+ôVoters have to make a choice. You need to show how the candidates differ from each other. That+óGé¼Gäós how democracy works, so that+óGé¼Gäós how I work.+óGé¼-¥

Allen [i]s+óGé¼-ªW redux+óGé¼GÇ¥folksy, fratty, base-pleasing, and blessed (or cursed) with the name of a famous father...

[T]he party+óGé¼Gäós luck changed, and Allen+óGé¼Gäós fortunes shifted with it. As Iraq degenerated, New Orleans flooded, and the Medicare prescription-drug plan spread disarray among seniors, declarations of unqualified support for President Bush stopped looking so appealing. Allen+óGé¼Gäós overwhelmingly pro-administration voting record (he voted in favor of presidential policies 97 percent of the time) morphed from a selling point to a vulnerability. In Virginia, the senator+óGé¼Gäós approval ratings hovered around the 50-percent mark, the traditional danger zone for any incumbent trying to hold his seat.

To make matters worse, the senator drew an unexpectedly strong Democratic challenger in Webb, a one-time Allen supporter turned anti-Iraq war Democrat. As a social moderate, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and a one-time member of the Reagan White House, Webb threatened Allen on a host of fronts. Suddenly, what looked like a cakewalk to re-election was shaping up to be the most hotly-covered Senate race since Hillary Clinton+óGé¼Gäós inaugural run in New York.

[The] cover story focused on a number of unsettling Allen quirks, including his semi-abusive adolescent relationship with his siblings [by any standards Allen+óGé¼Gäós relationship with his brothers and sisters is sadistic and abusive, this author+óGé¼Gäós attempt to couch it any other way is troubling as she was probably still stuck in the death stare of Rat Boy Wadhams even as she typed] and his unlikely embrace, as a born-and-bred Californian, of Confederate icons and culture+óGé¼GÇ¥including a noose he once hung from a ficus tree in his office (his explanation+óGé¼GÇ¥that the offending item was merely part of a Western memorabilia collection+óGé¼GÇ¥didn+óGé¼Gäót reduce the cringe factor).

So pretty much, this is what Virginia has to deal with this fall: a foaming at the mouth, camera-chasing, compulsive liar of a campaign manager and a shallow, emptied-headed Senator who loves to beat small women and children (his own family) and has pretty much become George Bush+óGé¼Gäós younger, less talented and dumber younger brother.

Virginia institution and political pundit Larry Sabato, previously maligned by Rove-wannabe Wadhams, believes:

George Allen is at the most vulnerable moment of his career. [T]his just isn+óGé¼Gäót the same state it used to be+óGé¼-ªVirginia is evolving into the next big swing state

George Allen and Republicans far and wide are shaking in their $2,000 Gucci cowboy boots.

While the bulk of the article gives copious details of Wadhams devious tactics and a brief glimpse into his personal life (it+óGé¼Gäós sad, pathetic and boring), near the end we finally learn more about the Wadsters+óGé¼Gäó opponent, decorated military hero, former Reagan Navy Secretary and +óGé¼+ôAmerican Samurai+óGé¼-¥ Jim Webb, and the +óGé¼+ôtwo Dixie-born consultants, Steve Jarding and Dave +óGé¼-£Mudcat+óGé¼Gäó Saunders+óGé¼-¥ who will lead him to victory.

The combative Southerners+óGé¼GÇ¥who literally wrote the book (Foxes in the Henhouse) on how Democrats can win south of the Mason-Dixon+óGé¼GÇ¥have developed their own strategy for dealing with the Rovian brand of attack politics.

In contrast to many current Democratic operatives +óGé¼+ôJarding and Saunders believe in hitting back hard and fast.+óGé¼-¥
Something which Virginians and the Allen camp learned quickly just after Webb won the primary and Dick Wadhams issued a scurrilous challenge against Webb+óGé¼Gäós patriotism during the Senate+óGé¼Gäós debate of the recent flag burning amendment.

The duo+óGé¼Gäós response was swift and straight to the jugular, classic street fight politics at its best, calling out Allen for his needless pandering and faux patriotism, and leading to what may so far be the best line in an already highly charged campaign duel between the lead strategists.

+óGé¼+ôWithin minutes,+óGé¼-¥ of Wadhams+óGé¼Gäó ill-conceived questioning of Webb+óGé¼Gäós patriotism, +óGé¼+ôa searing 695-word response hit the inbox of every reporter in the state.+óGé¼-¥

While Jim Webb and others of George Felix Allen Jr.+óGé¼Gäós generation were fighting for our freedoms and for our symbols of freedom in Vietnam, George Felix Allen Jr. was playing cowboy at a dude ranch in Nevada. People who live in glass dude ranches should not question the patriotism of real soldiers who fought and bled for this country on a real battlefield.

Which led many in the Allen campaign to cry, +óGé¼+ôOuch!+óGé¼-¥ And let them, and Democrats in Virginia and nationwide, know that this was going to be a different kind of race.

In 2006, Rove-wannabes have been put on notice that at least some Democrats are going to stand up and fight back against the playground bullies who have grown so arrogant and complacent over the years that they feel completely safe leading our nation to war based on lies, outing a CIA agent because her husband pointed out those lies in an editorial and then said there was no +óGé¼+ôinvolvement+óGé¼-¥ by White House or administration staff even when it was actually the President who gave the order, shredded our Constitutions and our civil liberties, broke the Geneva Convention and exposed our troops to the possibility of committing war crimes and running on divisive and spurious wedge issues such the anti-gay marriage and flag burning amendments all the while calling anyone who opposes them to be un-American, traitorous and lending aid and comfort to the enemy.

Well, while that may have floated for the past six years, Democrats have finally found the answer to such nefarious tactics with the candidacy of Jim Webb and the two feisty Southern consultants (Jarding and Mudcat) who are going to take the knife to George Allen and his Chief of Lies superzero consultant Dick Wadhams, who is going to regret that he ever entered Virginia and allowed Allen to win the +óGé¼+ôWadhams primary.+óGé¼-¥

So here in Virginia, despite what glowing press releases about Republican strategists may attempt to say, the race is pretty simple. As George Bush likes to mutter: +óGé¼+ôIt+óGé¼Gäós a battle between good and evil.+óGé¼-¥ Between a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, American Samurai and his two street fighting strategists and a pinched-face, sociopath who dreams of propping up Senator Dude Ranch long enough to ride his pony into the White House.

Obviously political junkies and voters are excited about this matchup as its results could be an early bellweather for 2008.

+óGé¼+ôWe distort+óGé¼-ªyou deride.+óGé¼-¥

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