What Dick Wad(hams) Does

In South Dakota he honed his slash-and-burn reputation, relentlessly attacking Daschle about his Washington, D.C., home, luxury car, and lobbyist wife. At one point, Wadhams accused the former minority leader of having "emboldened Saddam Hussein." Thune won, by a slim margin, and gratefully dubbed his campaign manager "the best pit bull out there."

Basically, what Wad(hams) does all revolves around "controlling the message."  According to Slate, Wad(hams) "deluges reporters with written press releases and phones them himself, sometimes as many as five times a day."  In addition:

Another way to control a campaign is to shape its news coverage, and Wadhams found a new way to do that for the Thune campaign. South Dakota Republicans had long accused the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the state's most influential paper, of being pro-Daschle. When two bloggers, Jason Van Beek and Jon Lauck, began cataloguing alleged acts of bias like lack of criticism of Linda Daschle's lobbying practice, Wadhams hired them as campaign researchers. Wadhams insists he wasn't underwriting the bloggers' online enterprises. But Van Beek and Lauck didn't disclose that the Thune campaign was cutting them checks. And they succeeded in aiding Thune: The assistant managing editor of the Argus Leader admitted that the paper's coverage had been affected by the online criticism, implicitly acknowledging that it was tougher on Daschle in the Thune race than it had been in the past.

In other words, Wad(hams)' pit bull tactics actually were somewhat effective in South Dakota, intimidating reporters at the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader into slanting their coverage of the Thune-Daschle race.  Believe it or not, Wad(hams) even worked with the infamous James Dale Guckert, aka "Jeff Gannon," the fake White House "reporter" who turned out to be a gay male "escort" under the professional name "Bulldog."  In South Dakota, Wad(hams) and Company used Guckert/Gannon as "the dumping ground for opposition research."  According to Slate Magazine:

One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.

So, that's how it works in the world of Guckert/Gannon, Wad(hams), and right-wing bullies like George "Macaca" Allen. Instead of trying to win by running a "campaign on positive, constructive ideas," as Allen promised to do (ironically, right before he attacked S.R. Sidarth and Jim Webb), the team of Wad(hams), LaSwiftboat-vita, Scott "Hitler Ads" Howell, and Senator "Macaca" himself obviously prefer to keep their campaigns in the gutter.  We have already looked at their modus operandus in South Dakota. Last year, right here in Virginia, Scott "Hitler Ads" Howell tried to slime Tim Kaine as someone who wouldn't even execute Adolph Hitler. And this year, facing very possible defeat, they're trying whatever they can, even claiming that Jim Webb has never been to Southwest Virginia, where Webb has family ties that go back generations.  Lies, lies, and more lies.  That's the George Allen/Dick Wad(hams) way.

Anyway, I could go on and on here.  Tnere's lots more on all these guys.  For now, though, this has just been a bit of background on Dick Wad(hams) and on the Allen team more broadly, so you can put into perspective the lies, distortions, lame excuses and ad hominem attacks that make up their entire message and their entire strategy for re-electing George Allen. Pathetic.

Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign.  The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.

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