There is a game some political reporters play while talking to Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams, a noted Republican strategist who is also managing ex-Rep. Bob Schaffer's campaign for Senate this year: Count the number of times Wadhams refers to Schaffer's opponent, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall, as a "Boulder liberal." If the number is any fewer than five times in a single conversation, the reporter hasn't asked enough questions.
Wadhams is coming under fire for one more thing he's said, though, after telling a Rocky Mountain News reporter that his campaign would "shove a bunch of 30-second ads up [Udall's] a**" on energy issues. The Colorado Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are calling on Wadhams to apologize for what DSCC spokesman Matt Miller called a "bizarre, vulgar outburst."
Democrats rubbed salt in old wounds by calling the comments Wadhams' "Macaca moment," referring to the infamous critique then-Senator George Allen made to a tracker videotaping an appearance in Southwest Virginia in 2006. Wadhams, at the time, was a top aide to Allen, then seen as a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination two years later.
Wadhams has no plans to apologize. "I embrace what I said Friday. I have no apologies. I won't back down at all," Wadhams told the News in a story out today. And, of course, he couldn't resist another message bomb: "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."
