March 04, 2007 06:33 PM UTC

Now Come the Days of the Dick

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• by: Colorado Pols

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you “Son of Rove.” We like that better than “Rove 2.0.” The media loves him either way.

As the Denver Post reports:

Coming off bruising election losses in November, the Colorado Republican Party on Saturday rallied behind a new leader.

Colorado native and political strategist Dick Wadhams, who ran unopposed, was unanimously elected as the state GOP’s new chairman.

Though politically shrewd enough to be dubbed “Rove 2.0” by Washington Monthly, his tenacious reputation was cited as one of the big reasons for his win.

“He’s the meanest, roughest, toughest, take-no-prisoners SOB we can get,” state Sen. Nancy Spence, R- Centennial, told about 300 Republicans at Douglas County High School… (Pols emphasis)

And in the Colorado Springs Gazette:

A year ago, Dick Wadhams never thought he’d be back in Colorado full time trying to resurrect the state Republican Party.

Wadhams, the silver-tongued Las Animas native who has led upset campaigns across the country, expected to be getting Virginia Sen. George Allen prepped for his presidential run. That was before Allen made his infamous “macaca” remark amid what should have been an easy reelection bid, and suddenly both he and Wadhams, his press secretary, found themselves out of their jobs…

Wadhams’ greatest strength, political observers say, is his ability to characterize opponents in his terms rather than theirs, such as the “17th Street lawyer-lobbyist” tin can he tied to the tail of Tom Strickland, Allard’s two-time Democratic opponent.

“He’s a craftsman in dealing with the media, and he knows how to structure a message in a way that people understand,” Allard said.

That style has left him with a number of detractors as well. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had pages of talking points against Wadhams in 2004, and Michael Huttner of the liberal group ProgressNow.org said Wadhams’ attempts to blow over Allen’s comments last year show he is out of touch.

“This is a guy who has a reputation for misleading the press, for misleading the public,” Huttner said.

Huttner also urged Wadhams to rein in what he called the extremist elements of the Republican Party who question the veracity of sexual-assault claims or equate abortion to slavery, a challenge Wadhams had not heard until last week.

In a telling response, Wadhams turned that comment around and said he hopes to exploit what he called Democratic extremism, citing legislative leaders who have asked Mexico for help on immigration issues or referred to Iraqi insurgents as freedom fighters. (Pols emphasis)

“It’s a target-rich environment for what the Dems are going to give us,” he said without pause. “I would agree with ProgressNow – they’re going to have to rein in their own liberal extremists in their own party.”

Our understanding is you liberals are in for it now. Cower accordingly.