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May 13, 2008 05:40 PM UTC

Dems Jack Schaffer After Marianas Bill Signing

  • 16 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

Democrats Monday used President Bush’s recent signing of a bill that supporters say will eliminate sweatshops on the Northern Mariana Islands to settle a few political scores, including one in Colorado.

Democrats have been trying since the mid-1990s to revoke the protectorate’s exemptions from U.S. labor and immigration laws but had long been outflanked by powerful Republicans in the House and the islands’ now-jailed lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Former Congressman Bob Schaffer’s role in those efforts has been a campaign issue for weeks, and Monday his Democratic opponent for the first time took him to task on the issue.

“I know that from what I read and the people I listened to, it was clear that there were abuses there . . .. I don’t understand how you could leave the Marianas thinking everything was perfect,” said Rep. Mark Udall, referring to a fact-finding trip Schaffer took in 1999 that was partly arranged by Abramoff’s lobbying firm. Schaffer said he found problems in only one out of 20 factories he visited…

“The first time Mark Udall ever talked about the issue was in 2008. He never went to a hearing, he never made a floor speech about the Mariana Islands and the alleged labor abuses,” said Dick Wadhams, Schaffer’s campaign manager.

“He was so concerned about the labor abuses that he was silent and totally uninvolved . . . until he thinks he can use it politically in a campaign.”

Note to Wadhams: the Post’s Michael Riley fact-checks.

Udall had co-sponsored Miller’s initial reform bill in 1999 as well as two successive bills…

“When Udall decided to co-author the bill, he made a decision that the bill was addressing a valid series of human rights concerns that many organizations had about the treatment of the workers, especially the women,” Miller said.

“The distinction here in the political context is that his opponent, Congressman Schaffer, made a conscious decision to go after and attack those who were alleging the employment abuses, the human rights abuses that were taking place.”

So, Wadhams’ whole defense offered–again devoid of anything factual, just alleging that Udall didn’t care about the issue either (or something–how the hell does that help?)–is exposed as fabricated in the very next paragraph. As in completely fabricated–Udall co-sponsored the bill in 1999 that was the object of Schaffer’s dubious “hearings” on the Mariana Islands? Could there possibly be a starker contrast?

It gets worse for Schaffer daily. The TV ads are already blasting away, and no answer from his campaign about the scandal has been even remotely satisfying. We think at this point Schaffer would have been better off taking the wind out of the added shame of Bush’s signing into law the labor protections he opposed by hailing them some way, but maybe it’s just too late for that.

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16 thoughts on “Dems Jack Schaffer After Marianas Bill Signing”

  1. I’m starting to think Wadhams ought to be the one that is muzzled. Every time he opens his mouth, he makes things worse for Sweaty.  

    2. And by that I mean their moral bearings. With Wadhams still talking about “alleged” abuses that were documented facts over a year before Abramoff had Schaffer flown out to the Marianas, these guys have completely lost it.

      This is pathetic: Wadhams is trying to find a moral equivalence between Sweatshop Schaffer — who was part of the DeLay-Abramoff protection racket and who used committee time to attack sweatshop victims — and Mark Udall, who co-sponsored legislation that would have reformed a sweatshop system that exploited women and children.

      That’s just morally repugnant.

      1. The choice for who to vote for could not be clearer–a man with morals and values or a man who sold himself out for a $13,000 paid excursion to the tropics.

        1. the thousands of dollars Schaffer took from CNMI bosses, including sweatshop owners and the governor who coordinated with Abramoff to block reform legislation.

          It’s not that Schaffer was for sale. It’s that his price was so low.

  2. During the Republican-dominated  reign of the first six years of this administration knows that “dubious” is an excellent description.  Those boys and girls ran the table – if you were a minority Dem and had ANY desire to hold a hearing on issues like the Marianna Islands — you were flat out of luck.  

  3. If quoted accurately, he actually used the name “Mark Udall” whithout the lead-in “boulderliberal.”  Now I know he has lost his edge.

    1.    I think the pressure is getting to Dicky.  He accepted the position chair to great acclaim with expectations high that he would save his party.

        Things are not going as planned.  A RINO who couldn’t carry the Colorado GOP caucuses is at the top of the ticket.  

        The Wad Man has pretty much kissed off any chance of retaking either chamber of the legislature until ’10, at the earliest.

        The best case scenario for the Congressional delegation is holding onto the three seats the GOP currently holds, although Musty could be in for a rough ride this time because (a) Betsy doesn’t have Angie’s baggage, (b) ’08 looks even more toxic for the Repubs than ’06, and (c) the RCCC doesn’t have the $$$ to save her ass yet again.

        No wonder Wadhams is coming unglued.  He put all his eggs in one basket which Sweatshop proceeded to drop in the Marianas Islands.

      1. Wadhams basically told the party that the entire effort would go to Schaffer and everyone else was to try and hang on if they could, and there would be some losses.

        If he loses that bet (which looks likely), then he’s lost everything.

  4. While I don’t know Coloradopols or Wadhams, I doubt the posts on this site have him quaking in his boots…  From looking at his resume, he’s been in two much hotter kitchens in VA and SD.

    1. If you are fighting about your scandal or weakness things are not good.

      can you recover, of course, but its hard when it cuts against your central message.

      Schaffer’s central message has been nothing, because they were going to make a forced moderate push against boulder liberal Udall.

      Schaffer’s in trouble and Wadhams knows it.

      1. has Sweatshop Schaffer received in this campaign?

        His (multiple) rollouts were fiascos. He refused to take a stand on Pinon Canyon. His fundraising has consistently trailed Udall’s. He was on defense for vote buying on the State Board of Ed. The CNMI thing has been playing out for weeks now with Wadhams completely incapable of putting it to bed, and there’s even an independent TV buy targeting El Paso County.

        Brutal.  

    3. “Wadhams will save us all.” Now you sound like the delusional fools in the party who brought Wadhams back to Colorado to save them from the nasty Democrats.

      What you rethugs continue to fail to understand (and this is truly amazing that you can’t comprehend) is that the voters aren’t buying what you’re selling, regardless of how much you sugar coat it.  

      1. He’s lying to you so that you’ll lose. The key to winning is to get across to the voters what the Republicans truly want to do. That message will sell.

        People want zero taxes and no government services. You just have to convince them that you are the ones that will do that to them.

        Go Republicans!

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