YOU, SIR, ARE NO KARL. Just to chime in on the latest macacagate news, it's worth noting that for all the fuss about Dick Wadhams being the next Karl Rove, he sure seems to have forgotten Rule #1 of campaign damage control: Either apologize completely and fully from the start, or don�t apologize at all. Instead of throwing up bogus explanations and semi-apologies and half-apologies and then trying to blame the media, Allen should have either blown the thing off or apologized to S.R. Sidarth the next day. Instead, we are now on Day 10 of Macaca-watch. "Senator Allen made a heartfelt apology,� Wadhams told the Associated Press. �He told Sidarth he thought he would see him on the campaign trail, but Sidarth had headed back to U.Va., so we Googled his name, found his number and the senator called him this morning.� Googled his name on Day 9? Wadhams or some low-level staffer could have gotten the contact info directly from Webb�s staff on Day 1. Instead, Wadhams waits a week and searches for him online. (This ranks right up there with news also out this week that Joe Lieberman formed his �Connecticut for Lieberman� campaign but failed to register the website for it.) Apparently, Wadhams lost his Swift Boat playbook -- not the part about how to create negative storylines for opponents, but the part about how not to let them eat you alive for a week before fixing them.
--Tom Schaller
