Today, former Kilgore campaign manager Ken Hutcheson sent an angry e-mail to Virginia Club for Growth President Phil Rodokankis, in response to his column about the Kilgore campaign. The crux of Rodokankis column was that Kilgore wasn’t nearly anti-tax enough, and that Hutcheson had committed the mortal sin of previously working for Sen. Chichester, who was one of many Republicans to keep Virginia fiscally solvent in the 2004 General Assembly session. Rodokankis concludes that Kilgore is a “Republican in Name Only,” believing that Kilgore was so far to the left that he may as well be a Democrat. You’ve got to be really far out there to confuse Kilgore with a Democrat.
So, Hutcheson sent a private e-mail to Rodokankis issuing a really excellent smackdown. The Virginia Club for Growth turned around and forwarded that private e-mail to 188 reporters, presumably believing that it would serve to make Hutcheson and Kilgore look bad. They were wrong.
From: Ken Hutcheson
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 2:25 PM
To: Phil Rodokankis
Subject: Phil’s Rodokanakis’ Latest ColumnNovember 15, 2005
Phil
I read with great amusement your latest “column” on Bacon’s Rebellion. Simply put, you are a spineless, gutless coward who is as stupid as he is petty. Do you really think anyone of any relative significance in VA cares what you write? I mean let’s face it, you are the epitome of an armchair quarterback with an opinion (which are like a**holes–everyone’s got one). Really, what makes you think anyone cares about your opinion in particular?
Where do I begin, there is just too much good stuff to discuss. First, let’s take a moment to ponder your “organization” that bestows upon you the fancy title of President. The Virginia Club for Growth–sounds like an impressive organization, but aside from the email list you conveniently ended up with from me after the Allen Campaign in 2000, who are your members? How many dues paying members are there in VA? Just exactly how many people voted you in as President of the VCOG? Did anyone else run for the position? Can you point to me anything that your organization does other than opine on public policy matters? Can you point to me any meaningful accomplishments of the VCOG? And why do the respected National Club for Growth leaders look down on you and think you and the VA Chapter are a joke?
Ok, now let’s review your impressive resume that makes you qualified to judge people like Jerry and me. Name one campaign you have ever managed. Name one race you have ever officially consulted on. In fact, name one race where any candidate paid you for your advice and/or work? Oh wait, I don’t recall any, but to be honest, you have never made an impact or had a significant role in Virginia politics, so I might not know off the top of my head. But, I typically don’t pay much attention to the bottom feeders who look for scraps and constantly 2nd guess those who have a seat at the table. If you aren’t happy in your mediocre job and career, why not whip up the courage to come do what I do on a yearly basis instead of hiding behind a computer keyboard or better yet, run for public office. You have all the answers, surely you could win any race you ran for based upon your principles and then certainly do a better job than the guys who have the guts to put their name on the ballots and stand for election.
Ok, so we have established that you are the “President” of a big email list once owned by me and the Allen campaign and have no real qualifications to offer up competent criticism to anyone out there. Speaking of criticism, let’s take a look at your “expert analysis” of things. You claim in a nutshell that we had no principles and that folks like Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell did. Ok, fair enough, but then please explain to me why your expert logic does not apply to Dick Black, Brad Marrs, Chris Craddock and Michael Golden? They were all principled candidates to a fault who also lost. Now why on earth would they have lost if they like Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell ran on principles?
I am sure your cowardly and lazy answer will be that they got swallowed up in the wave caused by the Kilgore defeat. Surely principled candidates such as these would overcome a Kilgore loss at the top of the ticket, especially if Bolling and McDonnell were able to. If that is your misguided belief, so be it, but let me fill you in on a little secret: No one really cares what you think. I am man enough to take the blame for the loss of this campaign though it had nothing to do with the reasons you so intuitively articulated. That said, you were correct in assuming I will be fine moving forward. I have worked my tail off for the last 11 years in this party and will continue to do so, very successfully I might add. My peers and friends are the only ones whose judgment of me matters and I suspect you are in an obscure minority who believe the drivel you write.
Wayne Ozmore, the GOP’s 4th District C.D. Chair and a friend of mine recently sent me a famous Teddy Roosevelt quote (see below–the last line describes you perfectly) that I believe to be very appropriate and fitting for people like you. You see, it’s people like Wayne and myself who actually get out there and roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and work the long hours for the cause while folks like yourself and plenty of others like to sit back and type away on your computers and BLOGS, but in reality, each of you is kind of sad and pathetic in your own right. When you build up the same grit under your fingernails that guys like Wayne Ozmore and myself have, come back and we’ll talk, but in the meantime, why don’t you spare everyone your uninformed and laughable babble and try and earn a shred of credibility so that you don’t remain the laughing stock of Virginia.
Bottom line Phil is this: If you were half the man Jerry Kilgore is, you might actually be respected and admired, but you aren’t worthy to even stand in his shadow and you know it.
Sincerely,
Ken Hutcheson
P.S. Ignoring you and other nutjobs like Paul Jost was perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of this campaign. We may have lost in the end, but we did so with our dignity and pride intact and our principles firmly in place and by not selling out to you and your merry band of misfits, I am very much at peace with myself.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Let’s get that P.S. one more time:
Ignoring you and other nutjobs like Paul Jost was perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of this campaign. We may have lost in the end, but we did so with our dignity and pride intact and our principles firmly in place and by not selling out to you and your merry band of misfits, I am very much at peace with myself.
Damn.
I’ve often said that there’s a deep division in the Virginia Republican Party over the matter of taxes. There’s the sane crew, who make up the majority, and there’s a minority who really and truly believes:
- Eliminate taxes.
- ???
- Profit!
What I didn’t know was that the division was so big, or festering so close to the surface. I’m pleased to now know that both Hutcheson and Kilgore are on the sane side of this division, and doubly pleased to know that the insane ones played a small but important role in Kilgore’s defeat.
Two points to Ken Hutcheson for bad-ass-ness. Minus one point for bitching about blogs. Minus one point for me for being smacked down by Hutcheson for being “sad and pathetic in [my] own right.”
Wow. I love it when Republicans fight – in public.
It got bc’d to a lot of Republican activists as well…
Minus one point for me for being smacked down by Hutcheson for being “sad and pathetic in [my] own right.”
Yeah, but you get that point back for having been “in the arena”.
Let’s call it even.
That whole letter applies to you and I as political bloggers.
Your disagreement with Phil Rodokankis is different from Ken Hutcheson’s disagreement with Phil Rodokankis. The entire substance of the letter (“Minus one point for bitching about blogs. Minus one point for me for being smacked down by Hutcheson for being ‘sad and pathetic in [my] own right.'”) is what you disagree with. You like the bashing part (“Two points to Ken Hutcheson for bad-ass-ness.”), you just don’t agree with the substance.
If this were the DNC chair writing, you would condemn it because it is at its heart: pro-political-establishment and anti-grassroots/blogs. That is the opposite of your philosophy and rightly so.
Kitty likes to scratch!
You like the bashing part (”Two points to Ken Hutcheson for bad-ass-ness.”), you just don’t agree with the substance.
Close, but no cigar.
I share his annoyance with political bloggers who don’t do anything. The people who both blog and also run for office / work for candidates / etc., I have a particular respect for. There are some rare souls whose thoughts are original enough and writing interesting enough that I don’t much care if they ever leave their basement.
But the part that I particularly liked in Hutcheson’s e-mail was so nice I wrote it twice — Hutcheson firmly separating the Kilgore campaign from the anti-tax loonies.
“…sit back and type away on your computers and BLOGS, but in reality, each of you is kind of sad and pathetic in your own right…” -KH
That’s a low blow – it takes a lot of energy to search for the right kind of tinfoil to make those little hats that we wear while blogging…hey, who moved my flowerpot with the red flag in it?
— Conaway
Walso, tell us more about the comment that the national no-tax “clubs for growth” look down on their Virginia chapter. And why, if true. And do we have feedback on Hutcheson’s reaction to the wide distribution of his dressing down of Rodokankis, and the reaction of various Republican faithful who are now privy to it?
Damn.
Now THAT’S Entertainment!
I traditionally refer to the “Club for Growth” as the “Club for ignorant children and decaying roads”. Now I can add “the elimination of political acumen”.
Who needs jello wrestling?
Walso, tell us more about the comment that the national no-tax “clubs for growth” look down on their Virginia chapter. And why, if true.
Teddy, I really wish I could, but I’m completely ignorant about that. I’m shockingly clueless about the RPV and related organizations, and so I have no insight here. But I’m glad that you picked up on that point — there were volumes spoken in that brief comment.
And do we have feedback on Hutcheson’s reaction to the wide distribution of his dressing down of Rodokankis, and the reaction of various Republican faithful who are now privy to it?
Not yet, but I bet we’ll see something in the papers in the next few days. I bet some smaller outlets (Augusta Free Press, Northern Virginia Daily) will pick up on it straightaway, and maybe some opinion columnists in the next week. Maybe they’ll have some insight on this. Lord knows I don’t have any. :)
BTW, I posted that same Teddy Roosevelt quote on Raising Kaine when Kilgore came out attacking Kaine’s record as Mayor of Richmond: http://www.raisingkaine.com/735.
oh man, this is priceless.
Anyone who rips into Phil Rodokankis like that has my respect!
Gee, I wish they’d managed to send it to more than 188 reporters …
I don’t think our paper got a copy!
Maybe Rodokankis is actually right. Kilgore tried to have it both ways by both criticizing the 2004 tax increase while at the same time refusing to say he will repeal it. I didn’t follow Bolling and McDonnell closely enough to know how they compare. I’d imagine they said something a little more coherent.
Maybe Rodokankis is actually right. Kilgore tried to have it both ways by both criticizing the 2004 tax increase while at the same time refusing to say he will repeal it.
Mark, I’ve been so busy being pleased to discover that Kilgore apparently didn’t go along with the free-lunchers that I’ve completely failed to consider this. I’d love to see some more reflection on this — it seems that you’re onto something.
Phil’s comments were probably ill-advised; Ken’s were downright arrogant. “We may have lost in the end, but we did so with our dignity and pride intact.” That’s quite a bold assertion for a political operative whose paycheck is justified by one purpose and one purpose only: winning.
And BTW, Waldo, I’m sure that all the love that you have for Ken just gives him a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I guarantee it, James. :) I’d mail him a little bit of this cat food that I’m eating right now, as a sign of my appreciation, but my mother won’t let me out of the basement.
Hutch has one major problem: this is the first major campaign he’s done that was actually competative… and he blew it. BIG time. I mean, the littany of screwups that turned a 13 point lead in a 7point Republican state into a 6 point Democratic win is almost too long to consider point by point.
And Hutch knows this. He knew it while the campaign was going on. It hurts. And it sucks. But he should go back to working safe incumbent races and stay out of the big leauges.
Something important to keep in mind here — and I’m guilty of forgetting this — is that Ken Hutcheson’s e-mail was a private correspondence. He presumably had no intention of demonstrating any kind of a division in the party, nor of attempting to embarrass the targets of his missive. Say whatever you like about his comments, the point is that they’re private.
It was a major breach of netiquette for VCG to turn around and forward this communication to the media. Though I’m not in the habit of communicating privately with anybody within that organization, if I ever do so, I’ll do so with great caution.
I’m reminded of when Alan Seacrest went after Rep. Moran, saying that Moran had made some kind of an anti-semitic comment in a private conversation. Now, I like Alan Seacrest, and I like his work. But, c’mon — whatever Moran did or didn’t say, that was a private exchange. I wouldn’t be comfortable working with Seacrest for the same reason as I’d be cautious with e-mail exchanges with VCG — it’s hard to trust anybody who makes private exchanges public.
I think Ken needs some serious anger management. It’s amazing how a loss can turn people on the borderline into screaming meanies. I’m glad that the Kilgore commercials lacked the vicious precision of this missive.
What happened to the Johnson-Til Hazel brand of Republicans? They’re looking very good right now.
Next, a flame war between the Fairfax Chamber and the undefeated Ken Hutcheson.
Nice find!
Rule number 1 – when communicating with anyone, in ANY printed format, be it snail mail or email, when communicating in ANY format other than the spoken word- Never Ever say anything you wouldn’t want someone else to read/see/hear.
Ken fucked up and forgot that rule.
Phil was probably so hurt/mad he probably didn’t think about how stupid it would make him and his organization look (not that they don’t already do a good job of that on their own).
All the political baggage aside, I almost felt bad for Phil (as a person) after reading the letter, until I remembered he sent it to the press to begin with and remembered how far his values diverge from mine.
Waldo —
Remember: part of Kilgore’s problem was/is that he does like to have it both ways.
As to Hutcheson — whoooeee — sounds like the old boy is channeling Hunter Thompson without the mellowing effect of Gonzo’s psychotropic proclivities or a smidgen of his writing talent.
Pitiful. Sounds like he and Jerry need a week in Belize to relax and reconnect. As to Phil, he opened the damn door with that pouty damn letter that after all the huffing and puffing was over, really helped the Kaine campaign and showed voters that the Democrats can do a smackdown if they want to, thank you very much!
Hope you and Amber have a blessed Thanksgiving!