Bob Schaffer will have the chance tomorrow to further distance himself from John McCain’s disastrous suggestion to “renegotiate” the Colorado River Compact when he joins Mark Udall at the Colorado Water Congress Summer Convention in Vail. The two Senate candidates are scheduled to address water policy and take questions from water movers and shakers at 11 a.m. at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort.
Good chance Schaffer, who recoiled from his party’s presumptive presidential nominee’s statement last weekend, will again utter the priceless phrase: “Over my cold, dead, political carcass.” Not that that’s a phrase a Senate candidate wants to get used to.
Not to worry. Dick Wadhams, who knows a thing or two about cold, dead, political carcasses, will be on hand to make sure things go smoothly for the candidate he’s managing. State GOP Chairman and Schaffer campaign boss Wadhams joins Wally Stealey, Pueblo Democrat extraordinaire, to kibitz over the state of Colorado politics at a 10 a.m. session.
Here’s what McCain told the Pueblo Chieftan late last week that set off the water rights firestorm: “So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties.” And here’s how McCain backpeddled in a letter yesterday to Wayne Allard: “Let me be clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the Compact.” Clear as mud, Senator. Colorado River mud.
