Mad Voter: A need for Blonde Republican Activists

I'm starting a new organization for women. It's called Blonde Republican Activists. Would you like to join?

The premise of our group is simple, really. We're tired of liberal men telling us how we feel, or worse yet, should feel. If we get mad enough, we may even start a Web site.

The first topic of discussion for BRAs: The latest attack on our gender autonomy coming from Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNow.

As has been widely reported in the media, Huttner and his minions are angry that Jon Caldara, on his late night 850 KOA radio show, used the term "bitch slap." Specifically, Caldara asked show guest Ann Coulter whether it was accurate to say presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had gotten "bitch-slapped" in a debate by fellow candidate Barack Obama.

In response, Huttner sent out an angry press release alleging a disregard for the victims of domestic violence. But he should have done a little fact-checking first.

Attempting to frame himself as the Al Sharpton of Colorado politics, Huttner charged that Caldara has a "history of hate against women." He also launched a Jesse Jackson-like threat.

"If he doesn't apologize, we will send an e-mail to tens of thousands more people to call 850 KOA's advertisers and demand that they not be associated with Caldara and his shows demeaning women," he told the Rocky Mountain News.

Huttner appeared to be winning the public relations battle — at least for a moment — until libertarian blogger Ari Armstrong (also a senior fellow at the Independence Institute) revealed that Huttner's speech enforcement record was, at best, highly spotty.

Alternative newspapers, including Westword, the Boulder Weekly and the Colorado Springs Independent have long used the term, with Westword editor Patty Calhoun telling the Rocky that her newspaper has used the term 12 times over the last several years.

There is a strong and implied consensus by these publications that the term, in common usage, is not intended in any harmful way against women. It is just a crasser way of suggesting an embarrassing rebuke. And the news got even more interesting when it came to light that Huttner's own Web site
had used the term just last year.

Huttner has long resorted to such baseless attacks. At times, I've been subject to his verbal assaults.

At a press conference years ago, he circulated fliers, containing my home address, to the radical leftist activists in attendance. It was just bizarre, especially coming from someone who purports to care so deeply about the safety of women. It was also unnecessary. I would have gladly welcomed the activists into my home for a lively political debate and homemade cookies. My husband loves to bake.

Shortly after this strange event, I made the professional decision to ignore Huttner. He has now, however, sunk to an all-time low. A rebuke is necessary. Jon Caldara is an honorable man and a dear friend. For the last five years, I've worked with him at the Independence Institute, a place where the vast majority of employees are working mothers.

He visited my daughter when she was sick in the hospital not once, but twice. He can turn on — and off — a radio personality that melts into a doting father as soon as he sees his kids. When talking with his five-year-old daughter recently, she told me, "Girls can do anything boys can do...but we don't have to!"

She is truly a woman of the new century. Indeed, the vast majority of women live in an incredible era of limitless choices. And it is men we should be pitying, especially those like Huttner who dream of building their power base by promoting hostility, self-victimization and rage.

I won't suggest that Huttner "hates" women. He just believes we're so stupid and so incapable of thinking for ourselves that we need men to stand up for us. Perhaps he can explain himself at BRAs first organizational meeting.

Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

In all seriousness, Huttner's behavior is indicative of a larger problem facing politics today. Activists seeking the spotlight, so pessimistic about our political system that they believe they have to exaggerate or lie to win the larger battle of ideas, throw up a Web site, complete with a blog. They give themselves titles like director or president, and then launch press release after press release in attack of their opposition.

Some lucky activists, like Huttner, have garnered financial support from wealthy political contributors. These individuals gladly make the investment, eager to see their policy agendas positioned as mainstream; with their opposition forced to fight back from being labeled as "extreme."

It can be a sophisticated and effective political tactic, if done correctly. If based on a difference of ideas, it's also ethical. If Huttner were identifying differences of opinion on contentious policy issues - like compulsory unionism, socialized health care or small business taxation - he'd be initiating a legitimate debate. In the case here, however, his unfounded attack had nothing to do with ideas.

I won't dare ask Huttner to apologize. He wouldn't mean it. Besides, getting caught for his hypocrisy is punishment enough. At least it should be. For those of us who would like to see a kinder, gentler and more honest political arena, we can only hope so.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on PoliticsWest called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics, is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the 2008 election year.

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