The Nose: Bow down to state Republican party chair Susan Hutchison’s genius

Admit it – you’ve been waiting for something you didn’t know existed: The Sniff’s Political Wiz Award!

This coveted honor, bestowed at random intervals, is reserved for those who demonstrate the highest levels of thoughtful analysis, political savvy, and coolness under fire.

And the award goes to... state Republican party chairwoman Susan Hutchison!

Oh, stop feigning surprise. This wasn’t close. What a brilliant week for the Hutch – facing a puny tide of back-bench grumblers, she bravely crushed those who suggested that presidential candidate Donald Trump’s trivial statements about grabbing women in their private areas might make him an unsuitable standard-bearer for the GOP.

This novel reaction to Trump’s insignificant chatter – hey, he was a Democrat when he said that stuff about women! – was such a perfect rejoinder that no one else adopted it, due to respectful awe. The Hutch drew national attention for her magnificent repartee.

But wait – that wasn’t all!

Following Hutchison’s rhetorical masterstroke, pesky reporters had the unmitigated nerve to quiz local Republican officeholders and candidates about Trump’s minor gaffe. Some of them actually condemned it and chirped at the Hutch, forcing her to release another razor-sharp statement, blaming journalists and “a small group of detractors” for stirring up pointless controversy.

It’s hard to convey the deeper subtleties of this strategy, known in political circles as “belittling” or “scoffing.” Framing critics as munchkins always works, and it’s especially fitting in these circumstances. Just look at the roster of state Republican nonentities who teed off on Trump:

▪  U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, who has a legendary haircut and possible gubernatorial dreams, refused to endorse Trump back in August, and announced last week that he wouldn’t vote for him.

▪  U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, apparently interested in continuing political viability, ripped Trump last week and said she won’t vote for him. She said she intends to write in U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, who happens to be Speaker of the House and the most powerful Republican in the country. During conference calls this week with the party’s congressional leaders, Ryan said he won’t campaign with Trump anymore, and told them to focus on saving their own seats.

▪  U.S. Senate candidate Chris Vance, who knows something about the Hutch’s job as state party leader because he used to hold it, refused from the beginning to endorse Trump. Sad!

▪  The Republican candidate for governor, Battling Bill Bryant, said back in August that he wouldn’t support Trump, after months of hemming and hawing.

▪  The party’s last candidate for governor, Rob McKenna, said months ago that he wouldn’t vote for Trump. Ditto for the dean of state Republicans, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton.

That’s not the entire list of minor Trump haters in the state Republican contingent, but you get the idea. Besides, who wants to read an exhaustive list of people who don’t matter? Not the Hutch, clearly.

Apart from that, the “detractors” strategy has another layer of complexity. The Hutch’s stance is aimed at a group of hardcore voters who check the Republican box on the ballot no matter what name appears next to it, even if it’s a mouldering corpse under attack by a roiling mass of giant Palouse earthworms.

They did it in 2010, 2012, and 2014 when they were Tea Partying, and they’ll do it again this year, and they’ll do it again in 2018 and 2020. The Hutch, smarter than everyone else, clearly understands that these voters have to be wrapped in state party love at all times, under all circumstances.

That’s the real secret, and the reason The Hutch earns the Wiz award. Sure, she could have reacted differently to Trump’s comments. She could have blatantly pandered to women who represent half of the voting public. She could have said Trump’s a pig and a cynical moonlighter borrowing the Republican brand just long enough to leave a nasty stain.

She could have said all that, but she understood more than anyone that those hardcore R voters would curse and gripe and threaten to abandon the party, even if they won’t, and that was just too big of a risk. Anyone who thinks the Hutch doesn’t have her finger on the pulse of voters just doesn’t get it. She knows Trump won’t win the Evergreen state, and she knows he’s about to leave the national party crawling through the smoking ruins of an orange-hued crater.

She knows her sworn enemies, the Democrats, are also aware of this, and that they’ll spend the next few election cycles fitting prospective GOP candidates in tacky Trump menswear while reminding deep-pocketed donors, allies and everyone they can think of that this was the groping, radioactive marshmallow peanut the Hutch’s party once backed.

Above all, the Hutch knows her party holds a rail-thin majority in one chamber of the state Legislature. The Senate Republicans hold one fragile finger on the shiny red button of power, currently locked in state Sen. Mark Schoesler’s office.

The Hutch’s party is fighting like crazy to keep that Senate toehold, staving off challengers in purplish places like Clark County and Mercer Island, while trying to prevent unexpected losses in the state House. The critical handful of races isn’t being settled in Eastern Washington, where Democrats go to die, or Seattle, where Republicans are invisible.

No, the last stand, the fight to save Gondor, is happening in the suburbs, including Federal Shopping Way, the land of cul-de-sac honeycombs. That’s where moderate candidates like state Reps. Teri Hickel and Linda Kochmar are hoping to hang on, where the voting blocs include women who decide elections and don’t think much of a presidential nominee who views them as ornaments that lose their luster at age 35.

You think the Hutch doesn’t know that? Wrong! That’s the beauty of her position – she knows better than you do! Catering to the centrists is a loser’s game. Blowing them off and genuflecting to the diehards is the surest path to party victory.

Stop complaining and bow down.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 7:18 PM with the headline "The Nose: Bow down to state Republican party chair Susan Hutchison’s genius."