UPDATED: Roach lashes out at GOP leadership

State Senator Pam Roach (R-Auburn) blasted members of her party's leadership in an e-mail earlier this week, making accusations of lewd behavior, incompetent management and "personal problems" toward Minority Leader Mike Hewitt (R-Walla Walla). TNT's Niki Sullivan first reported on the tiff at Political Buzz.

The Senate Republican leadership responded with a statement that implied Roach was retaliating for a discipline issue relating to her own actions, and called her claims "deceptive and personally harmful."

Below are the two statements, first from Pam Roach and second from Senators Linda Parlette, Mark Schoesler and Dale Brandland.

From Roach:

Subject: Senate Republicans attack their own

The Washington State Senate Republican leadership that has watched its numbers drop to near historical lows and has no substantive input regarding the issues confronting the people of Washington, have now chosen to attack members of their own caucus to stifle the growing unrest of failed leadership.

Senator Pam Roach (R-Auburn) who missed being elected Minority Leader by one vote last year is the first member to be targeted under this campaign to muzzle critics. Senator Roach, the only State Senator re-elected from King County in the 2006 Democratic landslide has been pointing out the failure of Senate Republican Leadership to put together a cohesive and worthy platform from which to recruit and fund viable candidates and recover from the historical losses of 2006.

"Our leadership is a disaster. We offer no plan for regaining the majority, we have no money to support viable candidates and now we attack our own," said Roach.

Roach has been accused of speaking critically of leadership around staff.

Minority Leader Mike Hewitt (R-Walla Walla) has verbally abused members in caucus, and has bent and exposed his backside to a female senator while screaming at her during a caucus meeting.

"He is a desperate man with personal problems," said Roach.

"Mike Hewitt has failed the Republicans on all fronts. Our leadership is drowning and like those who drown they are lashing out at and pulling down those who may be able to save them. Hewitt's personal issues and unprofessional conduct will drop us even further into the abyss of becoming a meaningless entity."

"Five years ago, Hewitt joined then leader Jim West, in attacking me fearing I would go public with questionable e-mails that were uncovered. They fired my aide who discovered and reported them, then Hewitt joined West in a campaign to silence me with smear and intimidation tactics."
Roach was exonerated.

"Now Hewitt, with his own closet full of skeletons, is resorting to the same tactics of intimidation and harassment," said Roach.

"I will not sit back and have my rights under the Constitution, the laws of the State of Washington and the Rules of the Senate be violated by this 'leader'."

"I will protect those rights and my rights as an individual in the appropriate forum. The people of Washington will have exposed to them the sad state of affairs that the Senate Republican Caucus is in due to the incompetence of our current leaders.

From the GOP caucus:

"Sen. Roach has distorted events that happened off campus to distract attention from internal personnel issues for which she was disciplined.

"We cannot discuss personnel issues in the press.

"We want to make it clear that this disciplinary decision did not involve any one member of leadership; it involved all four members of the senior Republican leadership. The matter has to do with Sen. Roach's official actions, not any off campus comments or observations she has about the caucus.

"Finally, Sen. Roach's allegation that Sen. Hewitt ‘exposed his backside to a female senator' is factually deceptive and personally harmful.

"We are disappointed that Sen. Roach has decided to make a private personnel matter public."

Sen. Linda Parlette
Sen. Mark Schoesler
Sen. Dale Brandland

UPDATE:

Chris Mulick over at TCH has clarified the events that prompted Roach's accusations of Mike Hewitt's lewd behavior.

She says at one point Hewitt moved toward her and that at one point she made an obscene hand gesture toward him. She said Hewitt responded by flipping up his coat jacket and bending over and saying “’hey, why don’t you kick me in the’ blank.”

“It all happened very quickly,” Roach said. “His rear end was about three feet from my face.”

Roach called back after boarding her plane to clarify that Hewitt “was bent clear in a perpendicular position, down so far his head didn’t show.”