Hotline On Call

Washington state Sen. Michael Baumgartner found himself in hot water Tuesday after a liberal website published a profane email authored by the Republican Senate nominee accompanying a photograph of a serviceman who was killed in Afghanistan earlier this month.

The email, to PubliCola co-founder Josh Feit -- a former editor at Seattle's even more liberal weekly magazine, the Stranger -- included a photo of Baumgartner and a Navy SEAL holding guns. "Josh, this is Pat Feeks, a Navy SEAL killed last week in Afghanistan. Take a good look and then go f--- yourself," Baumgartner wrote, in an email posted on Feit's site on Tuesday afternoon.

Baumgartner confirmed to Hotline On Call that he sent the email to Feit, adding that it was "a personal email regarding something Josh and I had talked about" concerning the war in Afghanistan. He noted that the email was not meant to reflect on the campaign, though he admitted that he did not have a personal relationship with Feit.

Baumgartner has made his opposition to the war there a centerpiece of his campaign, citing his experience working for the State Department in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He has focused on getting to left of Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell on the issue, in order to appeal to Democrats and independents disaffected by the war. Indeed, in a brief phone conversation on Tuesday, Baumgartner tied Cantwell to the war effort, noting that she had voted in the past to extend funding for military operations there.