I chuckled a bit to myself upon reading this tidbit in Jerry Berger's latest column:
GOP's Mo. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder pointed out that he'll run for governor and chuckled, "As President Obama goes, hopefully he's helped our team a lot."
Praying for a cataclysmic Obama implosion is' [...]
The Hotline has an interesting story today about the negative impact of NRSC support for Senate candidates in contested primaries. The NRSC has set up joint fundraising accounts with candidates across the country, including Rep. Roy Blunt. Internal critics say these accounts "show clear favoritism for one candidate over [...]
The Missouri Highway Patrol says it's conducting an "active investigation" of assault allegations against former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton.
The Kansas City Star and Prime Buzz filed a Sunshine Law request with the agency Dec. 3 asking for all documents related to allegations against Jetton.
The custodian of [...]
The Turner Report has the scoop on Majority Leader Steve Tilley's ethics reform legislation to be officially announced today. As outlined by Turner, Tilley says he wants to stop:
Lobbyist gifts and meals for legislatures Political consulting while serving in the legislature Becoming a lobbyist within 180 days of leaving' [...]Cynthia Davis says Thomas Schweich should have filed as a Democrat in the State Auditor's race.
Speaker Ron Richard and House Republicans hinted at an incentive package to keep a Ford plant in Claycomo, northeast of Kansas City.
Majority Leader Steve Tilley is expected to offer his own ethics bill [...]
Reps. Jason Kander (D-Kansas City) and Tim Flook (R-Liberty) met with the press at the Capitol this morning to talk about their bipartisan ethics reform bill, intended to limit the use of political committees to obscure campaign donation trails. Their multi-part proposal makes it a felony to "transfer funds through [...]
Earlier today, Cynthia Davis said, "I plan on being a candidate in 2010, but not for Missouri State Auditor." Inquiring minds want to know: what is she running for?
US Senate – to my knowledge, Davis has not endorsed Roy Blunt or Chuck Purgason Congress – she lives in [...]
Rep. Cynthia Davis is no longer running for State Auditor, as she's told the Missouri Ethics Commission. Instead, she's endorsing House Budget Chair Allen Icet over the insufficiently conservative (in her mind) Thomas Schweich. KY3's Dave Catanese has the details:
"I don't understand how Republican voters could support' [...]
State Sen. Chuck Purgason doesn't appear to be letting up in his criticism of Rep. Roy Blunt's leadership as GOP Whip and Leader from 2003-2008. Speaking Friday on 97.1 FM Talk's "Allman in the Morning" program, Purgason reiterated his concerns with Republican deficit spending and Blunt's unapologetic defense of' [...]
Friday, David Lieb of The Associated Press reported on Ed Martin's use of the SaveAB.com website and email database to direct people to his congressional campaign website.
In 2008, Martin created the "SaveAB.com for America" website and nonprofit corporation to oppose the sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev. That effort [...]
Sikeston Incident Report Contains More Gruesome Details of Rod Jetton's Alleged Assault
First reported here, the Sikeston Department of Public Safety Crime/Incident Report detailed gruesome allegations.
Cynthia Davis Says Her New Legislation Can Cut The Missouri Divorce Rate "In Half"
Is there anything Cynthia can't fix?
I don't disagree with the thrust of this editorial in the Post-Dispatch about Republican fearmongering in the health care debate.
What campfires are to spooky ghost stories, Congressional Republicans have become to frightening, fabricated urban legends about health care reform. Death panels! Rationing! Medicare cuts!
But at the same time, I don't understand [...]
Former State Rep. Brian Yates (R-Lee's Summit) isn't holding back in his criticism of his former colleagues in the House of Representatives. The Star's Steve Kraske spoke with Yates, who is "convinced, but cannot prove, that laws were broken, particularly when it comes to swapping votes for' [...]
Columbia Daily Tribune publisher Hank Waters:
The former House speaker had incurred a lot of criticism for serving as a political consultant to other members of the General Assembly, taking money from them at the same time he was in a position to affect the outcome of [...]
In October, Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder's office expected the full economic impact study for the Tour of Missouri to be released by late October/early November.
Kinder presented topline data about the Tour on October 1, but the full report – with city by city spectator estimates, etc. – is not' [...]
Two years ago today, Sen. Kit Bond told PNS' Gwen Ifill that waterboarding isn't exactly torture – it's actually a lot "like swimming."
"There are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming...uh, freestyle, backstroke."
[...]
No, I'm not kidding.
Orly Taitz posted the language for a "Motion for Clarification" on her website yesterday pertaining to the birther lawsuit she filed in federal court with Reps. Tim Jones (R-Eureka) and Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon). Apparently, Taitz and her plaintiffs aren't totally sure if their case' [...]
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) spoke earlier this week at a Center for American Progress Action Fund event about the obstruction tactics employed by Congressional Republicans, and their lack of interest in real proposals or governing. "Republicans have chosen slogans and symbolism over substantive proposals," Hoyer said.
The Star's Steve Kraske reports that embattled House Majority Leader Steve Tilley will propose a "sweeping ethics package" this year.
Tilley proposed a sweeping ethics package that would ban all gifts to lawmakers. The law would also ban lawmakers from immediately becoming lobbyists and [...]
When Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce evaluated the Missouri Roundtable for Life's allegations of conspiracy and constitutional violations by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Attorney General Chris Koster and State Auditor Susan Montee, she ruled that their allegations were "without merit and rise to the level of being frivolous."
That,' [...]
I'm shocked – just shocked – that Karl Rove thinks Roy Blunt is a "stellar" candidate and is financially backing him. Aren't you?
Blunt was an early supporter of George W. Bush's first presidential bid, joining Rove on the campaign's "exploratory committee" in May 1999.
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This story provides a good a [...]
Republican House members said they spent little time discussing former Speaker Rod Jetton's assault charges and the resulting damage to the GOP.
The Office of Administration will rebid contracts to operate 10 fee offices previously awarded to Alternative Opportunities Inc. Officials with OA and the Dept. of Revenue discovered the company [...]
This is unbelievable:
The Missouri Roundtable for Life has sued Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and Auditor Susan Montee in federal court, alleging the two have illegally changed the wording on several of the group's initiative petitions and provided improper cost estimates as well.
You may remember [...]
Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-We Living In the Same Universe) is dreaming big.
In her latest column (via Randy Turner), Davis claims that her "Marriage Matters in Missouri Bill" (HB 1234) has "the potential of cutting the divorce rate in half in our state" by reducing [...]
The Star has just published an anonymous Dear Colleagues letter -- "presumably a Republican state rep," reporter Steve Kraske writes -- demanding that the House GOP caucus find new leaders not named Rod Jetton or Steve Tilley. It begins:
To My Colleagues, (I am withholding my name today so you read [...]
I may be wrong, but I doubt former Republican State Rep. Brian Yates would tweet and change his Twitter profile photo like this if he was still in office (Yates resigned on November 30).
[...]
Rep. Ellen Brandom (R-Sikeston) plans to reintroduce legislation this session that would direct the Department of Social Services to set up a drug-testing program for participants in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The tests would apply only to people for whom the Department decides there [...]
Rep. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph) talks about looking for a new fundraiser in The News-Press
Dr. Schaaf said he was aware of people in Mr. Jetton’s firm that were starting their own company, but that he was considering other firms as well.
“It’s not an insurmountable problem,” he said of finding a [...]
Gov. Nixon detailed legislation to overhaul the way Missouri deals with drunken-driving cases by eliminating loopholes that block prosecutions and ensuring that all DWI offenses are accurately recorded and tracked.
Judge Richard Callahan’s nomination as U.S. attorney is slated for hearing Thursday.
Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill are co-sponsors of [...]
A Sikeston Department of Public Safety Crime/Incident Report -- obtained today via a Sunshine request -- details gruesome allegations against Rod Jetton not previously reported.
An excerpt from the narrative portion of the report is below the break. The victim's name has been redacted.
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ON 11/17/2009, AT 2341 HOURS, I [...]
In August, the Directors of Redstate.com endorsed Roy Blunt over Chuck Purgason despite "many" disagreements -- "generally fiscal and earmarks related" – because they were with Blunt "in the fight for freedom." (Read their full endorsement here). The endorsement raised some eyebrows at the time, coming two [...]
Well, this is depressing. It's probably even more depressing for Congressmen with a long, documented track record of unethical behavior.
For the first time in Gallup's annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, a majority of Americans -- 55% -- say the honesty and ethical standards of "members of [...]
This blog post from Missourinet's Steve Walsh seems like a bit of a cheap shot (emphasis added):
In our never-ending effort to highlight examples of symbolism over substance ... we bring you what had been scheduled as Planned Parenthood's "Stop Stupak!" bus tour.
But the "Stop Stupak!" tour never gained much [...]
I don't live or work in the 7th District to know if Billy Long is "clearly the most visible candidate" running for Congress there, but this line from the KY3 "7th District Power Rankings" does not make sense:
The auctioneer is also clearly the most visible candidate in the field,' [...]
A "gang of 10" progressive and conservative Democratic Senators reached a tentative deal health care compromise last night. They're waiting on a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office – here's an early outline of the deal.
' [...]Rep. Sue Allen: "I don’t know how my name got on [Jetton's client] list. He wasn't consulting with my campaign."
Rep. Shane Shoeller: Last night, Schoeller said, "If the allegations are true, he will have no place in my campaign...The allegations are serious and I'm taking it seriously." [...]
The Missouri Supreme Court said the state’s overburdened public defender system went too far by rejecting certain categories [...]
Just in case you were wondering about the importance of Gary Forsee's letter to Republican efforts to undermine federal energy legislation, this should clear it up for you:
Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, today [December 8] backed University of Missouri President Gary D.' [...]
It's a Tuesday, which means it's a great day for Roy Blunt to collect big checks from DC lobbyists and PACs.
Blunt's campaign is hosting cocktails and dinner tonight at Ruth's Chris Steak House in downtown Washington tonight – PACs need to bring at least a $2,400 check,' [...]
I really don't understand this argument from UM System President Gary Forsee (also articulated last week by Rep. Chris Kelly):
[Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry] Waxman’s rebuttal was "in some ways" beside the point, Forsee said Monday. His letter was intended to convey the' [...]
Last week, the Thomas Schweich campaign announced endorsements from five state senators, including Sen. Delbert Scott (R-Lowry City).
There appears to be a small problem with that announcement: Scott says he never actually agreed to endorse Schweich, and he supports Rep. Allen Icet in the GOP [...]
Congressional Quarterly reported today (subscription required) that Rep. Ike Skelton will play an important role in the Congressional debate on Afghanistan.
As President Obama seeks to sell his escalation of the Afghanistan War to a skeptical Congress, House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton will almost surely emerge as [...]
Apparently other things happened before 3:30 today.
The biggest climate meeting in history, with 15,000 participants from 192 nations, opened in Copenhagen today.
Senator Jason Crowell
Senator Luann Ridgeway
Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley
Senator Rob Mayer
Majority Whip Brian Nieves
Rep. Sue Allen
Rep. Tim Jones
Rep. Shelley Keeney
Rep. Rob Schaaf
Rep. Shane Schoeller
Rep. Rick Stream
Rep. Dwight Scharnhors
Rep. Don Ruzicka
Mattie Ransom for Liberty School Board
Jeff Moore for Liberty City Council [...] 
UPDATE: Via the Southeast Missourian, a scanned copy of the probable cause statement may be found here. It's not for the faint of heart.
The affidavit attached to the probable cause statement alleges Jetton went to the home of the victim [...]
Lt. Governor's Peter Kinder "calculated" strategy to be more effective and less ridiculous continues apace with this breathless tweet:
Kinder, as you might expect, is way off base. The EPA ruled today that greenhouse gases endanger public health – not exactly an extreme idea [...]
Missouri Republican Party Communications Director Jon Prouty and Rep. Scott Diekhaus (R-Washington) have both tweeted their outrage today with comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said opponents of health care reform are on the wrong side of history, like opponents of women's suffrage, civil rights [...]
Who can we thank for Whitey Herzog’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame? Ed Martin, of course.
[...]
The Springfield Business Journal published an interview with Seventh Congressional District candidate Billy Long today in which Long continues to differentiate himself from Roy Blunt’s record (1) as a career politician and (2) prolific earmarker.From that interview:
[Q:] Why did you decide to enter politics as [...]
Rep. Roy Blunt doesn’t seem to miss many high society events in Washington. Last night, he attended a White House reception for the 2009 Kennedy Center honorees: Bruce Springsteen, Mel Brooks, Robert De Niro, Dave Brubeck and Grace Bumbry. The Washington Post captures a laugh between Blunt and [...]
Speaking this morning on CBS’ “The Early Show,” Sen. Claire McCaskill called out Republican senators for their work to slow down and kill health care reform efforts. The Senate GOP has steadfastly refused to produce a real plan for reducing health care costs and expanding access, but has produced [...]
Yikes! After months of supporting and pandering the ‘tea party’ activists, a new Rasmussen poll shows that a hypothetical “tea party” is actually more popular than the Republican Party in a generic Congressional ballot. From Rasmussen’s summary:
In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen [...]
For your Monday morning amusement/confusion, here's one of the least persuasive anti-reform commercials imaginable, starring Rep. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph):
The goal of the ad seems pretty straightforward, though bizarre: to convince opponents of health care reform that they’re somehow oppressed by the 12% of people who told Rasmussen right after [...]
U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., is likely to make news this week as the Senate continues its health care debate.
Exactly how isn't yet known.
But for weeks, the outspoken comments of Missouri's most veteran incumbent statewide official on various topics -- from cap and' [...]
Conflict of Interest? Forsee Also A Board Member for Great Plains Energy
When Forsee isn't serving as President of the University of Missouri system or thinking about how to spent some portion of his enormous Sprint Nextel severance package, he also sits on the' [...]
GOP Senators, Roy Blunt and Peter Kinder are attacking Medicare Advantage “cuts” proposed by Republicans earlier this year.
A White House spokesman says Obama is likely to endorse using about $139 billion in unallocated TARP funds for a new jobs creation program.
The Tribune's Janese Heavin has the scoop on a really interesting development in the story of Gary Forsee's opposition to federal clean energy legislation. For several days, he's sustained criticism for lending support to the Republican efforts to kill the legislation. Then yesterday, things got a [...]
Public Policy Polling released their updated Senate rankings today with what they see as the " the Senate seats most likely to change hands next year." It's a mixed bag for Democrats across the country, but here's what analyst Tom Jensen said about Missouri:
This is probably [...]Yesterday, the House voted 225-200 to permanently extend the estate tax at its 2009 level -- 45% for estates valued at more than $3.5 million, or $7 million for a couple. As part of the 2001 Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthiest 5% of taxpayers, the estate [...]
I'm don't have anything particularly insightful or clever to say about this column -- it's just embarrassing.
There have been some very disturbing and yet enlightening developments about the real science surrounding theories of man-made global warming. In recent days, we also have seen our state’s major [...]
A new story from KY3's Dave Catanese has an fascinating quote from Speaker Ron Richard's spokesperson on why House leaders refused to allow a vote on autism legislation last year.
"Ron just didn't have the votes [last year]," said Richard spokeswoman Kristen Blanchard. "Publicly legislators were telling' [...]
Sens. Charlie Shields, Brad Lager, Delbert Scott, Kurt Schaefer, and Bill Stouffer endorsed Tom Schweich for Auditor.
Cynthia Davis' proposed stem cell funding ban would cost the state millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs.
The House of Representatives voted to stop the one-year break in 2010' [...]
The Tribune reports this afternoon that U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has responded to UM System President Gary Forsee's letter opposing federal clean energy and climate bill. It turns out that Forsee's calculations, put together by the Director of [...]
Orly Taitz, lawyer for Reps. Tim Jones and Cynthia Davis in their now-dismissed federal birther lawsuit, just won't quit:
In response to federal Judge David O. Carter’s earlier statement that he received affidavits from witnesses who said Taitz asked them to lie to the court, Taitz' [...]
University of Missouri students, faculty and alumni joined together in Columbia this afternoon to rally for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation outside of UM System President Gary Forsee’s University Hall office. A few photos:
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer var so = new SWFObject("http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf", "PictoBrowser", "500", "500", "8", "#EEEEEE"); so.addVariable("source", "keyword"); [...]
Yesterday, hoping to get the jump on an already-scheduled series of announcements by Gov. Jay Nixon, Sen. Scott Rupp and Sen. Eric Schmitt, Speaker Ron Richard held a "hastily announced" conference call to express his support for autism insurance legislation, and specifically, for a bill [...]
Thomson Reuters has conducted a huge survey of Americans attitudes towards health care reform and found that an eye-popping 57 percent of independents favor a public option -- with 60 percent of all those polled saying they favored the controversial provision...
On Roy Blunt's campaign website, his health care issues page includes the following line:
We must complete the work of ending denial of coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
This obviously sounds great, but when Blunt and the House GOP put together their health care plan this year, they refused prevent [...]
But in reacting to this development, some people have leaped to absurd conclusions.
The first is that this incident “proves” climate change is not occurring.
The second is that it shows there’s no [...]
Yesterday, the American Medical Association endorsed the thrust of the Senate Democrats' health care bill. Though they objected to a tax on "elective cosmetic medical procedures" and the creation of an Independent Medicare Advisory Board, they praised its health insurance regulation and new tax credits to help low- and' [...]
Senate Republicans don't have an alternative health care proposal, but they have a detailed plan to delay, distract, distort, deny and derail the Democratic proposal.
Rep. Russ Carnahan is the new Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.
Scrambling to convince the public that he's actually interested in substantive autism insurance legislation, Speaker Ron Richard tried to get a jump on the issue today:
Richard, a Republican, today touted a bill [HB 1311] filed by Rep. Dwight Scharnhorst, R-St. Louis, in a phone [...]
Here's a pretty incredible constitutional amendment, introduced yesterday by Sen. Luann Ridgeway (R-Clay County). She wants to disqualify any political subdivision from receiving state funds if they choose to participate in a still-undefined-federal-public option.
SJR 23 - Prohibits a political subdivision from receiving state funding if' [...]
Roy Blunt, Ron Richard, Patty Richard and George W. Bush in 1999, as found on the new RonRichard.com.
[...]
KBIA had an short story yesterday on the continued existence of the birther movement in Missouri politics featuring Reps. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) and Ed Emery (R-Lamar). It's frustrating to hear the local NPR reporter does present their questions as semi-legitimate queries, but the lunacy from' [...]
A coalition of student groups -- including Coal Free Mizzou (Beyond Coal), Greeks Going Green and the College Dems -- is joining together with faculty at 1pm tomorrow to rally for comprehensive clean energy legislation outside Gary Forsee's office at University Hall.
More information about the event [...]
In what must surely be just happenstance, House Floor Leader Steve Tilley and former Rep. Tom Burcham announced a legislative deal to end Burcham's predatory lawsuit racket exactly one day after Rep. Tim Jones informed the Associated Press that the FBI was interested in [...]
Following up on my post from Sunday, Janese Heavin has a story today for the Daily Tribune outlining UM System President Gary Forsee's various stock holdings and ties to corporations. Essentially, Forsee's response to questions about his financial interest in Great Plains Energy -- an energy holding company [...]
Today, Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-Other Universe) introduced HJR 49, a constitutional amendment very similar to the Missouri Roundtable for Life's latest ballot initiative (their 30th in 22 months) that would, in supporters' words, "stop taxpayer funding of abortion, human cloning, and embryonic stem cell' [...]
House Democratic leaders are filing a package of bills that includes limits on campaign contributions, a one-year waiting period before elected officials and their staffers become lobbyists and expanded disclosure requirements for government employees who do political campaign work on the side.
Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Sheilds (R-St. Jospeh) [...]
TPMDC reports that Rep. Ike Skelton, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Kit Bond, Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are on the list of select Congressional leaders to meet with President Obama at the White House just before tonight's speech on Afghanistan.
After the meeting, [...]
Sure, there were a lot more interesting and important bills out filed today, but this bill from Rep. Jason Brown (R-Platte City) made me chuckle:
In this blogger's opinion, Newfoundland is suspiciously close to both Quebec and Europe, places where socialist ninnies speak in [...]
Faculty members were taken by surprise when they read in the Tribune that [University of Missouri System President Gary] Forsee sent a letter opposing the bill, said Dan Hooley, a professor of classical studies and chairman of MU’s Environmental Affairs and Sustainability Committee.
“He seems to be speaking unilaterally but [...]
Honestly, have you ever said to yourself: "There are just too many Tea Party-themed novelty songs in this world?" Of course not.
h/t Dave Weigel
[...]This is what things looked like this morning on the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee Twitter feed. Apparently, the "only explanation" for time elapsed before charges were filed regarding the Mehlville town hall disturbance is that St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said "Yes massuh" to the "white [...]
State Sen. Chuck Purgason was on the Dana Loesch radio program on 97.1 FM in St. Louis last week to deliver his now-familiar critique of the "the Republican Party pretty much paving the way for Congressman [Roy] Blunt." In the interview, Loesch praised Purgason for [...]
Missourinet's Steve Walsh reported late yesterday afternoon that complaints have been filed against state Sen. Bill Stouffer (R-Napton) with the Federal Election Commission and the Missouri Ethics Commission. The complaints, filed by CMU student Chris Brockway, essentially state that:
Stouffer allegedly used campaign funds for an unspecified' [...]
President Obama has informed his senior advisers of his Afghanistan war strategy decision and ordered his commanders on the ground there to begin carrying out the plan.
The Senate officially opened their health care debate.
Rex Sinquefield is on track to become this year's largest individual [...]
