Quote of the Day...

“We’ve become so good at this that Missouri politicians could give seminars to Colombian drug lords on how to launder money,” Missouri State Senator Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph)


So instead of enforcing the rules on campaign contributions, just chuck 'em? Is that really the message that the state lege is trying to send? That is the net effect of a piece of legislation ramrodded through the state Senate by the wingnut "money equals speech" majority on Wednesday. The legislation, sponsored by Shields, removes limits on political contributions in state and local races. Because, according to Shields, the limits had done little to stanch the flow of money and influence. Instead of operating within the rules, they instead encourage fundraisers and politicians to create ways to sidestep the rules. Never mind that they are sticking a thumb in the eye of the voters, who, in 1994 passed the rules into law by a ballot initiative.

Senator Jeff Smith, Democrat of St. Louis, said the entire Senate should be ashamed. “We are inviting powerful special interests to have even greater sway over the policy process than they already do,” Smith said.

An effort to submit the matter to a vote of the people was shot down on a party-line vote, with 20 Republicans overruling 11 Democrats. Republicans also defeated a proposal to delay the repeal until Jan. 1 to avoid changing the rules in the middle of this year’s campaigns.

Instead, the Senate adopted a clause that would make the repeal take effect as soon as the governor signs it, rather than on Aug. 28, shortly after the primary election and just before the start of the fall campaign.

Senators gave the repeal preliminary approval on a voice vote after nearly five hours of debate. It still must receive final Senate approval before going to the House, where it enjoys significant support.

The legislature previously repealed the limits effective Jan. 1, 2007, but the law was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. During six months of unlimited contributions, Gov. Matt Blunt received as much as $300,000 from one Texas couple. Several senators received as much as $40,000 from a single contributor.

C'mon Missouri! This isn't what you had in mind when you elected these jackals to protect you from the non-existent threats of gay marriage, abortion and drivable roads, is it? Have you seen enough of these assholes yet? Can we get a Democratic majority in at least one chamber come November? These greedy Publican bastards simply can't be trusted.

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Missouri: A Red State, Trending Blue

People in Blue States who think Missouri is reliably red are sadly off-base. It was only in 2000 that the MOGOP finally got their corrupt, fetid fingers around the levers of power, thanks to term limits, which has had the net effect of destroying civility and changing the attitude in Jeff City from one of cross-party cooperation to one of "screw you and screw your constituents."

Well, it turns out that Missourians are more than just a tad sick of the juvenile antics and reckless disregard and selfish scorn for the greater good of the state we all call home that the MOGOP personifies.

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And we haven't even addressed his war on Missouri women yet, but rest assured that my St. Louis sister in the struggle, Angry Black Bitch, and I will be reminding everyone for the next 50+ weeks that Matt Blunt has, since his first moment in office, been the most anti-woman, misogynistic ass ever to lead the state. Issues important to women were the first victims of his budget-cuts. He tried to kill the First Steps program (and failed miserably in that quest). He eliminated family planning and contraceptive funds from county health departments, and put a gag-order in place that prevented employees of those agencies from even telling the poor women served by those agencies where the services might still be available. He poured acid on the social safety net, reducing the level to receive benefits to the point where a single mother of two who earned more than $350 per month was considered too well-heeled to receive Medicaid for her children. Kansas City immediately had a hissy-fit and passed an additional sales tax to fund Truman Medical Center and the public health clinics that serve the poor in our community. Matty B has seen a steady erosion of support ever since he took aim at the poor residents of a largely rural and poor state.

Recent polling in Missouri shows Hillary Clinton mopping the floor with every Republican contender, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published the results of a poll today that has embattled governor Matt Blunt getting absolutely destroyed in next years gubernatorial race by Jay Nixon, the current Attorney General - who we have elected to that statewide office four times.

Matt Blunt has been an unmitigated disaster for this state, and we are all counting down the days until January 20, 2009 - which will signal the end of not one error, but two.

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Just the Beginning?

A shockwave is rippling through Missouri political circles right now. Chris Koster, considered by many to be the Republican front-runner for the upcoming Attorney General’s race and fourth-ranking Republican in the state senate switched parties yesterday, and the republican AG primary race came to a screeching halt.

“My vision for the state is not a far-right vision,” Koster told The Kansas City Star. “I am a hindrance to them, and they are to me. It seemed like a good time for a separation.”

The bloom was fading from the rose for Koster during last fall’s bruising battle over Amendment 2, it would seem. Koster is a strong advocate for embryonic stem cell research, and efforts to criminalize science by the MO GOP has been a burr under his saddle for a while. He sees it through an economic-benefit lens. “The Republicans are becoming the gang who can’t shoot straight on economic development issues,” he said. Talking about the plans to expand the Stowers Institute that have been tabled for now while the squabbling commences in Jefferson City, he seems non-plussed. “People don’t realize … what an incredible opportunity is being lost.”

Three issues combined to make the option of staying in the Republican Party an untenable proposition:

· •An incessant drive by conservative Republicans to criminalize stem-cell research and halt the long-planned expansion of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City.

· •A conservative assault on the state’s often-copied nonpartisan judge selection plan.

· •A failure to get an economic development bill passed two years in a row.

Yesterday, he quit.

When he left the Republican Party yesterday – with over $640,000 dollars in his war chest for the AG race, all donated by Republicans – he effectively withdrew from that contest. State law does not require that he return that money, but I hope our newest member acts ethically and does so. He also needs to sever all ties with the white-trash Karl Rove, too – he must fire Jeff Roe if he hasn’t already, and publicly apologize for ever being associated with that odious creature.

With the Roe caveat, I am going to be magnanimous here and welcome him aboard, (keeping in mind that he brings with him a streak of craven opportunism a mile wide. Remember that the guy asking for a ride across the river was hatched a scorpion, and act accordingly). That said, we have a big tent, with plenty of room for the moderate Republicans who are feeling uncomfortable with where my Grandfather’s Missouri GOP has gone. I hope Koster is the start of a slow bleed of the current state GOP's life force. I hope there are a dozen more who have some common sense and come on over before the end of the year. The more the merrier and the sooner the better!

I am not saying we should give Republican refugees the keys to the car and a bottle of Beam. I am saying let’s be gracious to those who are disenchanted. It sure as hell can’t hurt us. Missourians are intelligent and pretty much tend toward moderation and get put-off by extremes in all forms. There is a libertarian streak that runs through the state as a whole, left, right and center.

I learned first-hand about Missourians, moderate politics, and splitting the ballot in 1972. That summer I spent on my grandparent’s farm in the Missouri 06. My Yellow-Dog Democrat grandmother was a fervent servant of the Jerry Litton (Democrat, Chillicothe) congressional campaign, and my belt-and-suspenders Republican grandfather was equally committed to the election of a young, charming Republican fellow named Kit Bond to be the states Governor. The grandkids were equally involved in knocking on doors and manning the registration tents at county fairs for both parties. Both candidates won their races, and I took note. In fact, that election played a significant role in setting my political bearing for a lifetime.

The Missouri Republican Party is in disarray right now, in fact, it is likely that Matt “no chance in hell of being reelected” Blunt will face a primary challenge. (Didn’t Sarah Steeleman announce a planned primary challenge during his inaugural address?) He is so desperate in his pandering to the far right that signing legislation has taken on a Passion Play quality.

In light of the current situation in the MOGOP - and being intimately familiar with Missouri common sense and our tendency to turn moderate where politics is concerned, I am willing to look at Republicans fleeing a state party that has gone too far as a potential boon to Missouri Democrats, if we play our cards right.

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