What to say about Tony Messenger's story today about Scott Eckersley's recording of the conversation with Ed Martin during which Eckersley was informed he'd been fired?  It's hard to do it justice via description, so here's an excerpt:

Yesterday saw a couple news stories about how GOP legislators have grown livid about the increase in fees for driving records charged by the Blunt Department of Revenue.  From the KC Star:

A new fee structure for Missouri motor vehicle and driver records has insurance companies enraged and a lawmaker promising action in the waning days of the legislative session.

The state Department of Revenue on May 1 raised the fee to $7 per record and has said it would not provide a bulk discount to companies that use the data for things such as calculating insurance rates. That means companies now must pay about $28 million for the entire database.

The story notes that the fee increase pushed through by the Blunt Department of Revenue represents a 300,000% increase in the fee previously charged.  We get more clues about why from the AP's story:

This afternoon, the Missouri House of Representatives Republican leadership continues to try and push through a bill to change the constitution to allow for overly-restrictive election reforms to keep certain eligible voters from voting.

Like Mike Hendricks, I've often wondered what it is Matt Blunt had in his emails that he seems so intent on hiding at all costs.  In fact, I've even posted here about it and suggested that the finding out what was in those emails was the "most important" question.  Hendricks spends his entire column today asking the same thing:

What secret Blunt and his top aides want to protect, we still don’t know. But keeping it from becoming public was and continues to be all-important. ...

Just what is Blunt trying to hide by refusing to turn over the e-mail tapes that those two bureaucrats refused to destroy?

Certainly not the fact that his administration engaged in a cover-up of something. That we’ve known for months.

Now, as I said, I'm as guilty as anyone of focusing in on the nature of the documents hidden instead of the hiding itself.  But something about reading Hendricks' explicit formulation (and apparent endorsement) of that concept in print makes me suspect that I've been very wrong to do so.

Jeff Roe could learn a thing or two from former client Mike Huckabee.

When asked earlier this year why he wouldn't quit his long shot presidential campaign, Huckabee replied that the only way to guarantee a loss would be to quit the race.

But that's just what Roe did with his rookie foray into statewide ballot measure campaigns.  Story Continued »

Who knew?  Apparently, The Source is still an active blog.  I long ago stopped checking it, but a friend of mine pointed out that Jeff Roe wrote another of his screeds attacking me today.

I normally wouldn't bother to comment, as I treasure Jeff's disdain for me as a testament to my good character.

However, his comments today are worthy of a response.  In his most recent post, he refers to "Roy Temple and his henchmen." 

That is way out of line.  Henchmen?  Really?

That is profoundly unfair.