cgeorge's blog

Under the old campaign finance system, Matt Blunt could only hit up Highway Commissioners like Mike Kehoe for free buses and small bags of cash.

Now after getting rid of contribution limits, Blunt can take $50,000 on March 4 from Rudy Farber, and then appoint him to the Transportation Commission the next week. This is Matt Blunt's idea of progress.

The latest poll numbers have only 40% of Missourians approving of the job Governor Blunt is doing, while an astounding 55% disapprove.

For a historical perspective, in Feb. 2003 Zogby International found that 45% of Missourians approved of Governor Holden's performance, while only 39% disapproved.

This is a deep deep hole for Blunt to dig out of, especially when he continues to do things like allow the insurance lobby to write the state's new Medicaid plan.

Sources tell FiredUp that auditors with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Office are at this very moment digging through files at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Federal officials have subpoenaed records concerning federal homeland security funds knowingly misspent by top brass at the Department of Health.

The scandal may have already led to the middle of the night resignation of Department Director Julie Eckstein, as well as a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a whistleblower who refused to go along with plans to cover up the illegally spent funds. Last week State Auditor Susan Montee released an audit that details some of the wrongdoing within the department.

It appears that this may be the second time this month that Gov. Blunt has attempted to cover up wrongdoing in his administration. Having learned his lesson from the Ferrell scandal, Blunt should fess up and tell Missourians how long he’s known about this wrongdoing, whether his office directed records to be destroyed, why he didn’t say anything about it, and whether or not this is the reason his department director resigned.

Less than a year after the Kansas City Star attempted to compare the now defunct rightmissouri to Firedup, they are asking their readers for a redo. It appears that this weekend they will do a story about how Jeff Roe's site is the new GOP rival to Firedup.

Even before the media was rooting for rightmissouri's success, they were anointing the Missouri Republican Party's blog as the heir-apparent to Temple and friends, only to see it relegated to a dumping ground for GOP press releases.

Last week many Capitol observers were left scratching their heads as House Majority Leader Tom Dempsey used some procedural maneuvering to block amendments to his "ethics" bill.

It now appears that Dempsey's efforts were at blocking a potential amendment that would have placed Missouri's fee offices up for public bid, with the money going to public education.

Dempsey's underhanded tactics surely wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that his father, Ernest Dempsey, runs one of the largest grossing fee offices in the state? With Jetton, Cooper, and company lawyering up for the federal investigation, it looks like sadly Dempsey now passes for an "ethical" Republican.

It appears that the White House's all-out push to prop up the sagging re-election chances of Jim Talent fell flat on it's face last night in the unlikeliest of places --- Springfield.

The AP and Springfield News-Leader both report that only a little more than 100 people showed up to a Talent fundraiser where the Vice President of the United States was the guest of honor.

Many locals speculate that Talent has recently had trouble drawing enthusiasm from his rural Republican base for one of two reasons:

If Republican Senator Bill Alter handles the state budget like he balances his campaign checkbook we are all in trouble. Campaign finance reports show that Alter, who won a special election by mere 68 votes, is still $150,000 in debt an entire year after his special election. To make matters worse he has to run again this November against the very popular Ryan McKenna.

You might ask what kind of business would allow a politician to run up a $150,000 unpaid bill? It turns out the money is owned to Governor Blunt's media firm -- Thompson Communications. This cozy arrangement certainly raises more questions than it answers. Who can really blame Alter for his fiscal and ethical mess, after all the leader of his party accepted a free luxury tour bus from a political appointee. These certainly aren't our parent's Republicans.

Did I realy read this article correctly? Are Missouri Republicans banning county health clinics from giving out birth control? I thought everyone was for contraception. Isn't that how you prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions, like Missouri did under 12 years of Democratic Governors?

How an awful coach like Quin Snyder can walk away with $600,000 in his pocket and look like a victim in this situation, is beyond me. Leave it to MU.

As an MU graduate, I think President Elson Floyd should put down whatever he is doing at this exact moment and walk into Mike Alden and Garry Link's offices and demand that they tell him how Quin's firing actually happened.

I ask Floyd to do this not because I actually care about the circumstances, but because getting the truth to the public will finally put an end to the complete and utter incompetence that the entire university has shown for the past 8 days. The only good reason for Floyd not doing this is if he also had some involvement that he is trying to cover up.

The one thing that Republicans and Democrats have been able to agree on in recent weeks is that Harriet Miers has no business on the Supreme Court. In fact, the only person that seems to believe that Miers would have made a good judge was Missouri Senator Jim Talent, who went as far as to call her an "outstanding nominee." Yet another example of Talent being too weak to stand up to President Bush. At least this show of weakness didn't cost Missouri 4,000 jobs like BRAC did.

In an article today, Matt Blunt refuses to order the U.S or state flags lowered to half staff for Missouri soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield. He hinds behind an obscure law, which no other Governor seems to know about, and claims he doesn't have the authority to order the flags down in a sign of respect.

Isn't this the same Governor that signed a bill into law this summer but then ordered everyone to ignore it?

Slowly Missourians are beginning to take notice that the Government Review Commission's only job is to give Governor Blunt political cover for steering favors towards political donors and cronies.

In fact, the Missouri Press Association goes a step further and says that one of the contracting proposals "creates the opportunity for sweetheart deals for companies favored by certain public officials."

I wonder who they are referring to by "certain public officials?" It doesn't look like Mr. Blunt is fooling much of anyone these days.

I thought this story about Senator Nodler's confrontation with a group of disabled moviegoers and their caretaker was incredible, until I read this.

Nodler was using the movie pass July 22 in Joplin when he got into an argument with an aide for developmentally disabled adults at a matinee showing of the "Fantastic Four."

Nodler was seeing the movie for free! Paid for by special interest. Have these people no shame?