Peter Kinder

Peter Kinder may be silent on how the state should restructure its budgets and programs, what that doesn't mean he's sitting out the budget process. Yesterday, he asked the public to "contact your local representatives and let them know how important [the Tour of Missouri] is to you."  Today, his spokesman unveiled Kinder's #2 priority: Preserving funding for the Missouri Veteran Stories program.  Via Kinder's preferred communication channel:

VIDEO: @PeterKinder and Missouri Veteran Stories. Ask your  legislators to support this important program.

On the MissouriVeteranStories.org website, you'll find the following "URGENT" message. 

Last night, as the House Budget Committee was debating drastic cuts to public education, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder made his first public request for support of the 2010 Tour of Missouri (TOM). 

Kinder and his spokesman directed folks to a new page on the TOM website, "Ten Ways To Support The Tour of Missouri." Beyond the standard requests to join an email list and sign on to a not-yet-functional petition, Tour organizers are also seeking donations, asking Missouri residents to "contact your local representatives" and calling for supporters to "write/call/email/or send smoke signals to the local media." 

Kinder and Tour staff have not yet specified how much public money they are seeking for the 2010 race.

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has gone out of his way today to spread allegations that unnamed Democratic leaders are committing acts of "bribery" and "blackmail" to threaten other Democratic lawmakers. 

Kinder doesn't have any evidence to back this up, and hasn't explained who he thinks is bribing and blackmailing whom.  I asked via Twitter who his is accusing of such crimes, but (you'll be surprised to learn) he has not responded. 

Let's assume for a moment that there is actually a strategy guiding Peter Kinder's crazy Twitter behavior.

Very few of his tweets have anything to do with Missouri government. Instead, our  Lieutenant Governor spends a great deal of time sharing his profound thoughts on decidedly federal issues. Looking at his hysterical tweets in recent days, Kinder has:

This may not surprise you, but Peter Kinder is still telling the public that federal health care legislation will have "catastrophic" consequences for the state budget to the tune of $500 million per year.  This is not true. Kinder and his fellow partisans has been corrected on this point for months, by The Beacon, the Associated Press, The Star, and several times on Kinder's favorite online media outlet, Fired Up! Missouri.

Not ridiculous in any way:

Some Missouri legislators disagree. Representative Todd Akin, of Town and Country, called the health care bill "a threat from within and a danger from Washington D.C."

Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder agreed. "This is Pelosi versus the people," he stated, "and we stand with the people." Kinder went on to say that he believed democratic measures [sic] for health care would turn the country "into something that is unrecognizable" from the country he and members of the assembled crowd grew up with.

What, exactly, does Kinder think he'll be unable to recognize?  The all-American joy of being uninsured?  Budget-busting insurance rate increases?

In a short 24 hour-span last weekend, House Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) declared and then denied a desire to be on a "short list" of Republican candidates for Governor in 2016.  Such plans were not welcomed by Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, who fancies himself a viable challenger to Jay Nixon in 2012.

The story seemed to be over as quickly as it had come, until Richard was asked about it by reporters for his hometown paper, The Joplin Globe.  At the end of the interview, Richard deviated from the blanket denial he gave The Beacon last Saturday, and again said he was interested in running for governor.  But to make the math work (and not hurt Kinder's tender feelings again), Richard says the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger made up the fact that he was thinking about running in 2016.

It's hard to overstate the hypocrisy in Peter Kinder's new calls to expand children's health care with more state and federal spending.

As both lieutenant governor and state senator, Kinder has been either absent or an active opponent to helping middle- and low-income families obtain affordable health care.  In fact, Kinder voted against the legislation to  allow uninsured children in families up to 300% of the federal poverty level to participate in the state Children’s Health Insurance Program -- the program he now cynically champions.

Peter Kinder needs to start getting his news from... news sources. This afternoon, Kinder tweeted that Warren Buffett has called the compromise federal health care legislation "2,000 pages of nonsense."

@PeterKinder: Obama supporter Warren Buffet, on #ObamaCare: "2,000 pages of nonsense." So, the Prez says, Full Speed ahead! #Demsoffthecliff! #pdk #TCOT

Kinder's tweet is misleading in several ways. First and foremost: Buffett didn't say what Kinder is telling his followers he said.  Second, while Buffett is critical of the current legislation because he thinks it doesn't do enough to reign in costs, Buffett says he "would vote for the Senate bill" rather than do nothing.  And third, Buffett is actually calling for more aggressive health care legislation -- something Kinder most certainly does not want.

In the same interview misquoted by Kinder, Buffett said "I would vote for the Senate bill":

No, if it was a choice today between plan A, which is what we've got [i.e., the status quo], or plan B, what is in front of--the Senate bill, I would vote for the Senate bill. But I would much rather see a plan C that really attacks costs.

The official duties of Rich AuBuchon, Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, involve few things unrelated to Twitter these days, but this morning's salvo doesn't even make sense. 

The Governor, House Budget Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) signed off on the same FY2011 "consensus revenue estimate" in January.  It's called a "consensus revenue estimate" because they all came to a... consensus on what they thought the revenues would be this year.  

Politico's Dave Catanese posted a series of interesting tweets on Saturday about Tom Schweich's campaign for State Auditor.  In chronological order:

• 8:38 PM - Bad buzz about Schweich from even those who support him. He's steamed he has a primary when he cut a deal. Ala [Florida Governor Charlie] Crist, welcome to the NFL.
   
• 9:14 PM - GOPer says Schweich needs to learn from @RoyBlunt in approach. Roy takes his licks, but smiles, brushes off like Jay-Z. Schweich gets mad.
   
• 9:32 PM - Schweich should devote a speech to his $500 contrib. to @clairecmc. Say if the GOP wants to b party that excludes indys, it won't prevail.
   
• 9:41 PM - No, @allenicet [primary opponent Allen Icet] doesn't inspire. But Schweich is turning people off. RT @davesmith3: @davecatanese is @alanicet really crushing it THAT much?

Friday afternoon, House Speaker Ron Richard (R-Joplin) told the Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger that he wanted to be on "the short list" of GOP candidates for governor in 2016.  And then at some point in the next 24 hours, Richard decided -- or was persuaded -- that we shouldn't believe what he'd stated the day before. 

It's not hard to see why some of his colleagues at the MOGOP's Lincoln Days celebration were freaked out by Richard's statements.  Implicit in his 2016 dreams, of course, is the assumption that Peter Kinder will not survive his 2012 campaign for governor. 

UPDATE: Dave Catanese and his sources stand by their story. On Twitter, Catanese writes: "Despite @peterkinder's account today on the radio, 2 College Republicans re-affirm that he said he "will be" running in 2012."

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On KMOX's "Hancock & Kelly" program this afternoon, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder poured cold water on the story from Politico's Dave Catanese about his intentions to run for governor in 2012. 

Contrary to reports from the College Republicans in the audience for Kinder's announcement speculative conversation at Jack's Restaurant in DC's Dupont Circle, Kinder says there is simply "a chance" that he'll announce a campaign for governor after the 2010 elections, and he didn't say anything he hasn't said out loud in Missouri. Listen:

Last week, Peter Kinder announced his campaign for Governor from a Washington, DC Bar, asking his supporters to follow him on Twitter and Facebook, above all else.

This week Kinder is again begging people to follow him on Twitter.

While Kinder is a little short staffed these days, someone needs to remind him that voters, not Twitter followers, are what counts. 

Using one of Kenny Hulshof's time tested tactics, Peter Kinder launched his campaign for Missouri Governor yesterday from... Washington, DC.

Kinder selected Jack's Restaurant near DuPont Circle as the venue for his historic declaration.

Kinder's stirring announcement speech, delivered to a handful of College Republicans, was summarized by the Washington DC media as follows:

""He said the first thing we could do was join his Twitter and Facebook pages," said a college Republican.