Washington Insiders

With a record in Washington as long and troublesome as Roy Blunt's, it's a challenge for anyone to keep track of all the stories and scandals. Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, the K Street Project, special favors for Philip Morris....Blunt and his consultants hope you forget them all.

Remembering that bit of wisdom from George Santayana, we've begun to pull together key reports, articles and columns written about Blunt, Inc. into one place.  Check it out. 

What did you do last night?  If your name is Roy Blunt, you were among the "Washington superstars" rubbing elbows with executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Marathon, Valero and other corporations on Embassy Row in Washington, DC. 

The Washington Times reports today that Blunt was among the VIPs at the 2010 Kuwait-America Foundation Gala Dinner that "rivaled the Academy Awards celebration going on at the same time." The Hill paints us a picture:

The 144 guests at the intimate affair were also treated to musical selections by Motown singer-songwriter duo Ashford and Simpson, singing hits like “Solid as a Rock” and “You’re All I Need to Get By.” They ended their set with “Aint’ No Mountain High Enough,” which got the normally serious Washington crowd bobbing their heads and singing along.

Dr. Fareed Zakaria served as master of ceremonies during the four-course meal, which included: smoked salmon and sevruga caviar, a wild mushroom and foie gras terrine, New York sirloin strip steak, asparagus spears and wasabi mashed potatoes, salted caramel ice cream with chocolate crunch cake, and traditional Arabic coffee and sweets.

Roy Blunt would like you to believe that he's never actually been to his office in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Speaking with tea party darling Dana Loesch on 97.1 FM this week, Blunt said he had absolutely no idea if there's a members-only elevator in the House of Representatives -- and if there is, it's a bad thing. 

LOESCH:I wanted to ask, you know we heard what [Kentucky Senator Jim] Bunning** said about there being a Senator-only elevator. Is there a Representatives only elevator?

BLUNT: I don’t know if there is or not. I’ve never paid any attention to it. And actually, I don’t know that we should even think about getting ourselves where we’re so isolated that you can’t ride on the elevator with other people.

Listen to their exchange:

Roy Blunt is either the least observant person on the planet, or he's not being honest with Loesch and her radio audience. As even the casual tourist can tell you, there are members-only elevators in the House office buildings.  In fact, for at least part of Blunt's tenure in Washington, there were Capitol staff whose only job was to keep the general public off the designated carriages.

Politico's Josh Kraushaar asks an interesting question today about Roy Blunt's Washington baggage:

Rep. Mark Kirk is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois.

When you've had your fill of the DC-area landmarks on Roy Blunt's "K Street Jobs Tour," it's time to get on a plane and visit some of the other key spots in your review of Blunt's record in Congress.  From Reagan National Airport, you'll travel to ocean side resorts where lobbyists get to play with the Congressman. Then it's off to Sugar Land, TX, home of Blunt's mentor and co-leader in passing Bush-era policies trough the House.  Finally, it's back to Missouri, a place the Congressman once knew, to see how his campaign manager, Andy Blunt, has practiced his craft.

View Roy Blunt's "K Street Jobs Tour" in a larger map

New Majority Whip Roy Blunt receives a congratulatory velvet hammer from mentor Tom DeLay in 2002; Speaker Denny Hastert looks on in approval

Randy Turner breaks it down:

As we move into what might be the last throes of the great healthcare battle of the Obama Administration, my Congressman, Roy Blunt, a candidate for U. S. Senate in Missouri, is also making his allegiances clear.

While Democrats and Republicans are getting together Thursday, with only an outside chance of hammering out meaningful heath care and insurance reform, Roy Blunt, the newly-minted Tea Party conservative, the-government-is the-source-of-all-evil Republican, will be playing politics as usual- and playing footsy with insurance lobbyists...

With these special interests bankrolling Roy Blunt, and when most of his family including his campaign manager son, daughter, and wife are lobbyists, it is hard for anyone, whether on the left or the right, to take serious Blunt’s claim that he speaks for the average Missourian.

Roy Blunt's recent "Jobs for Missouri's Future" Bus Tour is a bore compared to his far more lavish Washington tours. In the "K Street Jobs Tour," Roy and his lobbying buddies make regular stops at their favorite venues along the Potomac, including top restaurants, spas, sporting events, and resorts.

Intrepid Fired Up! tipsters have obtained exclusive access to the tour itinerary and have concocted a virtual tour for your viewing pleasure disgust. Before you get started on this virtual tour, let's stop for a historic review to enhance your understanding of congressional/corporate homology. Discover how Roy Blunt became a leading K Street acolyte and a star pupil of Tom DeLay's, learning the art of deal-making, back-slapping, and go-along-to-get-along politics that have served him so well for the last 14 years.

View Roy Blunt's "K Street Jobs Tour" in a larger map Read More »

Hey look, kids.  Roy Blunt's wife works for a grocery store just like the people in our town is a Washington lobbyist for Kraft Foods Global, Inc., used to lobby for Altria, and is a fixture of "the old-school Georgetown social establishment."  

Minnesota Governor and Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty will be in St. Charles two weeks from today as a featured speaker for the Missouri GOP's annual Lincoln Days event. 

Something tells me his remarks to the Republican incumbents seeking reelection and promotion to higher office will deviate slightly from his statements to Esquire Magazine about "the State of the Republican Party."

"The Republicans had their shot not long ago to address the real needs and concerns of everyday Americans, and they blew it.... Over the time that they were there and had the leadership opportunity, they blew it. We got fired for a reason."

"The party got into a whole bunch of corruption and personal scandals that weren't compatible with the principles it claimed to stand for."

Kyle Trygstad for Real Clear Politics:

GOP RECRUITING STOCKED WITH D.C. TIES

It may be a decidedly anti-Washington year in politics, but Republicans are putting their bets on some D.C. veterans to take back the Senate...

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder insults Sammy Davis, Jr. in a post today about the liabilities that come with a long Washington record in 2010:

In Missouri, Senate candidate Roy Blunt is to Washington insider like Sammy Davis, Jr. is to rat pack. Here, though, Blunt's insider-y-ness is kind of built into the price of his stock. Missouri knows what they're getting with Blunt -- someone who can play the DC game to their advantage. That said, if independents are truly independent in November, and if they turn out, Blunt will not win their hearts or minds without a big fight.

If Roy is Sammy, who is Frank?  And who's Dean? 

Tom and Jack, perhaps? 

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson is telling DC donors about the threat from Democratic challenger Tommy Sowers in invitations for an upcoming event at a downtown DC steakhouse. 

Tommy Sowers – my Democratic opponent – spent 11 years in the U.S. Army, including an assignment as a Special Forces officer in Iraq. He returned to the states and taught at the U.S. Military Academy before recently retiring from the Army. I honor his service to our country.

He appears to be an aggressive campaigner and fundraiser. I am ready for the challenge. Let the superior candidate with the better agenda win.

Read More »

In a conversation on Twitter this afternoon with Fired Up! founder Roy Temple, Politico reporter Josh Kraushaar noted that Roy Blunt "is as much of a DC insider as you can get."

Appearing earlier this evening on Hardball, NBC Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd was quite bearish on Roy Blunt's ability to capitalize on any anti-incumbent sentiment this year.  In his words, "the open seat in Missouri is a real problem for Republicans because they nominated somebody that isn`t very anti-Washington in Roy Blunt." Chuck Purgason might take issue with the assertion that Blunt has already been nominated, but it would be hard for anyone to argue that Roy Blunt isn't the consummate Washington politician. Watch it:

Posted today by The Associated Press:

If Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts gave the party new energy, their Senate recruits are more like an attempt at renewable fuel. The circumstances of Brown's upset victory two weeks ago are hard to recreate on their own, but even more so when the GOP's pack of Senate hopefuls have such extensive ties to a city that's rapidly becoming anathema to much of America...

"People right now are really disenchanted with the way things are done and bringing back familiar faces is not really the way to do it, or at least it hasn't been," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.

The GOP recruits present "a tactical problem," he said.