Howard Beale's blog

­I wonder if these guys think it's okay for the minimum wage ever to go up, or if they believe low-wage workers should have been happy to work for $2.50 an hour on into perpetuity? ­

Every year the Missouri political community has its winners and losers.  There are those elected officials, consultants, staffers, media figures and public people who have a rough go of things (hello, Kenny) and then there are the ones for whom the year provided a rise in office, in stature, in power or just in the way in which they are perceived.

In this list (a continuing part of the FUMO Best and Worst of 2008 series) we've done our best to identify who the year's highest risers were.  Who were the Missouri politicos who made great strides forward in 2008?  Here's our choice of ten who joined Governor-elect Jay Nixon on that list, in alphabetical order...­

Go read the best blogpost that Dave Catanese has ever done.  A teaser...

As I moved closer to the door, a hand tapped me on the shoulder. It was Peter Kinder. "Look, that's just how it had to be, David," he said. "There's a time and a place for these things, and I had to do it that way." I argued a little, but I got his point. Still, with the knowledge this was coming, I just didn't understand why he or his staff let him do the interview with me in the first place. I didn't like being duped by a pol, but I respected him for on second-thought, trying to explain himself. But now there's a running joke in the newsroom. Every time Kinder schedules a news availability, someone snidely says, "he'll probably just back out of it . . . especially if Kit Bond's around."

Good stuff.­­

The year of 2008, with a full slate of state and federal elections and all the attendant posturing, had more than its fair share of ridiculously dumb moves.  Republicans in state government as well as current GOP elected officials and hopefuls spent inordinate amounts of time doing very foolish things.  Submitted for your approval is our assessment of the year's ten dumbest moves...

Honorable Mention: Ward Connerly spends millions for nothing -- Professional interloper Ward Connerly spent gads of cash in Missouri (and a half-dozen other states) trying to ban affirmative action via the initiative petition process.  For his money and his trouble he got absolutely nothing done.  It's sometimes hard to figure who is dumber, though, Connerly for wasting the money or the rich mopes who give him the millions that he fritters away.

10.  Doyle Childish makes crazy parting rant -- Transition between administrations (particularly administrations of different parties) is naturally a turbulent time.  Notwithstanding the uncertainty and flux that comes with it, most departing political appointees in top-level government positions manage to comport themselves with a fair amount of dignity and professionalism.  Not Doyle Childish.  Childish, who had run Matt Blunt's Department of Natural Resources, decided that instead of saving some face by retreating quietly into the private sector he would call the newspaper and announce to the world that he "didn't respect" incoming governor Jay Nixon.  One should be forgiven for confusing Childish with a 14 year-old girl, jilted by the homecoming king at the junior prom.  Anybody want to hire Doyle now?­

Today's News-Leader story about GOP Senator Jack Goodman is quite remarkable, since it suggests on its face that Goodman doesn't even understand the effects of a bill which he has written and filed.  Chad Livengood writes...

Last month, numerous Greene County voters said they stood in polling booths, puzzled about what a county ballot initiative meant.

Some told reporters they had no idea what they voted for or against because the ballot language for Question 1 read like a section of law only discernable [sic] with a copy of the state constitution handy.

Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, wants to reform the way ballot questions are presented to voters by giving them a "fair" interpretation of what current laws mean and how they would be altered under the proposed changes.

"The Greene County Question 1 is a good example of letting people understand what it is now and what we're changing it to," said Goodman, who doesn't represent Greene County but heard plenty of complaints about it from voters. ...

Goodman's legislation, Senate Bill 35, would establish a newly created bipartisan eight-member Fair Ballot Commission to review and approve ballot language.

The problem, of course, is that if Senate Bill 35 were actually passed into law it would do absolutely nothing to change the way that county ballot initiatives are summarized for the ballot.  Goodman's bill would only change the way that ballot summary language is written for statewide ballot initiatives.

Interesting story today about how Blunt fee agent Pat Thomas plans to simply close up shop and walk away from providing fee office services when the calendar flips.

Mexico will temporarily be without a motor vehicle and driver's license fee office, effective Dec. 31. Fee agent Pat Thomas confirmed the closing Monday, and said it could be well after the first of the year before the office reopens.
Thomas was appointed under Gov. Matt Blunt's administration in 2005 to oversee the Mexico facility. WIth the newly-elected governor, her appointment would traditionally end later in 2009. However, due to her office manager accepting a new job and governor-elect Jay Nixon's recent decision to kill off the patronage system, Thomas elected to close the site early.

It is probably worth noting that Pat Thomas has ample reason to try to make Jay Nixon squirm for his principled decision to end fee office patronage, since Thomas is a former Kenny Hulshof staffer and political operative paid by --among others-- the campaign machinery of Peter Kinder. 

If it seems like we see this same exact story reported quarter after quarter, it's because we do.

With the student loan agency having been unable or unwilling to make its last four scheduled quarterly payments, it seems like a fair time to ask whether it will ever actually be able to make the payments promised by Matt Blunt.

If the 2008 election cycle was characterized by one phenomenon for Missouri Republicans, party disunity would probably lead the list.  Driven by a contentious and damaging gubernatorial primary and the nomination of a GOP Presidential candidate whom almost no prominent Missourians supported in the primaries, Republicans spent as much time in 2008 battling one another as they did fighting the Democratic opponents.  

As we approach the new year, it appears likely that trend will continue.  Bruised egos and hurt feelings stemming from Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder's betrayal of ticketmates have reportedly not yet been salved, and may lead to some return disloyalty on the part of Republican legislators. 

Chief among the aggrieved is Sen. Brad Lager, who as Treasurer candidate lost the closest of the 2008 races for statewide office.  Lager was the candidate who likely suffered most from Kinder's decision to throw his pals on the Republican ticket under the bus with a sample ballot distributed across the St. Louis area which pushed Kinder and...the four other statewide Democratic candidates, including Lager's opponent.­

Following yesterday's post which referenced Nathan Cooper's incarceration, a helpful tipster accurately pointed out that Cooper is actually no longer in jail.  In fact, less than one year after reporting to prison for what was supposed to be a fifteen month sentence, Cooper is now tethered only to a community release center in St. Louis.

So not only was Cooper's sentence actually far short of the 30 to 37 months called for by the federal sentencing guidelines, but now he's slipped the bonds of prison for a halfway house before serving even the entirety of his already abbreviated sentence.  ­

­­Longtime Fired Up readers will remember the names Abid Nisar and Naveed Razzaque.  Nisar and Razzaque were two clients of now-imprisoned Republican Nathan Cooper from whom Cooper raised money which ultimately wound up in the pocket of Matt Blunt's then-Appointment Secretary James Harris.  Nisar and Razzaque each received­ a gubernatorial appointment to a board or commission.­

The uninitiated might think Cooper's incarceration would mean the end of this particular racket.  They would, of course, be wrong. 

Missouri Ethics Commission records indicate that Nisar and Razzaque have been active political givers for the last year --but only to three candidates for whose campaigns Harris was heavily engaged as a consultant.­

­Even in the midst of a difficult budget situation of Republican provenance, at least one GOP legislator in a critical committee position has some curious ideas about how taxpayer bucks should be spent.  

According to reports, Senate Appropriations Chair Gary Nodler plans on pressing ahead during the 2009 legislative session with a scheme by which the state would pay to commission painted portraits of Appropriations Committee Chairmen, starting with him, and which would then hang in perpetuity in Senate Committee Room 2 in the state capitol.  Just what Missouri taxpayers have been clamoring for.

To anyone who's read the papers over the last month, it's become abundantly clear who has become the de facto leader of the Missouri Republican Party.  

Though the various factions and (few remaining) prominent Republican electeds have been unable to decide on who should hold the official title of party chair, Crazy Eddie Martin has emerged unchallenged as the public voice of Show Me State GOPers.

Martin, despite having recently been unquestionably outed for his embarrassing role in the a series of events that effectively ended Matt Blunt's run for re-election, is now apparently the chief authority on the political and policy priorities of Missouri Republicans.­  

From the Department of Up Is Down:

GOPers inside the Beltway and around the country discussed a list of about 20 high-profile or rising-star Republicans being circulated by Duncan opponents who want a bigger name at the RNC.

The list contained such GOP luminaries as former Speaker Newt Gingirch (Ga.), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt...

Is it possible to be forced from running for a second term as governor due to rampant unpopularity and still be categorized as a "rising star"?     

From a good story by the soon-to-retire Jo Mannies in yesterday's Post-Dispatch:

Herschel and AuBuchon denied repeatedly in their testimonies that they had ever instructed the administration's computers experts to take action that would have guaranteed the destruction of computer backup tapes that contained e-mails being sought by Eckersley's lawyers and various news organizations, including the Post-Dispatch.

Two computer technicians — Chris Wilkerson and Dan Ross, the state's custodian of records — have told state investigators that AuBuchon, Herschel and Martin had directly or indirectly issued such orders.

This matters as much because of the giver of the testimony as it does because of the content. 

Dan Ross and Matt Blunt have a long history together, with Ross following Blunt to the administration from a top perch in the Blunt Secretary of State office.  Ross was one of Blunt's first hires as he transitioned into the Secretary of State's office in 2000-2001, taking the number two spot as Executive Deputy Secretary of State and actually running the shop for a spell while Blunt fulfilled Naval service requirements.

Shorter David Brooks, Idiot:

"Voters rejected another term of Republican leadership in the White House, therefore Barack Obama can be successful only by governing as a Republican moderate."