Public Policy Polling, 763 voters, 11/13-15/2009, (source)
Of Missouri's last five elected Governors: John Ashcroft, Mel Carnahan, Bob Holden, Matt Blunt, and Jay Nixon- who do you have the least favorable opinion of?
Now, the poll was a duel between partisans. But amongst Independents, they disliked Holden and Blunt and liked Ashcroft and Carnahan.
Fun note: PPP unintentionally released these poll numbers on Matt Blunt's 39th birthday. Really.
Update: Rich Chrismer referred to the data as highly misleading, before proclaiming Blunt "Missouri's third most popular governor". Didn't know you could proclaim something to be highly misleading before highly misleading others.
For more than a year, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's administration has defended itself against accusations that it has ignored laws that guarantee an open government.
The administration contended that a fired staff lawyer never offered advice about the governor's policy requiring public records, including e-mails, to be retained.
But he did.
Blunt's staffers said the administration did not regularly conduct state business out of public view on campaign e-mail accounts.
But they did.
And the governor's then-chief-of-staff denied the existence of e-mails showing he had engaged in political activities on state time.
But hundreds of them exist.
Proof of that pattern of mistatements is contained in more than 60,000 pages of e-mails, filling 22 boxes, that were turned over late last week to three news outlets, including the Post-Dispatch, which participated in a lawsuit seeking the records.
Matt Blunt is still campaigning, even though he's off the ballot. Blunt attacked Barney Frank's recent comments that an economic stimulus package was necessary and would have to be offset in the government's ledger by increased taxes on the wealthy and a 25 percent reduction in military spending. Sayeth the Boy Blunder, "It is difficult to see how a 25 percent reduction in military spending would not undermine the ability of our Guard to help win the Global War on Terror, support the active duty components and respond to natural disasters."
Gee, Matt, it's also hard to see how sending Guard units out repeatedly on extended tours in a war of choice, in a country where you know, Osama Bin Laden is not located could possibly have helped Guard readiness.
As for Frank's comments, it's worth examining them more closely. He didn't call for an across the board cut, he called for a withdrawal from Iraq, where we are currently spending $10 billion a month, and for the Pentagon to start picking and choosing which of its lavish weapons programs the US government will continue to support. Where does National Guard funding come up in Frank's comments?
It's always easier to attack your opponent when you are allowed to make things up, like Blunt does.
Blunt also thinks that Palin would benefit from more interviews on the "interview circuit". Not because the practice would make her comfortable and well-rehearsed, mind you, but because a couple of gaffes during a few highly scrutinized interviews are blown out of proportion, while mistakes made over a series of interviews go unnoticed.
As soon as Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri announced that he would not be seeking a second term "because he had accomplished everything in one term" that he set out to achieve; we were immediately suspicious and doubted his claim because there are still a few people receiving Medicaid.
Almost immediately my phone started ringing, and every single call laid out a plausible scenario for an impending indictment, most of them based on the fee-office fiasco from his first months in office. During every single one of those calls I made some notes, and then filed them away, waiting for corroboration that never came.
Most recently, the rumor has been pervasive - he is going to be "outed."
So the Republican National Committee just did a conference call with local reporters to counter Obama's St. Louis visit. Often you'll get a prominent Missouri politician to give the talking points of the day. So who was the lucky attack dog?
Maybe somebody out of state but in the region, like Iowa's Senator Chuck Grassley? Well, McCain apparently doesn't like him, once calling him a f----ing jerk.
So that leaves... Frank Donatelli? Donatelli is the liaison between the McCain campaign and the RNC, and he's also a party hack and megalobbyist. He's lobbied on behalf of Ethiopia's government, continuing the tradition of McCain associates who lobby for bad regimes. He's also lobbied for PhRMA, Exxon Mobil, AT&T, Verizon, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
This is just getting ridiculous. Has McCain dropped all pretense at being a reformer?
For years, my cousin seemed uncomfortable, to say the least. She was bright and outgoing as a child, but soon after she hit adolescence, she withdrew, almost seeming anguished when any attention was focused on her. I didn't think much of it at the time; after all, it's hardly unusual for a teenager to become moody and self-conscious. But this "phase" lasted for years, until well after graduation, and the years didn't visibly alter her moods. She was probably about twenty when my sister, who is much closer to her than I am, told me the reason for my cousin's anguish. She's a lesbian in a small town, and she couldn't count on anybody in her environment, whether at home, school, or work, to understand what she felt. Now things have changed for her. She's told the family about her sexual orientation, and after some adjustment, most of us now accept her as she is. She has a committed partner now. While I have no idea if they would have plans to get married if that were possible, they are probably more committed to each other than some married couples I have known. She is really happy now, the same bright, outgoing person I knew her to be as a child before being interrupted by the confusion of teenage years. And I'm happy she is happy, and I'd like to keep it that way. Which is why I get so angry when the LBGT community gets tossed around like a football every time an election comes up. And why I'm upset with Jay Nixon right now.
This kind of got lost in hotflash's Friday night post about the pre-convention reception, but just as Jeff Harris told her then, he quickly replied to Blunt's e-mail request, saying that he's willing to immediately turn over the 75,000 documents Blunt requested at a cost of $10,000 to the taxpayer. One extra wrinkle - the House generally maintains that individual members of the House are not in of themselves public bodies and therefore not open to scrutiny under the Sunshine Law. Harris maintains that his willingness to comply has nothing to do with the validity of the House opinion.
I'm not sure why Blunt is going this route. Maybe he's hoping that Harris can't produce all of the documents, or that Harris might have some skeletons buried in those hard drives. But it's egg on Blunt's face if Harris can produce and nothing of consequence surfaces. Meanwhile, Harris gets extra press and an opportunity for a fundraising ask - Harris sent out an e-mail to his list calling Blunt's attack a "Badge of Honor" and asked for a small contribution on behalf of the guy standing up to Blunt.
Apparently piqued at Harris' support for the Sunshine Law, Matt Blunt asked Attorney General candidate (and current State Rep.) Jeff Harris to turn over all correspondence sent to or from Harris' office.
Interesting how Blunt's chief of staff Trish Vincent started the letter:
"In your campaign for attorney general," the letter began, "you have announced your ardent support for Missouri's Sunshine Act. I wanted to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate that commitment by fulfilling the below open records request." [emphasis mine]
So now Jeff Harris gets to prove his personal commitment to an issue he talks about quite a bit. In fact, on that first blogger conference call last fall, Harris talked at length about the possible interactions between an Attorney General Harris' office and the Sunshine Law.
Harris didn't waste any time in responding, either:
"I am a strong believer in the Sunshine Law, and that's why I've sponsored legislation to make sure that records are open to the public and that Missouri's public officials govern openly," said Harris. "Whether they are on a town council or they are the governor of the state, public officials must understand that government records belong to the people, and not to them."
Harris, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, said he will comply with Blunt's request, but he questioned obvious political motives behind the request. Blunt's request came just one day after Harris, in a speech on the House floor, commended two state employees for standing up to the governor, whose office investigators allege made an illegal request to destroy public documents.
In 1974, SCOTUS ruled, 8-0, that Nixon's claim of absolute executive privilege was unconstitutional. But the court didn't say anything about Missouri, so Matt Blunt is claiming that privilege in his legal skirmish with Scott Eckersley.
If we follow this argument correctly, it means that if Mr. Blunt or his minions, acting in their official capacities, intentionally smeared the character of an idealistic 30-year-old lawyer, there's nothing the lawyer can do about it.
They can allege, as they did, that he used state computers to visit a group sex website. They can hint, as they did, that he had drug problems. They can say, as they did, that he improperly conducted private business during office hours with state computers and that he had a violent temper. They can say all this, even if they knew it wasn't true, and trash a young man's reputation and ruin his career, and nobody can touch them.
We have but one word for this argument: hogwash. (It's not the word we wanted, but it will have to do). The divine right of kings went out in the 16th century.
Charlie Shields admitted to the media last week that Republicans in this state don't care who knows how bought they are. Fired Up! has more proof of it, as if we needed any:
Matt Blunt's Department of Insurance is reportedly poised to implement new insurance regulations that were written by the insurance industry. Those rule changes (in 20 CRS 100-7 and 100-8) will receive a public hearing on June 12th of this year. According to insiders, these new rules will allow for an effective administrative deregulation of the insurance industry in the state, boosting insurance company profits.
Why would Blunt have his Department of Insurance cronies concoct new industry-friendly regs as he makes his way through the final lame duck months of his term? Money, of course.
$300,000 over the last three years or so. You can see the exact contribution amounts, dates and donors at Fired Up! Think of the list as a receipt for services rendered.
This article is reprinted by permission of the author:
WHAT IF THEY THREW A STATE GOVERNMENT
AND NOBODY CAME?
by Rory Riddler
A Tale Of Two Cities
Every year thousands of Missouri school children travel to Missouri's State Capitol on field trips. One of the highlights is to meet their State Representative and have a photo taken to remember the visit. Representatives are keen to spend time with these future voters, so eager to learn just what goes on in Jefferson City, beneath that imposing dome of Missouri's State Capitol.
But children from the 18th State Representative District (comprised mostly of the older portions St. Charles North of Interstate 70) can stay home. You see we don't have a State Representative. There is no one there to show these young people around, let alone represent the over 27,000 people who live in the 18th District.
So a small desk and chair, on the floor of the Missouri General Assembly, sits empty. No green or red light goes up on the electronic voting board to indicate how our representative voted. We don't have a vote. Laws are being passed, vital issues debated and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, without the voters and taxpayers of this portion of St. Charles having one word to say about it.
The fact is that two seats became vacant in St. Charles County last year. But only ours remains unfilled.
It's such a treat to watch Republicans form a circular firing squad instead of wincing as we do it. They're currently cocking their pistols over stem cell research.
Jo Mannies reported last week that Matt Blunt, who had received a bundle of boodle from a pro-stem cell PAC in Kirwood, had been forced, because of the resurrected limits ($1350), to return most of it. The PAC, Supporters of Health Research and Treatments, had given him a quarter of million dollars, as a reward for his pro-stem cell stance in '06.
So when Blunt sent the PAC a check for everything over the limit--basically all of it--they, in turn, sent the Republican Governor's Association a check for $250,000. You know: if they couldn't reward him one way, they'd do it another. They knew full well that the RGA would send that money right back to Blunt's campaign.
The state Democratic Party put together this video of Hulshof clips, showing basically that Kenny has no ideas ... not yet anyway ... but that he likes the way Matt Blunt performed.
He what?!
Yes, indeed, Hulshof says that Blunt is his good buddy and that the guv has left the state better off than he found it--with hundreds of thousands more Missourians lacking health insurance, with state government wracked by so many ethics scandals that it's hard to say whether Matt will escape being indicted for something, with Baby Blunt's approval numbers the lowest of any governor in the nation.
Okay, Hulshof only said the first part of that sentence. I added the rest. But he oughta know what a loser he's identifying himself with.
This is the leader of the Republican pack? Sheesh.
Matt Blunt and Department of Natural Resources Director, Doyle Childers drove four hours to Joplin to try to talk the Joplin Globe out of its editorial policy opposing CAFOs.
It is not at all unusual for a Governor or an MDNR Director to call the Kansas City STAR or the St. Louis POST-DISPATCH about some real or perceived slight or mis-reporting. But, it is extremely rare for the Governor or MDNR Director to show up personally in newspaper offices. This had never occurred at the offices of relatively small newspapers, such as the Joplin Globe.
For all the good it did the guv. Which was none. You can read all about it on Ken Midkiff's site.
Missouri's embattled juvenile-offender of a governor has announced that he will not seek reelection in November.
It also raises a lot of questions...
What brought this on? There have been allegations of abuse of power - there is the Eckersly scandal. There were allegations that the Abramoff tentacles reached all the way to Missouri and throwing the taint of corruption on one of Baby Guv's campaigns. There is the six-Suburban caravan that schleps his feckless ass from Springfield to Jeff City every business day because his wife "doesn't like the mansion." There was the incident where one of his goons shoved Kit Wagar and caused a three-reporter pile up on veterans day.
There is the fact that Missouri as a whole is pissed off at him for myriad of reasons.
He said that he has accomplished everything he set out to do -
Sure, if he was setting out to destroy the social safety net and finish wrecking the economy, he has been a stellar success.
I'm sure the fact that he has been sucking Jay Nixon's draft since inauguration day has nothing to do with his decision to not lose in a landslide...
UPDATEfrom Clark: A statement from Jay Nixon on Blunt's announcement:
"My campaign for Governor has always been about moving Missouri forward. I will continue to focus on changing the direction of our state so that more Missourians have access to health care, more Missourians can find good-paying jobs and more Missouri children can get the quality education they deserve.
"I wish Gov. Blunt and his family all the best in the future."
UPDATEfrom Michael Bersin: The press release and statement by Blunt on the flip:
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Twenty-eight candidates from around the state are seeking to be exempt from refunding money they received in excess of Missouri's campaign contribution limits...
...Beetem heard arguments Tuesday on a lawsuit by Rep. Margaret Donnelly, a Democratic attorney general candidate from St. Louis who claims the hearings must be open under the Missouri Sunshine Law. Donnelly wants the judge to issue an injunction barring the closed hearings...
It'd probably be easier to go through the 4th quarter filings and see who hasn't returned the excess contribution amounts. With a little persistence I bet you could discover the "twenty-eight" in there somewhere.
Before Christmas, Matt Blunt was busily trying to get past his Ebenezer Scrooge image by announcing three different forms of state government largess that he is proposing.
The first is a $121 million dollar increase in state aid to education--four percent more than the state is spending now. Blunt neglected to mention, though, that the added funds are hardly prompted by the Mother Teresa portion of his soul. Rather, it is a raise mandated by the new school foundation formula.
Blunt is recommending that doctors treating patients under MO HealthNet receive more appropriate compensation. In 2006, they got only 45 percent of what doctors were paid for treating Medicare patients. The 2007 budget bumped the payout up by $66 million, so that doctors received 55 percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate. Blunt is proposing to add another $52.8 million a year starting July 1, so that doctors treating Medicaid patients would receive at least 65 percent of the Medicare payment rate.
Matt "baby" Blunt sent the following memo to State employees declaring Christmas eve a day off for State Employees. Could there be some point he is trying to make in using the word "Christmas" five times in such a brief memo? This on the heels of another memo on Christmas which actually made the Michael Feldman's show in the "Thanks for the memos" section.
Not to be a grinch here, but I wonder how much Missouri taxpayers will be forking over in overtime pay for 24/7 State operations to fulfill the Gov's campaign to "Save Christmas". Here is the memo:
Dear State Employee:
I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. As you are probably aware, Christmas Eve falls on a Monday this year.
Today, I signed an executive order closing state offices on Monday, December 24, 2007.
I hope that my directive will help you with your plans for the Christmas season and will give you more time with family and friends.
I am grateful for your continued efforts to improve Missouri government and service to Missouri taxpayers. Melanie, our son William Branch and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday.
Before Christmas, Matt Blunt was busily trying to get past his Ebenezer Scrooge image by announcing three different forms of state government largess that he is proposing.
