GOP Hypocrisy

From BarackObama.com: "Just as he criticizes federal health reform based on the law he passed in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney is attacking the President for providing women with the same access to contraception and preventive health care services Romney did as governor. Our new infographic takes a look at how contraception coverage compares under the Affordable Care Act and the Massachusetts law Romney stood behind."

"I think people recognize that I'm not a partisan Republican, that I'm someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive." 

"The only obstacle to Mitt Romney winning next year's Republican nomination is that, up until recently, he was the antithesis of everything Republicans stand for."

On September 27, Todd Akin sent out a fundraising email emphasizing the chaos that a government default would create: 

Every day, the possibility of a federal default seems more likely - an event that would produce chaos, suffering, and irreparable harm to America. It is a national imperative that the Obama-McCaskill team must go. This race is pivotal to change the direction of the U.S. Senate, and to get our country back on track.

However, on July 19, he thought a government default would be good for America and force the government to live within its means:

"I consider that to be a worse alternative than, for a month or two, for us to actually experience what it is like to live within our means, what every family has to do. I think it would shock us as a nation into saying that we really have to deal with this problem," he said.

Either he had a bout of amnesia or no one thought to double-check the crazy stuff he said two months ago when they were drafting the email. In any case, it's obvious he will change his position whenever it benefits his ability to blame others, eventhough he has been in Congress for over 10 years.

John Danforth has repeatedly expressed his desire for bipartisan compromise in Washington. In a new piece for Politico, he writes: 

Compromise, the capacity to work out our differences, is the essential element of workable politics. Compromise was made essential by the framers of our Constitution who created a system of checks and balances so that each side of an issue is unlikely to get everything it wants. In today’s world, when the extremes demand pure ideology, compromise is difficult without rebuilding the center.

Danforth has a history of being a voice for the ever-diminishing moderate center of the Republican Party. This is a good thing. But despite his talk about finding politicians willing to work on finding common ground, he has thrown his support behind some of the most divisive candidates Missouri has to offer. 

Take Ed Martin for instance. Danforth supported him in his 2010 Congressional race. Ed likes to call elected officials "the devil" and thinks Barack Obama wants to keep people from being saved by Jesus Christ. And he really likes to suggest that if government gets control of health care, bureaucrats will start killing old people. 

Senator Danforth has also thrown his support behind Peter Kinder. Lost in the recent Kinder-related drama is the fact that Peter Kinder is an extremist. (Unless most Missourians agree that there is "great prevalence of virulent anti-Semitism from the Left" and an"astonishing explosion of lefty Jew hatred." Not to mention that he also thinks government provided heath care would lead to bureaucrats using death panels to decide who lives and dies.)

Update: LaCivita is also working for Ed Martin this cycle. 

KMBC's Mike Mahoney reports that the Todd Akin campaign has hired Chris LaCivita, "the man behind the 2004 ‘Swift[b]oat’ ad campaign." The Washington Post describes LaCivita as a man "intimately involved in the Swift boat campaign."

Because nothing says "I'm on God's Team and God's on mine!" like hiring the media advisor for one of the more infamous smear campaigns in recent years.

To jog your memory:

LaCivita was a paid consultant and media adviser to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who launched a smear campaign against Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) based on lies, factual distortions, and baseless attacks on Kerry's Vietnam War record and personal life...At the time, McCain called the Swift Boat Veterans' campaign "dishonest and dishonorable."

In 2008, LaCivita co-founded the American Issues Project with the financial backing of Harold Simmons, a Dallas-based businessman who also helped fund the Swift boat smear campaign.

LaCivita was also previously a consultant to USA Next, "another Republican front group that supported the Bush administration's efforts to privatize Social Security and routinely attacked the AARP for its opposition to Social Security privatization."

In case you missed Todd Akin’s (R-Extremist) latest “step-in-a-pile-of-my-own-dung” moment, we thought we would clue you in. 

Seems Akin took offense at Sen. Claire McCaskill’s press release last Wednesday blasting Republican efforts to dismantle the Medicare program.  According to Akin:

“Last Wednesday Claire McCaskill was busy playing politics while residents in Joplin and surrounding communities struggled with the aftermath of the devastating tornado.

Instead of offering support and ways to help the people of Missouri, she sent an email to her supporters blasting House Republicans and falsely accusing the Republican Party of attempting to dismantle Medicare.

I found her email to be offensive and unacceptable. And I believe it's time to give Missouri a Senator who will stop the partisan bickering and get down to business solving our country's problems. That's why I'm challenging Claire McCaskill and that's why I hope you will join me to defeat her and bring a Senator who cares about Missourians.”

Like the rest of the field of GOP Bush leaguers, Akin is just NOT ready for Prime Time!  While Akin blatantly tries to politicize the disaster in Joplin, he didn’t bother to check out his own post-disaster calendar. If he had, he’d have noticed his own “offensive and unacceptable” political stunt instead of getting “down to business solving our country’s problems.”  

Yesterday, the Post-Dispatch reported that Sen. Bill Stouffer isn't all that concerned with violations of voting laws when they're committed by known Republicans, even though he's spent much of the past year manufacturing fears about voter impersonation fraud to justify his party's plan to limit voting for people who just might vote for Democratic candidates.

Today, an editorial in the Post-Dispatch calling on Gov. Jay Nixon to veto legislation that would put the GOP voter suppression plan into place includes the following:

We're quite confident Mr. [Todd] Akin is who he says he is. And we're fairly confident that, given time, he could obtain a valid drivers license with a current address on it.

But, given the new voter ID requirements Missouri lawmakers seek as law, wouldn't Mr. Akin's votes of the past several years, by definition, be fraudulent if he knowingly voted in the wrong jurisdiction?

"That is true," Mr. Stouffer told us.

Guess what: Bill Stouffer, the man who lead the charge this session to reduce voting rights on behalf of his fellow Republicans doesn't care that about voting laws when they limit the peculiar habits of wealthy Republican voters in St. Louis County (like Todd Akin).

And you thought all that fraud talk from Republicans in the voter suppression debate who don't have any evidence voter impersonation fraud to justify their onerous proposal was genuine and sincere. Silly you!

Here's a fun factoid for your Thursday afternoon: Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives voted en masse this afternoon against educating our youth about the Bible. 

On the House floor, Rep. Lindell Shumake (R-Hannibal) sponsored an amendment to Sen. David Pearce's SB81 that would allow religious texts to be used in fine arts classes, so long as their use didn't violate the Establishment Clause.  Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford (D-St. Louis) then sponsored an amendment to Shumake's amendment that would simple clarify that the religious texts would include, but not be limited to, the Torah, Koran and Bible.

Guess what happened next!

Oxford's simple amendment was then defeated by a 48-101 vote, with Speaker Steve Tilley, Birther Leader Tim Jones and the rest of the House GOP leadership all opposed.

Why do these great leaders hate the Bible?  Or am I misunderstanding which part of Oxford's amendment gave all these freedom lovers heartburn? 

The latest editorial from The Star: "A bill requiring citizens to produce government-issued photo identification at the polls would create barriers for thousands of elderly and disabled Missourians, college students and minorities. Now is the time to stop it. A supposed sweetener in the bill — the introduction of convenient advance voting in Missouri — is a red herring. Early voting would be subject to annual funding by the legislature and governor. The chances of finding money in a cash-strapped budget anytime soon are slim. The odds of the GOP-dominated legislature scraping up funds to initiate the photo ID requirement are much better, given the current pressure to do so from national Republican-leaning interest groups..."

And from the Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal: "Voters should be amazed at the contradictory actions of Missouri lawmakers...Given the deep budget cuts made by lawmakers, and how the voter ID bill would accomplish nothing, the $7 million cost is simply a huge waste..." 

Please note: A scanned copy of the print version of the Daily Star-Journal editorial may be found here.

Michael Bersin of Show Me Progress transcribes comments from Rep. Vicky Hartlzer at a recent town hall:

We repealed the government takeover of health care. That, that's my version, yes, it's biased, but I can't remember the name. It's fancy name name, the path, uh, the patient protection, well, anyway, you remember, you know what bill I'm talking about. The Pre, the one which passed last year. Anyway, that is very, very costly and very onerous for job creation. Because it, health care costs for business are huge and now they cost have go, gone up even higher. So, the Path to Prosperity, uh, repeals that. In doing that it reduces the national debt which helps reduce that uncertainty, that dark cloud over businesses' heads...

Repealing health care reform would increase the deficit by $210 billion over 10 years, and health care reform was never and is not a "government takeover of health care."

Yes.

It's beyond unfortunate that as one of their top priorities, the Republicans who control the Missouri Legislature set out this year to make it harder, not easier, for Missourians to vote.

The effort, referred to as voter ID, is part of a national GOP plan to raise barriers to large swaths of voters who generally lean Democratic in their political philosophy.

It seems reasonable enough to ask voters to produce a drivers license before they exercise their constitutional right. Most of us carry drivers licenses all of the time. We produce them to cash checks, buy airline tickets and conduct regular business. So what's the big deal?

Well, the big deal is that not everybody who has the right to vote has a drivers license. And the right to vote — particularly in the Missouri Constitution — is a very big deal indeed...

In short, it's a solution — and a bad one at that — in search of a problem.

The Turner Report: "Anyone waiting for an opportunity to ask Seventh District Congressman Billy Long about the issues that affect southwest Missouri and the nation might as well forget it."

The Star prints the following letter from Carl B. Foster of Warrensburg about a recent tele-town hall conducted by Vicky Hartlzer.   As you read this, remember that Hartlzer is one of the very top farm subsidy recipients in Congress -- her farm collected $774,489 in federal subsidies from 1995-2009. 

About 8 o’clock one night I received a phone invitation to participate in a live teleconference in which I could ask U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler a question about any concerns. I indicated my interest and was told that I would be called on soon. After a half-dozen or more questions from some very supportive participants, I was asked for my name and question.

“I have to tell you my question before I can talk to Hartzler?” I asked. The reply was a firm yes. So I gave her my question:

“Why does Hartzler rail against government intrusion into our lives and government spending when her family has received thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?”

I then heard, “He wants to talk to you about your farm subsidies.” Another voice, I assume Hartzler’s, replied, “I’ll deal with that later. Go to the next caller.”

My question opportunity disappeared.

Alleged fiscal hawk Todd Akin continues to insist that any sort of cuts or changes in defense department spending should be taken completely off the table.  This is just dumb.  If Akin and other GOP deficit frauds can vote to phase out Medicare, slash education spending and tear apart the nation's safety net for struggling families, surely they can consider the possibility that maybe -- just maybe -- there is an unnecessary DOD program or two on the books. 

If nothing else, it might help pay for the additional tax cuts Akin keeps voting to give to the already very wealthy.

Rather than trying to pretend that deficit spending is a recent phenomenon in Washington, Roy Blunt could present some ideas on how to pay for the Medicare Part D legislation he rammed through the House without even a hint of a funding mechanism, how to pay for wars with borrowed money, or how to pay for even more tax cuts for the already wealthy. 

Just an unsolicited thought for a man who has zero credibility on matters relating to fiscal responsibility.

The Post-Dispatch reminds Republicans in the General Assembly that the payday lending reforms proposed by Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) and others are patterned after federal legislation credited to Sen. Jim Talent that "limited the financial damage payday-loan companies can inflict on military families."

PAYDAY LOAN HYPOCRISY: MISSOURI GOP FORGETS EXAMPLE SET BY JIM TALENT

...The debate about payday loans shouldn’t be about politics; it should be about fairness and justice.

And that’s why we bring Mr. Talent into the debate. We could bring in former Gov. Matt Blunt, the Republican who sought to remove payday-loan facilities from nursing homes. Or U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, the uber-conservative congressman from Tarkio who sponsored a measure similar to Mr. Talent’s.

UPDATE: Leader Mike Talboy has issued a statement about Schweich's new standard for how his 'rapid response' team will investigate waste and fraud in government.
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Consistent with his primary campaign promise to be a partisan Auditor, Tom Schweich announced yesterday that he will not be conducting any sort of review of Lt. Governor Peter Kinder's obviously inappropriate habit of billing taxpayers for his campaign and personal travel.  As reported in the Daily Star-Journal:

Concerns about Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's spending do not rise to the standard required to invoke use of State Auditor Tom Schweich's rapid response team, Schweich spokesman Gary McElyea said Wednesday.

"There has to be a theft or fraud, and then an ongoing waste, and we immediately have to step in," McElyea said.

There is no evidence of ongoing waste in revelations by newspapers about Kinder's spending on hotels in Kansas City and St. Louis, McElyea said.

Emphasis added. The misuse taxpayer dollars -- and charging taxpayers more than the allowable rates -- aren't of interest to the Auditor because they're not "ongoing?"  Since the waste, theft and fraud allegedly ended with Kinder's Capitol press conference, there's nothing to audit?

You may also recall that Schweich promised to recuse himself from any examination of Kinder's practices, on account of Kinder's huge support for Schweich's 2010 campaign.

Asked how he would audit political allies such as Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who donated $220,000 to his campaign, Schweich promised to recuse himself from handling audits "directly involving my contributors."

But since there's no "ongoing waste," there's nothing from which Schweich needs to recuse himself. How nice!

Left unmentioned in the Daily Star-Journal story is the fact that McElyea was Kinder's communications staffer until very recently.  

Leader Mike Talboy's response to Schweich's punt is below the fold. 

The Turner Report: "Seventh District Congressman Billy Long is so fed up with Washington, that one of the first things he did upon arriving in town is fork over $1,133 for membership in the exclusive Capitol Hill Club...The club is described on its website as 'a national social club for Republicans. The stately second floor Presidential Dining Room offers splendid cuisine prepared by our renowned chefs. This room is a favorite place for Senators, Representatives and their guests to dine and discuss the day’s political agenda...'"