MOGOP

In early December, the Missouri Republican Party jumped on news that Ford was planning to move its Escape line from Claycomo to Louisville, accusing Gov. Jay Nixon of "thousands of quality jobs in the Kansas City area."  Their desire to score political points before learning the facts about Ford's plans looked pretty silly within hours, and looks especially dumb now with yesterday's announcement that Ford will invest $400M+ in the plant and retain at least 3,750 full-time jobs there.  

Appropriately, the Missouri Democratic Party blasted out their own response yesterday to remind the public of how the MOGOP was rooting for failure.  

Reading through the new resolution from the Missouri Republican State Committee resolution regarding the planned August 3 health care vote, I'm struck by the absence of an apology or explanation for Kit Bond and other Republicans' previous support for health insurance mandates. "The Missouri Republican Party supports the right of all Missourians to make their own health care choices, including the right not to be forced into a health care system they do not want," the proclamation reads.

Yet as an answer to the Democratic health care proposal in 1993, Bond and 18 other Republican senators introduced legislation that "featured an individual mandate."  (Who knew they hated freedom?!) As reported by NPR:

So while President Clinton was pushing for employers to cover their workers in his 1993 bill, John Chafee of Rhode Island, along with 20 other GOP senators and Rep. Bill Thomas of California, introduced legislation that instead featured an individual mandate. Four of those Republican co-sponsors — Hatch, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Robert Bennett of Utah and Christopher Bond of Missouri — remain in the Senate today.

The GOP's 1993 measure included some features Republicans still want Democrats to consider, including damage award caps for medical malpractice lawsuits.

But the summary of the Republican bill from the Clinton era and the Democratic bills that passed the House and Senate over the past few months are startlingly alike.

No way the MOGOP is overstating things a bit here. As their latest press release appeared this afternoon in Google Reader: 

Several have asked -- that spam has been appearing in  the Missouri GOP's RSS feed for months. 

OK, not exactly.

But with a base that hates even the whiff of a tax increase, it is somewhat interesting that the Missouri Republican Party's new political director is fresh off a campaign to pass a tax levy for St. Joseph schools.  Chris Roepe was the manager for the successful pro-levy "Our Children. Our Future. Our Decision." campaign, which bested Jeff Roe's "Citizens Against Forever Tax" effort two weeks ago.

Roepe is also the former chief of staff for Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields of St. Joseph, who strongly supported campaign and loaned it money.

Steve Kraske breaks it down: 

Tracy Zahnd, wife of Republican Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd, has been awarded the Parkville office -- again.

She first won it during the Matt Blunt administration about four years ago.

Oh, the outrage. 

As first noted in this space, the state contract for the Warrenton fee office was awarded to the family of GOP operative James Harris last week. The Beacon's Jo Mannies spoke with Harris about the award, who confirmed (surprise!) that political affiliations, donations and histories of hackery aren't even considered when the Department of Revenue reviews fee office bids.

As far as Harris is concerned, his grandmother's success in winning the contract is proof that "the governor is doing what he said; he's awarding the contracts to those who submit the best bids."

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Proving yet again that the state's new fee office bidding system is a sham, the Department of Revenue announced yesterday that a company connected to the family of James Harris was awarded the contract for the Warrenton fee office.

Harris, you may remember, is the former Matt Blunt operative who resigned as the former governor's appointments director under a cloud of suspicion, and is currently managing a campaign funded by ultraconservative activists to inject more partisanship into the state's judicial selection process.Harris' grandmother, Mary Winkelmann, who bagged a contract when James was  Blunt's appointments secretary and is still the agent for the Wentzville office, has now added the Warrenton feather to her cap. Who else is a partner in the company that will administer the Warrenton office?  One John Harris. It's sickening, really.

How can the Missouri GOP legitimately claim that people like Cynthia Davis are outside the mainstream when their annointed candidate for US Senate: 

• thinks there are "legitimate" questions about Barack Obama's citizenship,
• thinks "Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy",
• thinks it might have been "best" Medicare and Medicaid were never created?

There may have been a "moderate" Republican Party at some point in Missouri's past, but it no longer exists.

CNN's Howard Kurtz had an interesting discussion about the (sadly) still-growing birther movement yesterday,

I agree with the disgust expressed by most of the speakers, but take exception with two points.

A commitment to intellectual integrity has never slowed the MOGOP from putting out hyperbolic press releases about the evils of Democratic officeholders everywhere, but this week's batch of hypocritical attacks is really something.

First, there's the hilarious web ad accusing Jay Nixon for "mortgaging our future" with a potential bond issue.  Complete with slow fades and dramatic music (which I think is supposed to be scary), the MOGOP video tries desperately to strike fiscal fear in the hearts of viewers. Conspicuously absent from the film are all of the other state leaders who also want to "mortgage our future" -- crazy libruls like Steve Tilley, Ron Richard (depends on the hour), Allen Icet, 58 other GOP Representatives and most of the State Senate. 

"We now know it [the MIAC report] was formulated under Blunt's watch."

This morning, I attended Peter Kinder's Capitol press conference, at which he outlined his concerns with the controversial report by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC).  As has been widely reported, the document has created a "firestorm among conservatives" because it includes language stating that militia members are commonly supporters of third-party political candidates like Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.

Here's what Peter Kinder said this morning: