#PeterTheTweeter

I know it's unfair to expect Peter Kinder to be held accountable for things he tweeted 36 hours ago, but I'd be neglecting my duties if I failed to point out that #PeterTheTweeter's crass attempts to politicize the recent hostage crisis outside of Washington were too disgusting for.... Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Lieutenant Governor.

Note Kinder's personal touches on the retweet. Klassy stuff. Anyway, here are a couple of the lower backs that our distinguished Lieutenant Governor says you MUST see. 

I'm pretty sure this irregular behavior for a statewide public official.

A crazy person took hostages at the headquarters of Discovery Communications yesterday, and was eventually slain by police after a scary standoff.  The hostage-taker, James Lee has been described as an "environmental militant," believed "the world would be better off without people,"  and "was apparently inspired by the author of a popular series about a telepathic ape who tries to save humankind from problems such as overpopulation." 

Clearly, a disturbed person doing horrible stuff. 

But just as clearly, Peter Kinder saw an opportunity to make some sort of bizarre political point on Teh Twitter about Al Gore. 

At no point did Kinder ask Twitter followers to pray for the hostages, or express any sort of concern for the innocent people in harm's way.  He had political points to make that trumped those secondary issues. 

The implication here, I think, is that people who think global warming is a problem may be as insane as James Lee, and might take hostages at any moment.  Are there other political lessons to be learned here? 

Note the hashtags Kinder personally added to the Dana Loesch tweet -- #ecoterrorism #tcot and #pdk.  These were not on Loesch's original message.  Same thing for the retweet of the message from the right-wing Instapundit blogger -- Kinder personally added #tcot #TeaParty and #pdk.

Honestly: what does violence from an obvious lunatic have to do with the Tea Party or conservative politics? 

Buried at the bottom of this afternoon's KMOV story, "Carnahan responds to claims staffer played role in firebombing"

Wednesday afternoon, Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder has used his personal twitter account to forward links to political blogs about this story. We want to know what you think about this. Is it appropriate? post your comment below.

Are Kinder's rush to judgment and attempts to politicize the situation appropriate?  Um, no.

h/t St. Louis Activist Hub

Peter Kinder saw St. Louis Tea Party bloggers getting excited about who might be behind the apparent arsonat Russ Carnahan's campaign office, and decided that the most responsible course of action would be for him to join in.  As far as I know, charges have not been filed by the local prosecutor's office, but Kinder didn't let that stop him from signing his initials -- and #FiredPelosi hashtag -- to "Guy Who FireBombed Carnahan Office Is A DEMOCRAT OPERATIVE!" 

I don't have any idea who tried to start a fired in the Carnahan campaign office, and doubt that Kinder does either.  But even if it is determined that a disgruntled former staffer was behind the crime:

1. Why is Kinder attaching his name to this sort of speculation before the local prosecutor's office files charges?
2. Why is Kinder attaching his #FirePelosi hashtag to this story?  Is Kinder so committed to scoring political points that he's suggesting an elected official is responsible for criminal behavior directed at their campaign office? 

One of the great things about America is that we have law enforcement offices sort this kind of thing out -- and not the tweeting masses.  Is it too much to ask that elected officials stay out of the way and let them do their job?  This is serious stuff. 

Truly a devastating turn of events -- Twitter users who appear to be from Indonesia or Malaysia (?) have begun using Peter Kinder's personal hashtag, #PDK:

How will Kinder obsessively check to see who is retweeting his twaddle?  Will he find a new hashtag uncorrupted by foreign influence?  Or will he somehow find time in his busy schedule to monitor the responses to his self-destructive blather?

Sigh.

UPDATE: KMOX has its own story based on the #PDK tweets.

 I see that Lt. Governor Peter Kinder's tweets about his trip to Alabama to visit former state Rep. T.D. El Amin are sufficient to serve as the basis for an entire news story in the St. Louis Beacon. Kinder's tweets certainly reveal an interesting bit of information, and Jo Mannies' story about the trip seems entirely reasonable. 

What I simply don't understand is why reporters will discuss Kinder's trips to prison or his thoughts about the Big 12 while completely ignoring his tweets about about alleged "lefty Jew hatred"; his belief that global warming is a hoax; his endorsement of Gingrich's statements that Democrats represent "as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union"; his support for lunatic Senate candidate Sharron Angle; his belief that the Wall Street Reform Law is a "socialist takeover of the financial sector"; his belief that the DOJ is conducting a "trumped-up witch hunt" against dishonest conversative activists; his declaration that "the federal government no longer operates with the consent of the governed"; his belief that Congressional Democrats are actively engaging in "bribery" and "blackmail"; his conspiracy theories about how "what the Left really wants is $6-7 gas or higher"; his lies about the health care reform law; his unshakable belief that Andrew Brietbart is a "great guy"; his call for Eric Massa to remain in Congress; his open speculation about what life would be like "if I were gov[ernor]"; or his assertion the EPA now has "dictatorial control over the entire US economy." 

I don't even know what to say about this.

Michael Bersin of Show Me Progress asks this morning: "What are the odds that Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder will walk [this tweet] back?"

Andrew Breitbart cheerleading is exactly a new thing for Peter the Tweeter. He declared that "Breitbart's a great guy!" a couple of months ago. (Breitbart is a former editor of the Druge Report, helped develop the Huffington Post, and now runs a host of conservative websites.)  But given the events of the past two days, one might think that an elected official would express just a hint of shame for celebrating his garbage.

To be clear here's plenty of criticism to go around here -- #PDK isn't the only one who jumped the gun. But instead of reconciling themselves with reality, Kinder and St. Louis radio personality Dana Loesch chose to go after the "MSM and left/libs."  Because admitting that hero Breitbart might be a consistently dishonest provocateur would make their heads spin.