ROYB Fund

Last week, for unspecified reasons, Roy Blunt's leadership PAC submitted a request to the FEC to file fewer and less timely reports for public inspection.

Since 2001, the Rely on Your Beliefs (ROYB) Fund has filed reports on a monthly basis, but it now wishes to file on a quarterly schedule.

No explanation for the desired change was provided.  One must assume the increased public scrutiny of the committee's eyebrow-raising expenses played no role in the decision.

On holidays like today, I like to splurge and grill up some nice steaks. I can't do it all of the time, but it's nice to live like a king in my own backyard from time to time.

Sadly, I don't have a leadership PAC to finance my own expensive meals and luxurious trips. But fortunately for Roy Blunt, Roy Blunt has such a fund.

Leadership PACs are separate from politicians' main campaign accounts, and file separate reports with the Federal Election Commission. They're used to make donations to other candidates, build relationships with other legislators and leaders, and generally further a politician's ambitions.  Blunt's PAC, the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund (ROYB Fund) has been one of the most active in the entire country over the past few election cycles. In 2006, for example, Blunt raised $985,281 into his PAC, and was surpassed only by Reps. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and John Boehner (R-OH) in total receipts. That money -- much of it from big special interest checks -- is then forwarded on to other campaigns or spent to further Blunt's career.

The Missouri GOP's sudden interest in hypothetical conflicts of interest for Members of Congress is surprising, given their complete silence about actual, well-documented, widely-condemned conflicts of interest from Rep. Roy Blunt (R-K Street). Details of Blunt's covert efforts to benefit his current wife's company (Philip Morris/Altria) and clients of his son, Andy, (United Parcel Service and FedEx Corp.) could fill volumes (and have) -- to say nothing of the patronage schemes overseen by son Matt as governor.

The hypocrisy is quite hard to comprehend when one considers the following:

Family Benefits

The network of political committees with ties to Roy Blunt is complex and elaborate. His campaign committee has raised $8.58 million since 1996. His leadership committee, the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund (ROYB Fund), has raised $1.68 million since 2000. A separate ROYB 527 Committee collected $1.67 million from 2000 through 2002.

Read More »

Emboldened by recent events and internal polling showing overwhelming public support  for the work of George W. Bush, Matt Blunt, Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff and the Republican way for running government into the ground, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Another Era) will kick off his US Senate campaign tomorrow morning at Harris-Stowe State University.

Clearly, the masses have been clamoring for a Blunt candidacy.  Blunt's core constituency of Washington insiders is already excited about his prospects. Last week, for example, Republicans cheered when Jim Talent chose not to run:

Blunt...is D.C. personified. Not only does he have more K Street ties than Mark Shale and Jack Henry combined, he's married to a lobbyist. His son is one. His links to that world, and by extension former Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, and by extension (again) disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, are ingredients for a Democratic campaign feast.

Those connections are a big reason why Blunt's fellow Republicans rejected the Missourian as majority leader in 2006, ultimately denying him his dream of becoming House speaker.

Blunt is the father of former Gov. Matt Blunt who remained popular among Republicans, but struggled at the end of his term with independents and Democrats. The Blunt name is golden no longer.

GOP Columnist Ryan Cooper beat the same drum this week:

Former Sen. Jim Talent would have been a better choice, but he announced last week that he wouldn't run. Blunt's biggest mistake was his support for the $700 billion bank bailout, an albatross that [Sarah] Steelman will hang around his neck. Outside of southwest Missouri, the only Blunt known statewide is his son Matt, an unpopular one-term governor. Roy will have to distance himself from Matt's support of embryonic stem cell research and shed his congressional image.

    I recently read an op-ed piece in the NY Times from James Dobson, a conservative Christian Televangelists. While I have grave issues with televangelists period, the statements made in his piece further reinforces my already low opinion. Being a Christian, it is always hard for me to criticize another, but in the case of these guys something must be done about the hypocrisy that they exhibit.

Suddenly it all starts to make sense. Digby, whose Hullabaloo is the moral fulcrum of the left-blogosphere, posts a transcript of a recent Chris Matthews broadcast that featured uber-conservative Pat Buchanan. Strange that we should need to rely upon a
wingnut like Buchanan to lay bare the foundations of our governor's
support for the Presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, but telling nevertheless. From the transcript:

The Joplin Globe published my editorial today about the corruption of US 7th Congressional Congressman Roy Blunt.  What is significant is that when they did so they edited out a small but important portion of my comments.  It is the same portion that suggests that Blunt may have engaged in criminal activity. 

The edited version reads: “He accepted money from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.”  The sentence I sent them on Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:20 AM reads: “He accepted money from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff while doing official favors for him.”

According to Jeff City sources, United Nations lobbyist Austin Ruse and his lawyer wife Cathy are now running the anti-stem cell campaign in Missouri.  The Ruses are pictured here with Senate short-timer Rick Santorum.

The Turner Report has an interesting story on some of the folks that Roy Blunt shares money with from his "Rely on Your Beliefs" Pac.

Freedom and Gun Barrels
by Jean Carnahan

“You don’t spread freedom with the barrel of a gun,” Helen Thomas told Jon Stewart in a recent interview.  At 86, the long-time White House correspondent still knows how to zing a press secretary or a president when called upon. 

Good one, Helen.  History proves your observation correct.  The Crusaders couldn’t spread religion with the point of a sword either.  Nor have educators been able to dispense learning from the end of a stick. 

The latest Rolling Stone has an interesting story on the House GOP, and their description of the Blunt family is quite interesting.

Of the two leading candidates for the recently vacated House
majority leader seat, one (acting leader Roy Blunt) had attempted
to slip tobacco-friendly language into a Homeland Security
authorization bill while having an extramarital affair with a
Phillip Morris lobbyist, while the other (John Boehner) had once
been caught handing out checks from tobacco interests to members of
Congress on the floor of the House.

Read More »