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Thomas SchweichDaily Star-Journal: Schweich Should Conduct 'Rapid-Response Audit' of Kinder's Travel
Kinder Should be First Target of Schweich's Rapid Response Team Exhibit A: A screenshot of Kinder's campaign video that was filmed, produced & distributed exclusively for campaign purposesYesterday, Auditor Tom Schweich announced a “rapid response team” to crack down on politicking on state time. Schweich’s team shouldn’t have far to go for its first raid. Schweich’s first floor capitol office shares a plumbing stack with 2nd floor Lt. Governor Peter Kinder. Monitoring Kinder’s Twitter account with an ear to the plumbing stack, Schweich team should be able to quickly catch Kinder spewing partisan missives from the porcelain throne in his second floor office. A quick dash up the stairs, subpoenas in hand, should save taxpayers thousands of dollars. And Schweich's new press aide might end up being the star witness against Kinder, his former boss. While working for the Lt. Governor, he was best known for retweeting Kinder’s partisan missives—what lawyers like Schweich call "an accessory after the fact." Add in a Team Kinder campaign video produced with taxpayer dollars, fundraising for Republican campaign committees with official resources and the use of official resources to develop donors for his private Health Care Inaction slush fund... and the Auditor has plenty to work with. Read More »
Kraske: "Few Political Deals Appear As Transparent" as Blunt/Kinder/Schweich Cash Carousel
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The Payoff is CompleteAs was predicted many months ago, former Governor Matt Blunt forgave a $300,000 loan to Peter Kinder , one day before Kinder's debt committee left over from his 2008 reelection campaign is set to shut down. Kinder never repaid a penny of his $300k bailout, but somehow found $220,000 for Thomas Schweich's auditor campaign after Schweich cut a deal with Roy Blunt (and allies) to exit the Senate race. Ah, the "back-room politics of the sedentary, uncreative Republican leadership in this state."
Post-Dispatch: "Voters Should Re-Elect Susan Montee"The Post-Dispatch endorsed Auditor Susan Montee this weekend:
Schweich Pledges To Hold Off On Revenge Campaign Until At Least 2014During this morning's debate between Auditor Susan Montee and Ambassador Thomas Schweich, both candidates promised to serve full terms in elected in November. Such a promise wouldn't normally be all that interesting, but it is notable given Schweich's previous warnings to other Republicans that he might mount a revenge campaign in 2012 if there were deemed to be insufficiently supportive of his 2010 race. Gossip writer Jerry Berger also wrote recently that Schweich's deal to get out of the Senate race included some promise of support for a 2012 Senate run. Here is video of Schweich contemplating his revenge on camera from KY3: Speaking of Schweich's decision to cut a backroom deal to get out of the Senate race, he was unable to give a cogent response to a direct question about it. Hope to post video of that soon...
Not a Joke: Jerry Berger Thinks Thomas Schweich Is Running for the US Senate in 2012
Maybe this is the revenge candidacy Schweich warned Dave Catanese (then with KY3) about last year? Either way, the idea that Schweich is going to win a competitive GOP primary in 2012 sounds pretty ridiculous to me. Schweich is an uninspiring hypocrite who wasn't "earned" anything.
Chutzpah
Really? This is the same guy who promised Republican donors one short year ago that he would use the office of the Auditor to "aggressively" pursue Gov. Jay Nixon "leading up to the 2012 gubernatorial election." In Schweich's words, "There's an important policy reason that this auditor's race is so important, and there's also a very significant reason from a political standpoint if you're a loyal Republican." Talk about a change in approach. And I just can't get over the idea of Schweich making a huge deal of his campaign fly-around with John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, Jack Danforth, Margaret Kelly, Peter Kinder and Jim Talent after calling out said group of GOP leaders for their backroom deals and "sedentary, uncreative" leadership. "The Missouri Republican Party seems to have no plan for responsible Missourians. Just saying no to what Obama or Nixon wants is not a plan," he wrote in March 2009. Then he makes a deal to excuse himself from the US Senate race and secure financial and political support for a lower office, and his skewering of the MOGOP disappears from memory and the press coverage of the race. Pretty soon, I expect Schweich to say that revenge candidacies and rock and roll will be the downfall of our democracy. Read More »
Things Thomas Schweich Will Not Talk About In Today's Fly-Around
Pretty Sure This Is FalseFrom the MOGOP's announcement of "Tom Schweich for Auditor Day:"
Apart from the fact that Schweich folded like a lawn chair when he tried to stand up to his party, this is right on. Read More »
Must Be An Oversight: Kinder, Martin & Schweich Absent From List of Speakers For Upcoming Tea Party EventNotice anything odd about this list of speakers for the upcoming "9/12" rally in St. Louis? Wackadoo Steve King and Georgia Rep. Tom Price are on the docket, so event organizers clearly haven't created some sort of no-politicians-allowed policy. Peter Kinder's maniacal tweeting has made it abundantly clear that he lacks the judgment and grasp on reality required of public officials. But has it also failed to win over the tea party wing of the Republican Party in St. Louis -- the true target of his outreach? Is Ed Martin's absence part of his campaign's desperate (and very recent) move to the center? He was in on the ground floor of the St. Louis Tea Party -- but now he may be absent from one of their big events, just weeks before the general election? Read More »
Schweich Downplaying Previous Commitment To Hyperpartisan Auditing
This is most certainly at odds with the rhetoric he employed during his primary fight with Allen Icet. As printed last September in the News-Leader:
It's almost like Schweich has completely changed his message now that he's talking to general election voters.
In Case You've Forgotten, "The End of the Missouri Republican Party" Begins TodayNot so long ago, Thomas Schweich really hated the idea of Roy Blunt being the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate. As in, he hated it so much that he wrote a long opinion piece in the Post-Dispatch titled, "The End of the Republican Party." Since writing the piece, of course, Blunt, Peter Kinder and the rest of the GOP establishment bought Schweich out of the Senate primary so he could run for Auditor (exactly the kind of behavior he said he abhorred). With copious amounts of cash from Kinder (himself propped up by $300,000 in loans from Matt Blunt that curiously never get repaid), Schweich pulled out his own victory over House Budget Chair Allen Icet, optimistic that he might have a front-row seat for the certain doom he predicted last year. Anyhow, since Blunt's coronation is the precipitating factor for the "End of the Republican Party," we would be neglecting our duties if we did not reprint the Schweich's column in full for you once again. Read More »
Sinquefield Jumps Into Auditor's PrimaryUberconservative gajillionaire Rex Sinquefield donated $25,000 to the Rep. Allen Icet campaign this weekend, his first direct contribution in the contest between Icet and Ambassador Thomas Schweich. Still, Sinquefield's late money isn't even enough to keep up with Schweich's last-minute money. Prominent GOP donor Sam Fox donated an additional $30,000 on Friday, and Lt. Governor Peter Kinder upped his total investment to $220,000 on Thursday.
Kinder Bailout Comes Just in Time To Rescue Sagging Schweich Fundraising Effort
Without the big Jack Danforth and Sam Fox-generated checks, Schweich’s money-raising team has been lethargic. In the entire month of July, Schweich received a total of 3 (THREE) checks for over $5,000 (Kinder’s $120K, Sam Fox’s $30,000 today and a $9,000 check from a Julius Schweich). This after showing dozens of checks during the Romney event back in April and May. Read More »
Deal To Oust Schweich From Senate Primary Growing Very Expensive
All told, Schweich has been required to raise more than $1.2M from the Missouri GOP establishment to fend off House Budget Chair Allen Icet in the State Auditors race, since cutting his deal to drop his bid for the U.S. Senate. Schweich expected Icet to get lost and let him have a clear primary (one of those things that Schweich used to hate), but it obviously didn't work that way. Once upon a time, Schweich declared that "the Missouri Republican Party seems to have no plan for responsible Missourians," decried the "back-room politics of the sedentary, uncreative Republican leadership in this state," noted that Matt Blunt "left the governor's office under a cloud that has not yet lifted," and remarked that Roy Blunt "represents the Republican Party of the past, not the party of the future." But now that he's found himself the choice of said sedentary, uncreative Republican leadership -- and the beneficiary of their financial largess -- Schweich has been somewhat reluctant to say this sort of thing. Read More »
Will Schweich Surrender Ambassador Title if Elected Auditor?
He calls himself the "Ambassador in Residence" at the Washington University Law School. His copyright infringing band is called "Ambassador Tom and the Mortgaged Youth." His web page is littered with references to his favorite title. And that has political insiders speculating that, if elected, Schweich will insist the State Auditor's staff refer to him as Ambassador, rather than Auditor. That would be unprecedented, but perhaps short-lived. His heavy flirtation with the US Senate race, his constant gaze east and the standing one-way ticket to DC tucked inside his diplomatic sash all suggest that Ambassador Tom has bigger things planned in life than serving the hard-working, plain-speaking people of Missouri as their humble State Auditor.
Metro KC TEA Party Endorses Purgason, Hartzler & SchweichKMBC's Micheal Mahoney has published the endorsements of the Jackson County TEA party. The organization has awarded "A" grades to Sen. Chuck Purgason in the U.S. Senate race, former Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the Fourth Congressional District, Ambassador Thomas Schweich in the Auditor's race and Rep. Gary Dusenberg in the 8th State Senate District primary.
Icet: Schweich Ain't a "True" ConservativeThe Allen Icet campaign found some scary music to go along with their complaints that Ambassador Thomas Schweich doesn't hate Democrats enough. Behold:
Icet Fails Audit Of Own Campaign Finance DocsResponding to a complaint filed by the Thomas Schweich campaign with the Missouri Ethics Commission, Allen Icet has decided that Steve Tilley's $25,000 check was just a loan, not a contribution. Icet spokesperson Steve Walsh: “It’s a clerical oversight. That’s what we're calling it. A clerical oversight."
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