Griesheimer & Dieckhaus: Nieves Is A Liar

Nieves and Dieckhaus in happier times.

Sen. John Griesheimer (R-Washington) and Rep. Scott Dieckhaus (R-Washington) are not happy with Rep. Brian Nieves (R-Union).  According to a story posted at EMissourian.com and a letter from Dieckhaus, the dispute focuses on Nieves' public accusation that Griesheimer "gave him a list of 10 things he had to do to be his successor and that the first four items involved lobbyists and special interests that 'he needed to get the blessing of.'"  Video of Nieves January 16 speech is here. 

Griesheimer says Neives' story is "a bunch of bull," and Dieckhaus is calling on Nieves to apologize and "give an honest account of the meeting." Dieckhaus writes on his WashMo.com blog:

For Represenative Nieves to blatantly lie and insinuate that Senator Griesheimer is beholden to special interests or encouraged him to gain approval from any of these groups disgusts me. Senator Griesheimer and Representative Nieves did indeed meet to discuss the latter running for Griesheimer’s term-limited senate seat. Griesheimer expressed concern to Nieves about his lack of legislative action and work ethic, his lack of interest in working on local issues, his ties to consultant and former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton (this meeting took place during the summer of 2009 and centered on Jetton’s role with the “Village Law”), and a personal plea from Griesheimer to continue funding for Amtrak because of its importance to sustaining the small businesses in downtown Washington.

There was no list passed to Nieves. Why would he make up such a story? My best guess is that Nieves was trying to cast himself as the “outsider” because traditional politicians are not viewed favorably by many in the Tea-Party movement. This is the worst sort of political pandering – lying about a man of integrity to boost one’s own political stock.

Dieckhaus' full letter is here.

Image credit: ScottDieckhaus.com