This Might Explain Schweich's April Fool's Day Freakout

On April 1, we posted a fake story about how auditor candidate Thomas Schweich might have been looking for a new backroom deal to leave the race. Schweich accepted a deal to quit the U.S. Senate race last year after complaining publicly about Republican powerbrokers' backroom deals to avoid primaries, and has since complained about how Allen Icet didn't agree to give Schweich a clear shot to challenge incumbent Susan Montee. 

We thought the gag was funny, given Schweich's hypocrisy and new disgust for the democratic process, and were delighted to see Schweich and key backer Peter Kinder respond to the post in The Beacon.  But a new story in the Post-Dispatch offers a clue as to why Schweich and Kinder were so quick to respond to an obvious joke:

[Icet't campaign] staff change took place following a meeting between the camps of the two Republican candidates for auditor, Icet and former Ambassador Thomas Schweich, that was brokered by leaders in the Missouri GOP. According to sources with knowledge of the meeting, Republicans were hoping that either Icet or Schweich would bow out of the race, but neither will.

The P-D story doesn't indicate when the meeting occurred, or which MOGOP leaders were unable to reach a deal, but Schweich's willingness to consider another deal is noteworthy. Just one year ago, Schweich wrote the following op-ed for the Post-Dispatch, lamenting GOP leaders' efforts to"crush, pre-emptively, any possible challenger" in the U.S. Senate primary for the sake of unity  on behalf of Roy Blunt, a man he said "represents the Republican Party of the past, not the party of the future."

The end of the Missouri Republican Party
By Thomas A. Schweich

Across the state, large numbers of forward-looking Republicans are concerned that a small group of Missouri Republican leaders have - without a serious dialogue or discussion about the future of the party - anointed U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt as the GOP candidate to replace retiring Missouri legend Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond. There has been an active effort to crush, pre-emptively, any possible challenger. Yet most of them acknowledge that Blunt will have very difficult time winning.

Roy Blunt is a dedicated public servant, a patriot and a worthy man. But I believe he should not be the nominee of our party for Bond's seat.

As a lifelong Republican and Missourian - and a former ambassador and senior international law enforcement official under President George W. Bush - I am at a loss for why the Republican Party of Missouri would rather be united in defeat than fight for victory. Blunt's vulnerabilities have been discussed widely on talk radio and the Internet. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who has announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the seat, will paint him as a leader of the Congress that delivered us a multi-trillion dollar deficit. She will say he turned a blind eye to the greeding frenzy on Wall Street.

Worse yet, I already can see the advertisements showing grainy pictures of his family members, trumpeting that they are lobbyists for some powerful industries that have hurt ordinary Missourians. And, like it or not, Blunt's son - another well-meaning guy - left the governor's office under a cloud that has not yet lifted. Can you imagine the field day that Carnahan will have? For Republicans, it is in all likelihood a recipe for disaster. Most everyone knows it, yet only a few will say it out loud.

Missouri already has popular Democrats serving as governor, senator and attorney general. If we lose the second Senate seat, the party will be in such shambles that it could take a decade or more to recover. While there is no denying Blunt's commitment to serving his country, he represents the Republican Party of the past, not the party of the future. We need to change direction before it is too late.

The new head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, has said that the party is looking for fresh faces - people with a lot of energy and a commitment to rebuilding the party with a completely new image. Blunt is the opposite of what Steele has said he wants. I guess we have not learned anything from the elections of 2008.

Moreover, 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.

We need a party that is devoted to preserving the free-market system against the Obama onslaught on private enterprise, while recognizing that hard-working, responsible Missourians who have lost their jobs and health care should have a pretty strong federal safety net until they are back on their feet. We need to close regulatory loopholes and crack down on economic criminals, not nationalize our financial and auto industries with huge new federal bureaucracies.

We need to stick by our core values of protection of life and the right to bear arms but get out of people's bedrooms and private lives with our mean-spirited moral dictates. And we need a nuanced foreign policy that achieves our security objectives without using tactics that backfire and actually make us even more enemies around the world.

We need a party that is more economically responsible, more tolerant, more energetic, less closed-minded and less judgmental. Blunt cannot credibly take Missouri forward on that sort of a platform.

We should not discourage competition in the race for the Republican nomination for Senate. We should shed some light on the back-room politics of the sedentary, uncreative Republican leadership in this state, which appears to be in denial about the unfortunate route that we are traveling right now. They either should stop crushing the competition and start looking for a new direction or stand aside and let others take on the task.

Tom's come a long way, no?

Image credit: Daylife.com