No, Peter Kinder Hasn't Sued Anyone
Update: Wagman's story has already been changed without noting the previous factual error, perhaps in response to a friendly Twitter correction.
There are a couple of odd things about this blog post from the Post-Dispatch's Jake Wagman regarding Peter Kinder's trip to see former Senator Jeff Smith in prison. First, Wagman writes that "any chance of Kinder’s visit going unnoticed evaporated when Smith – in jail, but still online — sent out a Twitter message about the visit."
It's true that Smith tweeted about the trip this afternoon, but any chance of the visit going unnoticed evaporated when Kinder tweeted about the trip at least three times yesterday, and the Star reported on the same 24 hours ago.
More importantly, Wagman closes his story with the following:
“During his visit I recommended that @PeterKinder read Remnick’s Obama bio,” Smith wrote, referring to the New Yorker editor’s new book. “He recommended Rove’s memoir. I forgot he’s suing ‘ObamaCare.’”
Smith can be forgiven perhaps for not realizing that Kinder filed a lawsuit in March seeking to block the president’s health care plan — newspaper delivery is a bit late in prison and, like the poker table, Blackberrys are not allowed.
This would be really clever and funny if not for the fact that Peter Kinder hasn't sued anyone.
This isn't exactly a minor detail. Kinder made big promises in March about joining the Florida Attorney General's lawsuit, but that never actually happened. Then Kinder said he'd be filing his own lawsuit before the end of April. That did not happen. In May, he changed course again and said that his lawsuit would be brought "on behalf of individual citizen plaintiffs." This has not happened.
Even a cursory review of Kinder's Health Care Inaction website or Twitter feed would reveal that Kinder hasn't actually sued anyone.
Wagman can be forgiven perhaps for not realizing that Kinder did not file a lawsuit in March because he's a political reporter at one of the more prominent newspapers in Missouri.
