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Blunt's Eckersley Scandal, Day Three
Submitted by Howard Beale on October 31, 2007 - 8:41am
What is it that makes people who are caught in a bad fix continue to do precisely the wrong thing again and again, compounding their own errors and making the final outcome even worse for themselves?
This may be the question about Matt Blunt's total mishandling of the Scott Eckersley situation that is most interesting. Remember that Blunt had multiple opportunities to get his house in order at various waypoints in this journey.
Most notably, when it was clear that his office had taken steps in this case that were beyond the pale (not to mention extra-legal) he could have offloaded Ed Martin, citing his behavior as a rogue actor who impulsively fired a staffer who had the audacity to point out that Matt and Ed weren't following the law. That would likely have staunched the bleeding of damaging stories and allowed Team Blunt to regain its footing.
It's only natural to ask why the Governor opted against that course of action, given that it would seemingly be the best way for Blunt to retain any political sheen coming out of this mess. Of course, the one scenario under which it doesn't make political sense for Blunt to cast out Ed Martin is if Blunt is fairly certain that Crazy Eddie --if pushed out of the inner circle-- will sing like a canary to anyone who'll listen about all of the other questionable practices engaged in by the Blunt administration. Â
If you're Matt Blunt, why hang in and take your lumps on this matter unless you believe that the way out will lead to far worse beatings on another front?
This is just speculation, but I'm guessing that the loyalty binding the members of Team Blunt to one another (assuming that was the case at one point) has since been replaced by fear. The governor's office must be quite a pleasant place to be these days.
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Martinizing May Backfire -- Ed out for Jared
Word around Jefferson City is that Ed Martin may get hung out to dry on this. I'm hearing that Andy has been disenchanted with Ed for sometime, but they are afraid to walk him out because of his ties to the pro-life movement. This could be the excuse they need to dump Ed. I hear that John Russell, who was tight with Eckersley (the "drug reference" e-mail was to Russell) and is famously dislikeded by Ed, is working with Andy to convince the Governor to ditch Ed and install Jared Craighead as the new COS.
Not Surprised
Sadly this is standard operating procedure for the Machine here in Southeast Missouri. A person of integrity is working for a public institution, sees something wrong, speaks up, is fired then has his or her reputation smeared.
At Three Rivers Community College a former Vice President and Auditing firm were fired for asking about financial records they were told they did not need to see. Then they were smeared.
Coach Gene Bess not only was trashed for daring to ask questions, he then have Larry Kimbrow the Executive Vice President of the College take an investigation of the coach to the local newspaper. Yes, private personnel records delivered to the newspaper. The investigation into the Coach turned out to be meaningless hot air. Apparently, smearing the Coach was all the College Board wanted to do.
What does this have to do with Eckersley? This tactic is being used in Southeast Missouri by people who boast they are close political insiders with the Blunt / Kinder axis. In other words, this practice is standard operating procedure for this group on both a state and local levels.
Instead of public service, the current gang controlling our government believe in self service. And they believe in intimidating those who dare to question their inappropriate and illegal actions. Then the current gang follows the intimidation with a smear campaign against men and women of integrity.