Sloca Trots Out the Unsuccessful Blunt-Kehoe Defense for Kinder, and Jo Buys It

There's too much wrong with Jo Mannies' ridiculously incomplete, inept and credulous coverage of the Peter Kinder/Better Leadership for Missouri scam to allow a comprehensive description in one sitting.  So let's focus on one piece in particular for now: the absurd explanation by Paul Sloca for why Better Leadership for Missouri has been paying Peter Kinder's campaign rent.

Among the Democrats' examples: Kinder hasn't reported paying rent since
he paid $2,400 in December to the J. Harris Company, operated by GOP
consultant James Harris.

Better Leadership's latest reports show rent payments of $3,960 to Harris' company. ...

Kinder hasn't paid rent in six months, said Sloca, because he's waiting
for a bill from the Missouri Republican Party, which handles the
payments for the building where his campaign is currently situated.

If this is the best Sloca can do, no committee should be paying to guy to do "communications."  Folks may remember that this illegitimate line of reasoning is the same one used by Matt Blunt when it was revelead that his campaign had accepted unreported and illegal in-kind contributions from Mike Kehoe in the form of a campaign bus:­

­

The fine settles several issues, including Blunt’s use throughout his 2004 campaign of a motor home owned by Mike Kehoe, an auto dealer from mid-Missouri. ...

Democrats said use of the motor home amounted to
an illegal contribution that far exceeded the maximum contribution
allowed under state law.

The Blunt campaign was never billed for the use
of Kehoe’s motor home throughout the 2004 election campaign. But
Hancock maintained that it was legal because the campaign paid as soon
as an invoice was received in 2005, months after the Democrats filed
their complaint.

Sloca is effectively saying, "yes, we violated the campaign finance law in precisely the same way that my old boss Matt Blunt did in 2004 and which earned him a hefty Ethics fine," and Jo Mannies is accepting that explanation as legitimate. 

Things are even more screwed up than I thought, and the story of Kinder's rent is just one tiny corner of the picture.