Oh, What Tangled Webs He Weaves

Tom Edsall of the Washington Post does an in depth story into Blunt, Inc., the intricate ties between Roy Blunt and the special interests.

There is a priceless graphic that ties Abby, Andy, Roy, and the special interests all together in a nice little package.

Here are some tidbits from the story:

In Missouri, the Blunt organization is a family affair. His son Matt, 34, is governor, and his son Andrew, 29, is a top state government lobbyist whose client list is studded with major donors to his father.

More:

Here in Washington, Blunt has converted what had been an informal and ad hoc relationship between congressional leaders and the Washington corporate and trade community into a formal, institutionalized alliance. Lobbyists are now an integral part of the Republican whip operation on par with the network of lawmakers who serve as assistant whips.

How disgusting is this?

As new tax breaks were added to the bill, the vote count "just got better and better," said Rogers, who worked closely with Blunt on the mobilization of lobbyists. "It was incredible."

And more:

Over the years, seven companies with business before Congress stand out as the most reliable Blunt supporters: Altria, SBC Communications, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, Verizon, United Parcel Service and BellSouth have together given more than $1.2 million to political committees tied to Blunt. Altria is the largest contributor, giving more than $270,000. Blunt, a vocal social conservative, divorced Roseann Blunt, his first wife, to marry Altria lobbyist Abigail Perlman in October 2003.

And Matt protects the whole RICO-like scheme:

Matt Blunt, the governor, has awarded one of the few remaining patronage plums in the state -- franchises to collect fees for driver's license renewals, tax payments for new cars and processing motor vehicle titles and registrations that can provide recipients with as much as $1 million over four years -- to the wife of U.S. Attorney Todd P. Graves, Tracy Graves, and to Graves's brother-in-law, Todd Bartles. The U.S. attorney's office has jurisdiction over Blunt's congressional district and the state capitol.