Matty B. Top Ten Most Hated List: Week 2

Last Thursday, we presented the year's inaugural Matt Blunt Top Ten Most Hated List. As you may remember, the list ranks weekly the ten individuals whom the Governor most despises, with weekly position changes attributable to the events and occurrences of the week since the previous ranking.

The inaugural list included a number of people whom you'd expect to see on such a list, as well as a few surprise inclusions. Today we release the updated Week 2 Matty B. Top Ten Most Hated rankings, which reflects some movement in the rankings based on the past week's news.

The Week 2 list features: the Top Ten debut of a wingnut blogger; a Columbia columnist and Congressional crooks in a Top Ten freefall; anti-Blunt Republicans in a steady climb; and stability among the elite most-hated. So here goes...

Matty B. Top Ten Most Hated List

Week 2 Rankings, October 27, 2005

#10 - Tony Messenger: (last week: #7) Messenger drops three spots this week, as his recent columns have consistently shied away from the Matt-Blunt-as-village-idiot and Spence-Jackson-as-Court-Jester tenor that animated his work during the months of August and September. Nevertheless, Messenger retains his top ten spot on the Blunt hitlist for his still cogent editorial reminders that "Gov. Matt Blunt’s actions might be setting the state back decades in terms of... how we as a society pay for healthcare."

#9 - Brian J. Noggle: (last week: unranked) Noggle --the apparent ringleader of a triumvirate of delusional bloggers whose pre-posting routine may or may not include ingestion of heavy doses of peyote and other hallucinogens-- and his semi-regular lunatic ravings about a putative Draft Matt Blunt Presidential run in 2008 are really beginning to unnerve the Guv. While Matty B. is no doubt flattered than anyone would want to draft him for any task besides checking streetside dog carcasses in Al-Qaim for IED's, he could do without Noggle's incendiary headlines. His bonehead efforts at humor include such blogpost gems as "Matt Blunt Beats Mentally Disabled", "Matt Blunt Knocks Off the Disadvantaged", and "Matt Blunt Ex-communicated, Not Allowed in Right to Life Clubhouse." Noggle obviously has yet to figure out that the right wing has zero appreciation for irony --how else to explain their party's straightfaced and quasi-religious devotion to the star of such classic films as "Bedtime for Bonzo"? The guv is quickly losing patience with Noggle, leading to his Top Ten debut.

#8 - DeLay and Abramoff: (last week: #4) As a result of the impending release of even higher-profile indictments of national Republican Party leaders, the Abramoff and DeLay perp-walks for various crimes against good-government have been somewhat lost in the shuffle. As attention shifts to the possible frogmarch of top Bush Administration aides, expect the attention paid to Delay-Abramoff-Blunt links to drop off --along with Matt's level of approbation. Until there's a refocus on the investigation into probable RoyB malfeasance, the Dynamic DeLay Duo slides four spots down the list into the eight hole.

#7 - Jason Smith: (last week: #9) Up two spots on this week's list is 150th House Special Election candidate Smith (R-Cuba), who has attained the Dickensian moniker "Ghost Of Novembers Future" as his candidacy has presaged a 2006 election cycle in which Republican legislative candidates will be fleeing Matt Blunt faster than Benji running from the puppy mill. Particularly disturbing to Blunt, and ratcheting up his hatred for Smith, is the recent public release of a pledge signed by Smith which states, among other things, that Smith will vote against any changes to Medicaid recommended by Matt Blunt's hand-picked Government Review Commission. Jason Smith is this week's #7 with a bullet...

#6 - Little Disabled Children and Adoptees: (last week: #6) Yes, Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Unfortunately, Matt Blunt loves all the little children with the exception of those born to 61,000 parents with incomes between 30 and 75% of the poverty line (between $4,800 and $12,100 per year for a family of three) and the 24,000 who lose healthcare coverage because their parents can't afford increased premiums. The Little Children hold steady this week at #6 on Matty's Most Hated.

#5 - State Auditor Claire McCaskill: (last week: #3) Because much of Guv Matt's stiffest opposition these days is coming folks who he thought were his friends ("Et tu, Pam and Larry?"), the level of disdain with which he views Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and State Auditor Claire McCaskill has been somewhat reduced via comparison, leading to a two-spot drop in her ranking this week. Of course, while falling in the ranks on Matty B's list, Claire's feverish fundraising --netting her $680,000 in just one month-- likely has her climbing quickly up the lists of Jim Talent and the Republican Senate Campaign Committee.

#4 - Jack Cardetti: (last week: #5) Want evidence that Cardetti is among Matty's Most Hated? In the Governor's mansion press office there is a couch on which Spence Jackson takes naps when he isn't surfing Fired Up or neglecting to take his medication. On that couch, next to the Missouri State Bears throw blanket and Randa Hays' appliqued "Princess" pillow, is a Jack Cardetti VooDoo Doll. If confronted, the Guv will explain the doll as a mere "pin-cushion" where Spence Jackson can safely stow his hypodermics between valium-mainlining episodes, but the truth is that it's really there to provide the Gov and the Spaz with a bit of non-pharmaceutical anger management. Up one spot this week --with a sharp, stinging sensation in his lower abdomen-- is MDP Spokesman Cardetti.

#3 - Pam Fichter: (last week: #8) The prime mover on the Week 2 Matty B. Most Hated List is Missouri Right to Life president Pam Fichter, who rockets five spots up the list into the Top Three. Fichter's leap to the front off the most-hated pack comes on the strength of a release by her organization which states, in part, "The Board of Directors of Missouri Right to Life announced today that Governor Matt Blunt can no longer be considered pro-life," due to his reported support for a pro-stemcell research ballot measure. The Guv can hardly suppress his rage at Fichter, whose group's refusal to yield threatens to tear his fragile electoral coalition apart at the seams by alienating him from his rightwing religious base. Check your bed for severed horseheads, Pam.

#2 - Abigail Perlman: (last week: #2) Standing pat just outside the top spot on the list is Matt's young-enough-to-be-his-sister Stepmom, Abby Perlman. Reopening tender wounds was an award given to Roy Blunt this week in Washington D.C. by the ultra-conservative Family Research Council, which recognized Roy as an "upholder of the institution of marriage", presumably for his two-year relationship with Perlman rather than his 35-year-old nuptials with Matt's mother. Roy's first marriage ended some six months before his most recent wedding, which was reportedly sparked by Roy's 13th hour insertion of tobacco-friendly language into legislation on Abby's behalf without telling anyone else. No word on whether Ms. Perlman attended the awards breakfast with Roy.

#1 - Roy Temple: (last week: #1) Firmly atop the list for consecutive weeks, with no intention of going anywhere, is Fired Up Missouri proprietor Roy Temple. Temple managed to get the Guv's dander up this week by reporting on rumors floating around DC political circles that a recent Zogby poll of Missourians indicated that Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon would deal Matty a 13-point beating in an electoral matchup for Governor (50%-37%). Nor did the Guv take kindly to Temple's question about how --if employers like WalMart were actively seeking ways to avert providing healthcare, and the Blunt government will not provide care, and the administration opposes living wages for Missouri workers-- working Missouri families are supposed to afford medical care? As with most of Temple's questions, Blunt has no answer. And that just drives him ape.

Others Receiving Votes: State Treasurer Sarah Steelman (her campaign picks up steam), Public Campaign Action Fund, Jay Nixon, and Moira Byrd.

Dropping out of Top Ten: Rabbi Mark Shook of Congregation Temple Israel