Rep. Blunt Taken Apart In Today's NYT

Tom Edsall, in a guest column in today's New York Times takes apart the GOP for their failure to recognize Rep. Roy Blunt's ethical defects.

Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt's election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt's challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona "We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power" went unheeded.

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Blunt, by contrast, is bland, unctuous and adept at keeping a low profile. But there is plenty to see. After divorcing his wife of 35 years to marry a tobacco lobbyist, Abigail Perlman, he cleared his second marriage with the House Ethics Committee to get "a waiver of the limitations of the gift rule to allow me to accept gifts in connection with my wedding."

Blunt unblushingly told the Heritage Foundation this month that Republicans "have allowed our efforts to defend traditional values to be defined as little more than a politically driven effort to appease 'family groups.'"

For Blunt, the blurring of boundaries is a family tradition. His son Matt is the governor of Missouri. Another son, Andrew, is one of the state's top lobbyists. Almost all Altria subsidiaries -- Kraft, Miller Brewing, Philip Morris (remember Abigail Perlman) -- hired Andy Blunt, along with other financial backers of Roy Blunt.

In Blunt, House Republicans have kept on display a top official reminding voters why they cast ballots for Democrats on Nov. 7. After winning the post of minority whip last week, Blunt declared that the Republicans had "come together ... frankly, to get rid of the bad habits that we may have developed in 12 years in the majority." This is precisely the opposite of what they actually did, which was to affirm their bad habits. The burden on the Democrats will be to make the elusive Blunt a nationally recognized figure.

Edsall was also the author of the Blunt, Inc. story in the Washington Post.