The Haircut Hires the Hippopotamus

So, word is now out that GOP Senator and supposed moderate Chris Koster has hired Jeff Roe's Axiom Strategies for "political consulting" and a potential 2008 run for Attorney General.

Smart move, Senator. Now beyond just being a candidate for statewide office, you also get to be one of the elected pawns in the ongoing internal GOP blood-feud between Roe patron Sam Graves and U.S. Senator Kit Bond. Just the sort of extracurricular distraction every politician needs during his attempt to jump to the next level.

But there are perhaps a few reasons Koster would think hiring Roe makes sense...

• Roe's cheap, apparently: We've read over and over about how the Becky Nace for Mayor campaign has 'hired' Jeff Roe to do strategic consulting on that race. Yet, since Nace's campaign finance committee was created in April of 2005, there has never been a reported payment or expenditure to Jeff Roe or Axiom Strategies. Maybe Koster thinks that he can get a free ride too. Or, perhaps more accurately, Roe's clients pay not with cash but with their souls.

• Roe's track record in similar circumstances: Maybe Koster thinks that Roe's other statewide candidates --Todd Graves for Treasurer in 2000 and the inimitable Sandra Thomas in 2006-- are the models he'd like his campaign to emulate. Or perhaps Koster was impressed with Roe's work in other law-oriented races, such as his engineering of incumbent Cole County prosecutor Bill Tackett's 2006 campaign, which culminated in Tackett's primary defeat.

• Roe will get him free good press in KC: Koster may be under the impression, after yesterday's sickeningly fawning profile, that Jeff Roe is the out-of-wedlock lovechild spawn of Kansas City Star political reporter Steve Kraske. Accordingly, Koster may believe that because he's hired Roe, any criminal acts he's committed will be downplayed in Krakse's future columns, any accomplishments highlighted.

• Roe's stature in the legal community: After all, Roe was the mastermind of the blatant, false and malicious smear job on Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown which ultimately cost Brown his seat on the bench and which most every member of the Mid-Missouri legal community --even the man who beat Brown-- regarded as an absolute travesty. Koster, perhaps fearing his past as Cass County prosecutor will leave him perceived too much a part of Missouri's network of attorneys and judges, wants to make a move to immediately spit in the eyes of his fellow members of the bar.

Koster's decision to hire Roe also effectively signals his intent to write off potential support from any members or leaders of the Republican legislative caucuses outside a handful of general assembly members from Jackson County (see the Nace for Mayor contributor list). For a guy whose "mainstream appeal" is one of his key selling points, it sure seems a strange move to hire someone whose employment by a candidate absolutely precludes support for that candidate for quite a few people and groups, both Republican and Democratic.

In the end, I suppose the proof will be in the pudding. So long as Koster's consultant doesn't eat the pudding before Election Day.