News-Leader Ed Board Asks Some Welcome Questions on Jetton-Plaster-Romney Triangle
Huzzah for the Springfield News-Leader editorial board, which makes a strong showing today with its appeal to Mitt Romney, asking him to apply his call for "accountability" to his own Missouri political director Rod Jetton:
Jetton is a friend of Robert Plaster, a big developer in southwest
Missouri. But again, you knew that. You saw Plaster and Jetton together
when you stopped by our city to collect some campaign dollars at a
$1,000-a-plate luncheon. Anyway, Plaster has this piece of property
along Table Rock Lake in Stone County that he wants to develop. But
every time he proposed to build something, the county commissioners
said it was an inappropriate use for the land. This is where Jetton
comes in. He inserted language into a bill that would make it legal for
Plaster to basically incorporate his own village and bypass local
controls. A lot of folks are wondering if Jetton did so because he owes
Plaster a favor. As he has to your campaign, Plaster has given a lot of
money to Jetton. (And to Blunt, too).
Totally agreed. As FiredUp! wrote back on September 26th:
While Plaster or his company may not have plied the
Speaker with contributions to his own campaign committee (Jetton is
term-limited and won't face election in 2008) he does pop up as a key
supporter to perhaps Jetton's most important client, Mormon Mitt
Romney's Presidential campaign. As pointed out back in April by the inimitable Randy Turner
of the Turner Report, Plaster and his wife each gave a maximum
contribution to Romney's campaign, sending $2,100 a piece to the former
Massachusetts governor through his Missouri political director, Rod
Jetton. ...Given what we already know, asking about the
possibility of a quid pro quo between Plaster and Jetton seems
eminently reasonable.
Of course, it's only natural to suspect that --despite the News-Leader's pleas-- Romney himself has no idea who Plaster is (probably only slightly better idea who Jetton is) and even less knowledge about whatever corrupt bargain earned him Plaster's financial support to begin with. What's more important to note, for both Romney and the press, is that Jetton's work for Team Romney is only marginally about helping Romney at all. (UPDATE: See Randy Turner's comments below, where he points out that Romney probably does know Plaster, and references a recent Turner Report post that details even greater contributions from Plaster to Romney. Thanks to Randy for the assist.)
Instead, Jetton's crooked deals in this case are about utilizing the last remaining months of his official power as House Speaker to consolidate as much influence and business for himself as a political consultant to be wielded in the years to come. The Plaster issue has never been simply about getting money for the Romney campaign --though that was surely an important intermediate step. It was about demonstrating to a national candidate with a national team of advisors that he is willing to do anything in his power --ethics be damned-- to justify his hiring as a consultant.
A nod of appreciation to the Springfield News-Leader, which has taken the important first step down the road to encountering and sharing that realization.
