As I was reading the Post-Dispatch's coverage of today's GOP debate [1], I was really struck by Kenny Hulshof's condescending attitude and total arrogance:

The congressman fired back: "I don’t expect Mrs. Steelman to understand the nuances of lawmaking in Washington."

Hulshof explained that there was never an opportunity for an "up or down" vote on the bridge earmark, and the transportation bill in question, which passed overwhelmingly, increased funding for Missouri roads.

He really just makes Steelman's point here.  Kenny holds three beliefs that, in my view, almost certainly should disqualify him from being Governor. 

1.)  He thinks the quality that Missourians are looking for in a Governor is someone who understands the nuance of lawmaking in Washington (Earth to Kenny--that is not a qualification.  It is a fatal flaw.) 

2.)  Hulshof apparently thinks that spending $223 million dollars of taxpayer's money on a Bridge to Nowhere is a "nuance."  (Further evidence that he is on another planet.)

3.)  He thinks voters are so stupid that they won't realize that Congress sets it's own rules.  Which is to say that the only reason there wasn't an up or down vote on the Bridge to Nowhere is because cowards like Kenny and Sam Graves didn't have the courage to demand it from their leadership.

So I guess that's just the long way of making the point that Steelman was making to begin with.

No one has the guts to stand up to any of these earmarks," Steelman said of Congress.

Washington has ruined many a good person--and it certainly appears that Kenny's Bootheel common sense has been carried down the Potomac River.