GOP AbraMafia

Republicans, including Governor Matt Blunt, are now calling conditionally for Scott Muschany to resign his House seat, following the news that he had "deviate sexual intercourse" with a minor against her will:

Other Republicans conditioned their denouncements of Muschany on whether the allegations are proven.

"If there is a shred of truth to these allegations, then he should resign immediately," Gov. Matt Blunt said in a written statement.

Quite a profile in courage.  But it's worth noting that the talk emerging from the mouths of Matt Blunt and others is much less tough now than it was just a little more than a month ago.­   Story Continued »

A central part of Barack Obama's effort to win the Presidency with his message of change and rejection of "the old politics" has been his campaign's concerted attempt at diminishing the influence of lobbyist money on the process.

By contrast, John McCain's campaign is not only run largely by lobbyists, but is funded by them as well.

And for us Missourians, there is one particularly illustrative and locally relevant example.  According to McCain's official website, one of the individuals raising more than $50,000 for the McCain presidential campaign is Jefferson City's own James Harris.  Harris is a lobbyist registered in Missouri on behalf of no fewer than nine clients.­­

­Matt Blunt's campaign finance report for the second quarter shows that his campaign spent more than $27,000 on "legal fees" in the period spanning the months of April, May and June, raising questions about just what sort of circumstance would require such substantial expenditures on outside attorneys.

As listed below, Missourians for Matt Blunt made four payments to Kansas City based Lathrop & Gage law firm on three different dates, including a massive $25,000 payment on the last day of the quarter. 

As of 1:41pm this afternoon, there was still no second quarter Missouri Ethics Commission finance report from Missourians for Matt Blunt Inc. on the commission's website.

Observers will be checking the Blunt report closely to see whether he has refunded contributions accepted in excess of the campaign contribution limit while limits were temporarily lifted, and which the Ethics Commission instructed him to return.  Blunt reportedly could not return the entire over limit amount during the first quarter because of supposed liquidity issues.

We should know today Blunt's failure to return contributions earlier was legitimate or was just a ruse designed to allow him to pass along all his ill-gotten cash to the ultimate GOP nominee once limits are again removed in August.

Over the last four years, there is a list longer than your arm of ethical improprieties in Jefferson City and across Missouri which Peter Kinder saw fit to ignore completely.  Kinder never, not once, piped up to talk about ethics in government during any of the following ethical lapses and scandals...

The fee office scandal

The Jewell Patek-Andy Blunt favored lobbyist strongarm

The Fred Ferrell sexual harassment scandal

The Blunt brothers' Show Me Ethanol escapade

The Nathan Cooper illegal immigration saga

The Carl Bearden lobbyist-and-legislator-at-the-same-time trick  

Catherine Hanaway's Sweetheart Deal for Nathan Cooper

The Scott Eckersley firing

The Governor's Sunshine Law violation and cover-up

The Randa Hayes fiasco

Rudy Farber's $50K Purchase of a Transportation Commission seat 

Mike Kehoe's illegal in-kind bus donation to the Matt Blunt campaign

Yet now, all of the sudden, Kinder is drawing a bead on Rod Jetton, rolling out an ethics package clearly aimed at the Speaker.  I wonder if Kinder knows something the rest of us don't that he's trying to get out in front of by throwing Jetton under the bus?

Way back in March, the Associated Press had a story about Ethics Commission machinations and some odd contingencies surrounding whether elected officials would have to return above-limit contributions collected during the period before the legislature's repeal of individual giving limits was struck down by the state supreme court.

The story included a curious and (so far as I can tell) still unexplained loophole enunciated by the Ethics Commission (emphasis added):

In all, the commission is letting the 11 politicians keep more than $205,000 in over-limit donations. And if lawmakers approve new legislation to remove the fundraising limits, another $121,000 won’t have to be returned....

Richard, R-Joplin, doesn’t have to return $1,275, must refund $300 and will have to return about $83,000 if the lawmakers don’t repeal the fundraising limits this session. Tilley, R-Perryville, doesn’t have to return more than $31,000. Icet, R-Wildwood, doesn’t have to refund $1,275 but will have to repay $34,000 if the limits aren’t repealed.

Has any reporting on this been done since?  Has anyone explored what will happen now that the legislature has again passed a bill to repeal campaign finance giving limits? 

From a column by Ryan Cooper (whose writings the Springfield News-Leader publishes, inexplicably) come bons mots like this one: 

"Corrupt politicians eventually lose."

Yes, Ryan.  Or they get shuffled off to the federal penitentiary before they get the chance to lose. 

Readers may remember that Ryan Cooper is the brother of disgraced GOP Representative Nathan Cooper, also known as prisoner #34350-044.

Ever since Fired Up broke Friday's news about the pornography charges pending against Kinder chief of staff Eric Feltner, capitol observers have been quick to point out the unusual manner in which the charges against Feltner have been handled.

Specific critiques have focused on Republican Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson's course of action regarding the Feltner case.  Among the good questions that have been asked...

As reported by Dave Catanese on KY3 blog...

“As a result of a thorough review of his state computer and email, the Office of Administration has informed me that there is no indication that state resources were improperly used by Mr. Feltner pertaining to these serious allegations. Leave forms and time sheets for Mr. Feltner that have been provided to the media show that Mr. Feltner was on leave during the time frames listed in the prosecutor's charge."

Worth noting that this "thorough review" was conducted entirely between the hours of 11am and 4pm by the same Blunt Office of Administration that specializes in destruction of evidence, as witnessed during the Scott Eckersley episode.  Inspires a lot of confidence. 

As first reported here at Fired Up Missouri, Kinder Chief of Staff and former Kenny Hulshof District Director Eric Feltner has been charged with two counts of furnishing pornography to a minor.  

Observers note oddities in the timing of the charges.  According to the charging information, Feltner's criminal acts took place on May 25, 2007 and July 6, 2007 but no criminal charges were filed until May 21, 2008 --just days before the one year statute of limitations would have tolled on a misdemeanor charge.  The reason for the delay is unclear from court filings.

From Tony Messenger today...

The Post-Dispatch reported last month that Deputy Treasurer Doug Gaston was working full time for Steelman's campaign. Steelman said her deputy was taking vacation time to do the campaign work. Although the newspaper found pay stub records showing Gaston had taken only three hours of vacation time during the six weeks of campaign work, he produced time sheets that show the additional vacation time. 

But state Auditor Susan Montee said this week that two sets of time sheets exist — those that Gaston showed the newspaper, and an earlier set without the vacation time.

Hmmm.  Usually, one set of records or timesheets will suffice, so long as they are being completed accurately and without fraud.  It's more than a little disconcerting that Steelman's office is keeping at least two, with one apparently generated wholly in response to media inquiries.  Does Steelman keep two different sets of ledgers in the State Treasurer's office that show where the state's funds are invested?

Earlier this month we highlighted press coverage of legislators angry over proposed changes to driving record fees by the Department of Revenue and demonstrated that the fee increases were attributable to a contract awarded by the state to a client of Andy Blunt's lobbying firm.  

Coverage of the issue continues today in a strong story by the AP's David Lieb which points out that the Blunt administration went even further than we knew in pushing a fee increase that benefited a client of the first-brother's firm, actually disregarding state records law in order to complete the deal:

A sharp fee increase for state vehicle and driver's license records appears to have been set to pay for the cost of a new computer system — a justification not allowed under Missouri's open-records law....

Missouri's open-records law limits fees for computerized public records to the costs of the copies and the staff time needed to retrieve and duplicate them.

But documents provided to The Associated Press suggest the Department of Revenue picked the $7 fee to cover the cost of a new computer database for the records.

A second look at Dave Helling's story on the latest ruling by a federal district judge in Mississippi about the misadventures of Trailer Lawyer Todd Graves yields some interesting phraseology.  As we noted yesterday, Judge S.L. Senter booted Graves' law firm out of his court, but Helling writes the events up a bit differently...

A federal judge in Mississippi has removed two high-profile Missouri lawyers from a whistleblower lawsuit involving State Farm Insurance and Hurricane Katrina.

Helling goes on to write that the judge's order "bars further work on the case," by Graves.  Both descriptions are true enough I suppose, though each sounds quite a bit better than what the judge actually did to Graves.  Judge Senter disqualified Trailer Lawyer Todd Graves:

Thus, I find that the current attorneys [Graves, et al] knew or should have known that their co-counsel had entered an improper financial arrangement with their mutual clients, that the current attorneys took no action after learning of this improper arrangement, and that the
current counsel should therefore be disqualified from further participation in this case

Worth noting that the terms 'removed', 'removal' or 'remove' appear nowhere within the judge's five page written order.   

And so this afternoon --in a news story by the Star's Dave Helling, natch-- comes the inevitable response by Trailer Lawyer Todd Graves to news that he's been disqualified from a federal lawsuit in Mississippi against State Farm.  The choice cut:

Graves said the ruling would likely be appealed but noted that the judge did not find that he or Robertson had improperly viewed the stolen documents, as State Farm alleged in its request to have the firms disqualified.

“The allegations were ridiculous and over the top,” Graves said.

Okay.  Nor did the judge find that Graves had dead bodies buried under his porch.  What he did find is that Graves and friends acted in a fashion which does not comport with the model rules of professional conduct nor with the ethical standards that are expected of an officer of the court.  Story Continued »

Federal Judge S.L. Senter has issued a ruling barring Todd Graves and his firm from further participation in a high profile case in Mississippi:

GULFPORT, Miss. — A federal judge on Monday disqualified a group of Missouri lawyers, including a former high-ranking prosecutor, from working on a case against State Farm Insurance Cos. over its handling of policyholder claims after Hurricane Katrina....

Todd Graves, who joined the latter firm after serving as a U.S. Attorney in Missouri, is one of the disqualified lawyers. Graves said he couldn’t comment on the ruling because he hadn’t read it yet.

Senter faulted the lawyers for failing to act after they learned of alleged ethical misconduct by another attorney in the case, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs.