Jay Nixon Leads by Doing Nothing
TheSource posted a video in which Governor Nixon is depicted as being absent from leadership (unless it’s a natural disaster or football victory). The state GOP issued a similar criticism when it said that Nixon sat on the sidelines during the effort to change the presidential nominating process. Party Chairman David Cole wrote,
This is yet another example of Nixon’s absolute refusal to lead. He had ample time to express his concerns as this bill was being crafted, debated, and passed by an overwhelming number of Republicans and Democrats. Instead, he chose to remain on the sidelines—and Missourians will suffer.”
Now the governor has opted to do nothing about the legislature’s tightening up language around when a late-term abortion is permissible. Free and easy access to abortion on demand is such an article of faith for the Left that we’re surprised the usual bloggy suspects (FiredUpMissouri, ShowMeProgress) have not made hay of Nixon’s passive endorsement. We are sure it is coming…
Nixon’s apologists can’t claim political expediency, either. His veto of the legislature’s congressional redistricting was promptly overturned, something he had to know would happen.
Perhaps Nixon is ashamed to be a Democrat. Or maybe he’s pretending not to be a Democrat. At times, though, it seems he’s pretending not to be governor. This criticism is nothing new. Here’s how Tony Messenger described it in January (we recommend you read the whole article):
He promised more education funding. It has been cut. He said he would undo Medicaid cuts. He hasn’t. He said he would increase college scholarships for Missouri high school students. Instead? More cuts.
And in the last election cycle, both Democrats and Republicans accused Nixon of being AWOL.
About that Martin/Wagner Poll
The Ed Martin campaign has released a memo about a poll conducted in the 2nd Congressional District. A statement includes, “The results speak loud and clear: Ed Martin is the true conservative for the citizens of the new Second District.”
We’re written previously about American Viewpoint polls (About that Emerson/Sowers Poll), and our complaints remain the same. But results matter. In that piece above, the data suggested that Emerson was 51% ahead of Sowers, 71% to 18%. Emerson won the election seven months later by a 27% margin, 66% to 29%.
In October 2010, an American Viewpoint memo indicated Martin trailed Rep. Russ Carnahan 42% to 48%. One month later, Martin ended up receiving 47% of the vote to Carnahan’s 49%.
So regardless of how little they choose to share with the public about their methodology, American Viewpoint hasn’t been wildly off in similar studies.
KC School District Seeks… More Money
Buried at the bottom of an editorial on the Kansas School Board last week was this nugget:
The superintendent said the district plans to seek either a bond or levy increase from voters. The last one approved by voters was in 1969. But a lot of work must be done before a request like that goes before voters.
We humbly suggest the the problem with the Kansas City School District has nothing to do with the taxpayers’ failure to contribute a reasonable amount.
Missouri Democrats in the Crosshairs
A while back we teased the Boone County Democrats for a very unfortunate mailer that featured a baby in a stew pot and a bulls eye painted around the word “Democrat.” Seriously.
Now the state party has gotten in on the craziness and has adopted a target for their logo for the 2012 cycle. I don’t know when the new web site look was launched, and I am sorry I missed it.
In the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, everyone was examining the use of violent rhetoric, especially liberal Democrats. So it is breathtaking that Missouri Democrats have adopted the target as their main visual. Perhaps they mean to reference Karl Marx’s assertion that, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” If the Giffords shooting is the tragedy, clearly, Missouri Democrats are the farce.
Speaking of farce, the logo does add new meaning to the tag for the Tommy Sower’s ad campaign. Now we know at what Tommy was shooting.
Black Conservatives to Gather in St. Louis
It was years ago that Clarence Thomas was attacked by the Left for being an Uncle Tom–a black servant to the white Republican establishment. Thomas is no exception to the rule, other conservative blacks have been similarly attacked for, let’s say, wandering off the liberal plantation.
The practice culminated in 2009 when Kenneth Gladney was assaulted by black union activists at a health care Town Hall meeting. Gladney isn’t necessarily a conservative, mind you–he was just selling merchandise–but he was profiled as a Tea Party supporter and beaten for the extra indignity of being a race-traitor.
Because, to some, politics is all about race.
To combat the idea that politics ought to be subservient to skin color, the organizers of Move-On-Up–which may or may not draw inspiration from the Curtis Mayfield song of the same name–are hosting a gathering in St. Louis to showcase conservative ideals and leaders. Their 2011 conference, which will take place in St. Louis from August 12 to 14, promises attendees the “unique opportunity to meet and talk with other people that share your concerns and beliefs.” This is important when so many seek to isolate conservatives blacks, but their numbers are apparently growing–at least 32 blacks ran for Congress in 2010 as Republicans!
The conference offers panel discussions on the economy, health care reform, immigration and education and will include an address by Rep. Allen West (R-FL).
McCaskill, Tax Subsidies and the Free Market
Politics makes us all crazy, to the point that we’ll often sacrifice our own integrity to argue a point that is nonsensical. Take for instance the recent mea culpa from a St. Louis blogger who was shocked, shocked! to learn that Rep Anthony Weiner was actually guilty of that which he was accused–preferring instead to blame a vast right-wing conspiracy. (By the way, he still blames them.)
But we were surprised to read an editorial in the Springfield News-Leader that The Source described as opposition to, “Claire McCaskill’s war on the free market.” Wait, what?! Was opposition to an oil industry tax subsidy being described as anti free market? Was this free market group themselves in support of such a tax subsidy? That didn’t sound very free market to us.
Jeffrey Mazzella, president of the Center for Individual Freedom, was kind enough to issue The Missouri Record a clarification. The CFIF was not advocating for tax subsidies. According to Mazzella:
Subsidies, by definition, are direct payments of money by government to the private sector, usually to prop up goods and services that cannot survive in a free and competitive marketplace without the financial support of other people’s money.
The entire US tax code is an awful mess of unfairness, an absolute horror to free marketers, but fixing it is not to selectively punish vital industries which are complying, undeniably, to the existing rules.
To be sure, the US oil and gas industry does not receive what Senator McCaskill incorrectly labels “subsidies.” The industry does take advantage of legally-permitted tax deductions, largely on costs for doing business – deductions that are identical or very similar to those taken by almost all US companies. After taking those deductions, the oil and gas industry still contributes nearly $100 million per day to the federal treasury.
Mazzella didn’t stop there, but ended with a zinger against McCaskill and her other policy positions:
Leave it to a career politician plagued with her own tax scandals to advance manipulative rhetoric on the issue for political gain. And if McCaskill gets her way, it is inescapably true that her policy will leave Missouri – and all American – families stuck paying higher energy bills.
Obama the New Kennedy?
While a member of the US Senate, John F. Kennedy claimed to write a book, Profiles in Courage, that won him a Pulitzer Prize. Well, sort of. According to the Wikipedia account of the book:
In May 2008, [Kennedy speechwriter Ted] Sorensen clarified in his autobiography, Counselor, how he collaborated with Kennedy on the book: “While in Washington, I received from Florida almost daily instructions and requests by letter and telephone – books to send, memoranda to draft, sources to check, materials to assemble, and Dictaphone drafts or revisions of early chapters.” (Sorensen, p. 146) Sorensen wrote that Kennedy “worked particularly hard and long on the first and last chapters, setting the tone and philosophy of the book” and that “I did a first draft of most chapters” and “helped choose the words of many of its sentences”. JFK “publicly acknowledged in his introduction to the book my extensive role in its composition” (p. 147) Sorensen claimed that in May 1957, Kennedy “unexpectedly and generously offered, and I happily accepted, a sum to be spread over several years, that I regarded as more than fair” for his work on the book. Indeed, this supported a long-standing recognition of the collaborative effort that Kennedy and Sorensen had developed since 1953.
Now there is some question as to who authored President Obama’s memoir, Dreams from My Father. Of course, ‘some question,’ is a matter of disagreement. At least two books, however, assert that the book was largely written by Bill Ayers of Weather Underground fame. One, Deconstructing Obama, is written by Kansas City’s own Jack Cashill. And unlike JFK, Obama has claimed all credit for himself.
As Obama proves an ever growing disappointment to the Left, Cashill expects Ayers himself will eventually claim responsibility for the book–as Sorensen did of Kennedy’s.
Missouri’s 2012 Down Ballot
We joked in November that whoever Missouri’s next Treasurer is, it won’t be Clint Zweifel. Our reasoning at the time was that,
In 2008 he only beat Republican Brad Lager with 50.47% of the vote–and that was the high-water mark of a Democratic wave election.
Seven months later, and we’re no longer so confident. You can’t beat something with nothing; and so far no Republican has announced their intention to run for Treasurer–or for Attorney General. One person I spoke with suggested that it was really too early to start hand-wringing. Bill Clinton, they mentioned, did not announce his intention to run for President until October 2, 1991–thirteen months before he was actually elected. It might be best, he counseled, to wait until autumn.
What is clear, however, is that hardly anyone is even kicking around the idea of running for these offices. The reason is that they fear the effect weak top-of-ticket candidates will have down ballot. Candidates for Lt. Governor, Treasurer, Attorney General and Secretary of State will be drowned out by the battles for Governor and Senate. And if the Republicans in those races (Kinder, Steelman and Akin) underwhelm voters, all the campaign effort for other statewide races is for naught.
The exception is Tilley’s race for Lieutenant Governor. Tilley knows that the only way to combat a weak top-of-ticket is to throw so much money into advertising that you develop your own independent standing. As Speaker of the Missouri House, Tilley is alone in being able to raise that much dough for a down ballot race. Everyone else will be subject to the fortunes of others–others in whom they apparently have little confidence.
That Plaza Mailing, Part 2
Last week we wrote about a mailing sent to Kansas City voters urging them not to sign a petition regarding zoning on the Country Club Plaza. In that piece we discussed two items about the mailing that troubled us, its misleading discussion of the height of the proposed office tower, and its failure to mention the significant loss of public–and free–parking.
This week the proponents of the petition–who oppose the Highwoods construction effort–sent out their own mailing. The mailing included an image of the proposal to scale (a poor photo of which appears to the right), which shows the true size of what Highwoods wants to build, indicating that the structure would rise 160 feet over its 47th Street entrance. That’s equivalent to a 16-story residential building.
The mailing also mentions the effect on parking and sheds more light on other claims that Highwoods is making about jobs, the Plaza Plan and traffic patterns.
While there is much about the layout of the mailer that is to be desired–for example it has adopted the ‘decline’ language of its opponents and so can be easily mistaken for one of their mailings–it is good to know that those who wish to preserve Country Club Plaza as a pedestrian-friendly shopping center are joining the battle.
McCaskill is All In on Gas Tax
The Missouri Republican Party is noting that Sen. McCaskill is attaching her support for an extension to the debt ceiling to an effort to close a ‘tax loophole’ for oil companies. According to The Hill newspaper,
Twenty Senate Democrats are ramping up political pressure on the White House to ensure that any deficit-reduction deal with Republicans strips billions of dollars in tax breaks for major oil companies.
The group — led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) — sent a new letter outlining their stance to Vice President Biden, who is leading talks with Republicans on reaching a deficit-cutting deal needed to secure votes to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
McCaskill is one of the 20 Democrats who signed the letter. The problem, pointed out by the Missouri GOP, is that McCaskill previously decried such tactics as “profoundly irresponsible.” According to a St. Louis Beacon story in April:
However, McCaskill is hesitant to directly tie the debt ceiling to other issues in the same legislation. “Failing to raise the debt ceiling would cause a financial panic that would be devastating to the economy,” said McCaskill’s spokeswoman, Laura Myron. “She thinks it is profoundly irresponsible to play chicken with the debt limit vote, especially to pursue divisive social issues.”
What a difference six weeks makes. McCaskill is gambling that there is more to be gained by attacking oil companies than there is to be lost by appearing, well, like a politician (or causing a “devastating” “financial panic”). She may be correct, but as we’ve written previously, for every $0.07 that goes to Big Oil profits from what consumers pay at the pump, $0.48 goes to Big Government. Will Missouri voters rage against high profits before high taxes?
For more on the proposal to end oil subsidies and the tax credit vs. subsidy argument, we recommend this article.
leave a comment