Nixon Travels to Houston to Enjoy Game; Bagman “Liar” Jack Cardetti in Tow

“Just like Missouri families, state government has had to tighten its belt.” –Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti

Our friend ‘Liar’ Jack made that comment last month in response to possible budget cuts in the state’s Parents as Teachers program. Wait a second? “No Way” Jay slashes funds for this vital program for children but finds money in the budget to hire former Senate minority leader Maida Coleman for a previously non existent job?

Jack, whatever credibility you may have had left after intentionally lying to the public (which ain’t much) is totally shot now. Maybe you should think about resigning and saving yourself the public ridicule.

Related:

Prime Buzz: Nixon heads back to the chopping block

Tipline: “Maida” Up Stimulus Job Not Needed

After Rod Jetton’s performance today after testifying before a grand jury. The comments he gave reporters after his grilling have left us wondering if “Hot Rod” Jetton really thinks we’re as stupid as he seems to believe we are. Jetton kept up his pathetic and unbelievable defense yesterday that he’s done nothing wrong:

“I deferred it in a timely manner, If I would’ve wanted to try to kill the bill, I could’ve done it that way.”

No Rod, that’s too obvious. Instead, you use surrogates to kill the bill and they let it be known that you want a campaign contribution for taking this action for them:

“That year, Jetton assigned Bartle’s bill to a committee that gutted some of its provisions.”“Jetton said he was asked questions in the grand jury about the roles of Gaines and former House Counsel Don Lograsso.

The $35,000 contribution went to the Committee for Honest Campaigns, which has been linked to Lograsso, who worked closely with Jetton during his years as speaker.”

Lobbyist Travis Brown, now owner of the Lobbying firm Pelopidas that has Rex Sinquefield as a client, also testified before the grand jury. We chronicled a couple of years ago Brown’s connections to the porno industry and Jetton.

MOPNS 7/16/07:

“Brown - who co-owns an airplane to fly around Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Sam Page and contributes generously to Kansas Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius …His clients have ranged from the porno industry to Monsanto. He has school choice clients but ferries around anti choice candidates on his airplane. He gets his bills passed in the Jetton House, but contributes very little to Republicans. Read more…

 K. C. Star:

Also appearing before the grand jury Wednesday was lobbyist Travis Brown, a former business partner of lobbyist Kent Gaines. Gaines represented the adult entertainment industry when the $35,000 donation was made.

Gaines has hired an attorney, Matthew Schelp of St. Louis, who declined to comment.

Brown did not talk to reporters, and his lawyer, former U.S. Attorney Steve Hill, said little after Brown’s 40-minute appearance. Read more…

The grand jury has a month left to make a decision.

Related:

Mi·sog·y·ny –Noun “Hatred, Dislike, or Mistrust of Women”

By John Payne

With stimulus spending one of the most contentious issues in a very contentious political year, politicians of all stripes have argued about whether government spending boosts or hinders economic growth. It is beyond debate, however, that the spending will have to be paid for by taxpayers either now or in the future. Those taxes cause the economy to grow slower, according to a new study released by the Show-Me Institute, “Taxes and Economic Growth: A Review of the Evidence.” Written by Mark Skidmore and Nicole Bradshaw — both professors at Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics — the study shows that stimulus spending may not prove to be very stimulating, because only spending on highly demanded government services appears to boost economic growth.

In a review of the academic literature, Skidmore and Bradshaw find a general agreement among researchers that higher taxes lead to lower economic growth, and therefore lower standards of living for American workers. The exact size of taxation’s effect on growth is not firmly established, but the consensus range is that for a 10-percent tax cut, there will be an additional rise in economic activity of 1.5 percent to 8.5 percent. When the bills for our current spending binge eventually come due, taxes will be raised and economic growth will fall. However, when confronted with these facts, supporters of the stimulus will likely argue that the economic growth generated by current spending will more than offset the drop in growth that will follow the tax hikes. This is theoretically possible, but Skidmore and Bradshaw provide good reasons to doubt the idea. Read more…

MOPNS told you back in June that certain members of the St. Louis African American political class were miffed at Attorney General Chris Koster for not keeping a promise. It seems Mr. Koster made certain campaign promises to these folks to review the Reginald Clemons capital murder case if he was elected. Mr. Clemons is currently on death row for his involvement in the murders of two sisters in 1991. The police are claiming that the disputed evidence in the nearly twenty year old case has always been available to the defendant’s attorney.

Sources have alerted us that former state representatives (and Koster supporters) Betty Thompson, Yaphett El Amin, Rodney Hubbard, and current St. Louis alderman Greg Carter have contacted the attorney general, but he has refused to take their calls. Read more…

“Out of an abundance of caution, the Attorney General asked Ed Dowd last summer to review the 2008 election and make recommendations to him for the future.”– Koster spokeswoman

With rumors swirling about that Koster is being investigated by the Feds, in addition to former politicians wearing concealed wires, the timing of this sudden interest in the Clemons case has many politicos today wondering if these two isolated incidents are somehow related?

Related:

Joplin Globe: Attorney general: Watch for scams

Video: “Flipper” Koster

Mr. Ed: “Hey Robin, where is Barack?

“Barack Obama should be campaigning his heart out for Robin Carnahan—after all, Carnahan has pledged to rubberstamp his agenda of a government takeover of healthcare, job-killing cap-and-tax, and the failed stimulus bill, and much more. But maybe Obama sees the writing on the wall and realizes that Carnahan is way too liberal for Missouri. It appears that the White House has written off the Carnahan campaign. We are not aware of another example of the President ignoring a U.S. Senate candidate on the ballot in less than 8 months and instead raising money for someone who is not up for reelection until 2012.” –Lloyd Smith, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party

Or, has Carnahan written the president off?

Politico: “Democrat Robin Carnahan will be absent from the invitation-only afternoon rally at St. Charles High School due to a prior commitment in Washington, the campaign tells POLITICO.”

What??? The president of the United States is in your home state while you’re involved in a closely watched campaign and you stick with a prior committment? Washington D.C. fundraisers are more important than being seen with the president? We agree with the prime Buzz’s assessment:

Prime Buzz: “Why is the president coming to Missouri to campaign for McCaskill when another hot Senate race featuring Democrat Robin Carnahan is already at full swing? Could it be that Carnahan doesn’t want to be so closely tied to a president whose poll numbers in Missouri, right now, anyway, are upside down.” Read more…

Related:

RCP: As Obama Visits Missouri, Senate Candidate Heads To DC

24th State: Lawyer For Robin Carnahan Contacted ACORN Lawyers Suing Missouri

Our tone deaf president will be at a high school in St. Charles, Mo tomorrow, still trying to force government healthcare down our throats, while confidence in the economy’s future is at its lowest point since Obama became president. Talk about misdirected focus and a total misreading of the political tea leaves! It’s unbelievable to us that the President’s advisers and his socialist Kool-Aid drinking followers believe that passing this legislative monstrosity will improve their political fortunes.

All we hear from the president nowadays is negativity, negativity, negativity. This may work while your campaigning, but when it’s time to govern Sir, people want to hear optimism from their leaders, not campaign style speeches that demonizes industries and the opposing party.

It can be argued that President Reagan inherited a worse situation from THE FIRST Jimmy Carter in 1981 than what Mr. Obama found when he entered the oval office last year. Mr. Reagan didn’t blame THE FIRST Jimmy Carter or certain industries, he first went to work and restored optimism by talking about the greatness of America and it’s people. Many at the time thought it was pollyanish and out of touch, but it worked. Then Reagan put in place pro growth economic policies that released the entrepreneurial spirit (not temporary, government make work programs that do nothing to create private sector jobs) - and as they say - the rest was history; the longest peace time expansion in our nation’s history. Mr. Obama could take a lesson from our 40th president.

Related:

PrimeBuzz: Skelton a “firm no” on health care

Rasmussen Reports: 57% Predict Health Care Plan Will Hurt The Economy

Reid: Only 36,000 People Lost Their Jobs Today, Which Is Really Good

h/t:TheNRSC