Tags
Kansas City Star, Matt" baby" Blunt, media criticism, Missouri Sunshine Law, Scott Eckersley, Steve Kraske
In today’s Kansas City Star their resident political stenographer finally notices [tiny URL] that something is afoot with this e-mail thingy plaguing the “baby” Blunt Administration:
…There’s only one option left for Gov. Matt Blunt….
That’s a major staff shake-up that includes the ouster of his pedal-always-to-the-metal chief of staff, Ed Martin.
Only a move that dramatic, that far-reaching, will help Blunt shake off the aftertaste of a miserable month that has left his administration facing a probable lawsuit from a fired staff lawyer and a special investigator nipping at its heels.
This flare-up, of course, could hardly come at a more inopportune time….
Nah, dumping Ed Martin won’t help at all. It’s not just one person, it’s a pervasive attitude within the administration – driven by either gross incompetence or Machiavellian arrogance at the top. Come to think of it, the combination of the two sound like business as usual from dubya’s administration.
The stenographer’s political advice is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
“…This flare-up, of course, could hardly come at a more inopportune time…” You think?
There is one chuckle worthy line (well, we must give credit where credit is due) – the stenographer calls the recent media domino game:
…The Shove From the Guv…
“Nah, dumping Ed Martin won’t help at all. It’s not just one person, it’s a pervasive attitude within the administration …” That depends on what they’re trying to accomplish. If the goal is actual honest, competent governance, then no, Dumping Martin will do little. But dumping him might help if the goal is to get the media off Blunt’s back–though until Blunt reveals the record of his e-mails in September I don’t see how the thing can completely go away. The other thing that might help would be to promise Eckersley that they’ll drop the bar complaint if he’ll agree not to sue them. If he stays in the news, then so do they.
It was a pleasant surprise to read the first part of Kraske, but remember a stenographer must remain fair and balanced. So, here is the second section:
See the the memo flap is just part of a “double-feature slasher film.” And, it just “a messy way of doing business.”
The good stenographer is unable to recognize that the “messy way of doing business” seems to be SOP for the Blunt Administration. Why should the voters be turned off by the rampant disregard for the law by the Blunt Administration?