Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) released a video on the Supreme Court decision:

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D): This is certainly a historic day in this country, but not, but not a day to deepen our divisions or throw up our hands and celebrate and say our work is done. For all Americans, Republicans, Democrats, the states and the federal government must continue to work together to make sure healthcare is functional, full, and fair. Because of healthcare, millions and millions of seniors like my ninety year old father are getting free preventive services, children are not being denied coverage, and young adults are covered under their parents’ plan. These are big and important differences helping millions of Americans focus on their jobs and quality of life instead of worrying about what will happen if they and their family members get injured or sick. I know there are many who disagree with this decision. I hear from you. I know that there are many of you, but I pledge to work with and listen to any and everyone who calls. You need information about this unprecedented plan to insure all Americans. And so, if you have questions please don’t hesitate to call my office. I look forward to hearing from you. This is, I repeat, a truly historic day.

…instead of trying to draw to an inside straight.

Previously:

Ask Nixon about Medicare for All (June 27, 2012)

Gov. Jay Nixon at Missouri Boys State 2012: “I just assumed you were a Democrat…” (June 27, 2012)

“…Um, the, uh, I don’t think that, I don’t think you should have, uh, uh, a, uh, I don’t think you should have the federal law that orders people that they have to buy insurance. I never have supported that…”

Blue Girl, on Facebook:

Jay Nixon How did that bet you placed on SCOTUS turn out for you? Not so good, huh? I hate to say it — but it serves you right. Now start acting like a Democrat, damnit!

Governor Jay Nixon (D) at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on June 17, 2012.

From the question and answer session after Governor Jay Nixon’s speech at Missouri Boys State on June 17, 2012:

….Question: Uh, you’re a very successful Democrat in a red state and you’ve got one term left. Would you consider a presidential run in twenty sixteen?

Governor Jay Nixon: Eh. [laughter] Um, this you got one term left thing, we got this whole election thing coming, you know [laughter]. It’s, uh, um, you know, I, I’m focused, uh, uh, you know, I, I focus my energy on, on, on getting done as much as I can do and, and the, and the responsibility people have given me, which is significant. Uh, and I, I don’t, uh, I don’t spend a lot of time looking ahead to the next game. This is a job that, um, comes right at you. I, I do think that, that one of the reasons we’ve been able to be, uh, that I’ve been able to be successful is I’ve, I’ve become a much better listener. Uh, I think that I don’t come at things in as hard a value driven way as some people do in this, uh, uh, in, in this political world now. Um, I, I don’t really much enjoy anymore, uh, you know, this, you know, attacking people. So, uh, uh, I’ll continue to, uh, uh, focus the next hundred and fifty days on seeing if I get the, uh, uh, the great honor to have the, the public give me another shot at, uh, uh, this race, uh, I mean, this race to, to serve the state again. Um, and, uh, you know, kind of, in, in a, history finds you, you don’t go find history….

“…history finds you, you don’t go find history…”

The magic eight ball says, “The timing wasn’t very good, was it?”

Former State Auditor and current candidate for Lieutenant Governor Susan Montee (D) spoke this morning at Girls State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Later she stopped by a downtown coffee shop for an informal visit with local Democrats.    

The early portion of the discussion revolved around this morning’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act.

Susan Montee spoke about her campaign, her travels around the state, the large contributions one republican candidate for the office recently received, and, extensively, the areas of responsibility of the office of Lieutenant Governor.

This is a part of the retail politics necessary in running for statewide office in Missouri which has contributed to putting over 200,000 miles on Susan Montee’s car.

The Affordable Care Act is, apparently, constitutional. The right wingnuts have a sad.

Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Unbelievable! It appears SCOTUS has ruled the individual mandate is upheld as a permissible ‘tax’. We will continue to work to repeal! 9:17 AM – 28 Jun 12

Believe it.

Update:

Get your bumper sticker from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:

Previously: Ask Nixon about Medicare for All (June 27, 2012)

Governor Jay Nixon spoke at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on Sunday, June 17, 2012. We were there. We heard his speech and the question and answer session that followed. We recorded it.

In today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Nixon: Health care stance explained at Boys State

JEFFERSON CITY • Gov. Jay Nixon has responded to Republican criticism that his position on the federal health care law has been murky, at best.

But his response still leaves some unanswered questions….

….Nixon’s office followed up by distributing audio of Nixon’s question-and-answer session with youths attending Boys State in Warrensburg — an event that took place earlier this month….

Governor Jay Nixon (D) at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on June 17, 2012.

And yes, we caught the exchange. We didn’t transcribe it at the time. So, late, here it is:

….Question: […] In your support of Obamacare what outlook do you have for health care professionals [crosstalk]…

Governor Jay Nixon: My support of what?

Question: Obamacare.

Governor Nixon: Where’d you, what, what, what, what kind of fact based? [voices: “Woo.”] I mean, where’d you get that, I, that I support that?

Question: I just assumed you were a Democrat, so. [voices: “Whoa.”]

Governor Nixon: You know, I, it, uh, I lost to a guy in the, in, in tennis from Chillicothe so I’ll assume you’re a good tennis player, too, you know. [laughter]

Um, the, uh, I don’t think that, I don’t think you should have, uh, uh, a, uh, I don’t think you should have the federal law that orders people that they have to buy insurance. I never have supported that. Uh, you know [applause], I, I, [cheers]. So, I’ll give you a second shot. Go ahead, fire away. [laughter]

Question: Okay, so what is your opinion of Obamacare and what do you think the outlook of it will have for health care officials? [crosstalk][inaudible]

Governor Nixon:  Yeah, I do think it’s, I think it comp, I think there’s a couple things. The short run it’s had some, some, some, some, some challenging effects. I mean, I think people’ve kind of frozen up, they’re not sure what’s gonna happen. And when you get, you know, o, a quarter of your economy waiting, you know, to, to, what to do next, what are the rules gonna be, I think, I think it slugs things, that slows things down. I think that’s, I think once the Supreme Court rules that, that, I think then some decisions can begin to be made.

Um, uh, clearly I think that, that some of the insurance reforms are important and needed. I think that ya, parents should have the option to con, to, to have kids on their policies much older. I don’t think you should be able to, just because you get sick an insurance company should say, [unintelligible] now it cost a hundred thousand or two or three hundred thousand we’re cutting off your insurance. I don’t think you should be able to say, uh, that, that you’re just gonna say, if you get cancer that you’re poor the rest of your life, there’s no, even if you pay for insurance for ten or fifteen or twenty years. I think there’s some really solid insurance reforms in there that are important. But I just think the states are much better positioned, because we’re much more, um, close, uh, in as far as what health care needs to be expanded. I think every kid needs to be covered. I mean, I, I, I think that, that, that, that, that while I’m interested in, kids, to say, ’cause this year I had a big fight with the legislature as they tried to cut blind health care. I mean, my golly. Um, you know, it, it’s, so, I think that kids and, and disabled folks, uh, ex, the expansions that, that’ll help them, uh, are important. Uh, I think some of the stuff that, that, that messes with the market, uh, and, and drives too much on the government side is problematic. I wish they had go, had, had gotten rid of a, a prohibition that we currently have as states that makes it impossible for us to bid, for example, for drugs, uh, you know the quantities of drugs. So, I think that, that, uh, uh, I’m not sure what the Supreme Court will do, uh, but it’ll good to get that done and us then get back to what we’re doing before, which is running these programs from the state level, uh, with, with some federal dollars coming in. But I think this, this, uh, uh. I, I think that that level of sweeping reform and, and the, and the, the constitutional principle of saying that the federal government can pass a law saying you have to buy something, I just, maybe it’s just because I’m from Missouri, but I, I don’t, I don’t like that, they, they haven’t done that before. I, I, you know, I, I think we live in a, in a, uh, in a society that should be much more, much more free. And I understand economically why, if you’re gonna sit there theoretically and say you ought to do it that, that, that folks would, would do it. But I just have never supported that. [inaudible][applause]…

“…But I just think the states are much better positioned, because we’re much more, um, close, uh, in as far as what health care needs to be expanded…”

“…this year I had a big fight with the legislature as they tried to cut blind health care. I mean, my golly…”

Game, set, match. If you don’t see the incompatibility of those two statements I’ll spell it out for you. If we have federal health care reform the Missouri General Assembly won’t be able to cut health insurance for blind people. Instead they’ll be better able to use their time erecting bronze busts of right wingnut radio jocks.

As we hear in some Democratic Party circles: “Jay Nixon is the best republican governor we’ve ever had.”

Also previously:

Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 16, 2012)

Attorney General Chris Koster at Missouri Boys State 2012 – Q and A (June 17, 2012)

Governor Jay Nixon (D) and Kansas City Mayor Sly James at Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 18, 2012)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James at Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 18, 2012)

James Carville at Missouri Boys State 2012 – photos (June 19, 2012)

James Carville at Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 19, 2012)

Yesterday, two days before the Supreme Court is widely expected to decimate Obamacare (Michael Tomasky’s final prediction, is both a smart and typical progressive reading of the situation), Missouri’s basically party-neutral, but putatively Democratic governor, Jay Nixon, issued a statement letting us know that he never had much use for that “Washington Healthcare law.” His main GOP rival correctly pointed out that Nixon had very successfully kept that opinion to himself over the past few years.

If in real estate, the key element is location, in politics it might be timing – and we all know that the world loves an opportunist winner, and the game being what it is, nobody can really blame Nixon too much. After all, he singled out the mandate for his harshest condemnation, and while the mandate is probably necessary if a private insurance based delivery model like Obamacare is to function properly, it was never totally palatable to progressives, who, as conservatives correctly divined, considered Obamacare no more than a stepping stone to a better system.

Which actually raises a different question about our governor’s motives. Could it be that Nixon is really, secretly, a single payer advocate and he thinks that if the Supreme Court lays Obamacare to rest, we might be able to resurrect single payer in the form of Medicare for All? If so he wouldn’t be alone. Greg Sargent quotes Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) to the effect that if Obamacare goes down, Democrats ought to start running on Medicare for All. Welch believes it’s good policy all by itself, and and would, besides, pay short term political dividends:

Of course, even Dems did manage to unify behind such a message – which is unthinkable – Medicare for All could never get through this Congress or the next. But Welch says Dems should do it, anyway – to stake out a very clear position in the wake of Obamacare’s demise, and to draw a very clear contrast with Republicans on an issue where they’re already viewed with skepticism by voters.

“If the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare, we have to have a substantive policy and political response – in my view, that’s Medicare for All,” Welch said. “Medicare is very popular. People understand it.”

It’s becoming clearer that Republicans will offer no meaningful alternative to Obamacare’s most important provisions if they’re struck down. Welch suggested using Medicare for All to highlight this fact – and to sharpen the contrast with the GOP embrace of Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan, which will be a big issue this fall.

It would also pay messaging dividends down the line. One of the biggest handicaps that progressives have had to struggle with is the fact that the right wing has been so effective in moving the “center” marker so far rightwards. The advantage of a concerted and consistent embrace of a Medicare for All talking point would be in potentially shifting the center point of the health care debate back to the more leftwards area it has traditionally occupied.

Can it be done? Probably not. Can you imagine politicians who were burned by the mismanaged messaging surrounding Obamacare ever embracing Medicare for All? And of course, too many Democrats, in an effort to make themselves more acceptable to their reddish-purple constituencies, have already embraced GOP talking points that would make such a pivot impossible – the asinine Democratic deficit hawks, for instance, whose me-too squawking about public debt would preclude standing up for a solution to the possibly once again looming health care crisis (thanks, Supremes!) that would entail expanding public welfare spending.  

Nevertheless, instead of blaming our Democratic Governor for his transparent opportunism, perhaps we should be asking when he plans to come out for expanded Medicare. Certainly, Republicans have now decided that if Obamacare is struck down they won’t do anything about the uninsured and the escalating health care costs that will expand the uninsured number over the next decades. It’s an opportunity for a smart politician since, once folks figure out how they’ve been suckered, they just might be mad about having been left high and dry so that the GOP can keep taxes low for the wealthy.  

The republican money groundswell to stick it to Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (r) continues.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C091011 06/27/2012 CITIZENS FOR BRAD LAGER Smithfield Foods Inc P O Box 9004 Smithfield VA 23431 6/27/2012 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

$10,000.00 here and $10,000.00 there – pretty soon you’ll be talking about some serious money.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: it’s their world, the rest of us only get to live in it (June 25, 2012)

Campaign Finance: whip it out… (June 25, 2012)

Want more proof that while Republicans like to talk up jobs, that’s not what really gets them moving: From Think Progress:

So far this Congress, anti-LGBT Republicans have introduced at least ten major anti-gay bills, resolutions, and amendments in the U.S. House of Representatives. While 144 Members of Congress have sponsored or co-sponsored at least one of the proposals, seven signed on to five or more of the pro-discrimination measures, a ThinkProgress analysis reveals.

I’m sure that few of my fellow Missourians will be surprised to learn that prominent among the seven Republicans who have at least five instances of LGBT attack legislation under their belts are our own Reps. Todd Akin (R-2) and Vicky Harzler (R-4). After all,  Hartzler was singled out by MotherJones during her campaign for Congress in 2010 as perhaps the single most homophobic candidate for public office in America. Akin, as we all know, lives in fear of the “gay agenda” (which he evidently believes to be the personal agenda of President Obama, as in “The president has repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and is using the military as a prop to promote his gay agenda.”)

Well, okay, comparatively.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission::

C111205 06/26/2012 SPENCE FOR GOVERNOR Steven Trulaske Sr 7700 Forsyth Blvd. Ste. 1220 St Louis MO 63105 True Manufacturing Co. Executive 6/26/2012 $50,000.00

[emphasis added]