Our snarky colleagues tell you all you need to know about Roy Blunt’s (r-lobbyists) performance at tonight’s debate:

BGinKC Wow. Obamacare is so bad it’s responsible for wrecking the economy and the first provisions went into effect three weeks ago? 2 minutes ago via Mobile Web

BHIndepMO Debate reaction: I can see why Roy Blunt didn’t want to have more debates     26 minutes ago  via web  

BHIndepMO @BGinKC Did you know the budget was balanced while Blunt was in the leadership? guess we missed that in 2003 #doubleblink   about 1 hour ago  via web  in reply to BGinKC

BHIndepMO “Every reporter who has asked me a question has got a clear response” – unless his phone rang while he was walking #mosen     about 1 hour ago  via web

Heh. I tell you, it’s always been great working with these folks.

Nothing says Washington DC outsider like seven-term Congressman (and former Republican Whip) Roy Blunt! He’s such an outsider that there are dining establishments in DC that he has only been to once!

(Wonder how much of that debt is in stuff that he voted for, but wants you to forget about)

More under fold

No, they did not get that semissourian.com thing wrong (seeing as it’s a newspaper, you would think that).. they’re citing a USER SUBMITTED STORY titled “Robin Carnahan now likes TARP” from “Tim O’Toole”

Oh yeah, they also stretched “made a good case” into “would have voted for”. After all, if you admit something has a good case, you obviously support it. If only they taught logic to the O’Toole Family. Then the letter to the editor (errrrrrrr… I meant User-Submitted Story) quoted Rich Chrismer a few times.

Head on a pedestal. I need to get that photoshop program!

Also, how much was the bailout out of that $2.5 trillion? A trillion was added from Oct 2007 to Oct 2008 pre-bailout.

But then again, it’s OK if a Republican does it.

BTW, do they need more Robin headshots for their collection?

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies? Nothing says Grassroots like anonymous fliers in millions of homes and a company headed by Karl Rove.

Granted, if they went with Crossroads Astroturf Policy Strategies, they would have an unfortunate acronym.

I wish people who talk about fiscal conservatism wouldn’t carpetbomb the voters in mailers. Yes, that means you Turfroots Mailer Factories. And tell Tim O’Toole that I said “Howdy!”

Last night Rachel Maddow nailed the key to Claire McCaskill’s 2006 victory over Jim Talent: the minimum wage. The GOP’s business constituency hates it, everyone else loves it.  It  didn’t hurt that a minimum wage initiative was on the Missouri ballot then either:

To their credit, the DSCC does get that this is a potent issue. I just saw an ad last night that they produced for Carnahan that hits Roy Blunt for his past opposition to the minimum wage – a past record that he is eager, by the way, to keep quiet:

I take the ad as indicating that Robin Carnahan gets it too, although she certainly isn’t running hard with it.

Another issue that strikes me as having all the positive mojo of the minimum wage is wiping out the BushCo tax giveaways for the wealthy – but wait – Carnahan already blew that. To be fair, she’s not alone in this lack of judgment, since the entire Democratic Congress crapped out on ending the tax breaks for the wealthy when they had a chance to use a vote on the issue to make a statement before the midterms. Remember operant conditioning? The GOP has been far too successful in training the Democrats to fold their tails between their legs and run whenever they hear the dreaded “T” word.

The real import of what Maddow is saying, though, lies in what both these issues have in common. They represent a core Democratic principle: fairness. When Democratic politicians fail to stand up for this principle, they deny their intrinsic identity, what it means to be a Democrat – and you can be sure that a self-hating Democrat isn’t likely to inspire much love from voters.

Vice President Joe Biden was in Springfield last night for a fundraising event for Robin Carnahan’s (D) campaign for the open U.S. Senate seat:

Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a fundraiser for Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan Thursday night in Springfield, Mo. Biden blamed many of the country’s problems on the George Bush administration and said the stimulus and other programs are working.

“The reports of the death of the Democratic Party are greatly exaggerated,” he said, playing off of the famous quote from Missourian Mark Twain.

He said Carnahan has “more grit and backbone in her little finger than most people have in their whole body. I can’t imagine her bending to anything.”

He said Democrats will continue to push for science and environmental issues.

Carnahan spoke about her opponent, Rep. Roy Blunt, and the money that third parties have put into the campaign.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who won handily in several conservative counties, touted Carnahan’s record as Missouri secretary of state and said Blunt is part of the problem.

“We’ve got a lot of problems in this country now’s not the time for this state and this country to mess around,” Nixon said.

Earlier that day, Biden attended an event for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett in Madison, Wis.

Carnahan’s campaign said the event sold out at 170 people, and it expected to bring in $100,000. Tickets started at $500 per couple for event, which was at the Tower Club in downtown Springfield.

Diners ate chicken and beef, a house salad and cheesecake or chocolate cake. Biden spoke for about 45 minutes. Carnahan’s mother, Jean Carnahan, who served with Biden in the Senate, attended the event, along with state Rep. Sara Lampe and some local candidates.

Roseann Moring

Springfield News-Leader

Alternate title: Verifying that the scanner still works, thanks to the Republicans dumping money on a giant list.

So here’s their shiny attack piece.

Hey, it’s the subtle approach. Or the definition of a rhetorical question.

Yes, they cite the St. Louis Beacon. Congrats Gentlemen, you’re famous now.  

Via FiredUp!, Robin Carnahan’s newest ad goes after Blunt for his earmarking sins:

I have always been a little bored with all the noise about earmarks. I leave the issue to someone like Claire McCaskill who wants to get her kudos in the least controversial way possible. To be sure, I don’t think use of earmarks constitutes good budgeting practice, and they may even have such unexpected effects as, according to a new study, stiffling job growth, but they are also, in terms of expenditures,  pretty small potatoes. Earmarks amount to less than 2% of the federal budget.

However, Carnahan is probably right to go after Roy Blunt over earmarks. She has been, correctly I think, hammering Blunt about the whiffs of corruption he exudes. And, of course, the real problem with earmarks is their potential to contribute to the quid pro quo type corruption that is associated with Blunt. It is far too easy to insert earmark provisions into legislation without oversight – a situation ready-made for wheeler-dealers like our Roy.

Certainly, at the very least, earmarking practices are crying out for extensive, systematic reform, and until Congress does something about it, we will be stuck with “pork-meisters” like Blunt – although, if we are lucky this November, as far as Blunt himself goes,  we might be able to call the whole thing off.

Following up on an earlier report that connected money from foreign sources to Chamber of Commerce spending on behalf of GOP candidates in target states like Missouri, Think Progess today explores possible coordination between the ad buys of the Chamber and Carl Rove’s Crossroads GPS:

At every turn, from the operatives running the two organizations to their targeted races to their media firms, American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are bound to one another.

In Missouri, for instance, the seemingly “uncanny” coordination between their scheduling of ad buys insures that there will be always be a Chamber or Grossroads anti-Carnahan attack ad running:

Missouri

Crossroads GPS ads: 8/18-9/3

Chamber of Commerce ads: 9/3-9/8

American Crossroads ads begin: 09/15

Bear in mind that these two groups go to great lengths to conceal their donors, and that they account for over a fourth of the money that will be spent in this election by conservative interest groups. And it isn’t just TV ad buys. I’m sitting here as I write this looking at a glossy brochure put out by Crossroads proclaiming Robin Carnahan’s support for a “national energy tax.”

Sadly, if Congress magically decided to close the Pandora’s box opened by the Citizens United ruling, which now permits the GOP to launder donations through organizations like Chamber of Commerce; if a DOJ investigation found the Chamber guilty of violating laws that prohibit foreign entities from attempting to influence American elections; if if the (501(c)(4) tax status of organizations like Crossroads GPS were to be changed to that of a 527 political PAC (which it almost indisputably is) so that it would have to disclose its donors, all of this would happen too late to offset the unfair advantage these groups are giving the GOP in the upcoming election. For the time being we’ve got to suck it up and get on with it, no matter how badly the opposition is bending the law while working hand in hidden glove with each other and with the GOP.

It doesn’t bode well for the future – particularly if that future is is sullied by elephant crap in a GOP-controlled congress – that the Disclose Act, which would have insured some degree of transparency, couldn’t even make it though the Senate when that body has been, nominally at least, under the control of Democrats.

At any rate, there’s probably nothing to be done right now but get out and hustle our you-know-whats off. If we don’t, we’ll surely get’em handed to us on election day. We may anyway – and then it’s good bye to the good life in the old U.S. of A. for a good long while, at least for those of us who haven’t already got ours bigtime, like the richest 2% whom the GOP struggles to protect.

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We received a mailing today from our brothers and sisters of the AFL-CIO explaining Roy Blunt’s (r-lobbyists) sad record and lack of support when it comes to working people and their families:

Important Union Message

Roy Blunt Failed to Create Jobs in Congress.

Why Should We Trust Him Now?

Roy Blunt Failed Missouri’s Workers

Roy Blunt’s anti-worker economic policies have failed Missouri. Now Blunt wants a promotion that he hasn’t earned. Here are the facts:

Failed to Create Missouri Jobs

Blunt opposed legislation that would create good-paying Missouri jobs. [H.R. 2847, Vote #991, 12/16/09; St. Louis Front Page, 12/20/09]

Failed to Protect Missouri Workers

Blunt opposed legislation to extend unemployment insurance to laid-off Missouri Workers. [H.R. 5618, Vote #398, 6/29/10 Washington Times, 6/12/08; CQ, 6/10/08]

Failed to Improve Missouri’s Economy

Blunt voted for the massive bailout of wall Street but opposed legislation to protect Missouri jobs. Time and again, he’s stood on the side of big banks and corporations over working families. [H.R. 1424, Vote #681, 10/3/08; gannet, 10/2/08; H.R. 2847, Vote #991, 12/16/09]

How You Vote is a Personal Decision

Your Union Has Endorsed Robin Carnahan for U.S. Senate

Vote Tuesday, November 2nd

And this mailing is a pittance compared to the special interest support Congressman Blunt (r-lobbyists) is getting from his inside the beltway Washington friends. From a Robin Carnahan (D) campaign e-mail sent today:

…Consider this:

   * Karl Rove’s Crossroads groups are spending $4.7 million on TV attacking me (they’ve already spent over $2.1 of that);

   * The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already spent $1 million on TV attacks;

   * The National Republican Senatorial Committee just reserved $1.2 million for TV;

   * Congressman Blunt is the top recipient of lobbyist money of all House Members of Congress, and he’s number two in PAC contributions, giving him nearly limitless resources to spread lies about me and distort his own record.

What does this mean? A couple things: First, that the Washington Republican establishment knows that Congressman Blunt’s record makes him extremely vulnerable; and second, that they’re willing to spend anything and say anything to stop us from holding them accountable….

[emphasis added]

That’s serious money to prop up a Washington insider. I wonder who he’d be looking after?

Basketball is a game of artistry and creativity. Nothing epitomizes this more than the game of Horse. At its core it is a game of one upmanship, where difficult and sometime next to impossible shots are used to eliminate the competition from play.

Sometimes, I really, really wanna take my ball and go home. Lots of my team-mates are already packing up and heading off. Why?

— They worked hard to get Claire McCaskill into the game; now she plays the odds and mostly comes out for the reddish-purple team.

— They watch Robin Carnahan try to play the odds just like her soul-sister, Claire.

— They worked their tails off for Obama and he turned out to like to play in the center (just like he claimed in the campaign).

— The age of Aquarius never dawned and we have to hustle hard for every little win.

— Somebody told us that if we pack it in, the rest of the team’ll be so sorry they’ll play just the way we want them to in the future (and I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you).

So why is anyone still hanging around, bouncing balls off the garage door?

— We see little twerps like Ed Martin consistently fouling with no penalties leveled.

— We’ve read Roy Blunt’s game plan as expressed in the corporate wish list he calls his jobs plan.

— We’ve heard climate change denier Blaine Luetkemeyer make a fool of himself and Missouri while playing on Merry King Coal’s team.

— We don’t think we ought to have to play according to Todd Akin’s Christian Sharia rulebook either.

— We’ve seen the rest of the Missouri GOP team synchronize their play to the beat called out by the Tea Party-whipped GOP leadership.

Time and new battles have diminished our memory of how bruised we got playing against the rule-bending George Walker Bush bullies, but if we lose this new game by default, the same kind of pols will be calling the shots in Washington once again not just stalling the action. And it’ll hurt just that much more when they privatize Social Security, slash Medicare, defund the really good parts of the Affordable Care Act, stop government by initiating hearings and issuing subpoenas over ACORN, birtherism, you name it, while letting Big Money referee the game.  

My two-cents on two phenomena that are getting attention on progressive blogs today:

The first is the Republican fear of debates which I discussed in an earlier post. Today over at DailyKos Laura Clawson picks up on that story, commenting on Roy Blunt’s hypocritical, dishonest posturing when it comes to debating Robin Carnahan. The money quote:

If you’re the frontrunner [sic], which Blunt still is, you know you don’t have much to gain from debates. The question is how much you think you have to lose, and if it’s worth drawing attention to that by trying to avoid public debate. Sounds like Blunt knows he has a lot to lose if Missouri’s voters see him go head to head with Carnahan.

Maybe if we work really, really hard, we can shift that equation – although I am not sure that even if he weren’t the frontrunner, Blunt wouldn’t still have more to loose than to gain if he had to go up in front of a diverse crowd and defend some of the stock GOP boilerplate he has been ladling out to the faithful.

The second development is the concerted effort of congressional Democrats to give the store away to the GOP. The Democrats’ death wish has most recently manifested itself in the decision to back away from a vote on the Bush tax giveaways for the wealthy. So what else is new? Their possible rationale perhaps? According to TPM, the idiots may have done it just because it was a winning issue:

… according to a very plugged in Senate aide, Senators debating the issue were very aware that the polling was on their side. Yet, paradoxically, this ended up tipping the balance against holding the vote. Senate Dems felt they were alreadly winning on the issue, and in the end they thought a vote risked upsetting a dynamic that was already playing in their favor.

We’ve really got to get us some better Democrats.

To give you an idea about how that ploy is playing with the base here in Missouri, you need go no further than a post by Missouri blogger Duane Graham of the Erstwhile Conservative, billiantly titled “The Democratic Valley Of Dry Bones.” The title refers to Ezekiel 37:3 which reads:

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

To which my response is that this is the most telling use of a biblical quotation yet. Here, however, is the passage that offers the best measure of the temperature on the left right now:

If it weren’t for the fact that a lot of innocent and hardworking folks would get hurt, I would wish the entire Democratic leadership go down in flames.  And I would wish the Democrats lose control of both legislative chambers, if the results weren’t slated to be so deleterious for already struggling Americans.  

There just aren’t enough pejoratives for such cowards, for such pusillanimous political pansies.

The angst spills off the page. The moral is simply that the markers of the progressive mood are all out there; one can only hope that Democrats start taking the readings soon. If they lose the House and/or the Senate and can’t do anything to repeal the wasteful, harmful upper bracket tax cuts, I guarantee it’ll be too late.