I haven’t had time to take a careful look at the “jobs” plan Roy Blunt unveiled yesterday. At a cursory glance, it seems like the same recipe that cost us 9 million jobs in the worst recession since the 1930s: gut regulation, cut taxes for the wealthy, roll back health care reform and let costs escalate, etc. Par for the course.

This lack of substance is, of course no surprise to those of us who have followed Blunt’s career as a corporate toady doing latrine duty in the Senate – take, for instance, the total lack of product, other than conservative platitudes, that emanated from the Republican Healthcare Solutions Group that Blunt chaired.

Think Progress‘ Pat Garafalo offers some initial insights into the lack of there there that tend to confirm my initial impression. Garofalo faults Blunt’s plan for the predictable emphasis on “fearmongering about the deficit,” and argues that Blunt’s desire to rescind the unspent stimulus funds would amount to a tax on the middle class. More interestingly, Garofalo notes that in spite of all the deficit rhetoric, one of the few substantive proposals involves extending an expensive stimulus benefit for the real estate industry. Should we believe that it is just a coincidence that real estate is one of Blunt’s ten largest donor groups when his receipts are broken down by industry, having gifted him with more than $150,000 during the 2009-2010 election cycle?

But, you ask, ever ready to extend the benefit of the doubt, the important question is whether or not this benefit will actually create jobs? According Garofalo:

… the home buyer’s tax credit was enacted as part of the stimulus and then extended a couple of times, and by all accounts it was a complete and total boondoggle, costing taxpayers billions to subsidize activity that was going to happen anyway. Even the credit’s staunchest supporters have said that its “sunsetting is an incentive to drive people to the marketplace” and poo-pooed the notion of extending it forever, which clearly turns it into a permanent subsidy to the real estate industry.

Garofalo especially disdains Blunt’s willingness to extend this benefit given his jump-on-the-bandwagon bleating about the dangers of the deficit. I would add that a person who spends so much time trying to paint a moderately successful round of stimulus spending as a failure, should be really, really careful about selectively extending it for favored campaign contributors. Though Blunt’s two-faced response to the stimulus is, I guess, kind of an old story by now – he has been more than willing to claim credit for the goodies it brought the state – but it still stinks when he tries to use those funds to do his benefactors a solid on the public dime. It’ll be interesting to see just what other giveaways are tucked into Mr. Blunt’s loudly ballyhooed jobs plan.

David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) and his republican enablers spent so much money on mail  against Rex Rector (r – right wingnut) in the August 5th primary that we have to cover the material in multiple posts. Spending close to $150,000.00 in the primary will do that. Previous posts on Pearce’s primary “mail plan”:

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District – the republican money floods in

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District – we’ve got mail!

And Chris Benjamin, the Democrat in the race:

An Interview with Chris Benjamin (D), the candidate in the 31st Senate District

On to all that mail:

That family photo looks so familiar. And the interior fold:

Paid for by:

And his campaign themes are governed by the usual republican wedge issues (after all, he was catering to the right wingnut base in this primary):

Uh, isn’t that a federal issue? David must be confused. That photo with the barbed wire on the interior fold looks like it’s from Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas. If there had been snow in the photo we might assume it was Canada! Isn’t David running for office in Missouri? Or is he? I wonder why he picked this issue. Could it be…? No, he couldn’t be pandering, could he?

Uh, David, we keep pointing out that cloning is illegal in Missouri. It’s the height of cynicism, or just plain stupidity, to make this an election issue. I wonder how many people in Johnson County are going to be unpleasantly surprised about your interesting public stand on stem cells? What do you think?

If the United States Supreme Court has decided the issue (see stare decisis), no matter how many people want it to change, it just isn’t going to change. So, this is just flogging an old issue to whip up that base. I don’t know about you, but if I was treated with this kind of condescension and contempt for my intelligence by my state representative I’d be really upset. Oh, wait a minute…

What? Nothing on gays? They must have run out of room on the mail piece.

And to sum it all up:

Uh, “pro life”, doesn’t that mean he’s against the death penalty and war? That’s so un-republican. Oh, wait I get it. It’s not really a typo, he’s only “anti-choice”, but doesn’t want to say so.

That was a slick mailer. He paid a lot of money for those. The republican powers that be also paid a lot of money for slick mailers. The themes are ever so familiar. The look is so uniform. As if there was a unity of purpose bordering on coordination. All produced by Jeff Roe and his friends at Axiom Strategies. Slick. Pricey. And so appropriate for propping up a republican legislative empty suit.

Let’s take a look at more of those “independent” mailers that were sent on David Pearce’s behalf:

I don’t know about you, but that giant hand reminds me of the federal government under dubya these last seven or so years. Uh, you know, republicans. Speaking of the photo of a giant ominous hand hovering over and threatening charming typical single family house, this appears to be quite similar to the photo of the giant ominous hand hovering over and threatening charming typical single family house in the interior fold of Pearce’s paid for mail piece (the first one in this post) above “Stop ‘Eminent Domain’ Abuse”. Coordinate much?

“Eminent domain abuse”? Is that like running a meth lab? Eminent domain. Eminent domain. Didn’t we recently see something about eminent domain. Yeah, right. Coordinate much? Who paid for this?:

Hmmm. Not “David Pearce”. And there’s that tie again:

Ooh, look, here’s another:

Uh, David, in the six years you’ve spent in the Missouri General Assembly, what have you really done about energy policy? Did you create any innovative legislation and work to get it passed? Just asking. And the same people paid for this:

And here’s that tie yet again:

The “independent” mail keeps coming. Yet another piece:

Immigration. Where have we seen that before? Look who paid for it:

Bogus wedge issue that you’ve never lead on while in the General Assembly? Check. Artificial republican organization endorsement, complete with required pseudo-patriotic elephant logo? Check. Tie? For the love humanity and, and any semblance of “independent” expenditure, lose the tie already.

If you look carefully and compare this with Pearce’s big fold out piece (the first one in this post) you’ll notice that there is second, different tie that reappears here. Auugggh! A tie twofer…

We’ve previously covered the extravagant (and minutely targeted) mail plan of those “independent” republican friends on behalf of David Pearce (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting):

David Pearce (r) in the 31st Senate District – the republican money floods in

Well, we’ve got more of that mail, most of it paid for by the republican “Majority Fund” and some of it paid for by Pearce’s campaign. All of it looks the same, even down to the fonts and photos. These mail pieces contain all of the usual tactical right wingnut wedge issue themes. Uh, David Pearce ain’t no moderate when you read his mail. I bet the voters in Johnson County would be interested in that fact, huh David?:

The details are even more fun. From the piece above:

Sometimes it can be nice to have your “independent” republican friends drop $75,000.00 into your primary.

Hmmm, boasting that he made sure poor people and poor children have no health insurance. That’s republican family values for you…

All by his lonesome self. Yeah, dumping that MOHELA thingy means that it’s a lot more expensive for Missouri students to go to college. Way to go, Einstein…

Yes, there’s that fake movie set office, but there’s something vaguely familiar about that tie.

Ooh, look! Here’s another piece – this time David Pearce’s campaign paid for it. Gee, it looks kind of familiar, you know, with the same fonts:

If you scrimp and save and loan your own campaign $49,000.00, you too, could send out familiar looking mail pieces.

Evidently the cost of all that mail and those loans doesn’t leave you any money to buy a different tie for the photo shoot. Come on, work with us here. At least attempt to make those other mailings look like “independent” expenditures.

Yeah, on that jobs thingy, how have the last six years worked out for you? A word of advice – placing the word “cutting” in close proximity twice to the word “jobs” isn’t going to go over well with voters subjected to this limping republican economy. Just sayin’. You know, because anyone with a basic grasp of reality knows that the job situation ain’t exactly rosy.

And who paid for the next mail piece? It’s from the republican right wingnut campaign playbook – noun, verb, anti-choice:

If you’re a republican candidate you never have to worry about raising money for your campaign, your “independent” friends will pay for things. And they’ll throw in a meaningless “fake” endorsement to boot.

Uh, yeah, we pointed this out last time. It’s just plain stupid to say that we should pass a law to make something illegal when it’s already illegal. And then there’s those raging radicals at Planned Parenthood, running through our high schools and forcing pregnant teens to get abortions. Next thing you know, they’ll plant tracking chips in our brains…

You all know what to do. Chris Benjamin (D).

Somebody spent an awful lot of money on David Pearce’s (r – advocate of automotive deer hunting) senate primary campaign and it wasn’t his campaign (well, yeah, he spent some money, too).

Okay, what’s with the baby photo? Is that supposed to be subtly catering to the right wingnut anti-choice republican base?

So who paid for this, and what did they spend?

Uh, where did these folks get those charming high quality family photos? Public domain?

Okay, let’s take a look at the Majority Fund’s 8 day before the election campaign finance filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission on July 28th:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe: MAJORITY FUND INC

ReportDate: 07/27/2008

Axiom Strategies LLC Kansas City, MO 07/15/2008 mail production and posta $74,901.90

[emphasis added]

Axiom Strategies. Axiom Strategies. Where have I seen that before? Oh, yeah, around the same time David Pearce spent some  money on whatever Axiom Strategies does. They must have a lot of people in their offices. Nah.:

Detailed Summary of Expenditures And Contributions Made

Committe: PEARCE 08

ReportDate: 7/28/2008

Axiom Strategies Kansas City MO 07/20/2008 Campaign Mail $44,839.76

What did all those expenditures get David Pearce (r)?:

The county by county primary results, courtesy of the Missouri Secretary of State:

Bates County

State Senator – District 31 Precincts Reporting 16 of 16

Rector, Rex REP 733 59.1%

Pearce, David REP 507 40.9% [loss]

Benjamin, Chris DEM 1,686 100.0%

Total Votes   2,926

Cass County

State Senator – District 31 Precincts Reporting 48 of 48

Rector, Rex REP 3,416 54.3%

Pearce, David REP 2,876 45.7% [loss]

Benjamin, Chris DEM 5,071 100.0%

Total Votes   11,363

Johnson County

State Senator – District 31 Precincts Reporting 11 of 11

Rector, Rex REP 431 15.5%

Pearce, David REP 2,348 84.5% [win]

Benjamin, Chris DEM 2,092 100.0%

Total Votes   4,871

Vernon County

State Senator – District 31 Precincts Reporting 17 of 17

Rector, Rex REP 491 47.9%

Pearce, David REP 533 52.1% [win]

Benjamin, Chris DEM 1,873 100.0%

Total Votes   2,897

Counting in the chunk of change Pearce spent on Kansas City radio I figure Bates and Cass Counties cost him about $40.00 a vote. Holy cow. It would have been easier and cheaper to buy everyone in each county a steak dinner.

Maybe some people should ask for their money back.

The word on the ground in Bates and Cass Counties was that they were inundated with mailings in support of David Pearce. I have yet to hear about similar mailings in Johnson County. Probably because the texts were so, well, you know, right wingnutty. And that probably wouldn’t go over very well in Johnson County because, you know, David Pearce is a moderate. Yeah, and I have a bridge I could sell you in Brooklyn.

Here’s some of the details from a mailing:

That one won’t go over very well in Johnson County, David.

Johnson County

Constitutional Amendment No. 2 – 2006 Precincts Reporting 21 of 21

Stem Cell Initiative

Yes 8,544 55.7%

No 6,796 44.3%

Total Votes   15,340

[emphasis added]

I wonder if David Pearce is telling us how he voted in 2006. Is that why you didn’t send that mailing to Johnson County voters?

Uh, that’s already the law in the State of Missouri. Talk about pandering to the right wingnut base.

That “agenda” is probably news to Planned Parenthood.

So much for a so-called republican moderate. It’s just so creepily unseemly isn’t it? This blatant brown nosing of the republican right wingnut base.

And so, the republican money flows.

You all know what to do. Chris Benjamin (D).