With the news of Roy Blunt having his own illegal housekeeper problem, it’s worth highlighting this quote before we go deep into this post.

“I decided that if the guy you know best at Immigration and Naturalization happens to be the person in charge, then it’s all right to direct your correspondence to him”

Perhaps the most illuminating part of the story released on Tuesday is that it shows once again the Roy Blunt philosophy on government. The Roy Blunt philosophy of government seems to involve his family and allies getting first dibs and the rest of us getting the leftovers.

Roy Blunt is someone who asked “How bad do you want this job to be?” when criticized for riding the pay-raise train over his 14 years in Congress. It’s not about doing the right thing, it’s about the power and privilege and the ability to have it trickle down to the friends and family.

Back in 1990 when he was pulling out the stops for someone who his campaign wants you to believe was just helpful at church events, Roy Blunt was showing a preview of what we know he has done in the last 14 years in Congress. Also when it comes to the Dora Narvaez story, there must have been a lot of church events, some of which must have occurred at Roy Blunt’s house, since Dora Narvaez said that she worked for Blunt.

For someone whose political peak before moving up the Republican ladder involved pointing out that Bill Webster was engaging in Pay for Play in a memorable ad, Roy Blunt rode the pay for play merry-go-round to new horizons. Look at UPS, who rode the merry-go-round, giving thousands to Blunt, employing Andy Blunt as a lobbyist, and getting favors from Congress (such as the 2003 Night Assault). To be a bit more fair, A lot of companies employed Andy Blunt, just check out the list. Enough companies employ Andy Blunt as a lobbyist that he can survive as the unpaid campaign manager to Roy Blunt.

I’m sure that the rise of Andy Blunt to “lobbyist for the stars” was a merit hiring from the beginning (hey, you don’t know if they have a lobbyist civil service exam!) and not a avenue to improve relations with a virtuous noble man like Roy Blunt. If you think a successful unpaid campaign manager who doubled as a lobbyist for 21 companies (with many more that he worked for in the past) isn’t making up for lost income if his dad is elected in 2 weeks, then you have too much confidence for your own good.

The twisting of the Wind Farm into some sort of sinister fable where Obama personally inserted money for Tom Carnahan to repay Robin for the election just scores how little they have on Robin Carnahan and how defensive they have to be when it comes to Roy Blunt’s record. It’s almost like you need to use a funhouse mirror to distort reality to match what they’ve said about the wind farm.

The Universal Rules of Politics include “There will be food at events that you won’t pay for”, “Every politician wishes they were an only child at least once”, and “Attack someone on something which is a weekness of yours”. Let’s just say that Blunt proved a universal rule in the last months.

There’s a risk of turning a story of Roy Blunt’s friends and family pay for play plan into an internet version of In-a-gadda-da-vida. After all, both his unpaid campaign manager and his wife can be referenced in regards to the Philip Morris incident of 2002. You could figure out how many corporate jets Roy Blunt rode on and if he could explain them all away. You could drag the failed One-term Governor Matt Blunt out of the obscurity that he was sentenced to in order to reference some more great moments in the history of Roy Blunt’s friends and family plan. Heck, you could even make the liner notes out of ten pages of “Roy Blunt unfit to lead“. Some politicians only produce corruption in concentrated pellets, Roy Blunt has produced an assembly line of corruption for 14 years.

The Blunt saga hasn’t been completely told this morning. There’s still more to be told and more to be unveiled.

So.. In conclusion, The United States Senate is a body whose members wield heavy hammers and the potential to make things happen, either positive things for the nation or positive things for a very few.

The record of Roy Blunt as a House member is enough to be pretty sure that his election to the Senate would be Christmas day for the corporations and the professional lobbyists who have rode the friends and family pay to play merry-go-round with Roy Blunt for 14 years.

After all, why would he change his way of doing business in the next six years if he’s rewarded on November 2nd?

If you say something often enough, it becomes true. Which is why I’m eventually going to be dating supermodels.

Perhaps the Stimulus was more of a gauze than anything else. Especially if you believe the CBO when they say that The Stimulus prevented another depression. And there’s that whole thing where the ‘official’ recession ended, which leads up to the current stabilization. Sadly, a stabilization in the realm of “lousy” is not enough and economic stimulus/acceleration still has to be done to get things going. The same “tax cut everybody and hope it works this time” Republican voodoo is not quite enough here. (Assuming that the Republican strategy isn’t “wait until 2013”, of course)

Oh yeah, the flier.. almost forgot about the rest.

Taxpayer Grants that their company was always qualified for (pre and post-Obama). Taxpayer Grants that the Republicans supported, until someone they don’t want in office is running.

As for the executives. Unless you wish to argue that the Wind Capital Group has invisible supplementary executives, the three higher-ups listed as donors are Tom Carnahan, Baumgardner, and George Knapp. We’re not gonna seriously be shocked that someone would give thousands to his younger sister’s campaign, are we? And in the shadowy conspiracy world that this idea operates in, then the guy who got the favor would be Russ Carnahan (seeing as he’s an actual member of Congress), and how much did Russ get from Baumgardner and Knapp? $0

Obviously the evils of wind power know no bounds.

Then again, does Roy really want to bring favors to family into play? because his imaginary accusations can be countered some pretty solid facts.

And here’s the works cited page (plus the info on the sender of today’s mail)

Wonder how many Republican mailers you need to hook to a turbine before you can power a laptop? I’ve been looking into going green.

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.  

If you’re reading this site, the odds are that you know that the Roy Blunt you’re seeing on the television is not the Roy Blunt that wants to become a US Senator. They look similar, so you can’t be blamed for confusing them, but when you take out a coin and scratch the surface then anybody can see the show being put on by Roy Blunt to hide his views. Not to be confused with the show being put on by Roy Blunt to avoid televised debates. It’s easier to twist reality when nobody around you can call you on your lies and tactics.

I will admit, he does have novel ways of volunteer motivation.

“Media reports 17 environmental extremists are in Mo. to campaign for my opponent. Help us recruit 17 new volunteers”

Specifically 17. That number might drop to 16 if one of them discovers a love for fossil fuels. Good thing he didn’t look at a ketchup bottle before setting a volunteer goal. (Nobody tell him about the pipers piping or Calling Birds who are volunteering for the campaign, ok)

Then on the trail of the Real Roy Blunt, there’s how he talks to his AM radio base. Nothing says responsible like gunfire towards your opponent’s attacks. (there’s also the pulled internet-only ad with WTC rubble that was ‘accidentally’ posted weeks ago). You’d probably see a Blunt/Carnahan debate moderated by Keith Olbermann before he goes AM talk radio over the network airwaves.

There’s two Roy Blunts, one who dislikes bailouts and puts on a “reasonable” act, and one who supports corporate bailouts and votes right-wing first. There’s only one Robin Carnahan.

the topic title is satirical, don’t sue us Fox

An assortment of reactions to Faux News standing up for Roy Blunt (and for Chris Wallace’s self esteem) against Robin Carnahan ads (nobody tell Chris Wallace, just tell him that he is somebody and pat his head).

Fired Up! Missouri: “Bloomberg  reports that Fox is complaining that “The Carnahan ad is designed to make it appear as if Wallace — a trusted journalist — is instead speaking as a campaign operative.”  This is obviously absurd.  The power of the ad comes from the fact that Wallace is a journalist, not a campaign operative.”

DailyKos: “The suit alleges that the ad makes it appear that Fox and Wallace are endorsing Carnahan. It’s an absurd claim, since obviously nowhere in the 2006 interview are Carnahan or Blunt’s Senate run mentioned. But we know that isn’t the real issue; in fact, this isn’t the first time they’ve demanded Democrats pull ads for this reason — and naturally, they’ve been fine with Republicans using their footage.”

Talking Points Memo:

“This is the only case that I know of where a broadcast news organization has sued a political campaign over use of news footage in an ad,” Ben Sheffner, a lawyer who specializes in copyright issues and writes the Copyrights & Campaigns blog, told TPM. “There’s been a number of disputes over this issue, but they never got to a court case, that I’m aware.”

AmericaBlog: “Who knew Chris Wallace was such a delicate little flower? FOX will do anything for Blunt and other GOPers — even file a lawsuit that makes its leading reporter sound like a thin-skinned, fragile prima donna. Meanwhile, Robin is undaunted. She’s keeping the ad on the air.”

America Blog has an ActBlue page for Robin if you’re interested in that sort of thing after any recent events. Or donate here if you wanna be direct about it.

And this isn’t finished yet.

At least if you believe the National Review’s expectations that total doom awaits because Robin Carnahan’s vote total didn’t beat Roy Blunt’s in St. Louis County. (They had to be reminded that STL City is it’s own entity, but still, obviously they’re experts)

So here’s the map.

The overall totals were 64% of votes cast for the Republicans running for the Senate, and 35% cast for the Democrats. Which can be categorized as a lousy turnout on our side. After all, with zero competitive state primaries and 99 degree heat in KC (and apparently a lot of heat in STL too), don’t we know that we’re just supposed to automatically vote?

Also, if you believe the people who are either going to lean on Carnahan/Blunt totals, or turnout. Then obviously everybody voting in the Democratic primary was a Democrat and everybody voting in the Republican primary was a Republican. I’d imagine in their world, people were picking up Republican ballots, not because there were lots of competitive visible races in their primary, but because they’re all diehard Republicans now. (And goodness forbid, I doubt any Democrats voted in Republican primaries, because doing that would make them melt. Kind of like garlic to vampires.)

MO-7, MO-4, SD6 (Jeff City Area), SD28 (It’s shaped oddly), SD8, SD2 (could you blame a St. Charles Dem who’d vote against Cynthia Davis?). None of those had any influence on the turnout, i’m sure.

The last year has not been the model of how to do various political things, nationally or otherwise. But at the same time, beating an entrenched DC Republican is not supposed to be easy. It might be irony if voters who are mad at DC politics elected a master of DC politics, but it’d be more sad for the state. So 64-35 is ridiculous. But you know that’s not how it breaks down in November.

{First, a cheap plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

I just wanted to remind everyone that today (Wednesday) is the final day of the first fundraising quarter of 2010.  The fundraising totals reported by federal candidates will help determine their relative strength as we head toward Election Day 2010.

Please contribute as generously as you can today.

For instance, you can contribute to Robin Carnahan’s campaign for U.S. Senate via my Expand the Map! ActBlue page.  On it, Robin has 49 contributions.  Can you be contribution number 50?

(Remember: every contribution you make to Robin via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page is not only a show of support for Robin but an investment toward Roy Blunt’s long overdue retirement!)

Consider this an open thread.

{First, a quick plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

As we await the historic vote on health care reform, it’s important to remember that we’re just ten days away from the end of the first fundraising quarter of 2010.  The fundraising totals reported in this quarter will be pivotal to determining the tenor of many races for the rest of the year.  If there is any time to contribute, now is the time!

Please head over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and contribute whatever you are able to these terrific Democratic candidates for Senate.

Remember, the contribution you can make isn’t just a donation to a single candidate or political campaign.  It’s an investment against Republican obstruction (and conservaDem enabling) and an investment toward achieving that more perfect union.

{First, a cheap plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

The last day of the third fundraising quarter of 2009 (whoa, time really flies!) is tomorrow.  Our Democratic candidates for Senate – including Missouri’s own Robin Carnahan – need to make as big a fundraising splash as possible in the third quarter to help refute the growing conventional wisdom among the traditional media pundits that 2010 could be a Republican year.  And Missouri will be a high-profile bellwether.

Please, please, please consider making a contribution today to Robin Carnahan and our other Democratic candidates for Senate via the Expand the Map! ActBlue page.  Robin is more than three-quarters of the way to $1,000 on the page.

Can you help us raise just $238 for Robin Carnahan in the next 48 hours?

Please click on over to the Expand the Map! ActBlue page and make a contribution to help stop ongoing Republican obstruction in the Senate.  Need some motivation?  Imagine having to say Senator Roy Blunt!  Scary, right?  Every contribution makes a real impact whether it’s $100 or $25 or $10 or, well, any amount.  Want to rebel against multiples of five and contribute $63 or $39 or $27, knock yourself out!

Remember, the fundraising quarter ends tomorrow, so please contribute today if you can.  Thank you SO much!

{First, a cheap plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

Senate Guru set up the Expand the Map! ActBlue page to raise funds for Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate.  Missouri’s Robin Carnahan was an inaugural member of the 2010 edition of the page.

Right at this moment, Robin Carnahan is right on the brink of passing the $500 mark on the Expand the Map! ActBlue page.

Your $50 or $25 or $10 contribution right now can help nudge her past the $500 mark.  That would be awesome.  Thanks SO much in advance if you’re able to chip in.