Via Jason Hancock:

Sam Richardson @carlyle65270

Retired/resigned #MO #House #Speakers w/hefty campaign warchests: 2015 John Diehl $230k, 2014 Tim Jones $860k, 2012 Steve Tilley $675k. 11:54 PM – 18 May 2015

Well, let’s take a look, via the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C081331: Friends Of Diehl

2404 White Stable Road Committee Type: Candidate

Town & Country Mo 63131 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 07/01/2008

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2015 – April Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $286,993.40

Monetary Receipts + $49,400.00

Monetary Expenditures – $73,040.60

Contributions Made – $0.00

Other Disbursements – $32,776.09

Subtotal     ($56,416.69)

Ending Money On Hand   $230,576.71

[emphasis added]

Election Year Primary Outcome General Outcome Political Office

2020 Statewide Office

[emphasis added]

That’s a long way off. Maybe the voters will forget.

And:

C051087: Missourians For Tim Jones

Po Box 434 Committee Type: Candidate

Eureka Mo 63025 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 04/01/2005

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2015 – April Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $917,283.11

Monetary Receipts + $5,179.81

Monetary Expenditures – $42,447.39

Contributions Made – $18,700.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     ($55,967.58)

Ending Money On Hand   $861,315.53

Election Year Primary Outcome General Outcome Political Office

2016 Statewide Office

[emphasis added]

And:

C031160: Friends Of Tilley

Po Box 555 Committee Type: Candidate

Perryville Mo 63775 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 08/19/2003

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2015 – April Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $680,910.67

Monetary Receipts + $0.00

Monetary Expenditures – $4,419.90

Contributions Made – $0.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     ($4,419.90)

Ending Money On Hand   $676,490.77

[emphasis added]

Election Year Primary Outcome General Outcome Political Office

2016 Statewide Office

2012 Lieutenant Governor

[emphasis added]

All that money just sitting there. Think of the contributors.

And for the present:

C091212: Friends Of Todd Richardson

Po Box 310 Committee Type: Candidate

Poplar Bluff Mo 63902 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 09/01/2009

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2015 – April Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $81,491.74

Monetary Receipts + $24,875.00

Monetary Expenditures – $30,341.06

Contributions Made – $500.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     ($5,966.06)

Ending Money On Hand   $75,525.68

[emphasis added]

Give it time.

Speaker Pro Tem Denny Hoskins (r) [January 2014 file photo].

Speaker Pro Tem Denny Hoskins (r) sent out his constituent legislative update this morning. He ended it with a comment about the last week:

[….]

House Elects a New Speaker

Immediately upon convening on Friday, Speaker of the House John Diehl resigned his position and the body unanimously elected Representative Todd Richardson Speaker of the House.  Following a front-page story, the House GOP caucus determined that we would accept the choice of Speaker Diehl to resign his leadership position and his seat.  Speaker Richardson will be a wonderful leader and I look forward to serving with him.

Uh, did he say the front page story was the reason for accepting the resignation? Or was it the inappropriate behavior? Just asking.

Previously:

Ruh, roh… (May 13, 2015)

What? We’re all what? May 13, 2014)

A big Diehl in Jefferson City (May 14, 2015)

No Diehl in Jefferson City (May 14, 2015)

A new leaf? (May 15, 2015)

John Diehl’s precipitous retirement (May 15, 2015)

The Speaker of the Missouri House, John Diehl (R-89), just resigned. He seems to have been carrying on an affair with a nineteen year old student intern and he rather stupidly let his id override common sense when it came to exchanging salacious tweets that have now been made public. Is anyone really surprised? It’s an old story. Diehl is far from the first politician to let his exaggerated sense of self-importance fog his brain when it came to exercising what must have seemed like a perquisite of office, especially given the otherwise anything goes culture of the Missouri GOP.

But as gratifying as it is to see a hypocrite exposed, nobody is claiming that the young woman was coerced by Diehl. Politicians, no matter how personally unappealing, seem to have their groupies too – power, they say, is a potent aphrodisiac and Diehl was a big poohbah in the little Missouri political tent. No matter what  you think about it, since it doesn’t rise to the level of illegality, what Diehl did was his own business. It only concerns him, his family and the intern. When Bill Clinton’s intern came to light, I said the same thing and I’m not going to change my tune now.

Don’t get me wrong. From an aesthetic point of view Diehl’s behavior seems seriously sad and creepy. There’s also the hypocrisy factor which probably justifies some of the outcry. Diehl is, as you might have guessed, one of those GOP “family values” types with a particularly strong enthusiasm for anti-gay panders:

Earlier this year, Diehl and the president pro-tempore of the state Senate filed an amicus brief in defense of the state’s anti-gay-marriage amendment, leading the Missouri Family Policy Council, the state affiliate of the Family Research Council, to praise the speaker “for demonstrating moral leadership and true integrity in standing up for the sacred institution of marriage and the family values of the people of Missouri.” The state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention thanked him for “fighting to defend biblical marriage.”

Seems a bit ironic now. Diehl has also pushed abortion restrictions during his tenure, co-sponsored a 2012 bill prohibiting Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools, and tried to restrict the availability of birth control insurance coverage for those whose employers want to claim religious privilege to defy the law.

All in all, Diehl’s pose as a thorough-going, rightwing Christian warrior makes his dirty old man routine especially revolting. But he’s got lots of company in the GOP in recent years. And many of these Christian sinners have continued to be re-elected – does the name David Vitter ring a bell – by constituents who evidently care more about what politicians do in office than when they go home. Correctly, I think.

Nevertheless, I have to admit that I’m enjoying the public way that the chickens have come home to roost for Rep. Diehl and I’ll be more than glad to see the back of him. But it isn’t because of his sleazy sexual behavior. When it comes to official malfeasance, there are far more serious charges to level against Diehl in his role as leader and enabler for the legislative GOP in Missouri. We mustn’t fail to give him a double-sized helping of credit for:

— 700 Missourians who will die unnecessarily every year because of the failure of the GOPers in Jefferson City to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid.

—  6,300 of Missouri’s poorest children who will loose welfare benefits.

— Putting legal guns in felons’ hands. Along with everybody else’s.

— Underfunding education. Yet again.

— Decimating social service agencies’ funding and then blaming the agencies for the resulting dysfunction.

— Refusing to fund crucial infrastructure needs. While bridges face collapse and highway repair needs are triaged.

— Beggaring the state to give tax cuts to the wealthy, who shovel the excess back into campaign coffers by the handfuls. In Missouri those greenbacks don’t just exercise their free speech rights, they shout.

— Pushing through Right-to-Work-For-Less legislation – a big wet kiss on ALEC’s corporate backside and and kick in the face to Missouri’s working middle class.

There’s more, of course. And I didn’t even touch on Diehl’s behind the scenes embrace of the corruption that runs rampant in Jefferson City. Thanks to Diehl and his like-minded cronies in the statehouse, Missourians might just as well give up and accept the coming blight. And as long as public  immorality is defined in terms of private sexual behavior rather than in terms of public corruption and indifference to the needs of the state’s citizens, we’re not likely to see much difference, no matter which on-the-make GOP clone takes Diehl’s place. But it does do a body good to see one of the malefactors frogmarched, metaphorically speaking, out of office.

* Edited slightly for clarity’ three links added.  

Speaker John Diehl (r) is resigning his leadership position and his House seat.

Mo. House Speaker John Diehl Jr. resigns after sexting scandal

Diehl will also give up his Missouri Legislature seat

1:42 PM CDT May 14, 2015

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -House Speaker John Diehl Jr. has announced his resignation from the Missouri Legislature following the revelation that he exchanged sexually charged text messages with an intern.

Related

“Too often we hear leaders say they’re sorry but are unwilling to accept the consequences,” Diehl said in his resignation statement. “I understand that, as a leader, I am responsible for my actions and I am willing to face the consequences…”

[….]

“I have acknowledged making a serious error in judgment by sending the text messages. It was wrong and I am truly sorry. Too often we hear leaders say they’re sorry but are unwilling to accept the consequences. I understand that, as a leader, I am responsible for my actions and I am willing to face the consequences.”

[….]

In the Twitterverse:

Tony Messenger ‏@tonymess

It wasn’t the affair that did in @johndiehljr. It wasn’t the salacious texts. It was the fact that in the end, he lied to too many people. 1:38 PM – 14 May 2015

When will they ever learn?

Scott Charton ‏@ScottCharton

An agitated Senate adjourned under rules til Friday, last day of #moleg, while House roils in leadership upheaval. Unheard-of bedlam. 1:38 PM – 14 May 2015

Yael T. Abouhalkah ‏@YaelTAbouhalkah

Q: Would John Diehl still be in power if he had told the truth to The Star when asked 3 weeks ago about sexting with coed? 2:07 PM – 14 May 2015

We’ll never know. Who’s next?

Previously:

Ruh, roh… (May 13, 2015)

What? We’re all what? May 13, 2014)

A big Diehl in Jefferson City (May 14, 2015)

The Speaker of the Missouri House. An intern.

Speaker John Diehl (r) [May 2014 file photo].

Last night Speaker Diehl’s (r) very brief appearance after a long media stakeout didn’t go so well:

Eli Yokley ‏@eyokley

Diehl refused to answer this q: why is it fair for him, the boss, to still be here when the subordinate, he intern, is gone. #MOLeg 11:08 PM – 13 May 2015

Eli Rosenberg ‏@EliKMBC

“I made a stupid mistake” @johndiehljr talked w/ us briefly, then down stairs, through a hall, and into a SUV. #MoLeg  11:30 PM – 13 May 2015

Collin Reischman ‏@CMReischman

@johndiehljr says he did not have sexual relationship with intern in question. Says he will remain as speaker, be here all week. #moleg 11:08 PM – 13 May 2015

Today doesn’t look like it’ll be any better.

Representative Jeremy LeFaver (D):

Jeremy LaFaver ‏@jeremylafaver

Forgiveness shouldn’t mean absolving someone from appropriate consequences. I, too, can forgive. But not with a gavel in your hand. 7:24 AM – 14 May 2015

And pointed:

Alison Dreith ‏@alidreith

After hiding for hours, @johndiehljr emerges from his office SMILING. You can’t make this shit up #moleg #DiehlWatch [….] 7:58 AM – 14 May 2015

JC Elevator ‏@jcelevator

Rep1: What was with the lockdown & #DiehlWatch yesterday? Rep 2: That happens when you replace a #SpinVixen with an intern. #RawDiehl 8:39 AM – 14 May 2015

Scott Charton ‏@ScottCharton

Extra-disturbing is that after #moleg Speaker Diehl made his statement, he got a standing ovation when he walked into GOP caucus. Why? 8:48 AM – 14 May 2015

Easy answer. *IOKIYAR.

Previously:

Ruh, roh… (May 13, 2015)

What? We’re all what? May 13, 2014)

* it’s okay if you’re a republican

Today:

House Speaker releases statement regarding alleged affair with intern

Lindsey Berning, Reporter

POSTED: 04:56 PM CDT May 13, 2015  UPDATED: 05:18 PM CDT May 13, 2015

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri House Speaker John Diehl released a statement Wednesday afternoon in response to an alleged affair with a Capitol intern.

Diehl said, “I take full responsibility for my actions and am truly sorry to those I let down. I apologize for the poor judgment I displayed that put me and those closest to me in this situation. I also regret that the woman has been dragged into this situation. The buck stops here. I ask for forgiveness. I will begin immediately working to restore the trust of those closest to me, and getting back to the important work that is required in the final days of session….”

Then there’s this, from Eli Yokley, via Twitter:

Eli Yokley ‏@eyokley

Slowly but surely, @johndiehljr’s been meeting privately w/ House R’s. The message, per one #MOLeg: “We’re all Christians in this together.” 5:19 PM – 13 May 2015

What?

A few of the responses:

Beganovic ‏@Beganovic_85

@eyokley @johndiehljr I think he meant “we’ll are hypocrites in this together” #moleg #moleg intern 5:25 PM – 13 May 2015

Justin Yeater ‏@justinyeater

@eyokley @johndiehljr What does that even mean? 5:38 PM – 13 May 2015

We have no idea either.

Previously:

Ruh, roh… (May 13, 2015)

Reported today in the Kansas City Star:

Government & Politics

May 13, 2015

Text images between Missouri House Speaker John Diehl and intern reveal sexually charged exchanges

By JASON HANCOCK

jhancock@kcstar.com

Text messages obtained by The Star reveal a sexually charged relationship between House Speaker John Diehl and a college freshman in a Missouri Capitol internship program that shut down abruptly last month.

The conversations unveil a flirty rapport and suggest an intimacy between arguably the state’s most influential lawmaker and a young woman taking some pleasure in a secret association.

The texts show occasional efforts by Diehl and the intern to meet in person. They range from mundane chatter, about boring meetings and dreading speeches, to the more sexually suggestive….

Well, that throws a hand grenade into the end of the legislative session.

And the social media storm is just starting:

JC Elevator ‏@jcelevator

Rep1: Was it intense when the Speaker leaned on you to flip your vote on Right to Work? Rep2: He left me quivering. #RawDiehl #MOLeg 10:59 AM – 13 May 2015

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C081331 CITIZENS FOR DIEHL [pdf] 12/16/2011

Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield

244 Bent Walnut

Westphalia, MO 65085

retired

12/15/2011

$25,000.00

[emphasis added]

Committee Summary

C081331: Citizens For Diehl

2404 White Stable Road Committee Type: Candidate

Town & Country Mo 63131 Party Affiliation: Republican

(314) 805/3570 Established Date: 07/01/2008

Information Reported On: 2011 – October Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $121,556.00

Monetary Receipts + $62,025.00

Monetary Expenditures – $4,436.76

Contributions Made – $15,000.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     $42,588.24

Ending Money On Hand   $164,144.24

[emphasis added]

For a House race? Okay, it’s not so funny anymore.