“We’ve become so good at this that Missouri politicians could give seminars to Colombian drug lords on how to launder money,” Missouri State Senator Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph)

So instead of enforcing the rules on campaign contributions, just chuck ’em?  Is that really the message that the state lege is trying to send?   That is the net effect of a piece of legislation ramrodded through the state Senate by the wingnut “money equals speech” majority on Wednesday.  The legislation, sponsored by Shields, removes limits on political contributions in state and local races.  Because, according to Shields, the limits had done little to stanch the flow of money and influence.  Instead of operating within the rules, they instead encourage fundraisers and politicians to create ways to sidestep the rules.  Never mind that they are sticking a thumb in the eye of the voters, who, in 1994 passed the rules into law by a ballot initiative.

Senator Jeff Smith, Democrat of St. Louis, said the entire Senate should be ashamed.  “We are inviting powerful special interests to have even greater sway over the policy process than they already do,” Smith said.  

An effort to submit the matter to a vote of the people was shot down on a party-line vote, with 20 Republicans overruling 11 Democrats. Republicans also defeated a proposal to delay the repeal until Jan. 1 to avoid changing the rules in the middle of this year’s campaigns.

Instead, the Senate adopted a clause that would make the repeal take effect as soon as the governor signs it, rather than on Aug. 28, shortly after the primary election and just before the start of the fall campaign.

Senators gave the repeal preliminary approval on a voice vote after nearly five hours of debate. It still must receive final Senate approval before going to the House, where it enjoys significant support.

The legislature previously repealed the limits effective Jan. 1, 2007, but the law was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. During six months of unlimited contributions, Gov. Matt Blunt received as much as $300,000 from one Texas couple. Several senators received as much as $40,000 from a single contributor.

C’mon Missouri!  This isn’t what you had in mind when you elected these jackals to protect you from the non-existent threats of gay marriage, abortion and drivable roads, is it?  Have you seen enough of these towering dumbasses yet?  Can we get a Democratic majority in at least one chamber come November?  These greedy Publican bastards simply can’t be trusted.

People in Blue States who think Missouri is reliably red are sadly off-base.  It was only in 2000 that the MOGOP finally got their corrupt, fetid fingers around the levers of power, thanks to term limits, which has had the net effect of destroying civility and changing the attitude in Jeff City from  one of cross-party  cooperation to one of “screw you and screw your constituents.”

Well, it turns out that Missourians are more than just a tad sick of the juvenile antics and reckless disregard and selfish scorn for the greater good of the state we all call home that the MOGOP personifies.

And we haven’t even addressed his war on Missouri women yet, but rest assured that my St. Louis sister in the struggle, Angry Black Bitch, and I will be reminding everyone for the next 50+ weeks that Matt Blunt has, since his first moment in office, been the most anti-woman, misogynistic ass ever to lead the state.  Issues important to women were the first victims of his budget-cuts.  He tried to kill the First Steps program (and failed miserably in that quest).  He eliminated family planning and contraceptive funds from county health departments, and put a gag-order in place that prevented employees of those agencies from even telling the poor women served by those agencies where the services might still be available.  He poured acid on the social safety net, reducing the level to receive benefits to the point where a single mother of two who earned more than $350 per month was considered too well-heeled to receive Medicaid for her children.  Kansas City immediately had a hissy-fit and passed an additional sales tax to fund Truman Medical Center and the public health clinics that serve the poor in our community.  Matty B has seen a steady erosion of support ever since he took aim at the poor residents of a largely rural and poor state. 

Recent polling in Missouri shows Hillary Clinton mopping the floor with every Republican contender, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published the results of a poll today that has embattled governor Matt Blunt getting absolutely destroyed in next years gubernatorial race by Jay Nixon, the current Attorney General – who we have elected to that statewide office four times. 

Matt Blunt has been an unmitigated disaster for this state, and we are all counting down the days until January 20, 2009 – which will signal the end of not one error, but two.