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?

The Turner Report tells us that:

The corporate hog farming industry just latched on to one of the most powerful lobbyists in Missouri, as if it needed any more help.  Missouri Ethics Commission records indicate Smithfield Foods, Inc., Smithfield, Va., the conglomerate which has swallowed up Murphy Farms and Premium Standard, as of Oct. 15, has former state representative Jewell Patek as its lobbyist.

Considering the in-roads the corporate farms have been making under the administration of Patek’s close friend, Governor Matt Blunt, this does not bode well for Missourians who have been trying to stop the spread and the resulting contamination from these businesses.

To describe Jewell Patek as a close friend of Matt Blunt is like describing Tom Hagen as a friend of the Godfather.  It may be true, but there’s so much more to it. 

Trouble is that the “so much more” is tricky to follow for those of us who just get a paycheck and pay our bills.  We’re not in the habit of following the money.  Take a look, for example, at how Blunt, Patek, et. al., pressured Southwest Missouri State University last year to dump their lobbyist in favor of Patek.  Fired Up! explains how it worked, starting with a quote from a front page, above the fold story in the Columbia Daily Tribune in March of last year:

Patek did not return phone calls seeking comment. When his lobbying firm bid on the SEMO contract in July, the firm offered to do the job for $84,000. The firm listed the governor’s brother, Andy Blunt, “of counsel,” meaning that he was available for legal advice. It also listed Jillian Lair as an associate. Lair is engaged to James Harris, who supervises appointments to boards and commissions in the governor’s office.

It is interesting to note that the contract was approved after Harris had worked to make new appointments to the Board of Regents for SEMO on behalf of Governor Blunt.

This story is entirely consistent with ongoing rumors in the Capitol that the Governor’s office routinely pressures groups to hire Patek’s firm as a lobbyist.

So, Harris works on an appointment to a public body from inside the Governor’s Office, and then a firm that his fiancee, Jillian Lair, works at, that has financial ties to the Governor’s brother, just happens to get a contract from the public body.

This is WAY too cozy. And it’s part of a pattern. There are two other public entities that have hired Patek’s firm after Governor Blunt and Harris made appointments to their boards. Both the Kansas City Police Department and the Jackson County Sports Authority hired Patek-Lair-Blunt’s firm after Blunt appointees joined those governing boards.

Now Smithfield Farms has Patek on the payroll.  That sounds like bad news for those trying to rein in the CAFOs in this state, but consider this: how could Matt Blunt do them any more favors than he’s already been doing?  Short of–what?–jailing the Arrow Rock people who’ve filed a lawsuit against the Department of Natural Resources?–a move way too bald even for Matt Blunt–the governor is already doing all he can.  So Smithfield isn’t angling for more drastic measures, it’s just keeping the payments for services rendered up to date. 

But the folks who are fighting incursions by CAFOs know how to pressure their reps and senators so that, Jewell Patek and Matt Blunt notwithstanding, Smithfield is going to have an increasingly difficult time getting a hearing for any legislation it favors. 

Still, the battle against Smithfield, Tyson, Cargill and MoArk will be uphill until Nixon is elected and appoints someone better than Doyle Childers to head the DNR and until Democrats control the legislature so that bills to rein in the CAFOs can get a hearing at all.

The statewide Dem candidates have said they’re prepared to return over-the-limit campaign contributions, but Republicans?  Their grab-all-you-can legislation created the mess, and now, clutching the boodle to their breasts, they  whine about giving it back like a five year old who wants to keep the neighbor kid’s toys. 

Rep. Jane Cunningham, a St. Louis County Republican who is running for the Senate, said refunds would be unfair because that would help slow-starting campaigns instead of those who hustled to raise funds early. She could be forced to return $35,800. “It’s not the American way to advantage people who have sat on their thumbs,” she said.

If Republicans “hustled”, to use her word, the definition that applies would be this one:  to earn one’s living by illicit or unethical means.

Case in point:

Last June, Matt Blunt took tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from individuals affiliated with the Dairy Farmers of America, a large milk marketing organization with offices in Kansas City.

Now comes word that the Blunt Administration is providing a five year, no-bid contract to DFA to conduct “state” safety testing on the milk it sells.

Yup, they’ve been hustling.

Case in point:  Hard working citizens near Roaring River are fighting the licensing of a CAFO near the state park there.  The Ozbun family, who applied for the CAFO license, isn’t wealthy, but the poultry processor with whom they contracted, George’s, has the scratch to hire well-connected legal talent.

The lawyer the Ozbuns have hired to represent their interests in Jefferson City is Michael Schmid, an associate in the firm of Schreimann, Rackers, Francka & Blunt in Jefferson City. The Blunt in the firm is Andrew Blunt, son of U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt and brother to Gov. Matt Blunt. Matt Blunt appointed Doyle Childers to head the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which licenses and oversees large CAFOs in Missouri.

There is no record of Schmid giving money to Matt Blunt’s 2004 campaign, but the principals in the law firm now representing Ozbun, or the principals’ relatives, gave at least $7,600 to directly underwrite Matt Blunt’s political ambitions in 2004, according to the database maintained by the National Institute for Money in State Politics.

What a bunch of crooks and liars.

That was the hilarious, yet apt, headline in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. For those of you who have missed it, Matt Blunt has included a push for the repeal of Missouri’s ticket scalping law in a special session supposedly devoted to economic development. His brother Andy just happens to be a lobbyist for one of the biggest ticket brokers in the nation, Ticketmaster. The reason given for the push? “[The repeal] will be good for tourism and economic development. It will make it easier for fans to gain access to tickets in a legal and convenient secondary market.”

I’m not sure how allowing brokers to buy up seats for sporting events and concerts and charge exorbitant prices for them makes the market more convenient or better for tourism. If a really good band plays a concert, or a sports team is playing exceptionally well (sadly, neither of our states’ baseball teams is), that’s what’s good for tourism – not the fact that you can get scalped tickets.

And how naive do the Brothers Blunt think we are? Can they really claim with a straight face that their relationship has nothing to do with a bad bill being pushed through in a special session?