Interesting: Peter Kinder emceed Rick Santorum's campaign stop in Cape Girardeau this weekend. Santorum made the Cape campaign stop at the invitation of Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. 

"The undertow of dissatisfaction that haunts the GOP presidential field appears to extend to the Republican lineup for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat."

~Steve Kraske

Here's video of Birther Tim Jones complaining about Tony Messenger and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for printing things he doesn't like -- especially this editorial.  The reporter asking the questions in the clip sounds like the Rudi Keller, who later wrote about Jones' day-long twitter tantrum for the Tribune here. 

Thanks to President Obama's anti-job policies and socialism, 3.9 MILLION jobs have been created in the private sector over the last 24 months.

Allen Icet, former House Budget Chairman and President of the Missouri Club for Growth, is on the Bill Randles bandwagon.  Speaking at the Saint Louis County Lincoln Day on Saturday, March 6: 

Folks, my friends, and I have a lot of friends in the room, what we need in this state is not necessarily just a Republican governor. We need a Republican governor that has that vision for this state. Bill Randles has that vision, so please join me in welcoming Bill to the platform.

h/t BuzzFeed

Yes, that Rod Jetton.  "In a construction sector typically unconcerned with brand image, Jetton has worked roughly two years to market [Schultz & Summers Engineering's] civil engineering, land surveying and materials testing services."

It's time for Flip Flopper Mitt to get back to his realness - that privileged, buttoned up rich guy personae.The whole open shirt, jeans, blue collar regular guy thing is not working for him. Besides the fact that he looks so uncomfortable with regulars guys, he continuously steps all over the image he is desperately trying to project. He worries about getting pink slipped, they drive a couple of Cadillacs, and he knows NASCAR owners rather than follows NASCAR. This identity phobia is not limited to Mitt. Ann says she doesn't feel wealthy. Apparently even a 13.9% tax rate takes too much for a secure life. It's hard to look like a regular Joe when you jump on the "I'm a big deal" bullet train. Mitt Romney "used a private, VIP Registry of Motor Vehicles office Wednesday to renew his Massachusetts driver's license, avoiding the lines and the aggravation that have been synonymous with the agency," the Boston Globe reports.

Miss Liberty thinks Mitt Romney would be better served to put his suit and tie back on and just run as a really, really rich guy. She concedes that he's not as rich as really, really, really rich guy The Donald, but he is rich enough.

Birther Tim Jones, the House Republicans' Majority Floor Leader and Speaker-Elect for the 2013-2014 legislative session, has joined in on the obscene right-wing attacks on Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke. This is the same activist, of course, who has been the subject of ongoing, virulent, and misogynistic attacks from Rush Limbaugh after she argued before a Congressional panel that health insurers should be required to cover contraception. 

Apparently taking his cues from Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly, Birther Tim accused Fluke of being a "fraud" and "pawn" who somehow duped the 'sucker lamestream media.'  

O'Reilly has been attacking Fluke on his TV since at least March 2. 

Being a scientist - I can call myself that since I have a background in Political Science, right? - it's always really frustrating when, after spending ages collecting my data, it doesn't support my hypothesis.  When this sort of occurence happens, I go by the old when all else fails, manipulate the data rule of science (global warming style, ya know).  Because of this, you'll imagine my surprise that someone who doesn't have a degree in science would know of this, especially since those of us scientists tend to keep this on the DL so no one calls us on our faulty experiments until 20 years later and we're teaching at one of those left-wing, brain-washing, elitist universities and can't be fired because we finally have tenure, to see that none other than degree-fudging home economist expert Dave Spence did exactly what we in science do!

You'll remember that governor wannabe Dave Spence had a poll running on his website yesterday asking if we should be more like Wisconsin and Ohio and try busting unions here in Missouri.  Well, the data Spence was collecting wasn't really going his way - when I checked yesterday afternoon, the question of whether we should keep Gov. Nixon and not bust unions was well ahead with 74% of the vote!  SEVENTY-FOUR PERCENT.  That's almost a 3-1 margin AGAINST Spence on his own website. See below:

The Post-Dispatch's Tony Messenger: "There might be no better symbol of what a sexist place the Missouri Capitol often is than a bust of Rush Limbaugh, the nation's foremost misogynist. Much like their Republican colleagues in Washington, D.C., Missouri House Republicans shut women out of their recent floor debate over contraception. The move was hardly unique. Ask almost any woman of any political party who has spent much time in the Missouri Capitol and she will have a story of sexism to pass on."

Post-Dispatch: "A group of influential Republicans headed by former Sen. John Danforth and fundraisining dynamo Sam Fox are pressing state auditor Tom Schweich to join the already crowded primary contest for Missouri's GOP nomination for the Senate....The[ir] letter demonstrates a lack of faith in the potential of the trio of GOP contestants vying to take on McCaskill, whose vulnerabilities have showed up in public and private polls. Former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, of Rolla, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, of Wildwood, and wealthy St. Louis businessman John Brunner are competing to challenge McCaskill."

Oops, he did it again.

I'm not sure if anyone is still keeping track after Romney's months of flip-flopping, but Mitt Romney succumbed to the GOP Establishment on Monday and is now *against* raising the minimum wage.

The mostly unnoticed switch was unearthed by Yahoo! News, who I thought only reported tidbits about Snooki, Ochocinco and the like.

"There's probably not a need to raise the minimum wage," the Republican front-runner told CNBC's Larry Kudlow on Monday.

As recently as January, Romney said he was in favor of a hike in the minimum wage. "My view has been to allow the minimum wage to rise with the CPI [Consumer Price Index] or with another index so that it adjusts automatically over time,"... And he confirmed that stance last month, telling reporters: "I haven't changed my thoughts on that."

Emphasis added.

The Revenge Candidacy Threat

Dandy Schweich

"Transparency"

Post-Dispatch Freakout

'Putting His Finger in the Wind' for 2010 Senate Run

E.S. Schubert released the following statement this morning about the Rush Limbaugh bust commissioned by Speaker Steve Tilley: 

I was honored when Speaker Tilley selected me to sculpt Buck O’Neil, a shining example of humanity. I was honored when he commissioned me to sculpt Dred Scott, an icon in civil rights history. And I was honored when Tilley commissioned me for yet another sculpture in the Hall of Famous Missourians; this time, Rush Limbaugh, an entertainer who says provocative things. As a sculptor I decided long ago that the criteria for accepting commissions would be whether or not they are artistically interesting. I knew this would be an interesting project due to the fact that there are strong opinions on either side about Rush. Those strong feelings challenge me to create a portrait that each viewer sees the way that they want to see it. Again, I am a sculptor, sculpting is what I do. If it were left to sculptors to choose who was honored with portraits, the entire history of portraiture would look dramatically different.

What you see above is a poll that Republican Home Economist in Chief of Missouri wannabe Dave Spence is running on his website. Please go ahead and take a minute to vote in it to let Spence know your thoughts on the issue.  It essentially asks whether or not we should attack workers and bust their unions.  He couches the question in terms of whether Missouri should be more like Ohio and Wisconsin where last year their republican governors passed legislation that stripped workers, particularly public workers like firefighters and police, teachers and nurses, and other critical public servants, of their rights to organize and bargain collectively for fair wages and just benefits.

I just have one question for Spence: Are ya not paying attention to what the voters in Ohio and Wisconsin have to say about your union busting buddies, Kasich and Walker?  Below is a crash course:

Bloomberg News' Greg Giroux has the scoop: "'[Missouri Auditor Tom] Schweich for US Senate' papers filed."  The treasurer for the committee is  Joseph Passanise, who serves in the same role for Schweich's State Auditor campaign.