One of my favorite thing in politics occurs whenever reporters fabricate entire hit pieces on politicians based on “unnamed sources.” David Cantanese bases a thinly-disguised editorial diatribe against Missouri’s Lt. Governor Peter Kinder in this latest example, writing:
Peter Kinder, the front-runner for the GOP nod, hasn’t even officially launched a campaign yet — but he’s already being privately written off by members of his own party.
[…]
“I don’t think he has a chance to beat Gov. Nixon. Every single person that I’ve talked to feels the same way,” said one GOP state senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Everybody loves Jay Nixon and I have to say he’s done a pretty good job. The people I’ve talked to are just resigned to the fact that [Kinder’s] going to run and lose.”
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon blamed a breakdown of communication within his administration for the delay this summer in telling the public about high levels of harmful bacteria at the Lake of the Ozarks.
A State Senator heading a committee looking into the release of E. coli testing results at the Lake of the Ozarks claims there has been an organized cover-up. Senator Brad Lager (R-Savannah) says the Department of Natural Resources has played a key role in standing in the way of the committee that is learning why the release of the results was delayed.
“Since this review began in late July, early August, clearly DNR has made every effort to make this a difficult process,” said Lager in an interview with the Missourinet.
What was it Unnamed Source said? “Every single person?”
As governor, Nixon saw Missouri’s unemployment rate jump from 8% to 9.4% and the state has seen a slow hemorrhage of jobs lost to Kansas and other states as companies skip over the area. It also doesn’t help that Nixon apparently had a habit of not meeting with his economic development director:
Linda Martinez resigned Monday as Missouri’s economic development director.
“I am sorry we have been unable to meet and therefore we have been unable to discuss and reconcile our different views on how to move the state that we both love forward,” Martinez wrote to Gov. Jay Nixon.
[…]
Jorge Riopedre, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis, blasted the Nixon administration for what he called a “firing in political dressing.”
“The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is extremely disappointed in Gov. Nixon,” he said. “We were hoping that Gov. Nixon was not going to be politics as usual and do what needed to be done to (improve) Missouri’s economic development.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but interesting that the Politico piece refused to acknowledge it, instead painting a rather rosy picture of the embattled Democratic governor while attacking his political opponent, all based on those every elusive sources.
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