Here’s the latest on the Missouri Senate Primary From Hell. To briefly recap, right now the three top contenders for Roy Blunt’s Senate seat are former governor Eric Greitens, the gun totin’ personal injury lawyer from St. Louis Mark McCloskey, and state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, all Republicans.
The Kansas City Star reports that Greitens skipped an important meet and greet Republican gathering in Kansas City so that he could hang around with the Cyber Ninjas at the Arizona Audit, but that Schmitt and McCloskey were there. This is the part of the article that really leaped off the page for me — “Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s Friday night hospitality suite featured an accordion player.” An accordian player? What, are we stuck in an old episode of the Lawrence Welk Show? Seriously?
#SchmittFest is happening… pic.twitter.com/m3XwMEHjci
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) June 12, 2021
SchmittFest is happening! Let your freak flag fly!
“As Greitens spurns a Republican establishment that has largely turned against him,” says the Star, “the other candidates are competing to become the dominant choice of party activists, some of whom fear the former governor, beset by scandal, could put GOP control of the seat in danger.”
Why Greitens would scare the chickens more than McCloskey or Schmitt is not clear to me. As far as issues are concerned, or as much as these specimens care about issues, I don’t see much daylight between them. Back to the KC Star:
In a state where Trump remains extremely popular among Republicans, the Senate candidates are looking for any possible way to tie themselves to the former president. They are playing up Trump-era accomplishments, demonizing Democrats and talking the language of cultural grievance deployed by the former president.
The “issues” pages on the Schmitt and McCloskey campaign websites are remarkably similar and could have been dictated by Tucker Carlson. China is bad! Check. Big Tech is mean! Check. Cancel Culture! Check. Religious freedom (by which they mean the opposite)! Check. Save our elections (by which they mean the opposite)! Check. Save jobs (by which they mean screw the environment and support the fossil fuel industry)! Check. McCloskey tosses in supporting Trump, Critical Race Theory, abortion, and the 2nd Amendment as well.
Greitens’s campaign site doesn’t have an issues page, which I do not find comforting.
According to news stories, both McCloskey and Grietens are still saying that Trump won the 2020 election. It’s not clear to me whether Schmitt is still on board with reinstating Trump, but as I wrote on the earler “from hell” post, Schmitt enthusiastically supported Texas AG Paxton’s stupid lawsuit challenging the presidential election results in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Calls from Schmitt’s office encouraged other Republican state AGs to file amicus briefs in support of the suit, which SCOTUS flushed down the toilet in December.
McCloskey showed up in Kansas City with “Never Back Down” bumper stickers. He did back down recently, however. He and Patricia pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in the infamous protest incident from last summer. They’re paying $3,750 in fines and had their guns taken away. They have new guns now. Stupid plea deal. They should be doing time now for the felonies in the original indictment.
Did I mention that another of McCloskey’s issues is Law and Order? Check.
Oh, and McCloskey is hosting a barbeque and “RINO roast” in St. Louis June 27.
What the “entertainment” is, I do not know. Michael Flynn was supposed to be there — maybe Flynn plays the harmonica — but he has canceled. Perhaps the McCloskeys can replace him with Eric Schmitt’s accordion player.
Back to Eric Greitens’s pilgrimage to Arizona. The Kansas City Star —
Greitens posted multiple videos of his trip to social media and gave numerous interviews to right-leaning media, falsely asserting that the review could lead to decertification of the election.
“I think we’re gonna find out what all of those results are and it’s very clear. If they don’t have the ballots, they don’t have the victory, and then you’re gonna see leaders in Arizona step up to decertify the election. It’s really simple,” Greitens told The Gateway Pundit.
There are other declared Republican Senate candidates; the only one of note is state representative Vicky Hartzler. Hartzler has a long history of campaiging against same-sex marriage and Planned Parenthood. There are Democratic candidates also, but no one I’ve ever heard of, and I’ll have to do some more research on them.
Blessedly, no one is running television ads. Yet.
I realize that conventional wisdom doesn't apply to Trump. He's dumber than a rock and his followers are even dumber. But I gave up trying to appeal to the reason of Trumpsters long ago. I did read the post – I know it's about the MO Senate seat up for grabs, vacated by Blunt. All the Republicans running are embracing Trump so closely any of them would be committing sodomy if they had their pants off.
And there's a problem. Trump is less stable than the San Andreas Fault. It's not a question of if it'll let go – it's a trifecta of when, where, and how big. Likewise, nobody knows when Trump will go completely off the deep end. What few are observing is, it's NOT about politics or ego. It's about jail.
Trump is in NJ, making frequent trips to NYC to consult with lawyers about impending criminal charges. Bernie Madoff died in prison this year. Another wealthy friend committed suicide (maybe) in prison facing child rape charges. His chief recruiter, also known to Trump is in federal jail – bail refused. Trump could go to jail and he knows it.
I'm still looking at the MO race and the chance to pick up that Senate seat in 2022. Trump is wiling to risk lives (not his, of course) to force prosecutors to drop charges. Overtly, or by open implication, he's gonna call out the flying monkeys to random acts of domestic terrorsim (I think) when he's indicted. The idiots will be caught (mostly) and they will say they were answering Trunp's call. And Trump will say it's "very sad" but if the country wants the violence to stop, make the charges go away.
A lot of voters won't approve of women and children being sacrificed to extort Trump's exoneration. Candidates who hugged Trump are gonna be called on to take a stand in a lose-lose situation. For Trump, it's no longer about politics or ego – it's about survival. He'll do anything and it will turn out badly for him.
But we might pick up the MO seat and a lot of support in populist legislation that we'll end the filibuster to pass.
With those three nutcases trying to literally outgun each other for the nomination, could it be they'll reach peak lunacy and pave the way for a sane democrat to win the seat? Depends on how deep the crazy runs in MO voters.
I fear the crazy is going to win.
Looks like the "Show Me" state don't got nothin' good to "show me" today.
I believe that living in "Blue States" means people end up in emotional "blue states" a lot less often than those who live in "Red States."
Ok, I think I've damaged enough brain cells – mine and yours – today.
Goodnight, all!
These two nitwits introduced themselves to the world doing a video demonstration of why they should never own guns. (Had they pulled that in Chicago, we might never have had to hear from them again. Pity.) The Missus of the pair violated any number of rules about guns, chief among them: Never put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to fire the weapon immediately. (She also provided an example of "not enough gun for requirements".) The Mister proved how utterly ridiculous he looks holding a rifle while recklessly pointing it at people he had no intention of shooting. These are the kind of people even white cops hate.
They have a history of suing their relatives over money and real estate, a strong indicator of pure venality and libertarian tendencies. I suspect the pages of his copy of Atlas Shrugged are suspiciously stuck together.
Missouri should get props for its efforts at living up to its alternative name: Misery.
I suspect the pages of his copy of Atlas Shrugged are suspiciously stuck together.
Hmm? love isn't love until you give it away?
Sounds like Schmitt is taking the Pence Track – less exciting, less threatening – which seems like a smartish strategy, given that the other two are likely to split the Gun Nut/Q-addict vote. I'm guessing that there are plenty of old (senior) Republicans in MO who might feel safer with Schmitt's approach.
This also explains the accordion. Also, I'd imagine that there's still some remnant of Grange (not grunge) Culture in MO, especially up closer to IA & MN? Farmers of stolid Northern European/Scandinavian stock, still attending traditional Protestant churches, clinging desperately to a rosy view of America as it "was" (while forgetting that the New Deal made the best years possible).
Prediction: Schmitt will air a TV ad where he's seen bowling. I'm betting a six-pack of Schmidt's on this (shipping not included).
BTW, as MO AG, wouldn't Schmitt have been the person in charge of the plea deal that "Pink Shirt Guy" just got?
State attorneys general usually aren't involved in criminal cases like this. They do very little criminal law of any kind.
The "Circuit Attorney" (equivalent of a D.A.) was disqualified and a special prosecutor was appointed. He was not from the A.G.'s office.