Gov. Matt Blunt’s spokeswoman, Jessica Robinson, e-mailed the following response this morning to Attorney General Jay Nixon’s criticisms over the financial problems now facing the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (see post Tuesday, below, for details.)

Said Robinson: “Jay Nixon has always been opposed to every project funded by the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative, and Jay Nixon has never understood how MOHELA operates.  Now he is seems to be entirely unaware of a global problem that affects every entity that used auction rate securities.

“MOHELA has correctly pointed out that their decision was driven by global problems and not the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative. 

“Jay Nixon is so out of touch with reality that he asked the governor to veto a bill that capped tuition and led to the quadrupling of student scholarships.”