Surprise — Harris and Blunt jawing again
Gov. Matt Blunt’s lame duck status has not kept him from emptying his quiver on political adversaries.
Top on the list, of course, is Attorney General Jay Nixon, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor.
High up, though, is another Democrat, State Rep. Jeff Harris, who is vying to replace Nixon.
Harris raised the ire of Blunt in May, by blasting the governor’s staff for their role in the on-going e-mail scandal that has embroiled Jefferson City.
Blunt then struck back by sending Harris a broad Sunshine Law request, seeking more than five years worth of e-mails from his legislative office.
Harris, though, wore the barb as a badge of honor, highlighting the spat with Blunt on a Web video that we wrote about yesterday.
That caught the attention of Blunt press aide Jessica Robinson, who, in an e-mail to us, accused Harris of grandstanding.
“Jeff Harris never fulfilled the request he is bragging about and that fact alone illustrates that not only is he attempting to use the Sunshine Law as a political issue but that he also believes the Sunshine Law does not apply to him as a member of the General Assembly,” Robinson wrote Thursday.
Robinson’s swipe took Harris off-guard, who in a telephone interview stood by his response to Blunt’s open-records inquiry.
“If Jessica Robinson or anybody else says I didn’t comply, they’re flat wrong,” Harris said.
The governor requested every e-mail sent by Harris’ office since Jan. 2003, plus back-up tapes. In response, Harris gave the governor’s office two choices: Pay roughly $10,000 to copy 80,000 pages of documents, or narrow their request.
As Harris tells it, Blunt’s chief of staff, Trish Vincent, chose the latter, asking for records from just one day — Feb. 20, 2008 — which Harris says he turned over.
It’s unclear what Blunt, with just months left in office, stands to gain from continuing to lock horns with Harris. Meanwhile, Harris continues to use the feud as partisan currency in a tough primary battle for attorney general.
“It’s pretty clear who they don’t want to be attorney general,” Harris said of the governor’s office. “I would think that the Blunt administration would have enough to concern itself with these days not to bother with who the Democratic nominee for attorney general is.”
Go Jeff! Take Blunt down.
Continuing in his full flight from reality behavior,Blunt lacks any common sense on the subject of what is really going on in Missouri and how bad it is.
When folks are trying to understand why food and toilet paper are luxury items,
he is once again showing his stupidity about these e-mails.
He is only interested in blundering as much as he can before the end of his term.
On August 28,according to SB 976. Blunt will be stealing 10.2 acres of land from the state of Missouri, and presenting it to a University for 3 grand, which I am sure will be waved. Blunt is sick with ego, and his addiction is money power, who needs to spend many years behind bars.
The big question is why is Blunt elevating Harris? He has to know that when he singles out Harris, he’s raising Harris’ profile in a lot of ways. I think he wants Harris to win the primary as the weakest candidate for the general election.
Jeff is the strongest candidate because for a democrat to win you have to do well outstate. Wilson, Carnahan, Holden, Maxwell, Cook, Montee, Nixon all outstate candidates.
The other choice is Donnelly. It is tough for a democrat from St. Louis to win.
Koster I would think is done. He is not talking to the press for legal reasons I would think.
Looks like someone filed an ethics complaint against Koster after all: http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/12953
MIkey T- I think you’re giving the Governor way too much credit. He lacks the political savvy to think through that strategy. The real reason he’s going after Harris is the fact that Harris has been a thorn in Blunt’s side for 4 years. He doesn’t like Harris and he wants to try to crush him. Unfortunately for Blunt, the more he attacks Harris, the stronger he makes Harris.