Nixon better hope he’s not Holden Part II - unless he wants to destroy Medicaid again and bankrupt the state, or run a budget into the ground like Holden did….Nixon would be wise to continue the sound fiscal policies implemented by Gov. Blunt and keep MO on the right track.

I’ve been reading Drebes’ stuff for a while now - he doesn’t strike me as particularly insightful or knowledgeable. Most of his info seems to come from Jeff Smith as his poor record in choosing the Senate outcomes reflects. He does make a good Hedda Hopper type gossip comlumnist though.

Having said that - Nixon is in a tough economic spot but an easier policital spot than Holden. Holden should have rightfully blamed his predecessor - Mel Carnahan - for his financial woes. State spending was astronomical under Carnahan and it was his expansion of state entitlement programs that led to the catastrophe Holden experienced when the economy weakened.

Unfortunately for Holden - Carnahan had been made a saint by democrats and there was no way in blazes he could place the blame where it belonged. Plus Holden was too much of an idealogue to do what needed to be done in cutting spending. He was also a poor at choosing wise advisors.

Nixon is none of these. He will be smart about his decisions. He will make some tough decisions that will make the most liberal of his party upset but will sit well with most Missourians. Oh sure - he will do some stupid government expansion stuff too but overall he is in a much better place than Holden ever was.

Kinder needs to be smarter than Blunt about who he surrounds himself with. Ed Martin was a trainwreck and was woefully unqualified for the job and the authority that Blunt gave him. Blunt’s undoing was all his own. He let loony Ed Martin run the place and look what happened to him.

I think Nixon is smarter than that but will see. I do hope he goes after the money taxpayer’s spent on Martin’s lawyers and at least tries to put him in jail for destroying state property and lying in court.

Ed Martin is a petty crook and a liar. I hope he gets what he deserves for ruining Scott Eckersly’s reputation and for ending the career of one of the most promising politicians our state has ever seen.

Blunt should have fired Martin on the spot once he learned what he was doing. Had he done so he would have re-elected handidly and Martin would be back out on the street where he belongs!

It is truly unfortunate that Jo has taken a backseat at Political Fix. Posts such as this cut-and-paste job are beneath a major paper’s online presence. Also, Tony, work on your grammar.

Dave’s a nice guy, but it seems JasonB is smarter on the issues; not as smart as I, of course, but then he doesnt have as many issues as I do.

Please don’t devolve into an echo chamber for other bloggers. Just because it’s online and in the general broad sphere of politics doesn’t make it intriguing. My mamma dog had a litter of puppies and I was observing this morning that they find one another sporadically but endlessly intriguing. That they are intrigued by one another doesn’t mean they have or make a lick of sense. While we are at it, how about less reliance on potty-joke cartoons as our cultural touchstones and occasionally crack open a Missouri political history book to put events into context? I know it isn’t as handy as having Jo Mannies right there to call upon. A good start - go to the Missouri State Archives a short stroll from the state capital building and take down an Official Manual of Missouri from about 50 years ago. What is the same and what is different, and why? Thank you!

If the Post-Dispatch replaces the venerable Jo Mannies with the very partisan (read anti-Republican, pro-Democrat) Tony Messenger, then not only will print circulation decline further, readers (especially GOP ones) will be turn off by these partisan political blogs by so-called PD “journalists” and find their news elsewhere.

jasonB - you hit it right on the head. Mel Carnahan sold out Missouri for a Senate seat. Everybody saw the train wreck coming (or should have) - but when Mel died, he became “untouchable.” I’m sorry he and others died in that plane crash, but that doesn’t change the fact that Mel pretty much assured MO was going to have tough fiscal times. Now his offspring are treated like royalty and everybody is afraid to “tarnish the image” of Mel. That’s a crock…