I was checking the site stats and noticed a link back to an editorial by the Post Dispatch on Senator Baucus trying to get his girlfriend a cushy job. The editorial rightfully calls out Baucus for his abuse of power, and rolls the story into a general attack on government privilege.
And then they roll over and ask for their belly to be scratched by the Carnahans, again.
The editorial board references this New York Times article on the loophole legislators use to get free travel from lobbyists.
And they completely ignore that Congressman Russ Carnahan, (D-St Louis Media) is the third worst offender on the chart attached to the story, and the only mention of a Missouri politician in the article.
The editorial board finds time to link four non-Missouri Republican sex scandals to their editorial, but fail to address the one Missouri congressman actually on the list, and the $81,175 spent on Rubberstamp Russ.
Might we also add that Russ Carnahan has never put out any statements that explain why he is taking this travel, or what he learned, or bothered to tell anyone whether or not he spent the per diem for each trip, or if he kept it as free money.
I don't expect the Post Dispatch to turn into some conservative bastion of thought in their editorial pages, but is it too much to ask that they actually take a look at how Missouri politicians are serving us?
Update: Oh man, I thought the story looked familiar. The second link the Post Dispatch uses to complain about $13 million in taxpayer funded travel also includes the tidbit that Russ Carnahan was on that trip, too.
So now we have two blatant instances where Russ Carnahan's name should be front and center, but it was conveniently left out by the board.
Now maybe you can say that the Post Dispatch Editorial board made a mistake. Perhaps they just missed the chart. Either way, I have a solution. This blog, 24thstate, reported on the story a full day before the Post Dispatch did. I caught the chart and posted it. I also reported on the Missouri link to the Wall Street Journal article. In the future, to avoid embarrassment, and to save research time, just click on that RSS feed button on the right.
By the way - I hear there's some pretty good information about a taxpayer scandal in Jefferson County. Tell the story, and you might win yourself another one of those watchdog awards.
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