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Monday, July 4, 2016

Roy Blunt, The Insider's Insider


Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, listens to testimony from Penny Pritzker during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, May 23, 2013. Pritzker probabl

If Roy Blunt, Senator Roy Blunt, is anything, he is the ultimate insider. He is so deeply a Washington insider, it permeates him, his job, his work, his paycheck, heck, even his family.

Virtually the entire Blunt family is deeply entrenched in politics.  And living off of it.

His wife is a government lobbyist, for God's sake.

His brother, Matt, screwed up Missouri and the governorship there, for a while. Fortunately, we got him out and he's stayed out of office since.

As further proof, just look at some of these headlines. They come from a range of dates as Senator Blunt and his family have been sucking at the teat of government, both state and Federal, for some time.

Missouri's Blunt embraces 

his role as insider






At one point, American Veterans went after him for lying about draft deferments, to keep him more accountable. And hopefully, honest.

Even his own son is knee-deep in government:


Fortunately, there's this, more recently:


And this year he's all for America's Veterans. But last year? When he wasn't in a contest to hold his own Senate seat off in Washington. He was one of these guys, back in November, 2015:

41 Senators Block Benefits for Veterans


And again, once more, February 2014.



Fortunately, there's this truthful little gem from 2 days ago, from the Senator's own home area of Springfield:


This is a beauty of an article:

Roy Blunt was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 and to the U.S. Senate in 2010. He rose swiftly through the ranks in both chambers, attaining the positions of majority leader in the House and chairman of the Rules Committee in the Senate. In these positions, he has been useful to the lobbying activities of his family. In his third term in the House, Blunt is married to a D.C. lobbyist. His wife, Abigail, and his son, former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, are active lobbyists in Washington. His other son (and campaign manager), Andrew, is an active lobbyist in Jefferson City. It would not be inappropriate to assign the following title to Roy’s family: Blunt, Inc. A Governmental and Lobbying Corporation.

When professors of political science teach a course on pressure groups, they describe the most powerful lobbying operation as one that includes one member sitting in either the House or the Senate. The Blunt family fiercely denies any connection between their lobbying work with one another. They would like you to believe that family talk is about sports, television, movies, travel and so on, but each one keeps secret from the others their own lobbying activities and never, under any circumstances, exchange any information that would be useful to the work of other family members.


An article on the front page of the June 18 News-Leader is an account of the strenuous (or one might say frenzied) fundraising activities of Sen. Blunt in defending his seat against Democratic challenger Jason Kander, Missouri’s current secretary of state. In the article, it mentioned his fundraising schedule in Washington last week that included a Tuesday evening fundraiser by the Beer Institute, a Wednesday morning fundraising breakfast for Missouri Republicans and two Thursday evening events hosted by major governmental contractors General Dynamics and Siemens. So, in the space of 48 hours he was raising money for the Missouri GOP, from which his campaign will benefit and from three organizations that have business before Congress.

It is fair to say that Blunt’s life is based in Washington. This statement is reinforced by the fact that the Blunts’ Springfield home is a condo which he uses on his occasional visits (usually at holidays) or when in town for Greene County Republican Party events. The condo also serves as his official Missouri residence.

Blunt’s contact with the general public is limited to his occasional “tours” of the state, which is rather remarkable for a person who represents the state. In these tours, he is very unlikely to meet any Missourians except those who are active members of the Republican Party. When he has meetings in Springfield they are usually closed to the general public, which makes him unavailable to those who might hold different opinions.

His connection to Missouri is very slim and tenuous. The real focus of his life is to serve as the congressional base for Blunt, Inc.


Fortunately, there's the ray of hope that is Jason Kander, what he stands for and even his fund-raising of late:


So heads up, fellow Missourians. There's a Senatorial seat up for grabs this Fall. This November, let's throw the government fatcat out of his seat and get someone in there who is for us, the people, and not just for his own seat in Congress and all he can wring out of it.

On this Fourth of July, let's pledge and plan to declare our independence yet again.

Our independence, this time, from Roy Blunt.



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