The Carthage Press editorial writer Saturday offered praise or "thumbs up" to Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt "for remaining an important member of the House leadership as majority whip." No problems there, but it should have stopped there. The laurel continued, "and for the gracious manner with which he conceded the majority leadership mantle to a colleague."
While Blunt's demeanor with the man who defeated him, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, did, indeed, appear to be gracious, his immediate attack on the press for costing him the position was weak and ill-spirited.
If memory serves correctly, Blunt did not blame the press when it was taking the accusations he was making against Attorney General Bill Webster in the 1992 Republican gubernatorial primary and turning them into a loss in the general election and a prison sentence for Webster.
Though no one has accused Blunt of breaking laws thus far (just ethical lapses), the common denominator between the Webster accusations and this year's Blunt accusations is they both are steeped in truth and they both smack of the kind of double dealings that have made Americans uncomfortable with our political system.
Just like Webster in 1992, the accusations against Blunt have centered around working the system to make it pay off for himself and for his well-connected friends. While no one can expect the congressman to be happy with the press, he would have been wiser to have just kept his mouth shut.
3 comments:
Thank you, Randy, for your excellent memory. Bill Webster was a good friend and his father was the late grand and senior State Senator Richard M. Webster-- a most honorable Jasper County political family derailed at the behest of the ignoble Roy Blunt for his own expediency. What goes 'round, comes 'round.
Roy is being a prick and refusing to answer questions about his loss with the press.
Roy Blunt didn't get DeLay's old job.
There IS a God.
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