Martin's anti-Nixon letters have two purposes

In his latest analysis for Associated Press, David Lieb notes that a recent series of seven letters written by Governor Matt Blunt's Chief of Staff Ed Martin criticizing Attorney General Jay Nixon started at about the same time as the controversy over the firing of Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell was reaching its peak:

Martin's intense letter-writing campaign began the week after Blunt forced the resignation of his agriculture director, Fred Ferrell, following the public disclosure of Ferrell's alleged sexual harassment of an employee. Blunt had been made privately aware of the allegations nine months earlier, and had decided at the time to keep Ferrell on the job.

To some, the timing is no coincidence.

"There's not this spate of good news or success" for Blunt's office, said political scientist David Kimball, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, "so you might as well go after your opponent."