Kansas City Star political writer Steve Kraske, who has been the subject of much vitriol from the left wing of the blogosphere, offers two reasons why former U. S. Attorney Todd Graves was not asked any questions about the license fee office scandal during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week:
So why wasn’t that question asked?
Maybe Democrats didn’t want it to happen. Two theories:
Theory I: In the pursuit of the Justice Department case, Democrats in Congress are pushing a particular story line hard. That is, the dismissal of the nine U.S. attorneys, including Graves, happened because these guys weren't "loyal Bushies" and the Justice Department wanted U.S. attorneys more willing to pursue voter-fraud cases and the like.
So national Democrats don't want to see an alternate storyline that suggests Graves and maybe some of the others were forced out because of their own actions.
Theory II: Missouri Democrats aren't eager to get to the bottom of the fee-office story because it continues to be such a handy political club in Missouri, especially as Todd Graves’ brother, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, gears up for a tough re-election race against former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes.
So what do Democrats want more? To get to the truth, or score political points?
Judging by their actions last week, it looks a whole lot more like the latter.
Hopefully, Kraske is wrong about the second reason. I am tired of politicians who delay much-needed investigations and reforms so they can squeeze as much political mileage as they can out of the situations.
The license fee office questions need to be answered once and for all, and no, they were not answered by the investigation conducted by former U. S. Attorney Bud Cummins.
Option III: Democrats in Missouri don't want to make an issue of the license fee "scandal" because the fee offices have always by law been a patronage perk. They hope, of course, to unseat Matt Blunt next year and to pass out the offices to loyal Democrats the following year. It's a nonscandal to start with, since by law these are patronage positions and Democrats are more than happy with that fact.
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