Blunt continues juvenile use of taxpayer-financed public relations

Hopefully, when next January rolls around and we have a new governor in office, one change will take place immediately.

Whether our next governor is Kenny Hulshof, Sarah Steelman, or Jay Nixon, it would be nice if we no longer had taxpayer dollars spent on juvenile political news releases. At first, I thought it was just Blunt's initial press secretary Spence Jackson (and since he is associated with the Steelman campaign, that is one knock against her), but the same constant cheap shots at political opponents have continued since Jackson was replaced by Jessica Robinson.

While I am not naive enough to believe that the governor's office can be totally separated from politics, taxpayer money should not be used for the kind of immature sniping that has been the rule since day one of the Blunt administration.

Now, the governor's office is sending out daily news releases criticizing Jay Nixon. This release was issued Monday:

Gov. Matt Blunt today issued the following statement on Attorney General Jay Nixon’s comments on the governor’s health care record:

"Attorney General Jay Nixon today again called for a plan that would require hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes and spending to go back to the old, broken Medicaid system that was bankrupting our state with widespread abuse by providers and ineligible recipients of funds that should have been used for Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens. The old system that Jay Nixon wants to return to with a massive tax increase was even wasting money on nonsense like Viagra for registered sex offenders. The decisions we made in 2005 saved Medicaid and the changes we enacted with the creation of Mo HealthNet will for the first time focus on the health and wellness of the vulnerable instead of only sickness. Jay Nixon also opposed the lawsuit reforms that were vital to keep doctors in Missouri. It would be a mistake to go back to the old way that Jay Nixon has proposed, which would require hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes on Missourians.
"Jay Nixon is issuing statements on my health care record but he has been silent on the California Supreme Court decision to strike down their state’s same-sex marriage ban, and he has yet to answer my call for him to join with ten attorneys general from across the country who want the people, not the courts to decide on traditional marriage. Jay Nixon should do his job so that Missouri is represented with other states’ attorneys general in support of traditional marriage."

Personally, I would like to see the governor spending his time using his office to help Missourians. If he wants to campaign for one of Nixon's rivals and make those remarks on the stump, I have no problem with that, but for a governor, especially one who couldn't even be troubled to run for re-election, to indulge in these playground games at our expense is a mockery of our system. Of course, he may not have anything else to do in these final months, since he said he has already accomplished all of his goals during his first and only term.

Today, the governor's office issued another blast against Jay Nixon, this time zeroing in on Nixon's e-mail retention policy. For Blunt, of all people, to criticize anyone else for misusing e-mail, is sheer lunacy...and sadly, you and I are paying for it.