Hearing set in lawsuit against Republican political operative/blogger

A 9 a.m. June 13 hearing has been scheduled in the lawsuit filed by St. Charles County Commissioner Joe Brazil against Republican operative and blogger Jeff Roe.

Roe, a former chief of staff for Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves, and the manager for numerous Republican political campaigns, is also the blogger behind The Source.

Brazil sued Roe for comments printed in The Source just before Brazil's unsuccessful attempt to defeat Scott Rupp for State Senate in August 2006 GOP primary. Those comments remained on the website until January 2008.

Roe's first attack, in the August 1, 2006, Source, read like this:

Then Senator Jon Dolan was phoned many times by Brazil’s constituents as they complained about a “drunk and rowdy crowd” at the New Melle Festival. Imagine the shock when Dolan came to find out that Brazil was the ringleader of the drunken ruffians. But Party Boy Brazil’s escapades don’t stop there. During one of his golf events, Brazil allowed women in attendance to discard their clothing and go topless.

Is this what Missouri needs in one of its Senators? The Source thinks not. Perhaps Joe Brazil should examine his own past before he attempts to disguise himself as a Republican. Brazil has no business even thinking about running a campaign against incumbent Scott Rupp. Rupp is what Missouri needs in the StateSenate. He is a responsible, strong, family man who Brazil could learn a lot from.

The second attack, three days later, was the one which caused Brazil to tell First Capital News "He (Roe) told lies, misrepresented facts and brought up an incident that happened when I was 18 years old and then lied about it,"

In his Aug. 4 post, Roe wrote:

According to www.darwinawards.com, in 1982, Brazil was attempting to pull off a senior class prank at McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri. Brazil plan was to deposit thousands of pounds of sand into the school’s faculty parking lot. Brazil even owned a dump truck that could be used to aid in the prank.

After quite a few beers, Brazil and his buddies loaded up the dump truck with sand and drove to the school. One of Brazil’s friends, Norval Pierce sat on top of the bed of the truck while Brazil dumped the sand. Brazil drove slowly while dumping attempting to adequately spread the sand in the parking lot. As Brazil was driving the truck jumped forward, throwing Pierce through the frame of the truck. Not realizing what had happened, Brazil continued to drive while drunk and dumping sand. Brazil proceeded to crush Pierce under the truck.

So now we have another instance of Brazil’s irresponsibility and not owning up to his mistakes. What else do we need to know Joe?

Roe's allegations were not supported by the facts. In its Feb. 6, 2007, edition, the Kansas City Star examined Roe's role in the senate race:

Last year, Roe trained the focus of his daily political blog, The Source, on a state Senate race in east Missouri. Roe talked about the death of a best friend of Joe Brazil, a candidate in the race whom Roe opposed.
Brazil and his friends were dumping sand in their high school parking lot for an unauthorized "beach party" during their senior year. Brazil was driving a dump truck and accidentally ran over his friend while backing up.
Roe wrote that alcohol was involved. Brazil denied it; authorities had filed no charges.
Still, the story zipped through cyberland, and Brazil lost.
Asked about the Brazil race, Roe said, "If they don’t like it, then they don’t like the truth."