Never
let the facts stand in the way of a great story.
Two
months ago, I wrote a blog post about political opportunists, primarily Missouri
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and conservative gadfly Dana Loesch, attempting to
capitalize on the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, by making it sound as if the
Obama Administration (and in Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration) had
stood by silently while voters in the areas stricken by the tornado were
disenfranchised.
This
report, which Kinder used in an effort to garner more Joplin votes in his
successful primary election, has reared its head again, thanks to the same
combination, Kinder and Loesch, who stoked the fire last time.
In
a radio interview with the CNN analyst and Breibart.com editor, which started
with complaints about a UN team coming to observe how elections are conducted
in this state, it did not take long for the dynamic duo to mention how the UN
(supposedly under the auspices of the Obama Administration) is coming to look
at elections to make sure there is no voter intimidation. Loesch remarked that
the administration put no effort into making sure that Joplin voters were no
disenfranchised. Kinder readily agreed.
In
August, this was also jumped on by Republican attorney general candidate Ed
Martin who said, “It is an outrage to everyone in this state that Attorney
General Chris Koster has not intimidated an investigation when thousands of our
fellow Missourians may be unable to vote through no fault of their own. This is
not about playing politics, but ensuring that each citizen has the ability to
fulfill their right as an American citizen and gets to vote this August.”
At
that time, Loesch claimed that the Obama Administration and the state were not
doing anything about the Joplin situation because the voters here are primarily
Republican.
“President
Obama and Eric Holder often talk of how the government can help, and they
preach against the evils of disenfranchising voters. So where are they?’
Loesch,
Kinder, and Martin tried to whip this up into a major scandal and failed,
primarily because there was nothing to the story.
The
uproar began with a Joplin Globe story that detailed how thousands of new
voting cards were being returned, undeliverable, most of them in the Joplin and
Duquesne areas that were hit by the tornado.
As
far as I can determine, Dana Loesch, Peter Kinder, and Ed Martin never asked
the one person who could have given them accurate information, Jasper County
Clerk Bonnie Earl (the chief elections officer and a Republican) what was going
on.
Her response to this "scandal" was featured in The Turner Report:
“My office is required, by law, to send voter cards every two years. This was the year for us to do that. The post office, by law, cannot forward those cards. Yes, we have had other elections since the tornado, but this was the year we were to send the cards. It is the voter’s responsibility to change their address. Voters will not be turned away if they don’t have a new card. They must present one of the legally required form of identification to vote.”
I
received that e-mail just before the August primary election. No scandal
occurred with that election and no one has been talking about any such problem
with the November election- until now.
There
is no voting scandal in Joplin, except for those who are willing to take their
information fifth-hand from parties who stand to benefit from a juicy,
non-existent scandal.
1 comment:
This is also pretty much how Rush Limbaugh operates, getting his information fifth-hand rather than going straight to the horse's mouth for the facts. Remember, he likes to rely on the Drudge Report for many of his stories. Has he even once called someone while he was on the air to see if something was actually true or false, as the case may be?
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