Kinder has Multiple Scandals - Turns to Karl Rove to Help

Missouri has a bunch of great contests this year, and the Lieutenant Governor's race is one where we stand a strong chance of replacing a Republican incumbent with a great Democrat.

Peter Kinder, the incumbent, got caught up in a sex scandal when his Chief of Staff was arrested for having pornographic conversations with a cop he thought was a thirteen year-old girl. The police report is nauseating. Kinder drew himself into the fray by declaring, 3 hours after the arrest, that an investigation had determined state computers weren't used, and the criminal conversations took place during "comp time".

Bad enough? Yes, but there's more . . .

It turns out that people at the Chief of Staff level do not receive comp time, and computer experts are pointing out that forensic investigations of computers cannot be conducted in three hours. What we're seeing here is a little CYA.

Wait, there's more . . .

The person in charge of the office that supposedly did the computer investigation has now been hired by Peter Kinder as Chief of Staff to replace the pervy predecessor! Not only that, but that new guy is already under investigation for helping the one-term sitting governor violate Missouri's sunshine law by deleting public record emails.

Yes, there's more . . .

The Governor who has been hiding the emails has now left the country. That means that Kinder has the ability to release the emails and quell the scandal. Sam Page, the Democrat running against him, has called upon him to do just that, but Kinder has refused.

Instead, he's bringing in Karl Rove today, to speak at a $2700/plate fundraiser, and, presumably, offer some off-stage advice in how to juggle multiple scandals.

And, just in case you were wondering if that was all, there's (at least) one more scandal related to this sordid story. Kinder's campaign fundraising got rocked this past week by the explosion of a money-laundering scandal.

If you want to help Missourians replace their corrupt Republican Lieutenant Governor with a solid, ethical candidate who happens to be one of the nicest and best-qualified candidates I've met this election cycle, give his website a click and maybe even put some money in his kitty to offset Karl Rove's visit today.