Roy Blunt Would Like To Change The Subject From Economics To Mosques

My day started yesterday with a look at a really excellent new TV ad. Missouri Secretary of State, Robin Carnahan, who's been lagging the polls lately, hit the nail on the head with her fantastic reminder to her state's voters that Roy Blunt didn't just vote for the 2008 Bush no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout, he was one of the architects of the massive giveaway to the very people who caused the financial chaos because of their reckless, imperious, if not criminal, behavior. Please watch the video above.

It hits all the points we've been urging campaigns of other Democrats running against Republicans who fought hard for the $700 billion bailout-- John Boehner (R-OH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Richard Burr (R-NC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and virtually all the crooked California Republicans from Ken Calvert, Mary Bono Mack, Gary Miller, Jerry Lewis, and John Campbell in the Southland to Dan Lungren and Wally Herger way in the northern part of the state-- to pound on.

Calling Blunt "the very worst of Washington," the ad states that Blunt in 1999 eliminated some financial system safeguards put in place during the Great Depression and then took a leading role in 2008 to work out the financial bailout legislation. It also says he has accepted more than $1.6 million in campaign donations from the banking and financial industry during his tenure in Congress.

The ad is running in markets across Missouri, Carnahan campaign spokesman Linden Zakula said Thursday. He said the spot is designed to hold Blunt accountable for wasting tax dollars, defending corporate special interests and hurting the middle class.

Blunt spokesman Rich Chrismer criticized the ad and said Carnahan was shying away from talking about jobs and economic development issues.

"This phony ad is the worst in political deception and hypocrisy," Chrismer said.

...The Sedalia Democrat reported in July that Carnahan, Missouri's Secretary of State, said the bailout money may have been needed to stabilize the economy but that Blunt and others failed to attach strict controls on how it was spent. Two weeks later, the newspaper reported that Carnahan said she was not convinced banks were in a crisis and would not have voted for the legislation and does not currently support it.

Blunt has no answer to the charges except some mumbo-jumbo about being for it and against it and a bunch of incomprehensible claptrap that emphasizes his beady eyes and focuses voters on the fact that he has taken more in bribes from Wall Street than any other Missouri congressman in history-- and almost more than any other Member of the House ($3,636,377 as of June 30 with more Wall Street money gushing into his coffers at an unprecedented rate. "A top official from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is accompanying the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, U.S Rep. Roy Blunt, around the state today to emphasize the chamber's commitment to help the congressman from southwest Missouri as he seeks to succeed another of their favorites-- retiring U.S. Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond. Bond also voted for the Wall Street bailout, of course, although he hasn't been as blatantly in the pocket of Big Business and the banksters as Blunt.

If you're rushing off to the Blue America Senate Candidates Worth Fighting For page to donate to Carnahan's campaign, slow down. She's not there. We love the ad and she's infinitely better than Blunt and everyone involved with Blue America would vote for her over Blunt in an instant. But that doesn't mean we're going to donate money to her. I haven't spoken with her but from what I've been reading, she'd be another middle-of-the-road Democrat confusing issues and playing games in Washington. She may not be Blunt, but she's not Barbara Boxer, Bernie Sanders or Russ Feingold either. Yesterday, for example, she flip-flopped on tax cuts for the wealthy and basically adopted the same odious position as Blunt. Echoing the GOP talking points that Miss McConnell sent out to his cronies, she told pig eaters at the Missouri State Fair's annual ham breakfast that "Now is not the time to be doing anything to raise taxes. We're still in the midst of a downturn in the economy, so we need to keep those tax cuts in place-- all of them."

In a February radio interview, Carnahan had said she favored extending tax cuts for the middle-class but not for the wealthiest Americans. She said then that the nation couldn't afford it.

Carnahan said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press that her position has evolved because of an additional six months of difficult economic times, which she blamed on policies backed by Blunt. Carnahan said she supports making permanent the tax cuts affecting lower and middle-income people and extending tax cuts for wealthier people until the economy improves enough to consider ways of balancing the budget. She declined to specify how long that extension should last.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Thursday that renewing all the tax reductions would cost government at least $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

At least Carnahan is making effort, albeit lamely, to talk about the bread and butter issues Americans care about. Blunt is trying to take the focus off his abysmal record in Congress and screech shrilly and hysterically about a supposed mosque in New York City. This time it didn't work and media reacted in horror at the grotesque nature of Blunt's latest attempt to throw everything at Carnahan to see if something sticks. He pulled down the ad. Although maybe he pulled it down because Carnahan sounded rational in it and his position is nihilistic and essentially anti-American. Take a look: