Yesterday, we published a piece from the Arena of Ideas blog that laments the fawning coverage Senator Mccaskill’s farm tour is receiving from Springfield’s Ky3 reporter David Cantanese. The Springfield based Community Free Press raises several questions today on why the Senator may be getting such a free pass. The CFP believes it may be in response to information uncovered from the Missouri State Auditor’s Web site, and posted Monday on their web site, that shows a distinct downward trend in the number of Audits issued by the department under McCaskill’s tenure.

The Thursday edition of the News-Leader ran two front page articles – one was a sympathetic article about a 2002 audit done by McCaskill of Child Care Centers in Missouri and the fact that the Auditors are now doing a follow-up audit. The other was about the farm tour.

Click here for more breakdowns of the number of audits performed with links to the Auditor’s web site.

This information raises several questions:

Why the sudden drop in the number of audits in 2004? The decline does not look random – 2004 and 2005 were cut back by similar amounts. In 2006 they fell even more and for 2007, Montee is currently on track to end the year with under 60 audits. That is less that half of the pre-2004 levels of audits. Is there a concerted effort in Missouri to lessen the number of audits performed?

In light of the declining audits, what does that say about McCaskill’s qualification and appropriateness to conduct audits on the Military and Contractors in Iraq?

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