By Senator Kit Bond

Wednesday, I joined 73 of my colleagues in the Senate in passing a bill to protect workers and families in my home state of Missouri and across the nation. Our action was critical to keep the financial crisis from spreading from Wall Street to Main Street.

I have heard from folks in Missouri who are angry about this financial emergency. I share their anger over having to use tax dollars to address this crisis. But, I also know the cost of inaction – a severe recession that puts all families and workers in jeopardy. We are already seeing the impact of the credit crunch on Main Street America. Small businesses are unable to get funding to meet payroll, States and localities are struggling to obtain financing for critical road and building projects, senior citizens are seeing their retirement savings fall in value, and students cannot obtain loans for tuition. Read more…

Related:

The St. Louis Post Dispatch brought you this story last Saturday: Bond tried to oust regulator during Fannie Mae probe.

Readers of the Missouri Political News Service were aware of this development almost a month ago when we brought you this excerpt from another blog:

MOPNS (9/11/08)

Slade Smith’s Blog: Fannie & Freddie: let the fingerpointing begin!

Fannie Mae tried to steamroll its underpowered regulator all along the way. At one point, Fannie Mae instigated a retailatory HUD investigation against the OFHEO regulators who were looking into their accounting fraud in order to undermine the credibility of the regulator. They had one of their lobbyists draft a letter for Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo) to send to HUD and request the investigation. Bond sent the letter on to HUD under his own name, made public statements directed at getting the lead regulator sacked, and was rewarded for his efforts with tidy campaign contributions from Mr. Raines and other Fannie Mae execs. Read more…

Investers Business Daily: Freddie, Fannie Were Big Campaign Donors

Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) may not have managed their mortgage investments wisely, but the loan-funding giants used a savvy strategy of campaign contributions, based on an Investor’s Business Daily analysis

Senators on a key appropriations panel received $167,000, with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., reaping $64,000.

“We raise all the money we are permitted . . . so that we can get our message out and so our candidates can compete with all the funds raised by the opposition,” read a statement by Bond’s office. Read more…

Secretary of Labor Jim Talent? From CQ:

An articulate proponent of the core conservative belief that more federal authority over domestic programs should be handed to the states, he sought refuge at the Heritage Foundation as a senior fellow after losing his Senate seat in 2006 by 2 percentage points to Democrat Claire McCaskill. That reduced his winning average to .333 in statewide races in one of the nation’s traditional bellwethers. He won the Senate seat by 1 percentage point in a 2002 special election, but two years before that he lost a governor’s race by 1 point.

He also spent eight years in the House, including two terms as Small Business Committee chairman, and was an ardent advocate of moving more welfare recipients to the workforce, as was required in the 1996 welfare overhaul. Talent originally supported Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination but is now working to help McCain win Missouri. Read more…

Related:

MOPNS: (9/2/08) Thanks, But No Thanks?

The Kansas City Star had a story yesterday that basically details how, with the passage of Proposition C, the Carnahan’s are going to get richer by exploiting their political connections and the anger Americans have towards rising energy prices.

Proposition C, the renewable energy initiative on Missouri’s November ballot, appears to have lots of support and little organized opposition. Indeed, the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative has raised more than $325,000 for its campaign after groups collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.

Proposition C would require at least 2 percent of electricity to be generated by investor-owned utilities from sources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydropower by 2011 and at least 15 percent by 2021.

“By investing in wind, solar and the next generation of biofuels, we can produce the energy we use right here in Missouri,” said Tony Wyche, a spokesman for the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative, who added that high-quality jobs also would be a result. “By voting yes, Missouri voters can have a say in where we get our energy from and can ensure that we are creating jobs.” Read more…

MOPNS FLASHACK: (8/26/08)

Surprise Surprise, Look Who’s for Alternative Energy

Congressman Russ Carnahan (most esteemed member of the lucky sperm club) recently sent this letter to a constituent touting his support for alternative energy. Kind of makes sense when your brother is in the “wind farming” business doesn’t it?

“This is not an impossible dream. I’ve never seen an issue with this potential to unify people … to get people in business and government to work together.”

Tom Carnahan
Founder, Wind Capital Group

Tom Carnahan is the founder and president of Wind Capital Group. In 2005 he drew upon his background in law, politics, development, and farm management when he partnered with Missouri farmers and rural electric cooperatives to develop the state’s first wind farm.

Since then, Wind Capital Group has become one of the fastest growing wind developers in the country. Mr. Carnahan is actively involved in growing not just his own company, but the wind industry as a whole.

It’s also ironic that Congressman Carnahan is using the same phrases that”wind farming” entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens uses in his multi-million dollar ad campaign advocating wind and natural gas development. From the Congressman’s letter: Read more…

Related:

High Plains/ Midwest AG Journal: Wind farms stir trouble in northwest Missouri

Wind Today: NTR Invests $150 Million in Wind Capital Group

Does anyone else still think it’s strange that the main Democrat attack blog FiredUp Missouri is STILL silent on “Senator wanna be” Jason Van Eaton’s role in the firing of former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves?

The Democrat muckraking blog that brought us ad nauseam a few years ago posts on alleged license fee office scams (rumors are that JVE was the source on the Graves allegation) and other alleged wrongdoings of Republicans, has a big fat plum put right on their plate and they’re silent!?

Today, they offered up a weak post  “recapping” several damaging stories on Senator Bond written over the last couple of weeks - of course absent in their post is any mention of “political pygmy” Jason Van Eaton.

The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal Law blog, The Columbia Daily Tribune blog, and Steve Kraske of the K.C. Star all acknowledge that Van Eaton’s role in this fast developing scandal is as clear as the day is long, but FUM is still protecting their boy. Hmmm.

“I don’t remember any conversation like that from four years ago.”- “Political Pygmy” Jason Van Eaton

We urged Wednesday for the Missouri press to investigate former low level staffer Jason Van Eaton’s role in the firing of former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves and his feud with political consultant Jeff Roe. The Washington Post today has a shocking expose on just how far Van Eaton’s abuse of Senator Bond’s office really went. Typical of people whose hand has been caught in the cookie jar, Van Eaton has come down with a convenient case of forgetful-itis.

On another note, isn’t it surprising that Fired Up Missouri has been eerily silent on Van Eaton’s role in this sordid mess? We have our suspicions that “Rowdy Rod” Jetton was a source for FUM, and now the long held speculation in Jeff City that Van Eaton is a source for them seems to be panning out as well.

From the Washington Post:

It came to a head when the Bond aide demanded in October 2004 that Todd Graves persuade his brother to fire Jeff Roe, then his chief of staff. Although the report does not identify the caller, multiple sources told The Washington Post it was Roe’s archrival, Jason Van Eaton, the chief of staff for Bond’s Missouri office.

Van Eaton and Roe, a longtime Republican political operative, are roughly the same age, and each sought an influential reputation, the sources said. Their bosses worked well together, but for the two aides “it was all about personality clashes, who is the more important and powerful staffer,” said a Republican who knows the two.

They became foes in 2004 partly because Roe was then assisting a Republican congressional candidate who was challenging a longtime Bond ally, former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver II, according to a source familiar with the episode. They also disagreed over which official — Bond or Rep. Graves — deserved principal credit for obtaining a highway construction grant for northern Missouri, and over sharing a database of voter opinions compiled by Graves’s office, two other Republican sources said.

The tension escalated after Todd Graves refused to get involved, telling Van Eaton during the telephone call, “I’m not playing in your reindeer games.” Van Eaton, who is now a political consultant, said last night, “I don’t remember any conversation like that from four years ago.” Read more…

Related:

CDT Politics Blog: WP: Van Eaton tangled in Graves ouster

WSJ Law Blog: Power Play Led to Prosecutor’s Ouster; How Not to Fire a U.S. Attorney

“Something smells fishy!”

“I think he has some explaining to do. I think Bond has to tell the people why he wouldn’t answer these questions.” - Missouri Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti

Related:

AP: Democrats grill Bond over attorney dismissal