This Week in Missouri Politics Column: Busy week

With the filing deadline for the 2nd quarter campaign finance documents, we hit the home stretch of the primary season which is the most important part of a Missouri campaign cycle. Of course, The Missouri Times will have the updated tip sheet and all of the fundraising numbers for you in your inbox soon.

Busy week.

Monday started with a full round of liberal outrage about the Cattleman’s Dinner in Sedalia over the weekend. Honestly, I’m not sure what leads the liberal editorial boards to think that folks in rural Missourah are listening to them on really much of anything, but they desperately need a Dale Carnegie course.

Everyone in the urban media, everyone in the national media, lots of celebrities, lots of government officials, and damn near every amateur epidemiologist on Twitter have made the case for masks. In a very logical outcome, people who tend to trust the media and the government tend to be more liberal and tend to live in cities. Therefore, they tend to wear more masks and tend to elect more liberal leaders to give more government mandates and orders that they are glad to follow because that is what they want and expect from the government.

Since I pretty much don’t give a damn what you tweet at me, I’ll let you in on a secret. Some people always wear a mask everywhere, and good for them. Some people never wear a mask, and that is their right. Most people wear a mask in some situations and don’t in others.

However, you’re never gonna get those in the middle to wear a mask more often by carping at them. I wear one at Schnucks because the store and Dave Cook asked me to. They didn’t order me around and sanctimoniously whine at me. If they would have, the white trash in my blood would have risen up, and I either wouldn’t or went somewhere else.

By the afternoon, the Post got worked around and somehow tried to smear Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe by accusing him of … wait for it … nothing. The Lt. Governor has a relatively light portfolio, but the last one started a Buy Missouri program to encourage people to do business with Missouri companies; The Missouri Times is a member.

Cole County had a choice between buying some new ambulances from a local Missouri company or some Canadian outfit. When his hometown was faced with this choice he advocated for … the Missouri company.

If he wouldn’t have been pro-America and pro-Missouri, what would the state be paying him for?

Now I spend quite a bit of time in Jefferson City, and if I’m in an accident, personally I don’t want to be picked up by some cheap Canadian ambulance. I’d prefer an American ambulance, and if it can be a Missouri ambulance, then I’m even better. Now, if we are talking maple syrup, that’s a different story.

Then how about last night with the governor who quit the job a while back, our ol pal Eric.

Up to now, his comeback has been really off course since Covid-19. From the faulty masks to the begging for attention when handing them out to his website being overlaid with a picture of inner-city St. Louis to using his go-to PR man Chris Hayes on his website ericgreitens.com meaning he probably can’t do PR on Fox 2 anymore — for him, he has just been off.

However, his appearance on Tucker Carlson was flashes of the old Eric Greitens. He had on the right makeup and didn’t look like he was pouring sweat. He was measured and kept repeating the same lines over and over.

It was even like back in his days from a couple of years ago when he was speaking to the West St. Louis County Democrats at the UFCW hall or attending Obama rallies when he was on the attack against Republicans. He looked good and was on message.

Then in a quintessential Eric Greitens move later that night, there was a shooting in his stomping grounds of inner-city St. Louis. He ran to the scene to try and help. A nice thing, most people stop and try and help first responders if they can, it’s an admirable thing to do.

Then he goes full Eric Greitens.

According to an officer who arrived on the scene just before the media, he very politely pushed in and helped the first responder put a bandage on one of the gunshot victims then hung around the scene.

It’s becoming known in the St. Louis City Police Department that he has been hiring some officers to do private investigator work in their off time to investigate people he deems as “enemies.”

Well, one of the officers happened on the scene after Greitens had already arrived and helped make sure that he got a good framed up interview, but after all, they didn’t need a lot of encouragement as Greitens makes for good news hooks.

The cop’s take was: “He has never seen anyone do more interviews for helping with a bandage.”