Category Archives: people

Whither Mike Kehoe?

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Before we dive into this project, it’s best that you understand some important points. There is a difference between the person and the politician. The person you’d barbecue hamburgers and drink beer with on a pleasant weekend afternoon must be to a greater or lesser degree someone different when they hold a political office.

In my long reportorial career, I’ve never allowed myself to get too close to someone in political office although there have been a few social occasions in which the notebook was put away and the other took off the necktie and the political title.

We know Mike Kehoe is a personable guy; you don’t become a successful car salesman if you aren’t. Niceness aside, his first two years as Governor have not been good.  He’s 0 for 5 or 6 on ballot issues in the last three months.  For some, he’s been a touch or more too Trumpy.  He’s been an integral part of a Republican-dominated state government that has descended too deeply into ideology and has been clubbed bloody by voters in August and November.

He seems to recognize that. He issued a statement after the elections last week calling for “thoughtful reflection and honest conversations” about what’s next. What’s next might involve finding an issue or two that will strike enough of a public chord to move the first two years closer to the backs of voters’ minds.

“Taking real action on the policies that help families afford to pay their bills, improve the education of our children, and ensure our communities are safe matters much more than well-delivered lines in campaign commercials,” he said the morning after, continuing, “These are the issues that matter most. These are the issues that our party can deliver on.”

—even though it hasn’t delivered on them so far and a cold look at state finances raises questions about how Republicans can afford to reach the goals he set out in his statement.

He says he will run for a second term. But there are within his own party some people who think he can be taken out.  None has announced plans but here are four who might see him as vulnerable and see themselves in his office in 2029, assuming some Democrat doesn’t have a better idea.

Former Attorney General Andrew Bailey has resigned his federal job as assistant director of President Trump’s FBI.  He’s back in the state and playing it cool for now but a lot of Republicans are giving him sideways glances.

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, just elected to a second term, might consider his re-election in a blue wave state a solid credential for something bigger in two years.

Lt. Governor Dave Wansinger might find it hard to ignore 2028 to achieve a higher ambition.

And there is Catherine Hanaway, our latest high visibility Attorney General, the first woman to hold that job and the only woman to be Speaker of the House, a recognized leader who helped bring Republicans to legislative power. It’s easy to forget how young she was when she did that. She could be the most formidable possibility among them.

Let’s watch all five of them for a year—less actually because none can wait that long to make a move. A legislative sessions is rapidly approaching. It will provide time and public exposure for Kehoe and his party to turn things around.

But we also know that this year’s election issues have given Democrats big piles of ammunition to fire in 2028.

If you like to watch politics, this coming year will be great entertainment.

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Start/Stop the Steel 

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President Trump’s steel tariffs are supposed to spur a steel industry renaissance in the United States.  He has bragged about the nation’s biggest-ever steel plant that will be built in Iowa but it doesn’t appear his tariffs have meant anything to a 120-year old steel company a day’s drive away in Wisconsin. Or the 25-year old steel plant across the river from St. Louis.

Earlier this year, Alton Steel announced it was closing, the company has announcing it’s going to sell its 381-acre plant site to a developer—–

—that is going to build a 200-megawatt data center there. And that’s just a start. TerraWatt is talking about building five data centers there that will add up to a one-gigawatt operations.

One might think such a project would generate a ton of jobs.  Nope. TerraWatt says fifty people could produce only FIFTY fulltime jobs.

Then there’s Trump’s big plans for Iowa and no plans for Wisconsin.  We’re not sure the creating of the big steel plant makes up for the problems Iowa farmers who voted for him two years ago are facing thanks to his various ill-considered policies.

Is he just spreading more bovine by product around to keep his Republican congressional majority?  For somebody who has no concept of agriculture, he is one of the world’s great byproduct spreaders. Maybe THE best.

Will the new steel plant provide jobs for workers who will get his $5,000 checks for voting for the GOP tomorrow.?

While he was Trumpeting great things for Iowa, reporters were telling about some folks in neighboring Wisconsin who were hearing Taps for their jobs in the steel industry.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Maynard Steel is shutting down after twelve decades in Milwaukee.  Sales dropped by about one-third last year and the company is losing more money this year.  At one time it had 725 workers. The newspaper says the 77 remaining employees will lose their jobs and their health care benefits on December 4.  A court-appointed receiver will sell the company’s assets after that. The company cites “business and industry circumstances” as reasons for he closure.

Maybe Trump needs to go to Milwaukee where he can perform the same miracle he performed in Indianapolis ten years ago when he saved all those jobs at the Carrier Air Conditioning plant.  Except he didn’t. The deal actually saved only about one-third of the jobs. Not mentioned in the Trump/Pence bragging about the deal was the Carrier went on to close a Carrier plant in another Indiana City, costing 700 more workers their jobs.

A little more than a year later, Carrier reported it was moving more than 600 other jobs to a new factory in China. In the end, Carrier moved more jobs out of Indiana than it kept.

Maybe the workers in Milwaukee can find jobs at the planned $15 billion big beautiful steel plant Trump has proclaimed will be built in Iowa, “the largest steel plant ever built in the United States,” proclaimed our President. His Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick said there was no doubt the plant would be built.

But it won’t be built by an American company.

There also is doubt, at least for now, about when the plant will be built. Trump said the plant already was under construction. Iowa TV station KWQC did some digging after thae announcement and found no significant property transactions this year in Lee County, where President Trump says it will be. No permit applications had been submitted.  No detailed plans had been sent to county authorities. Definitely no plant is being built right now, Trump notwithstanding. Some property owners, however, say a real estate agent has been snooping around.

Maynard Steel employees will have to go a long time without paychecks and health insurance if they think they can move to Iowa and get steel industry jobs.

Some skeptics think the announcement was a campaign stunt.  Critics think the original plans were for the plant to be built in Minnesota where Mesabi Minerals is developing a big mine and mill operation in the Mesabi Iron Range up north. The project has been delayed, the company complaining the delay is because of 2017 dispute involving a rival who cites “anti-competitive conduct” and charges Mesabi with antitrust violations.

The Des Moines Register has reported Mesabi and its parent company, Essar Group, have a troubled financial history (www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/01/mesabi-metallics-company-iowa-steel-plant-trump/92036812007/) in this country and in Canada.

Reporter Tyler Jeff has written, “In India, Business Today reported a few years ago that the Essar Group was one of the country’s most indebted companies and “notorious” for defaults dating back to 1999, when Essar Steel failed to pay $250 million to international creditors. In addition to the bankruptcies at the company’s U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries, the Essar Group restructured debt in Canada three times.”

He says the company has sold billions of dollars in assets and now has a big loan from a Russian state-owned financial institution behind its plans to mine taconite in northwest Minnesota and then transport it about 500 miles to Iowa’s southernmost county (Keokuk and Fort Madison area) for processing.

Once more, Trump seems to be doing something nice for somebody in Russia.

Trump’s announcement caused great excitement in Iowa, naturally.  It came at such a convenient time, too. One of Iowa’s seats in the U. S. Senate is very much in play this year with a Democratic challenger threatening to flip the seat now occupied by Joni Ernst, who is not seeking a third term.  The most recent poll shows Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative, and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson are close in a state Trump carried by 13 points two years ago. The Suffolk University poll says one-fourth of the voters Hinson has lost say her support of Trump is the reason.

So is Trump’s grand announcement just an effort to hold on to the traditionally red state of Iowa?   Or is it the real thing?  A Russian-financed Indian company with a rugged background is going to put $15 billion dollars into a steel plant about 500 miles from the place where the ore is mined.

The steel industry is changing but Trump’s campaign promise to return the industry to the United States certainly have an odd twist to it.

A Russian-financed company from India and the acquisition of U. S. Steel by Nippon Steel of Japan seem to be an odd way to go about  Making America Great Again in terms of the steel industry.

Will this deal turn out to be what Trump says it will be?  Or is it just another Carrier case?

He seems to be big on India and Japanese ownerships in the steel industry and doing favors for Russians. But for a 120-year old company in Milwaukee?   Where is he for those folks?

Maybe they don’t count because Minnesota is a blue state. And soon to be out of work steel company workers in Wisconsin and already out of work and already-unemployed steel workers in the St. Louis aren’t worth any attention when he’s desperately trying to keep Congress red.

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MEMO 

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To: J.D. Vance

From: Me, concerned citizen

If you have not already started—although I am sure you have—you need to be thinking of how you would serve as the interim President of the United States until the 2028 elections and how you might deserve to be considered for an extension.

I am sure you have watched your boss’s deteriorating poll numbers and the inter-party defections, especially among those Republicans who hope to resurrect their own candidacies for the House or the Senate by turning on President Trump. Unfortunately, theirs seems to be a case in several instances of “Too soon old; too late smart.”

You are, I am sure, cognizant of the possibility that the blue wave will continue to build and have started thinking of what would happen if Democrats and some badly-disillusioned Republicans provide the needed votes to let President Trump transition to being a fulltime golfer.

What will you do or advocate doing to separate yourself from a President you have so slavishly followed for a couple of years but who now is a lead weight for the party?

You’re in a tricky position. You know you cannot be Trump 2.1 after the Original Trump is banished if you want the job fulltime in 2028 or not to face the same removal movement that deposed him sooner.  Two years is a short time to wash the Trump stain from your credentials and to create a new you-image.  You will inherit what is charitably called an international train wreck. You must be thinking how to end military and tariff wars without a total admission of grievous error but acknowledging serious mistakes for which you will accept no blame while emphasizing the things you will do to promote national and international healing.

Remember this: A mob, having enjoyed the thrill of hanging one, might not be satisfied with hanging only one.  The crowd might still be quite restless when you make the oval office your own. You must be thinking and assembling others from outside the present executive team who will find ways for you to look good digging out from under the rubble of this president’s disaster.

Renewing domestic and international trust and respect in such a short time might be beyond your best efforts, but it is important that you tell us what you will do if you are going to make sincere efforts and achieve some improvements.

If doing what you have to do means throwing Trump under the bus to join all of those he has thrown there, so be it. You must be prepared to show a major shift not only in ideology but also in style. You are, after all, the Hillbilly Eulogy guy, not the rich big city guy whose life experience has been far from your own and has no relation to the lives of most Americans.

You must be carefully lining up cabinet members who are not amateurs in their roles. Some of those replaced by the current administration might be good choices to return and be your guiding team. Start now to establish back-door relationships with Iran, China, North Korea, Russia and Israel that could be useful after you are sworn in as the successor to President Trump.

Make plans to dump the FCC Chair who seems all too willing to be the mini-Trump in the war against the media. In fact, you should announce as soon as you are in office that the war against the media is over, that you recognize the importance of a free and independent media, that the role of the media is not to be your friend and mouthpiece but to be an observer and when necessary be a critic.

Make your new Director of Homeland Security someone one with a Spanish surname and put ICE on ice.

Make a personal commitment to give late night talk show hosts something to talk about other than you. But understand that making fun of people in power is a very old matter of human nature. Poking fun at politicians probably began before written language was created.

Be strict with yourself about this: Nights are for sleeping. Days are for talking and acting. Do not try to mix the two. Remember that verbal temperance even in disagreement is more likely to engender respect than irrational attacks will.

If you wish to call someone a derogatory name, do it in your shower, not in public.

Find someone who knows and has the respect of and for the military to be ready with a mop, a broom, and a carpet cleaning system to replace Pete Hegseth. It should be someone who doesn’t measure military competence in terms of color, gender, or testosterone level. Before he goes, report on HIS testosterone levels.

Have somebody with some honor in the medical field replace Health Secretary Kennedy, who undoubtedly will complain he is a victim of a conspiracy. Admit he’s right and then vaccinate yourself from his influence.

Don’t be afraid to keep some of the competent people President Trump accidentally appointed to top positions. Would Rubio be more effective without Trump above him?  Of course, letting him stick around leaves him poised to be one of your challengers in the 2028 primaries.,

Prepare a list of executive orders to immediately roll back Trump’s plans for—

—-well, just about everything he has proclaimed.

Be thinking about the points you will earn with the public by cancelling the EgoArch, by restoring a sane board to the Kennedy Center, and announcing you are ending all efforts to etch the name Trump on any buildings he did not earn the right to rename, which would be none.

And restore the proper names to one of the Great Lakes and to The Gulf.

You’ll need to emphasize that you are not trying to erase President Trump’s name from history but are restoring our history to its accurate place in telling  ALL of the nation’s story, including his. Do not volunteer to speak at the dedication of his presidential museum and lie-brary.

Unsticking yourself from Trump might be difficult because of the tar baby he has been. But you need to give it your best efforts. Otherwise, your long-term future in what is left of the White House will be brief.

Retire attack dogs such as our Senators Schmitt and Hawley to a political kennel. You don’t need their kind to be distracting the public from the good works you do to restore a modicum of confidence in our country.

When President Trump was elected in 2016 without my approval, I was among the many who hoped he would grow into the office. But he has proven accurate an observation President Woodrow Wilson made: “Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is growing or swelling.”

President Trump is an example of one who swelled excessively and constantly. And look what it got him. Hire people who won’t be afraid to tell you before it’s too late that you’re looking a little puffy.

Good luck with your contingency planning. Do not be wasting time in making preparations. Your future is at stake, by 2028 if not sooner.

Citizen Bob

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Execution UPDATE  UPDATE  UPDATE

President Trump has overruled our offensive Defense Secretary and says there will not be a publicly-broadcast of the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.  He still will be shot to death but not with a worldwide audience watching.

While there are some parts of the world that think it’s a mistake not to make the execution public, most not only don’t want the death penalty at all.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports only 17 countries executed people last year, up from a record low fifteen in 2024.

Four countries (Japan, South Sudan, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates) resumed executions after a hiatus, while two countries (Oman and Syria) which carried out executions in 2024 did not in 2025. Of note, the United States was the only nation to execute people in the Americas for the 17th consecutive year.

In addition to Iran, which carried out at least 2,159 executions in 2025, significant increases were recorded in several other countries. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 356 executions, exceeding their historic high of 345 executions in 2024. Together, Iran and Saudi Arabia accounted for 93% of all executions worldwide. Egypt (13 to 23), Singapore (9 to 17), Yemen (38 to 51), and the United States (25 to 47) all approximately doubled their prior year execution totals, and Kuwait nearly tripled (6 to 17).

Paralleling global trends, the increase in the United States was attributable to a regional rise in executions in Florida, which accounted for nearly half of all executions. Amnesty International notes that this rise in U.S. executions occurred as “officials at the federal level and in some states promoted inflammatory and flawed narratives on the death penalty and its effect on crime, advocating for an increase in its use.”

Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were global outliers in execution methods with the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation and beheadings, respectively. As in previous years, the 2025 execution total does not include the thousands of executions estimated to be carried out annually in China, regarded as the world’s leading executioner. Both China and Vietnam classify data on the death penalty as a state secret. Restrictive state practices in North Korea, Laos, and Belarus also result in little to no information being available for those countries.

President Trump maintains Hasan deserves the several bullets that will be coming to him and admits to having some misgivings about cancelling the public event.  However,

“Nidal Malik Hasan, a former U.S. Army Major turned traitor, is a very bad and evil man, who killed 13 people, including a pregnant soldier, who died, along with her unborn son, and injured, very seriously, 32 more innocent people. Barack Hussein Obama’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) intercepted electronic communications between Hasan and the radical Yemeni-American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki. When reviewed by his FBI terrorism task force, investigators concluded that Hasan’s emails were not a threat. This assessment of the Obama Administration’s actions was later considered to be a key intelligence failure. With all of that being said, I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device. He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed. That said, the execution may be viewed in person by the immediate families of the victims, if they so choose. They deserve to witness JUSTICE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Trump’s obsession with blaming President Obama (and his constant cheap shot mentions of his middle name) is well over-stated.

NPR’s Mark Memmott reported in November, 2009:

Author Jerome Corsi, who was among the group that “Swift Boated” Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election and more recently penned The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, has another eye-catching story at the conservative World Net Daily website.

The headline reads: “Shooter Advised Obama Transition; Fort Hood Triggerman Aided Team On Homeland Security Task Force.”

And the story begins with this:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in yesterday’s massacre at Fort Hood, played a homeland security advisory role in President Barack Obama’s transition into the White House, according to a key university policy institute document.

Here’s what NPR national security/intelligence correspondent Tom Gjelten tells us about Corsi’s conclusion:

This claim is so exaggerated as to be without merit.

Nidal Hasan was one of 308 people whose names appear on a list of “participants” in a series of public roundtable meetings organized by the “Presidential Transition Task Force,” a project of the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) at George Washington University. Hasan was not himself a member of the Task Force.

Frank Cilluffo, the HSPI director, says the participants’ list, published as an appendix to the Task Force report, was no more than a tally of those people who RSVP’d to a notice of the roundtable meetings, which took place between June 2008 and February 2009. “Hasan joined as a member of the audience,” Cilluffo says.

When Cilluffo saw a picture of Hasan, he remembered him making a public comment during one of the roundtable meetings. “I had to cut him off, because he was going on too long,” Cilluffo says. He says he can not recall what Hasan was saying.

Corsi’s report, by the way, does something of a U-turn about midway through. “While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security,” he writes, “there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.”

And an “editor’s note” attached to Corsi’s story after its publication says “Hasan is being reported as a participant in the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute’s Presidential Transition Task Force, not as a member, noting the group was a university think-tank, not part of the Obama administration official transition team.”

So, he begins with a sure-to-shock conclusion — that Hasan played a “homeland security advisory role” in the transition. Then, at a point in the story that many readers won’t reach or hear about, Corsi reverses course.

NPR is not, as we all know, a source of information for our president.

Some cynics might be surprised Trump passed up a golden opportunity to market the Official Donald J. Trump Execution Rifle. As with the Trump Bible, it could be issued in various editions, one of which would be the “Pete Hegseth edition.”

The sad thing is that a lot of people would buy the things. We wonderful if one of the weapons that will be used someday will be on display in the Trump Liebrary and Museum.

At least we are spared the sad spectacle of this event being streamed into our homes and into too many children’s cell phones.

The Descent into Barbarism

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Two more stories about executions have made headlines in recent days for different reasons.

The story of the botched execution in Tennessee reminds us of a botched execution in Missouri. The other story is about plans for a public execution—the livestreaming of a firing squad carrying out a federal death sentence.

Before we get to the story of a botched Missouri execution, I have to get something off my chest about Pete Hegseth’s plans for a public firing squad for Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan who murdered 13 people and wounded thirty others in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings. If Hegseth gets his way, the internet will show the public the firing squad execution at 1 p.m., our time, on December 3. Something to watch while we’re having lunch. President Trump has okayed the first military firing squad execution since the execution of Private Eddie Slovick in 1945 for desertion.

I cringe even at giving you the time and date of Hegseth’s planned public spectacle.

I covered 22 executions.  All were accomplished with heavy overdoses of three drugs. Missouri now uses one giant overdose of just one drug, as has been used in recent botched executions in other states. It seems to have worked here.

It should be no surprise that Hegseth, an oily testosterone waving narcissist, wants a public execution. Apparently he thinks his self-righteous outrage about a man who killed thirteen members of the military should be displayed by letting ghoulish viewers see a man be shot to death.

It smacks of the old-time executions in the counties when large crowds gathered—some executions even sold tickets to them—with children to watch someone drop through a scaffold floor.  It was a social occasion, presumably an object lesson particularly for the children in the audience.

That’s what Hegseth wants with his sordid plan. He said on a television show last week that people need to see the execution because they have to understand serious crimes merit “serious consequences.” Is there anybody who does not understand that if you kill someone, you will not face “serious consequences?”

We suspect Hegseth wants a public execution to show how tough HE is. It’s an execution that is more about him than it is about the man who will die and his victims.  Death by testosterone.

If he’s so hot to have this done, why doesn’t he be part of the squad?  If our president thinks it’s such a great idea, why doesn’t he join him. After all, one is the commander in chief of all of our military forces and the other head the department that oversees all of them?

And just think how impressive President Trump’s weapon would look in his presidential iebrary.

Former Labor Secretary, now blogger and podcaster Robert Reich asks whether the firing squad will teach any watchers a lesson or will it “just degrade our sense of being human beings.?”  He refers to Hegseth’s plan as “cruel,” and “public sadism” and “barbarism.”

How excited do you think they would have been if they’d watched Christa Pike’s execution. Firing squad executions are over in an explosive second. Her struggle would have been a much better show.

Ultimately, public revulsion of public hanging carnivals led to Missouri and other states taking over executions from local jurisdictions  and holding them within prison walls with only the media, prison officials, and some friends of the person in the gas chamber or in the electric chair or on the gurney in the drug-execution chamber looking on.

The last public execution in this country is believed to have been a hanging in Kentucky in 1936.

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who murdered 167 people and injured 684 more with the 1995 blast at the Murrah Office Building died on a gurney at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana in 2001. Ten members of the media looked on as did some people he had invited to watch. Some survivors of the bombing saw it on closed circuit TV inside the prison because there wasn’t enough room in the citizen witness area.

McVeigh killed more than ten times more people than Hasan did yet died with as much dignity as an executed mass murderer could expect.

There are those who think Hasan’s public execution will put this country in the same category of two countries we consider cruel, barbaric, and cradles of terrorism. Amnesty International counted seventeen public executions last year. Eleven were in Iran.  Six more were Taliban events in Afghanistan.  Trump and Hegseth want to lower our nation to that level.

Death is not a circus. Executions are double tragedies.  The first is the death of the victim(s) and the grief of their families and friends, memories and longings that never completely disappear.  The second is the death of the killer, a recognition that a person threw away their life long before they threw away their future.

I sometimes caught myself wondering as I watched the drugs flow into the veins of those 22 men what turned that person on the gurney into what he became. When did he or she make the choice to live a life that turned out to be wasted, a life most remembered for its end than for its worth.

And then I watched them die and sometimes I wondered where they went at that instant.

In the end, they died alone. And no matter how awful their crimes, their death was not some kind of public spectacle nor should it ever be. Justice is too precious to be cheapened by people like Hegseth and Trump.  It is not a game show. It is not an ultimate firing.

Having seen as many executions as I have, do I believe in capital punishment? I am not alone in thinking some crimes are so heinous that the perpetrator forfeits his or her own right to life. But I also sometimes think spending every day waking up to the smell of Lysol or some similar disinfectant used in institutions, living among many who have nothing more to lose, going to a menial job every day, hearing a steel door lock behind you every night, never walking down a street, never having a beer with friends or seeing your grandson play a football game or your granddaughter being a bride, never seeing anything beyond an electrified fence, and eventually knowing the few family members you ever see all have died is better.

Christa Peck spent ninety percent of her thirty years in solitary confinement. Death was to be her only relief, her only escape.

I was interested in what my reaction would be when I watched my first execution.  My reaction was no reaction at all.  I watched a man go to sleep, went back to my motel and filed my stories for the next morning’s newscasts, and then I went to sleep, too, and I did not dream. The next morning I came back to my newsroom and went on with my life as if I had not been up most of the night in Potosi.

Reporters often report on things they wish they didn’t have to report about. Sometimes it’s the events of a life. Sometimes it’s the event of death. The plans of Trump and Hegseth might be the most despicable things this administration has thought up—-and that’s saying a great deal.

I think we’ll save the botched Missouri execution story for another entry. I’m not feeling too well after telling you these stories.

Sports:  Big Win, New Heart; New Bird and Are They or Aren’t They Tigers?

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZFB)—No letdown for these Tigers, not last weekend.  Missouri stifled Texas A&M defensively and battered them with the running game in a 27-6 win that has moved them into 13th place in both the AP and the coaches polls.  Mississippi State, next weekend’s opponent is 19th and 16.

More important than that is this:

Only The Ohio State University Buckeyes have a tougher schedule ahead of them for the rest of the season than Missouri does. The gauntlet begins with Ole Miss Saturday night. The University of Mississippi is ranked ninth. After that it’s Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Only Oklahoma and Arkansas are unranked going into this weekend’s play.

Their only common opponent is Florida which won 52-28.  Missouri goes in with a statistical advantage. Mississippi’s top rusher is Kewan Lacey who has only 230 yards. Quarter backs are within a yard of each other passing.

Here’s another interesting statistic:  Missouri’s defense has recorded 13 sacks in the second half of the games, second best in the country. Offensively, Missouri is averaging 36 points a game, Mississippi is averaging 38.

Tiger running back Jamal Roberts became only the third SEC running back in the last two decades to rush for 200 yards or more in two straight games last weekend.  He averaged better than six yards a carry.  In his last two games he has gained 433 yards.  His 828 yards puts him only seven yards behind the nation’s rushing leader, Dylan Riley of Boise State.  He had ten runs of seven yards or more.

The only two others were Derrick Henry from Alabama. and Leonard Fournette of LSU. Fornette’s NFL career was shortened to seven years with injuries. Henry is the only player to have run for 2,000 yards in high school, college, and in the NFL.

Missouri has led the SEC in rushing three of the last five years.

(MIZHEART)—One of the University of Missouri’s top signees this year probably will never play a down for the Tigers.  But he’ll be alive.

Johnnie “D. J.” Jones was diagnosed with a heart problem during freshman intake and last week suddenly was put on a transplant list.  A donor heart was located within a couple of days, and was implanted in an eight-hour operation in Columbia Wednesday night.

He went to Mizzou as a four-star prospect, 161st best player in the country, and number 16 at the offensive tackle position.

(MIZBB)—The Missouri Tigers basketball team plays its first game in ten days.  It’s an exhibition game in Manhattan, Kansas.  There’s a pretty big problem, though.

They don’t know who will be on their roster.  Two guys involved in lawsuits against the NCAA hope their eligibility for a fifth year will be granted.

The Tigers held their first Pro Day Sunday afternoon. Mark Mitchell and C. J. Gunn both took part although their lawsuits seeking eligibility for a fifth season are still in the courts.

Coach Dennis Gates wishes they had been able to decide on a fifth year as soon as last season ended but the rule that would have let them do it wasn’t made until they had moved on to pro development leagues. “My job is to make sure they’re developing and gaining the opportunity without knowing what tomorrow looks like, “said Gates.

Gunn will be in court this afternoon in Boone County asking for a permanent injunction allowing him to play this season.  Mitchell had filed earlier lawsuit in Kentucky but now has one in Boone County.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs had a bye week last weekend. They’ll face the Chargers in the late afternoon game Sunday. The Chargers remain winless in five games. The Chiefs are 5-1).

Kansas City has brought back wide receiver Justin Watson and have signed him to their practice squad. He was with the Chiefs for three seasons, played 50 regular seasons, caught 64 passes for 1,064 yards.

(BLUES)—Hockey season has crept onto the scene while we weren’t looking.  The St. Louis blues are 2-2-1 in their first five games. They play the Ottawa Senators tonight.

(CARDINALS)—We are gaining a new peculiar bird species in Missouri.  Joining the St. Louis Battlehawks, whatever they are, next year will be the Ozarks Springbirds, another species John James Audubon never painted.

The Cardinals Double-A affiliate says it’s making the change to reflect “our city, our region, and our birds.”  The new uniforms will look like these outfits modeled by obviously excited ballplayers.  The first time the new uniforms will be used in a game that counts is next April 2.

The people behind the name change say it identifies their region, their city, and the team whose minor league system includes them.

Changing Gears:

(NASCAR)—Kyle Larson has expanded his championship points lead although he finished sixth at Charlotte.  Instead of seeing his lead cut to thirty points by Christopher Bell, had Bell won, Larson nine points and is 49 points ahead with four races to go

Bell was despondent after finishing second to teammate Chase Briscoel, who picked up his second straight win and moved from sixth to fourth in the standings. Bell finished less than three-tenths of a second behind Brisco after running him down on the last lap and drawing even on the last turn when the two touched.

Bell has finished second eight time this year. NASCAR takes its show to Phoenix next weekend.

(Image credits: Roberts—Instagram; Jones— Threads; Springbirds—MLB;

 

Why She Woke Up Angry and Confused 

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Christa Pike woke up in a hospital shortly before she was declared brain dead and disconnected from life support.  Those in the room were shocked but none so shocked as Christa Pike. “Where am I?” she asked. “Who are you?”

She had not expected to wake up, at least not on this side of the mysterious curtain. When her gurney was wheeled into the Tennessee execution chamber she said, “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love.  I’m at peace. I’m ready to be free.  This is a happy day.”

We do not know if she expected to wake up in Heaven but she woke up in the Hell of a continuing life, shackled to a bed, in pain from the drugs intended to kill her, damaged physically and perhaps mentally.

“I am at peace. I’m ready to be free,” she said in what she thought would have been the last minutes of her life—and that is why her confusion, but maybe mostly her anger, was immediately noticed.

Missouri prison officials always share the last words of inmates before their executions.  We always reported them. We never mentioned the last meal. That just seemed ghoulish to me.

But the last words—-I saved them because, well, what would be your last words?  Would they summarize your life or justify it or apologize for it?  If you had spent decades in prison, might you not see your death as your escape, your relief, your freedom? If a faith journey that began too late to alter your life’s journey had left you feeling ultimate forgiveness, would you not think about what comes after the drugs stop your heart?

Here are some of those last words, some as the entire last statements and some as excerpts.

Read them out loud. You might be surprised about your reaction when you do that.

James Johnson, Jan 9, 2002: “The news reports today will say Jim Johnson is dead, those reports will be untrue. Today I will meet the one who gave his life for my sins. The one who extended to me mercy. Today I shall meet Jesus my Lord and Savior face to face.  When the executioners have done their worst, God will be shown to have done his best.  May the God of all grace bring peace to your hearts.”

Ernest Lee Johnson,  October 5, 2021: “I am sorry and have remorse for what I do. I want to say that I love my family and friends, I am thankful of all that my lawer [sic] has done for me. They made me feel love as if I was family to them. I love them all, for all the people that has prayed for me I thank them from the bottom of my. I love the Lord with all my heard and soul. If I am executed I no were I am going to heaven. Becaus [sic] I ask him to forgive me.”

David Zink, July 14, 2015: “For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die.  Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it and celebrate our true liberation before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death.”

Michael Worthington, August 6, 2014: “I will finally get to live in peace with my true Father. I’ll no longer have to suffer. It’s really my beloved friends and family that will suffer. May God forgive those who call this justice. When in truth, it’s truly about politics and revenge. Amen and peace to unto you all.”

William Rousan, April 23, 2014: “My trials and transgressions have been many. But thanks be to my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, I have a new home in his heavenly kingdom.”

Donald Jones, April 27, 2005: ” I’m finally free and I’m going home to grandmother now. I love you all and God bless.”

Jeffrey Sloan,  February 22, 1996: “I know I’m going to a better place.”

When you know there is no other way out, no escape, no hope of ever being free from the horrible life of a prison—-

—when you have reconciled yourself that you will die—

—whether you believed before you committed your terrible crime that brought you this sentence or whether you found God in those lonely and limited years, that you will awaken in a new life—

And then you wake up in Hell twice over because your death was botched, maybe you would be angry, too.  Certainly you’d be confused.  And then would settle about you the knowledge that the system is going to help you recover enough that you will have to go through it again.

Christa Pike was released from the hospital Saturday. What’s next for her is unknown. A commutation to life without parole?  She might be thinking that’s worse than death and that the executioners did her no favor.

She has gained a notoriety she never anticipated and of which she might not approve.

Christa Pike is the poster figure for those who want to eliminate the death penalty.  We wonder if she will consider it an honor—

–if her mind is capable of comprehending it.

Sports: Two Big Wins; Poll Vaults; Life and Death in the Fast Lane

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(MIZ)—Coach Drinkwitz wants to stay focused on the tasks ahead and not let himself or his players be distracted by transitory things such as rankings or past history.  He made it all clear in the press conference after the 25th (and hanging on by heir fingertips) Tigers crushed Florida Saturday in front of a delirious homecoming crowd.

The win brought him a national distinction: Coach of the Week.  We haven’t heard a comment from him about it but, based on his comments after the game, it’s no big deal in the larger picture for him and the team. It is his 50th win with the Tigers (50-30 now).

Drinkwitz already is the 4th winningest football coach in MU history (Pinkel 117, Faurot 101, Devine 93)

Fans can go a little nuts, however, by remembering that his Tigers had been 8-20 against top 25 teams before the big win. “This is about this game,” he said. “That’s just noise that people create on social media for no reason. Has nothing to do with anything…Nobody in our locker room could have cared less about that. I couldn’t have cared less about that. Again, that’s stuff for you all to tweet about and to make up stories about and try to create some sort of narrative about me or my program. I really couldn’t care less.”

We can’t basically disagree in terms of controlling the narrative you want to have your guys focus on in the locker room, the practice field, and the stadium turf. But the folks outside are kind of important too and they have to share those good things because they’re the ones who pack the stands and help buy the best players MU can buy and believe that a good major sports program represents the whole University—even the physics department—as a place to send your kids to.

“Every game has a life of its own. It’s people searching for crap to talk about, and it had nothing to do with this game. Each game has a life of its own, an opponent of its own, and we try to make up the best matchup that we can. And, you know, that’s the hot-take world right now. Try to find, what are things that you can poke holes in our program about? Great, that’s fine. Do what you want to do, but it doesn’t faze us any.”

No hole-poking here. Not after that game.  But the public is fickle and in one way or another has bought the right to poke holes when the promise seen in one game isn’t consistent.

Fans and players and coaches need a little time to luxuriate in what just happened—560 total yards against what was temporarily one of the ten best teams in the country while suffocating a Gators offense that was lighting up scoreboards by scoring at least 44 points in its games this year, holding the then-second leading running backs to 1.1 yards a carry. The coach for Florida, Jon Sumrall feeling “sick to my stomach with what we just did.”

(RANKINGS)—Florida still is above Missouri in two of the three big time rank outfits. ESPN has dopped Florida ten places to 15 and brought Missouri up seven slots to 18th. The Coaches poll shows Florida 15 and the Tigers 16th. The Associated Press ups Missour by eleven positions to 14 and drops Florda eight slots to 16th.

(TIGER BBALL)—The Missouri basketball team might not want to print Mark Mitchell’s jersey yet.  A Kentucky Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Mitchell and several other players who are hoping to get a fifth season on collegiate courts.

As of now, he’s out. He still can file a lawsuit in Missouri arguing he should be included in an NCAA rule adopted after the last season that players going forward will be allowed to have one. The policy excludes players who had played four seasons before the rule went into effect. Some of those involved in the Kentucky ruling already have seen some playing time for their college football team.

(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs remain undefeated after surviving Las Vegas and the Raiders 30-27 but they have some lineup juggling to do before their next game. Fortunately, they’ll have two weeks to get it done. That’s two weeks for Rashee Rice to get his tweaked hamstring back in playing shape and for the Chiefs to decide on a replacement for deep threat Tyquan Thorton, who could be out for the season with a badly broken ankle.

Rice and Thornton are the numbers one and three wide receivers on the squad.  Xavier Worthy is still healthy but behind him are Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Nicko Remigio. Royals has three catches for 17 yards and a touchdown this year. Allen is a rookie who has seen little action, and Remigio has a couple of receptions for ten years and a TD.

For weeks, maybe months, there’s been speculation the Chiefs might bring back Tyreek Hill, once Patrick Mahomes’ favorite “bombs away” target.  Hill has been stuck in the free agent market until somebody decides that his severe knee injury suffered last year while with the Dolphins is adequately healed.  Michael Silver with The Athletic has reported the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. There are reports that the Chiefs have contacted Hill’s agent. Silver says Hill “remains well liked within the organization.”  Videos of Hill doing beach workouts have been posted on the internet.

Keneth Walker is running for his second straight player of the month award from the NFL.  He ran for 177 yards against the Raiders including a 7-yard bolt in the third quarter, the NFL’s longest run so far, that put the Chiefs in a lead that they didn’t give up. There already are some folks thinking he might set a new NFL rushing record, breaking the 2,105 run up by Eric Dickerson forty-two years ago. He has accumulated the most yards in the first four games since Arian Foster had 539 for the Texans sixteen years ago (Foster led the NFL  with 1,616 rushing yards in 2010).

One of Walker’s more amazing stats is the number of broken tackles he’s had. 43 so far, fifteen more than Jahmyr Gibbs of the Lions has. He’s had six runs of 20 or more yards—double the number the Chiefs had in all of last year.

(BASEBALL)—Free agency doesn’t kick off until the World Series ends and the present labor contract will terminate about a month later, December 1.  One member of the labor committee is Royals CEO and President John Sherman who says “Everybody is working hard to make sure” a lockout doesn’t happen.  He says fans want revenue parity, payroll parity and competitive balance.  Major League Baseball is the only one of the four major sports without a salary cap.

He calls the Royals season “disappointing” and says he top priority is to rebuild the bullpen and stabilize the pitching rotation.

Moving right along to the people who move right along—

(NASCAR)—Chase Briscoe’s dominating win at Las Vegas has moved him into the top six in the championship points standings but Kyle Larson’s finish 1.4 seconds behind him as built is lead.

Briscoe was in charge for 175 of the 267 laps and he held Larson at bay down the stretch—as Larson had done to him the previous week at the Kansas Speedway.

Regular season points leader Denny Hamlin continued to struggle in the ten race run off. He finished 16 and trails Larson by forty points with only four races remaining in the season.

The racing next weekend will be on the Charlotte oval for the first time since 2017. Since then the fall race has been on the roval—the road course that combines an infield track with part of the oval.

(INDYCAR)—One of the biggest open rides in the series has been filled with Christian Lundgaard stepping into the Chip Ganassi car that Scott Dixon had for 24 years.

The number 9 won six championships with Dixon driving and the number also has been used for championship runs by Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and for Alex Palou’s first of five championships.

Arrow McLaren had dropped Lundgaard because of his mediocre oval track record. It’s gotten better in each of his five years in the series and Ganassi.

Dixon is moving to Arrow McLaren after years of being sponsored by PNG Bank. A Missouri financial company will be his sponsor with his new team—Edward D. Jones, based in St. Louis.

(JOHNCOCK)—Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock has died at the age of 90. Johncock, a quiet buy with a lumber company in Michigan. He also won the series championship once.

Johncock won the race in 1973, a tragic year for the 500.  The race was stretched through three days by weather and a tragic accident. He was leading on the 133rd lap when the rain came again and the race was declared official (it becomes official with the 101st of 200 laps run).  During the race, one of his teammates—Swede Savage—was fatally injured in a violent crash at the head of the pits.  A pit crew member was hit and killed by an emergency vehicle speeding out to the crash scene. A second driver, Art Pollard, was killed in a crash on the first qualifying weekend.

On the day the race was scheduled to be run, the field dissolved into a  melee of crashes, one of which critically injured Salt Walther whose car wound up upside down with Walther’s feet hanging out of the front of the wreckage. Several spectators were injured. Rain washed out any competition that day and the next day, too, before the contest finally got underway on the third day. Johncock led 64 of the 133 laps on a day that saw only one-third of the 33-car field still running.

He got a win after the full 200 laps, fighting off Rick Mears in the last 40 laps and beating him to the checkered flag by 0.16 seconds, the closest 500 finish in history at that time.

When he left racing, he really left it.  He had his sawmill in Michigan, seldom returned to Indianapolis and once said racing was a previous life—“a job”—but he later said he had another job.

(Image credits:  Drinkwitz—Saturday Down South; Lundgaard—Bob Priddy at Indianapolis; Johncock—Instagram; Finish—IndyCar.com; Briscoe–Priddy, Indy25;  Walker—KC Chiefs)

The Reactions 

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The reactions to our junior senator’s monstrous gaffe last week as he thought he had skewered former special prosecutor Jack Smith have been creative, critical, mean, tough—

—and, frankly deserved.

There might not be a more popular way to express an opinion today and express it to everyone you see on the street, at eating places, at sporting events—you name it—than the t-shirt. Even in our smaller towns, there’s likely to be some one who makes t-shirts to order.  Our junior senator became instant t-shirt fodder last week when he became the “got” in “gotcha.”

I wonder if the company is going to sent one of these to the Senator.  He’s tall, about 6-7, and kind of husky. An XL, VL (very long) would probably cover the most territory although it won’t cover that part of his anatomy that was exposed at the hearing.

Social media has had a field day, of course. AI has added a new depth to the ridicule opportunities. Creative juices have become gushers on various platforms. This one showed up on our Facebook page.

These things get circulated around and I am afraid I don’t know who had the original thoughts so I can’t tell you the names of these creative people. These probably are just a small example of the images created in the wake of the implosion. Most of them also showed up on our Facebook page.

I wonder if the senator, to show that he has a sense of humor about himself, will fame a few of these and put them in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol. He hasn’t been able to admit he made a giant mistake that will haunt him for a long time. But if he won’t admit he did a lot of damage to his future political credibility, maybe he can regain some PR points by displaying how much fun he has allowed others to have at his expense.

Don’t you wish you could have been a mouse in the corner when he and his staff got back to the office and closed the door after that hearing?

Here is what happens when a bag of political dirt explodes in your face.  Your faithful observer knows from some non-political experience of dropping the bag while emptying the canister of our whole house vacuuming system. My dirt, however, washed off fairly quickly.  The Schmitt dirt will require a huge amount of scrubbing, and even then—–

Maybe someone was thinking a song from a Stephen Sondheim musical, A Little Night Music—

Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground
You in mid-air
Send in the clowns

Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around
One who can’t move
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns

Just when I’d stopped opening doors
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there

Don’t you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you’d want what I want

Sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here

Isn’t it rich?
Isn’t it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year

Our president might be able to straighten things out the way he straightens out a lot of things—by renaming them.

Chris Clark and Kyle Cheney headlined their story on Politico, “Eric Schmitt pins down Jack Smith — as a Caitlin Clark fan” and went on: “Sen. Eric Schmitt thought he caught Jack Smith in a lie. Instead, he outed him as a fan of former Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark.”

Perhaps we should lighten up on our junior senator a bit.  A long time ago I was in doing some research at the University of Iowa and during a lunch break I went past a t-shirt store that featured one kind of like this

Self deprecating humor can lower the temperature a bit.  I had a t-shirt that I bought in Columbia that read: “Missouri.  It’s not that bad.”  So far there has been no such humor from our junior senator, though.

Senator Schmitt isn’t the only prominent Missourian whose dreams of national importance went up in smoke in an instant because of an ill-timed word or an ill-timed action or something that wasn’t supposed to become public but did.  We’ve seen it happen several times on our political turf in Jefferson City.

However, as rocky as our political history is, we have not reached the level of my home state where I once saw a t-shirt such as this one.

About eighty percent of the license plates issued in this country are made by prison inmates. Missouri is one of the states that has that system. We understand our inmates could make license plates for other states, as some other states do. But we know of no public record indicating them do.

There are some states who get their plates made in Canada. So far, license plates have escaped Trump tariffs.

I think this is probably enough for a while about Senator Schmitt. Already, he’s old news.  And I imagine he hopes to stay that way for a while.

 

The Dirtbag

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The Eric Schmitt we saw a couple of days ago making a fool of himself in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing grilling former special counsel Jack Smith is not the Eric Schmitt I remember from my days covering the Missouri Senate.  That Eric Schmitt was intelligent, respectful of the rules and of other senators on both sides of the aisle and knew what he was talking about.

He was elected State Treasurer and when Attorney General Josh Hawley went to Washington, Schmitt was appointed to move across the street to replace him.  He caught whatever political virus Hawley left behind.  I’ve said before that he left the best part of himself in the Capitol.

He apparently now bathes in Trump Kool-Aid.  The day that a prominent Republican consulting firm tried to start a boomlet for him as J.D. Vance’s running mate in two years, Schmitt turned his inner attack dog loose and in a matter of minutes proved why we do not need to see him one breath away from the presidency, assuming fellow Kool-Air bather Vance is picked to head the ticket.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the video of his smug, misguided attack of Smith and his charge that Smith had gone to Atlanta to meet with Fulton County Prosecutor who had admitted she and one of her associates had been associating too closely, a relationship that eventually led to the dismissal of 13 co-conspiracy charges she had filed against Donald Trump.  He’d even gone to an Atlanta Hawks NBA game while he was there, said Schmitt.

Smith said he recalled going to a University of Maryland women’s basketball game to see Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes. And Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whose staff rapidly learned there had, indeed, been a game in Maryland that night, quickly suggested that Schmitt didn’t know the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes.  It was one of the greatest political takedowns in memory, a “My Cousin Vinnie” moment for real.

Republicans on the committee wanted to get Smith to admit he had behaved unethically and illegally by meeting with Fani Willis on the day her affair was revealed.

When Schmitt found himself waist deep in it, he refused to back down. He slogged ahead and accused Smith of perjury and showed an incredible lack of maturity for a U. S. Senator by calling Smith “a total dirtbag.”

At the end day, Trumpist GOPers had failed to ruffle Smith enough to get him to make him admit what they wanted him to admit—that he had meddled in Willis’ affairs, more legal than personal, and had weaponized the Justice Department. And if anybody should know about weaponizing the Justice Department, it’s Republicans.

The Republican witch hunters spent the day beating up on Smith but in the end none of the hunters disputed his findings.  Their efforts to undermine his professionalism in securing indictments against the president were an embarrassing failure. It might be said they never laid a glove on him.

“The didn’t even talk about the report,” observed California Congressman Ted Lieu.  “They didn’t dispute that Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy to try to get fake electors and fake documents to overturn this election.”  He called the stuff Republicans were saying, “idiotic.”

Did Schmitt, caught with his political pants entangling his ankles, apologize for his mistake.  Oh, no.  Later he told CNN he had not made a mistake. “Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?” he blithely deferred.

When another interviewer told him there was television footage showing Smith at the game in Maryland, he retorted, “Great. Well, then, he was at the Hawkeyes game.” But he wouldn’t admit he was wrong in the hearing.

On the “Charlie Kirk Show” later, host Andrew Kolvet praised Schmitt, who responded, “Here’s the thing — my job is to ask the questions. He’s already — and if that’s what his answer is — then that’s what his answer is….The purpose of today is just to get him to answer a bunch of questions.”

Bee  Ess.  His job, the committee’s job, was to get facts.

Smith had them and spoke them and he made our junior senator a fool. Schmitt claimed Smith perjured himself. He didn’t. His description of Smith as “a total dirtbag,” a startling act of discourtesy and juvenile behavior.  He shouldn’t stay up so late at night taking name-calling lessons from our president.

He’s going to be a star on Saturday Night Live this week.

Some might think the dirtbag was not the one at the witness table.

Columbia Missourian editorial cartoonist John Darkow—-the best of his kind in Missouri and among the best in the whole country jumped on Facebook with his commemoration of the great inquisition.

Don’t expect any apologies from Senator Eric Schmitt. There are plenty of sycophants who will pat him on the back for becoming the class clown at that hearing. It takes some doing to make Josh Hawley look like the grownup in our senatorial delegation.  But for that one day, Schmitt rose, or sank, to the occasion.

Even when Klobuchar proved  Schmitt didn’t know what he was talking about, he snarled, “I stand by that statement.”

We should all hope the rest of the people in our country don’t judge Missourians on the basis of our Senators. Really, we should assure them, we normally are intelligent beings.

I want to know who kidnapped the Eric Schmitt that I knew and replaced him with someone that I don’t recognize.

(Picture Credit—some clever person on the internet. It’s not the only one mocking Schmitt; Darkow on Facebook.)