Blunt's Christmas greeting to Minnesota bloggers

   Why did Gov. Matt Blunt's directive Monday to state employees about saying "merry Christmas" first end up on a conservative political blog?

   According to the Tuesday post from Power Line, "A member of Governor Blunt's staff has kindly forwarded us a copy of Governor Blunt's directive to Missouri department directors."

   Democratic bloggers in Missouri on Wednesday noted the directive, and the governor's office later confirmed the existence of the directive to The Star.

   According to information on the Power Line blog, the site is run by three attorneys, two of whom are from Minnesota and a third from Maryland.

   Who on the governor's staff forwarded the memo to the blog and why?

   According to spokeswoman Jessica Robinson, it was a "low-level staffer" who was a friend of someone connected to the blog and who didn't expect that the memo would end up on the internet.

   Robinson declined to name the staffer.

   "This person would rather not be identified in The Kansas City Star," she said.

  UPDATE: This afternoon Robinson confirmed that the staffer who sent the directive to the Power Line folks was Jonathan Bunch, a junior policy adviser. That revelation comes after the Democratic blog Fired Up! identified Bunch as the spreader of Blunt's Christmas tidings.

Posted by Tim Hoover

Comments

[jenniferm]

"This person would rather not be identified in The Kansas City Star,"

What a chickensh!t! Yeah, let's send this to powerline, but please don't tell my name to anyone else, cause I don't want to get in trouble. I'm sure skippy's buddy Bill O'Rielly will be all over this, so skippy will get to be on his show again real soon. This is a totally made-up crisis by people who really need to get a grip on reality.

[tsquare]

Merry Christmas Jenn!

[jenniferm]

Back at you, tsquare! (I do mean it)

Blessed Ramadan, tsquare!

here a fav from PowerLine:

"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile."

Man the koolaid is bad on powerline.. I would have to say pert near toxic... lol.. That is down right scary!!! Helll he is so behind times that Nero comes to mind.

[shrugging]

I suppose you prefer the level headed moderate voices of the Daily Kos.

[cooker_fox]

Well since I have not visited that site either I couldn't say for sure, but based on what I read above it can't be worse. And from what I have read about Kos... I would have to say yes I would consider them much more level head and moderate. Heck, based on the above I would put this group in a bunch that need some serious psych help.

[shrugging]

You can't tell anything from the above unless the whole piece was copied. Knowing Powerline it was likely sarcastic hyperbole, which you could only tell is you read the whole piece. While supportive of some of Bush's policies that quote does not in any way reflect their over opinion.

Remember, Kerry wasn't criticising the troops you need to look at the previous sentences to understand the context...

here is Kos's today:

We have one year to make our case for 2008 to the American people. We need to show not just that we deserve to hold on the Congress, but that we should be given the White House as well.

2008 won't work, since as an election year, all meaningful legislative work will grind to a halt and the press will be focused on the horse race (as will we). So 2007 is it.

We can spend 2007 either pushing impeachment (which isn't as popular as Zogby claims, see Bowers' piece), or we can use it educating the American people about what a Democratic government would look like -- passing meaningful legislation that would improve their lives like the minimum wage, health care reform, ethics reform, stem cell research funding, policies that help families and the middle class.

Impeachment does none of that.

In a perfect world, we could do all of the above. But we don't live in a perfect world. And the second we start impeachment proceedings, the media will focus on that. Heck WE'LL focus on that, and the Democratic legislative agenda will fade into the background, ignored. A perfect opportunity to brand the Democratic Party in a positive light will be forever squandered.

So what is more important, proving that we can govern and making the case for future Democratic majorities? Or a high-profile vendetta campaign against Bush? It really is just one or the other.

It's an easy call.

Don't worry about Bush and company. Congress will pursue its oversight duties. Waxman and Slaughter and Conyers and the rest of those guys aren't about to take the next two years off. People will be held accountable. Impeachment isn't the old path to accountability.

And Bush? He's going down as the nation's Worst President Ever. We don't need "impeachment" to make that case, Bush has done a great job of it all by himself.

Based on the two sections on the two sites I would take KOS as the more moderate and practical.

I stand by my earlier statement on the koolaid at powerplay.

I can tell you I got the memo (since I work for the state) I think Gov. Blunt has more to do then tell me I can tell people Merry Christmas. I need a raise!!!

[andrew]

What a huge drain of time and energy...

[Blue Girl, Red State]

Shrugging: I actually prefer the moderate and slightly left voices at Political Animal.