Claire McCaskill, nobody’s liberal Democrat, will undoubtedly find her reelection effort tough going this year, even as the GOP is set to nominate one of three right-wing extremists to oppose her.
But she is getting some help from a couple of big-shot Missouri Republicans. From The Kansas City Star:
Two prominent Republicans were among three dozen civic and political supporters of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill who met in Kansas City last Monday to hear her plans for re-election.
Both are top officials at Kansas City Southern, where the meeting took place. One was company Chairman Michael Haverty. The other was the meeting’s host, KCS Executive Vice President Warren Erdman, who used to be chief of staff to former Republican Sen.Kit Bond.
Erdman likes the fact that McCaskill is a “pragmatist,” which coming from a Republican means she sometimes blesses Republican philosophy with her assent. “I like things that produce results,” Erdman said.
It’s not clear what Erdman would think of the unproductive efforts of Roy Blunt—our very red senator—to , well, I’ll just let Blunt’s press release tell you:
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) attempted to introduce a bipartisan amendment today to the federal highway reauthorization bill in order to repeal the Obama Administration’s unlawful health care mandate that violates Americans’ religious freedom.
Because highways have so much to do with contraceptives and conscience, Blunt didn’t see a problem with hijacking the federal highway bill to do a bit of
moralizing on behalf of those who hold extremist theological positions on birth control. Never let a pothole go to waste, is Blunt’s motto, I suppose.
In any case, Think Progress offered this short analysis of the potential broader implications of Blunt’s “conscience amendment,” should its implementation end up in the God-blessed hands of a Republican president:
Under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.
Don’t think such things aren’t possible, if Missourians send Sarah Steelman or Todd Akin or John Brunner to replace Claire McCaskill in the U.S. Senate, and if Missourians—including anti-Obama “pragmatists” like Republican Warren Erdman—send Mitt Romney (or maybe even worse, Rick Santorum) to the White’s House.
In that case, Roy Blunt’s amendment, and likely much worse, will become reality instead of mere moral theatrics.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
johnnykaje
/ February 13, 2012Haven’t been here in a while!
I’ve been following Blunt’s twitter feed. It consists of two parts:
1. Him, saying something
2. Other people completely pwning him.
It’s fun when you’re bored and feel like trolling somebody.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 13, 2012Kaje,
Long time no see. I have never had the pleasure of pwning anyone on Twitter but Blunt lends himself to such mild abuse with actions like attacking women’s rights.
His latest move was a disgusting attempt to capitalize on what he thinks is a winning issue, but which he will find out plays right into Big O’s (excuse me: in the words of a local right-wing Globeblogger, “Dear Leader’s” or “‘Bama boy’s”) hands.
By the way, I vote for “MOON UNIT NEWTA,” but now that Newt is dying on the vine, I suppose it doesn’t much matter. But what a great idea while it lasted!
Duane
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King Beauregard
/ February 14, 2012Wait, “Big O”?
If this is what his second term is going to be like, he’s got my vote. I especially look forward to his “free machine-gun-toting butlers” initiative.
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johnnykaje
/ February 14, 2012Oh, anime. You and your wacky Engrish names and giant robots and cute girls. Never, ever stop.
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King Beauregard
/ February 14, 2012And yet it’s still an improvement over the English version:
I think you’ll agree this could benefit from a giant robot or two.
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R. Duane Graham
/ February 14, 2012I like it. Especially the setting:
Duane
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