What do the Blunt administration’s released e-mails say about his office?

[Robbien]

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star and the Associated Press sued the administration of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt to obtain the release of thousands of e-mails. These are e-mails that Blunt’s office originally said didn’t have to be saved, much less released.

The lead to the story the Post-Dispatch ran on Sunday summarizes the pattern:

The administration contended that a fired staff lawyer never offered advice about the governor’s policy requiring public records, including e-mails, to be retained.

But he did.

Blunt’s staffers said the administration did not regularly conduct state business out of public view on campaign e-mail accounts.

But they did.

And the governor’s then-chief-of-staff denied the existence of e-mails showing he had engaged in political activities on state time.

But hundreds of them exist.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/talk-of-the-day/talk-of-the-day/2008/11/what-do-the-blunt-administrations-released-e-mails-say-about-his-office/

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There is a great diary over at dKos which gives a good detailed outline of what has been discovered in the 6000 pages of emails Blunt said he never wrote/received but finally turned over.

The Blunt e-mail controversy started on Aug. 27, 2007, when Tony Messenger, then a columnist for the Springfield (MO) News-Leader, filed a formal Sunshine Law request with Blunt's office for any e-mail correspondence from or to Ed Martin regarding Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon’s defense of a new state law on abortion clinics. At the time, Democrat Nixon was presumed to be Blunt’s general-election opponent the following year (and in a case of sweet justice, Nixon was in fact elected Missouri's new governor on Nov. 4). Nixon was widely distrusted by pro-life groups, and Messenger was investigating whether Martin was trying to rally anti-abortion groups to bad-mouth Nixon.

On Sept. 4, Martin wrote Messenger that he had "no documents that were responsive — e-mail or otherwise" regarding Nixon and the abortion clinics law. But in a column published five days laters, Messenger reported that he had obtained one such e-mail from another source, thus proving that Martin had lied. That's when Blunt and his cronies began a series of lies and cover-ups that would prove fatal to Blunt's administration.

Please go read the rest of the story at
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/17/9114/4584

One email is pretty damning:

Martin told Catholic leaders and other conservatives that Nixon, an abortion rights supporter, could not be trusted to defend the abortion law.

"We need to beat the living heck out of him," Martin wrote on Aug. 20.

Martin wrote Kerry Messer of Missouri Family Network: "Please help gin up outrage."

Blunt released a statement today saying the 6000 pages of emails prove "he did nothing wrong"
http://www.ktts.com/tabid/4882/xmid/27351/Default.aspx

[Terran]

1. Matt Blunt is George Bush's Mini-Me par excellence

and his administration has been run in just as corrupt a way as Bush's--just on a much smaller scale (for which we are fortunate). The rest of the country is VERY lucky that Blunt's political career has come to an end, because he might have risen to the point where he'd be an appealing national figure. He was best buds with Mitt Romney, and for a long time I was shuddering to think of him as the repub VP candidate.

[benld74]

2. Matt Blunt was the ONLY politician to get booed during the,,,

2006 Cardinal World Series Party at Busch Stadium.

[blur256]

3. Just Guessing...

That these aren't the only pieces of evidence of shady things he has done. You know there has to be a lot going on behind the scenes that would have led to him not running for office again. I'm just glad he is out! :toast: