Friday, December 12, 2008

Robinson vs. Hervey

Take a look at these two statements -- one sent out by Gov. Matt Blunt's office, and another sent out by the state Republican Party spokeswoman, following Jay Nixon's announcement of his license fee office reform plan.
Which makes you smirk quicker?
First Tina Hervey, @ 12:53 PM: "Governor-elect Nixon has yet again proven that he talks the talk but cannot walk the walk. Hopefully Nixon will continue to hold fee offices to high customer service standards as Governor Blunt has done and only time will tell how many Nixon contributors and supporters are rewarded," said Mo. GOP spokeswoman Hervey in a statement.
Then, Jessica Robinson, of Gov. Blunt's office, @ 2:03 PM: "Gov. Matt Blunt was the first governor in Missouri history to open contract offices to a competitive bidding process and today he applauded Gov.-elect Jay Nixon for announcing his intention to continue this open and transparent process. So far we have opened twelve offices to this competitive process and eight contracts have been awarded. This open process has been good for state government and good for taxpayers and Governor Blunt applauds Gov.-elect Nixon for continuing these open bids."
First things first, while Blunt did open some contracts for bid. As noted, that involved a total of 12. Nixon's plan is to open up ALL of the license fee offices to a competitive bidding process.
Secondly, obviously Robinson's praise of Nixon is mainly meant to get across the point that this is something Blunt has already been doing. It's like sarcastically saying, "You're so awesome for stealing my idea. You're right, it really is smart!"
Hervey doesn't offer any praise, but rather, takes Nixon to task "for failing to walk the walk." But how do we know if he's walked the walk, before he's even putting on his running shoes? (Nixon's inaugurated Jan. 12th).
It makes bipartisans all warm inside to see Blunt praising Nixon, even if it's with a slight jab.
Either Hervey has to get more sarcastic or Robinson should just go back to being mean.
But, let's stay on the same page here people.
Or not.
In an e-mail to the Notebook, Hervey put it this way: "Jessica and I work for different people and have different jobs."

2 comments:

Kris said...

This may sound like a perversion of what our Mothers all taught us as children, but perhaps Tina should learn that, as a political spokesperson, if you can't say something mean AND plausible, just don't say anything at all.

Paul Seale said...

These quotes are no more laughable than your coverage.

While it maybe true that Nixon is "opening" the bidding up for "all" offices there is absolute no analysis of the actual bill.

There are are some of us who read the Nixon proposal and know it for what it is. There are no provisions which would stop Nixon donors for being treated preferentially and no transparency.

Lastly, it should be noted that performance ratings are shoved to the side by a pay to play clause which makes it essential for anyone bidding to give the state money for the bid.

I didnt see that any where in any of your postings.

In short, your being the governor elect's mouth piece by not only repeating every word mentioned without quest; but then trying to slam his political opponent in trying to perpetuate a policy lie.