WILDWOOD 鈥 When I told my wife I was meeting Rod Jetton for coffee, she did a double take.
She doesn鈥檛 pay a lot of attention to politics, but she remembered his name.
鈥淭he green balloons guy?鈥 she asked.
Indeed. Jetton, a former Missouri speaker of the House, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in 2011 for an incident that started as a consensual affair involving rough sex and turned into a crime. 鈥淕reen balloons鈥 was the safe word that Jetton and the woman used, or were supposed to.
It was a fast and embarrassing fall for the son of a Baptist preacher who rose to become one of Missouri鈥檚 most powerful politicians. He fell to the bottom 鈥 of politics and life 鈥 in the blink of an eye. The last time the two of us met for coffee, it was in Cape Girardeau around the time of that fall. He spilled his guts, giving me details that would eventually become his redemption story.
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We met again this week. Jetton is back, having been hired by current Speaker of the House Dean Plocher.
Plocher is trying to recover from his own scandals, including taking several thousand dollars in travel reimbursements from the state for costs that were already paid by his campaign. Plocher has paid the money back and is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He hopes Jetton can help turn his political prospects around.
It鈥檚 a curious hire, not because Jetton doesn鈥檛 have the talent for the job, but because a scandal-plagued speaker hiring a scandal-plagued former speaker is two times more scandal in one sentence than a politician would typically like to see.
Jetton is a charming man who owns his past sins. He knows he鈥檚 entering a hornet鈥檚 nest. The scandal headlines will come and go. That鈥檚 not Plocher鈥檚 biggest problem. It鈥檚 this: What does the recycling of Jetton say about the state of the Republican Party?
State Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Cottleville, has an answer for that question, and it鈥檚 not a good one.
Eigel, who is running for governor, is an extremist. He wants his party to fight every culture war, treat Democrats as enemies and trample on any Republican who doesn鈥檛 kowtow to the furthest right-wing positions. But he鈥檚 not wrong about something he posted on social media the other day.
Gov. Mike Parson, a fellow Republican who is about the only elected official left who served with Jetton in the House, was bragging in a radio interview about the state of the economy. Parson is supporting one of Eigel鈥檚 opponents in the gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. The winner will likely face Crystal Quade, the Springfield Democrat who is the House Minority Leader.
鈥淢issouri is in the best shape of any state in the United States,鈥 Parson said.
I like it when Missouri鈥檚 governor cheerleads for the state. But Parson is simply wrong, by most objective factors. Eigel called him on it, using a document that came directly from Parson鈥檚 Department of Economic Development.
鈥淢issouri鈥檚 growth in GDP and productivity has been below the nation and Missouri鈥檚 Midwestern peers since 2010,鈥 said the document, which is seeking consulting help to pull the state out of its economic doldrums.
From Parson鈥檚 own Department of Economic Development:
鈥 William Eigel (@BillEigel)
鈥淢issouri鈥檚 growth in GDP and productivity has been below the nation and Missouri鈥檚 Midwestern peers since 2010.鈥
馃馃
What world does live in?
Jeff City needs a Reckoning.
That year 鈥 2010 鈥 is the one after Jetton vacated the speaker鈥檚 chair. He was the second in a long line of Republican speakers who, for more than two decades, have held a majority or super-majority in the House and Senate. Instead of an economic nirvana of milk and honey trickling down from Republican tax cuts, Missouri has instead won the race to the bottom.
The state is, or has been recently, last in higher education spending, teacher pay, public health spending and pay for corrections officials. It鈥檚 first in the sort of categories that bring embarrassment, such as poor kids being cut off Medicaid.
Eigel would likely make all of these things worse, but sometimes it helps to have an extremist take on the establishment so the entire party can look in the mirror.
Missouri鈥檚 economic numbers aren鈥檛 Democratic numbers or Republican numbers. They鈥檙e just facts.
So when a Republican speaker of the house tries to bill Missouri taxpayers for travel expenses his campaign donors already paid, and then tries to get out of it by hiring a guy who suffered through his own scandals, it says something about how he views those taxpayers.
Jetton can鈥檛 fix that problem. But his presence is a connection to the early days of Republican rule in Missouri, when the economic numbers began to fall. Jetton鈥檚 hiring is a stark reminder that when it comes to the state of the Missouri economy, Republicans have only themselves to blame.