The St Louis Post Dispatch has an in depth article up highlighting the hypocrisy of another GOP deficit "hawk", Pete Kinder.
It seems Lt. Gov. Kinder, has spent a hefty sum of taxpayer dollars on expensive stays at 4 star hotels to attend local Tea Party rallies and corporate sponsored fundraisers.
According to the Post Dispatch, since 2006, Kinder has billed Missouri taxpayers over $35,000 for staying 329 nights in St. Louis area luxury hotels. Most of those nights were spent at the historic Chase Park Plaza Hotel.
Lt. Gov. Kinder doesn't live in the liberal bastion of St. Louis, but hails from Cape Girardeau, MO, ancestral home of the Limbaugh clan. So why is he billing taxpayers to spend so much time there? Apparently its to attend Cardinals games, fundraisers and Tea Party rallies.
How many days of hotel stays have other Missouri state officials spent at taxpayer expense since 2009?
According to the Post Dispatch
Treasurer Clint Zweifel 14
Attorney General Chris Koster 29
Sec. of State Robin Carnahan 0
Gov. Jay Nixon 6
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder 152
We all know from past history that GOP'ers are profligate spenders of taxpayer money and habitual hypocrites to boot.
Kinder has attended at least 3 St Louis area Tea Party events, staying at the Chase each time and dining at expensive restaurants - all on the taxpayer dime.
So what makes this scandal different? Kinder is unapologetic and his Tea Party supporters are defending him while screaming for cuts in the state budget.
From the Post Dispatch link above:
"The Tea Party is a grass-roots movement of Missouri taxpayers that have every right to request the presence of state officials," (Kinder's) statement said.
Chuck MacNab, a Tea Party activist from St. Charles County, said that "in view of all of the profligate spending in the trillions" nationally, he doesn't think taxpayers mind paying $120 to put Kinder up in a nice hotel for the night.
"He's the lieutenant governor," MacNab said. "He's not chopped liver."
Actually, Chuck, the price is much higher than $120 a night.
My liberal Dem DKos cousins in Missouri can probably provide more back story on Kinder's flaming Tea Party rhetoric and hypocrisy in his race to replace Dem Gov. Jay Nixon. But I thought this story deserved wider attention given the incessant rhetoric from the right wing about deficits and budget cutting.
Update:
Interestingly enough, Kinder is also the Lt. Gov. who has filed his own lawsuit against the federal Health Care Reform Act. No one knows who is funding the lawsuit.
Who's Funding Lt. Governor Peter Kinder's Lawsuit Against Health Care Reform?