Karl Rove has long served as President George Bush’s political mastermind. He runs the White House’s political operations, which means he is involved in virtually every congressional race in the country.
But recently, Karl Rove has been embroiled in his own controversy: a special prosecutor is investigating him over the alleged leak of some classified information. Now political pundits are openly questioning whether Rove being distracted with the possibility of an indictment may cause the Republicans problems during the mid-term elections.
Here in St. Charles, Adolphus Busch IV appears to be suffering similar problems. He formed a club of rich St. Louis duck-hunters dedicated to the principle that those with inherited wealth should be able to bully or buy enough local politicians to stop anyone from moving too close to their duck-hunting preserves. His primary target was stopping St. Peters’ proposed development along 370 Highway. And his buddies kicked in the bucks to fund a huge political spin machine deceptively named the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance.
But money alone doesn’t buy elections. Someone has to run the operation. Someone has to write the attack pieces against politicians that can’t be bought. Someone has to do what Karl Rove does for the President. So the duck brethren turned to St. Louis spin-doctor Glenn Jamboretz and his public relations company.
With Jamboretz writing the attack pieces, the duck gang scored an early surprise success by unseating the primary architect behind the 370 project, St. Peters Mayor Tom Brown. But despite that, the St. Peters Board of Aldermen kept pushing the 370 project forward. Jamboretz couldn’t get Adolphus and his guys what they wanted most: all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the duck hunters’ paradise back together again.
And when Adolphus ran to federal court to stop the project, the judge said that not only was the Army Corp of Engineers right that the project would not hurt the flood plain, but because the project includes setting aside a bunch of acres for wetlands, St. Peters was actually protecting the environment. So much for Adolphus’ claim to be a great environmentalist.
Things are not going well for the great white duck hunters. No one appears to be at the wheel. A little like Karl Rove, Adolphus’ man about town appears to be mightily distracted by his extracurricular problems.
For example, Jamboretz is orchestrating the recall attempts against St. Charles City Council members Mark Brown and Dottie Greer. He claims to have the signatures to start the recall election against Darling Dottie. But Jamboretz may have gotten a little bit sloppy on this one. He paid a $5 bounty for each signature. Not unexpectedly, it looks like some of the St. Louis “bounty hunters” Jamboretz brought in may have simply forged the signatures. And they totaled their bounties right on their petition forms. They must know not to trust Jamboretz when it comes to money.
And Jamboretz got caught with his hand in the St. Charles City taxpayers’ cookie jar. Mayor York loved Jamboretz’s efforts to recall her political critics on the Council. She apparently decided to reward Jamboretz by funneling him (through an assortment of empty shell companies) juicy city contracts worth more than $15,000. All Jamboretz had to do was produce the Mayor’s State of the City Report. The problem is that despite the Mayor signing off that the work had been done, Jamboretz may not have bothered to write the report—at least, the Mayor apparently couldn’t produce it when asked.
Something tells me that Jamboretz is busily squirreled away trying to finish his “homework” that is now past due. The best evidence of this is that his Frankenstein in St. Peters, Mayor Shawn Brown, appears to be responding to his own scandal about his haunted house without any advice from Jamboretz.
Last week, Shawn found himself under fire for trying to hide that he secretly owned the haunted house in St. Peters. Any political advisor worth his salt would have told Shawn to lay low. Responding to those types of allegations (especially when they are true) will just end up getting them repeated in the press. Politicos call this type of mistake “extending the cycle.”
But Shawn went out there screaming to the press. He told the press that when he formed his company to run the haunted house he put down the wrong address because “nobody needed to know it was the Mayor.” He admits that he deliberately didn’t put down his real address because he didn’t want the Aldermen to know of his involvement with the project until after it was cleared by the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Shawn thinks that the Aldermen are out to get him.
He also told the press that the Chief at Central County Fire and Rescue unfairly required him to put in $4000 in safety equipment in his haunted house. Shawn alleges that the Chief did it because the fire department is running the other haunted house in the County — the Haunted Hotel. Shawn thinks that the Chief is out to get him
Shawn also told the press that St. Peters’ Suburban Journal, which broke the story, had falsely reported that he used an incorrect address. When that paper confirmed their facts and refused to retract the earlier report, Shawn claimed that the paper was working for former Mayor Tom Brown. Shawn thinks the Suburban Journal is out to get him.
But the crème de le crème of Shawn’s misstatements to the press relates to his boat. Apparently, some clever reporter found out that he doesn’t use his real address when registering his boat. Shawn was quoted as saying, “I may be the mayor of St. Peters, but why would I pay (higher taxes) down here (in St. Peters) when I can pay at the Ralls County rate?” Apparently the fact that the people of St. Peters pay Shawn $43,000 per year to be Mayor isn’t enough of a reason for him to actually pay his St. Peters taxes. With statements like that, I think Shawn should be worried that he is out to get himself.
Where in the world is a muzzle for Mayor Shawn Brown? Where in the world is Glenn Jamboretz? Maybe after he gets Mayor York’s homework done, he can stop Mayor Brown from committing political suicide.
But wait, duck season starts next week. And Adolphus, Jamboretz and their buddies only got into this to protect their duck hunting. All the county’s empty suit “duck” politicians may be on their own until the mallards are again off limits in January.
