Posts Tagged ‘Russ Carnahan’

Carnahan finally served her long-awaited jury duty. According to a south St. Louis neighbor, Cong. Russ Carnahan‘s wife showed up for her stint on Monday and when she returned on Tuesday, she wore the same clothes. She was overheard to say, “I have no clothes here.”

About Newt Gingrich’s aspiration to run for U.S. president, Bill Clay, Sr., said, “He was the worst speaker of the house and he closed down Congress twice. A lot of people suffered. The Tea Party is ruining the Republican Party.”  Seated at the historic Sunset C.C. in south county for the 25th annual William Clay Scholarship and Research Fund golf tourney and dinner, Clay, the first African-American congressman, who previously served as 26th ward alderman, ticked off some achievements including how he helped the late Robert Kennedy get blacks to register in an election.  “Jack Dwyer of the Democratic Central Committee didn’t want them to register,” he recalled. “Kennedy got 28 people to town to help with the registration and they fell in line.  After his brother, Jack became president and Bob became attorney general, he helped me in an attempt to revive the small arms plant. We didn’t get it, but we remained friends.”  Of today’s pols, Clay lauded Cong. Russ Carnahan as being “a great legislator” and of his sister, Mo. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan – “You’re not going to corner me on that,!” Clay exclaimed.
Then, the 80 year-old Clay turned to the barbs he got from the old, conservative Globe-Democrat. He recalled, “One night, I got a phone call, that the paper’s publisher was hauled into the police station for
soliciting sex from a prostitute in the area of Enright and Euclid.  I ran to the station and confronted him and said, ‘You don’t like black people, but you sure love black whores!” Clay heaped praise on his wife, Carol, with whom he’s been married for 51 years, and his son, U.S.Cong. William Lacy Clay, Jr., who arrived with his sister, Michelle and his nephew, Clay. Lacy opined, “Newt has a following and he’d be great competition to Palin and Romney. He’d be a front-runner. However, President Obama will make mincemeat out of him. No one can campaign like Obama.” As to his take on the 13th and final casino license in Missouri, Lacy said,”I’m supporting a casino in north county, because that region sorely needs an infusion of jobs. Cape Girardeau is ultra-conservative and its religious right will be up in arms against it.”

L to R - Tim Drury, Ed Martin, Gene McNary

Give Gene McNary a pat on his ego!  The yesteryear St. Louis county exec, INS chief and Missouri lottery czar told the columnist, “My wife has encouraged me to run for a statewide office.  Perhaps I might consider that.”  McNary appeared Wednesday night at Bartolino’s South for an Ed Martin for Congress fundraiser billed as, “Welcome Home, Gene McNary.” (Read that as a welcome to McNary’s roots in south county.)  Jabs by  McNary  toward incumbent Cong. Russ Carnahan prevailed.  “Maybe Jeff Smith’s friends will not be happy with Carnahan.  Ed is not going to get a Post-Dispatch endorsement, but he will get Bill McClellan’s (as Martin stared at the skilled P-D columnist). This is a Republican year. The coalition Obama put together will sit on their hands.”  Martin said free trade with China is not working.  Turning again to Carnahan, Martin noted, “He and his wife have traveled the world on tax payer-funded dollars to study climate change and watch fireworks in New Zealand as well as evidence of ocean acidification.”

A lawsuit against Demo Cong. Russ Carnahan and his wife, Debra, filed by Barnhart, Mo.,-based American Exteriors (and roofers) for unpaid roof repairs to the tune of $17,000 has been settled for an undisclosed amount. The work, according to the suit, the non-union American Exteriors had a signed contract with the Carnahans to reset copper finials and paint the dormers on the family’s house, between Grand Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue.

Mo. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder got high-fives from a gaggle of the 71,000 participants in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  Kinder, a Republican, ran in the 5K section.  Overdupois Mo. Gov. Jay Nixon also competed.  (Maybe his weight gain can be attributed to his recent visit at Sweetie Pie’s.)  Slim Mayor Francis Slay kicked off the ceremonies in his Polo shirt – sans his usual natty suit.  Juan Carlos Antolinez was on hand as was his wife, Mo. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, a breast cancer survivor, who tagged along.  Her bro, Cong. Russ Carnahan, made a cameo. Some women oggled over State Rep Chris Carter‘s buffed torso as he made it through the finish line with his adorable Naomi West. Martin Casas, prez of the Young Democrats, was raced, while his soul mate, Katie Casas cooled her jets at home with their newborn Sophie Ann.

After a week of being battered by his Republican opponent about a yacht allegedly being anchored in Illinois to avoid taxes, U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan answered his persistent critic – and three an old friend out of the lifeboat. According to Carnahan’s camp, the boat (a 40 year-old cruiser) is moored in Alton (instead of, say, the River Des Peres Yacht Club) because that is the marina closest to Carnahan’s home.  And, it isn’t licensed, because it isn’t seaworthy.  Interestingly, claim the Carnahans (via Jo Mannies of the St. Louis
Beacon), the boat is co-owned by Russ and St. Louis Aldermanic prez Lewis Reed, who would probably rather have had his share in an Illinois pleasure boat pass unnoticed and unremarked.

Representative William Lacy Clay has filed a change of address with his employer.  The newly single congressman has moved into a central corridor condo owned by his sister, attorney Michele
Clay.  (The columnist knows the address, but thinks the recent bad behavior outside the private residence of US Representative Russ Carnahan by some of the Tea Party group makes it prudent to withhold it.)

Ed Martin, GOP candidate for the 3rd Congressional Dist., will get a boost come 5 p.m., March  30, when Shane Osborne, Nebraska state treasurer, attends Martin’s town hall on veterans’ issues at south county’s Royal Orleans.  Osborne, who got ink this week in the Wall Street Journal, is not only a war hero, but the likely candidate to run against Sen. Ben Nelson in 2012. Osborne has been very vocal about the much talked-about Cornhusker kickback that Nelson negotiated in return for a yes vote on the health care reform bill.  Osborne calls it “the Cornhusker Casualty.”  Also, at the town hall will be Joe Frank, past national commander of the American Legion and John Cummerford, who is also on the Veterans Commission. Martin continues his rise in the polls seeking to unseat Russ Carnahan.