Show Me Your Insiders

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Missouri just went to the polls! Perhaps some of you didn’t notice because you were on vacation this week. Or watering your hydrangea. This is a tough time of the year for hydrangeas. Their little leaves begin to shrivel, and before you know it, there’s a large wilted bush studded with pompons and you’ve missed the Missouri primary.

One thing we learned this week was that people in Missouri are crazy about insiders.

This was a surprise. In the big, much-anticipated race for an open U.S. Senate seat, Missouri Democrats overwhelmingly voted to nominate Robin Carnahan, the secretary of state whose father was governor, whose mother was a U.S. senator and whose brother is currently a congressman. The Republican nominee is Roy Blunt, who has served seven terms in Congress and is the father of a former Missouri governor. In the House, Blunt was the interim majority leader between the disgraced Tom DeLay and the disgraceful John Boehner. Also, his wife is a lobbyist. This man is so far inside he could be a coal miner.

So are insiders back in? This would be shocking news to all the politicians who have been running around acting as if they’d spent less time inside than a Bedouin camel herder.

(More here.)