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Patrick Werner hereby wears the crown of “First Guest Blogger”, simply because he’s one of my favorite people on the planet.

Take it away, PJW…

While all of us have only one mother, when you are a young political activist in the Republican Party, you acquire what I affectionately call “surrogate moms.” I can think of no other business where this phenomenon exists.

What is a surrogate mom? I like to think of it as someone who quietly looks out for your best interests. I started working for U.S. Sen. Kit Bond ten years ago. I would like to take a moment to thank my surrogate moms for looking out for a young naive kid from South St. Louis County.

Donna Matuszak: Tesson Ferry Republican Committeewoman. If you look at the number of Republican votes that come out of Tesson Ferry every election cycle, Donna (and Joe) can accept a lot of the credit for that. From the minute I walked into my first township meeting, she put me to work.

Joann Breckenridge: Concord Republican Committeewoman and Federation of Republican Women member. Joann has done so much to help young political activists like me. But, you know, the funniest thing about Joann is that she is the only surrogate mom who asks me for money. I don’t have the heart to tell her that it’s supposed to work the other way around.

Donna Beck Smith: Missouri River Republican Committeewoman. We as political hacks ask a lot from committeepeople, and Donna has always been there for whichever candidate needed help.

Peggy Adams: Bonhomme Township Republican Committeewoman. If you can’t put a smile on your face around Peggy than you are physically incapable of smiling.

Lydia Hasekamp: Maryland Heights Committeewoman and OFFICIAL St. Louis County party photographer. I don’t think I have been to a grassroots Republican event in 10 years without seeing Lydia there, and I have a box of pictures to prove it.

Jeannine Stuart: National Pachyderm member. Whether it is at a Pachyderm meeting, using her office for phone calls in the evening, or graciously accepting her Cardinal baseball tickets, Jeannine has spoiled this political hack.

I would be remiss if I did not include my surrogate moms from Franklin and St. Charles Counties: Joy Gerstein, Penny Bennett and Barbara Grimm.

Just like when my parents say they don’t have a favorite child, when we all know they do, I don’t have a favorite surrogate mom. But Rosemary Kochner, longtime Spanish Lake Republican Committeewoman, still sends me a birthday card every year. If there was an award given to Republican Party surrogate moms, Rosemary Kochner would get my vote!

If you somehow don’t have Patrick’s e-mail address (is that even possible in 2006?), you cand send your comments on this post to john {at} johncombestblog {dot} com, and I’ll pass them along to Patrick.

National Journal’s The Hotline outlined the Democratic and Republican playbooks on the Mark Foley scandal. As you can imagine, Wonkette has plenty to say (and snicker about) on the issue.

FiredUpMissouri.com read the fine print of a Blunt administration press release touting unemployment numbers.

Randy Turner was the first to show the campaign contributions of disgraced Rep. Mark Foley to Gov. Matt Blunt’s campaign. Blunt announced yesterday that he was donating the money to Boys and Girls Town of Missouri.

Jeff Roe disliked the comments from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s office, which downplayed the importance of the Montee Law Firm’s administrative dissolution.

Missouri native Katie Favazza attended a bloggers-only meeting with Sen. Rick Santorum last week.

Tony’s Kansas City hopes that everyone who voted for the stadium tax feels like a sucker after the recent ticket surcharge increase.

PubDef wants to know: where’s the black community’s rightful share of the stem cell money?

Tony Messenger tells us that in addition to other changes to the editorial page, he’s introducing a letters to the editor blog at the Springfield News-Leader. Making more letters available online makes everyone happy; Internet visitors looking for more and varied opinions get what they’re looking for, and the types of people who constantly complain that the paper doesn’t print their letters often enough get to see their name on the paper’s website.

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