Nathan Cooper
“Is it that they are just so stupid they think they are above the law and are too smart to get caught?”
A dear friend, who shall now and forever remain nameless, asked me that question yesterday morning after the news about Nathan Cooper broke. This was coming from a loyal Republican, a guy who writes checks and works his ass off so that young “consultants” can mooch off candidates’ payrolls to eat.
Let’s call a spade a spade. There is a group of young people in our party, in this state, who idolize Richard Nixon. They built their careers on his shakedown-and-kickback model. From College Republicans to student governments to graduating (or not graduating, right?) and still interfering in College Republican elections — their only motive is to obtain power. And for what? To perpetuate their own careers.
How sad is that?
This was amusing to me in college, when my friends at their campus’ student newspaper would publicly defecate on these guys by exposing their shadiest maneuvers — from their forging of documents to rigging of elections to recording of private phone conversations. But now those College Republican Gordon Liddy-wannabes are all grown up, and have access to the levers of state government.
Sorry this happened to you first, Nathan. I mean that. You’re a better man now than you were when we used to butt heads a decade ago, and so am I. Remember those days? You were a bright, driven up-and-comer who made all the right moves, and I was a smart-ass kid with a foul mouth and a chip on his shoulder.
And despite all of that, you’ve been the type of guy to leave the past in the past. You came to me, shook my hand, looked me in the eye. And we talked. Not about the silly stuff that dominates Jeff City chatter, but about life and the party and the future of conservatives in Missouri.
And we laughed about how far we had come.
Nathan is probably too loyal to snitch on all the crooks he knows. But I wish he would.
F@#k ‘em all. Hang ‘em high. Our party would be better for it.
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