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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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Thanks to Brenda McGowen of the Texas County Republicans, who took the original photograph of the McCaskill & Son mill that appeared on this site yesterday, as well as in the KC Buzz Blog, National Journal’s The Hotline (subscription only), and Hotline’s Blogometer yesterday.

Last week, this page pointed out that the McCaskill campaign blog hadn’t been updated in three weeks. The blog was updated later that day.

The Talent campaign blog has a link to a redstate.com interview with the candidate.

Randy Turner of The Turner Report dubbed the top recipients of lobbyist money the “Hall of Shame”, and Chuck Graham was the first inductee. Jeff Roe commented on his blog.

Roy Temple thinks that the Missouri Farm Bureau’s opposition to Amendment 2 is a sign that the group “is having doubts about Blunt’s re-election prospects.”

The ArchCityChronicle.com website has the Sept. 12 edition of the print publication available.

Meanwhile, my fellow right-wingers should hope that Larry Handlin keeps paying attention to his home state of Illinois (where all the exciting campaigns are taking place) and forgets about Missouri (nothing to see here, Larry, move along).

Paul Seale links to a report on the effects that a minimum wage increase would have on unskilled workers.

Mayor Slay is no fan of HR 5092.

Katie Favazza is no fan of Jack Danforth.

And of course, don’t forget the national and state political updates available daily at National Journal’s The Hotline, P-D Political Fix, KC Buzz Blog, KY3 Political Notebook, and CDT Vote 2006.

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Jeff Roe weighed in on Dem objections to the voter ID law. Mayor Slay had a different take.

Check out Paul Seale’s Arena of Ideas for smart commentary from a solid conservative.

Randy Turner pointed out a ridiculous quirk in campaign finance disclosure law which allows U.S. Senate candidates to file their reports the old-fashioned way, instead of electronically. Turner, a former reporter, also gave his thoughts on last week’s post about reporters and the proper citation of blogs.

At FiredUpMissouri.com, Roy Temple drew parallels between the Bob Ney and Conrad Burns cases and the FBI investigation/non-investigation/figment of the liberal media’s imagination here in Missouri.

The Talent campaign blog provided a recap of the senator’s appearance at the Greentree Festival in Kirkwood. The McCaskill blog hasn’t been updated this month.

On the national level, Marc Ambinder of The Hotline looked at Dems’ microtargeting efforts for November. Looks like the program won’t be in effect in Missouri.

Meanwhile, The Hotline and Wonkette are having a field day with the traveling circus that is Virginia’s U.S. Senate race.

The nation’s best sports blog noted the absurdity of a certain sports commentator sharing his view on Iraq. (Note: Do not click on the link that reads “NBA DRAFT!!!” if you have a history of bladder control issues.) (link possibly NSFW due to language)

If you haven’t already, you should add Greg Reeves’ Crime Scene KC to your daily circuit of KY3 Political Notebook, CDT Vote 2006, P-D Political Fix, and the KC Buzz Blog.

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Stories affecting both of Missouri’s statewide races originated on blogs last week.

First, someone let local blogger PubDef into a meeting between Claire McCaskill and influential Democratic leaders, and the site posted comments McCaskill made to the assembled group. The reporting of McCaskill’s behind-closed-doors comments put her campaign on the defensive.

On Friday, Dave Drebes of the Arch City Chronicle taught campaigns the meaning of “File: Properties.” Witness the viral nature of today’s political communication: From the original link to an observant blogger, to another blogger, picked up and packaged into a press release by a political party, then finally covered by the traditional news media (which, in turn, failed to cite Drebes as the origin of the story). All this within a matter of hours.

On the national level, MSNBC began its partnership with National Journal last week. As far as I know, this arrangement — between a powerful television network and an influential blog network — is the first of its kind. The results are impressive.

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