Just when Missouri Republicans were beginning to recover from the long, divisive nightmare that finally ended when GOP governor Eric Greitens resigned on May 29, the worst of all possible scenarios has emerged from the smoking crater of the one-time wonder boy’s career. Here’s the report from Missouri radio station KZRG:
Former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens could be back in the political spotlight a lot quicker than most thought.
The Republican is entertaining the idea of running for one of Missouri’s two U.S Senate seats, but not on the Republican ticket, but as an Independent.
Missouri has a provision that would allow Greitens to run as an Independent as long as he gets at least 10,000 signatures of registered voters by July 30th.
There are two immediate problems with the idea that would normally arise: Greitens would be completely screwing over his own party by taking this step, and he might not have enough support to make 10,000 signatures easy.
On the first point, it’s very likely that Greitens hates his own party with the heat of a thousand suns, because virtually all of its leaders abandoned him in the multiple sex and ethics scandals that consumed his once-bright political career. And among the first and foremost to throw him under the bus was Attorney General Josh Hawley, the GOP’s putative nominee for the U.S. Senate. If a second Republican, however tarnished, is in the race, it can’t help but hurt Hawley, and that’s probably fine with Eric Greitens, who got elected governor to begin with on an “outsider” message condemning pols in both parties as evil scum.
And that leads to the solution to Greitens’s second problem: I’m sure Missouri Democrats would be happy to rustle up 10,000 signatures for his ballot petition.
Indeed, if this all actually happens and Greitens makes the November ballot, it will be a sign of divine favor for incumbent senator Claire McCaskill. Six years ago, she won reelection after Republican nominee Todd Akin imploded via really stupid and obnoxious comments about rape. Could she be that fortunate again? We may know by July 30.
