The State Auditor of Missouri just shot himself.

[CountDeMoney]

It would be really pathetic to shoot yourself over that in 2015.  I hope not.

Missouri Republicans can be a pretty conservative lot.  Getting caught on the Down Low?  Might as well be dead.

[dps]

It would probably screw up his marriage.

I doubt killing himself will strengthen his marriage.  Though I guess it does guarantee the "till death do us part" bit.

[Razgovory]

Incidentally he is not the first statewide office holder in Missouri to kill himself while in office,  Thomas Reynolds was Missouri governor back in the 1840's and shot himself in the mansion (not to be confused Thomas C. Reynolds who was the Confederate governor of Missouri and later threw himself down an elevator shaft).

[Martinus]

Yeah, unless he was mentally unstable, it's highly unlikely he would shoot himself over an affair.

It must have been something illegal and/or related to his job as an auditor.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, unless he was mentally unstable, it's highly unlikely he would shoot himself over an affair.

It must have been something illegal and/or related to his job as an auditor.

So says the marriage expert.  Anyway, my scenario already posits he is unstable.  I suggested that he is gay.

[Razgovory]

Okay, this is just weird.

AP - A Republican candidate for governor fatally shot himself in what police described as an "apparent suicide," minutes after inviting reporters to his suburban St. Louis home for an interview.

Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich's death Thursday stunned many of Missouri's top elected officials, who described him as a "brilliant" and "devoted" public servant with an "unblemished record" in office.

Just 13 minutes before police got an emergency call from his home, Schweich had a phone conversation with The Associated Press about his plans to go public that afternoon with allegations that the head of the Missouri Republican Party had made anti-Semitic comments about him.

The state Republican Party chairman denied doing so in an interview later Thursday.

Schweich had Jewish ancestry but attended an Episcopal church. Spokesman Spence Jackson said his boss had recently appeared upset about the comments people were supposedly making about his religious faith and about a recent radio ad describing Schweich as "a weak candidate for governor" who could "be manipulated."

"The campaign had been difficult, as all campaigns are," Jackson said. "There were a lot of things that were on his mind."

But Jackson said Schweich had been diligently going about his work, with another audit scheduled to be released next week.

Clayton Police Chief Kevin Murphy said Schweich was pronounced dead at a hospital from a single gunshot after paramedics responded to the emergency call.

"Everything at this point does suggest that it is an apparent suicide," Murphy said, adding that an autopsy would be conducted Friday.

Schweich was 54. He had been in office since January 2011 and had easily won election in November to a second, four-year term. He announced a month ago that he was seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2016, and was gearing up for an expected primary fight against Catherine Hanaway, a former U.S. attorney and Missouri House speaker.

Naturally high-strung, Schweich seemed unusually agitated — his voice sometimes quivering and his legs and hands shaking — when he told an AP reporter on Monday that he wanted to hold a press conference to allege that Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock had made anti-Semitic remarks about him.

Schweich postponed a planned press conference Tuesday. But he called the AP at 9:16 a.m. Thursday inviting an AP reporter to his home for a 2:30 p.m. interview and noting that a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also had been invited. An AP reporter spoke with Schweich by phone again at 9:35 a.m. to confirm the upcoming interview.

Police say the emergency call to Schweich's house was received at 9:48 a.m.

In conversations with the AP, Schweich said he had heard that Hancock had been making phone calls last fall in which he mentioned in an off-handed way that Schweich was Jewish. Schweich said he felt the comments were anti-Semitic and wanted Hancock to resign the party chairmanship to which he had been elected last Saturday.

Hancock told the AP on Thursday that Schweich had talked to him about the alleged comments last November, but not since then. Hancock, who is a political consultant, said he held meetings last fall with prospective donors for a project to register Catholic voters. Hancock said that if he had mentioned that Schweich was Jewish, it would have been in the context that Hanaway was Catholic but that was no indication of how Catholics were likely to vote.

"I don't have a specific recollection of having said that, but it's plausible that I would have told somebody that Tom was Jewish because I thought he was, but I wouldn't have said it in a derogatory or demeaning fashion," Hancock said.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.644545

[DGuller]

  I guess he got silenced before the party head's anti-Semitism could be exposed.

[Valmy]

Ok I did not expect a Jew angle there.  Why would he be shaking and freaking out over something so banal as an anti-Jew statement?

[CountDeMoney]

Wow.  Juicide.

[viper37]

Ok I did not expect a Jew angle there.  Why would he be shaking and freaking out over something so banal as an anti-Jew statement?

Yeah, it does look weird.  Either it was accompanied with serious death threats or these is more here.  I hate conspiracy theories, but this one does look weird.

[lustindarkness]

Well, he proved he would not have been a great governor. He would have been blowing his brains out cosntantly with the stress of the office.

[CountDeMoney]

Missouri Republican politics is a pretty fucked up business.

Danforth's eulogy for Tom Schweich: 'Words do hurt. Words can kill.'
9 hours ago  •  By John C. Danforth

(The following are remarks prepared for delivery by former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth at the funeral Tuesday for state Auditor Thomas A. Schweich at The Church of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton. They have been lightly edited.)


Blessed are the poor in Spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account. Amen.

Kathy, Emilie, Thomas. We who cared so much for your husband and your dad enfold you in our love, just as our Lord enfolds you and Tom in his love. We want you to know that we are with you to offer whatever strength and comfort we can.

Tom Schweich was an exceptionally able public servant. He graduated from Harvard Law School, and spent most of his career as a trial lawyer, meticulously marshaling facts and mastering the law in complex litigation involving government contracts.

When Attorney General (Janet) Reno appointed me special counsel to investigate the mass deaths at Waco, Texas, I knew that would be exhaustive work that had to be done with great care, and I enlisted Tom as my chief of staff. The investigation lasted 14 months, with scores of witnesses and a million pages of documents. Tom was highly organized, and on top of every detail of the investigation.

Again, he was my chief of staff at the United Nations. Few jobs are as demanding as dealing simultaneously with the State Department and the Secretariat of the U.N., and Tom was adept in managing both people and difficult situations.

Tom stayed at the U.N. in the same capacity with two of my successors, and then fearlessly led the State Department's war against narcotics, traveling to the heart of danger, holding the rank of ambassador.

Half a dozen years ago, Tom told me he wanted to run for public office. His first thought was the U.S. Senate but he finally decided on state auditor. He was a person easily hurt and quickly offended, and I told him I didn't think he had the temperament for elective politics, but Tom didn't easily accept advice, and he was offended by mine. It was his decision, and he was my friend, and I was for him, whatever he chose to do.

He ran, won election, and became universally acknowledged as a great auditor, zealously uncovering corruption, attacking sloppiness whether of Democrats or Republicans, and praising good work where he saw it. He was so successful that he faced no serious opposition for his second term.

Tom was the model for what a public servant should be. He was exceptionally bright, energetic and well organized. He was highly ethical, and like the indignant prophets of Biblical times, he was passionate about his responsibility for righting wrongs.

We spoke often about the calling to public service, and what we said was always the same. The objective should be always to take the high ground and never give it up.

I last spoke with Tom this past Tuesday afternoon. He was indignant. He told me he was upset about two things, a radio commercial and a whispering campaign he said were being run against him. He said the commercial made fun of his physical appearance and wondered if he should respond with his own ad.

But while the commercial hurt his feelings, his great complaint was about a whispering campaign that he was Jewish. And that subject took up 90 percent of a long phone call. This was more than an expression of personal hurt as with the radio ad, this was righteous indignation against what he saw as a terrible wrong. And what he saw was wrong is anti-Semitism.

He said he must oppose this wrong, that he must confront it publicly by going before the media where he would present several witnesses. He said that they would verify that there were several times when the rumor had been spread.

Tom called this anti-Semitism, and of course it was. The only reason for going around saying that someone is Jewish is to make political profit from religious bigotry. Someone said this was no different than saying a person is a Presbyterian. Here's how to test the credibility of that remark: When was the last time anyone sidled up to you and whispered into your ear that such and such a person is a Presbyterian?

Tom told me of his Jewish grandfather who taught him about anti-Semitism, and told him that anytime Tom saw it, he had to confront it. So Tom believed that that was exactly what he must do.

There was no hint by Tom that this was about him or his campaign. It was about confronting bigotry.

I told Tom that it is important to combat any whiff of anti-Semitism, but I said that he should not be the public face of doing that. I told him that if he were to go public, the story would be all about him, and not about the evil he wanted to fight. I said that I was concerned about his political future, that his focus should be on winning election as governor, and that the best approach would be to have someone feed the story to the press and let the press run with it.

Tom said that the press would only run with the story if he went public, and that if he didn't make an issue out of anti-Semitism, no one would.

That was the phone call, except at the end he seemed angry with me.It's impossible to know the thoughts of another person at such a dire time as suicide, but I can tell you what haunts me. I had always told him to take the high ground and never give it up, and he believed that, and it had become his life. Now I had advised him that to win election he should hope someone else would take up the cause.

He may have thought that I had abandoned him and left him on the high ground, all alone to fight the battle that had to be fought.

I think there are two messages in this, one for Tom's children, the other for the rest of us.

Emilie and Thomas, always be proud of your father. He has left you a legacy, a tradition to take up in your own lives. You will have to be very brave to do this, as he was brave, and it will require energy and devotion to the task, as he was energetic and devoted to his task. The legacy your father has passed on to you is this: to fight for what is right; to always seize the high ground and never give it up.

The message for the rest of us reflects my own emotion after learning of Tom's death, which has been overwhelming anger that politics has gone so hideously wrong, and that the death of Tom Schweich is the natural consequence of what politics has become. I believe deep in my heart that it's now our duty, yours and mine, to turn politics into something much better than its now so miserable state.

Sure, politics has always been combative, but what we have just seen is combat of a very different order. It used to be that Labor Day of election years marked the beginning of campaigns.

This campaign for governor started two years in advance of the 2016 election. And even at this early date, what has been said is worse than anything in my memory, and that's a long memory. I have never experienced an anti-Semitic campaign. Anti-Semitism is always wrong and we can never let it creep into politics.

As for the radio commercial, making fun of someone's physical appearance, calling him a "little bug", there is one word to describe it: "bullying." And there is one word to describe the person behind it: "bully."

We read stories about cyberbullying, and hear of young girls who killed themselves because of it. But what should we expect from children when grown ups are their examples of how bullies behave?

Since Thursday, some good people have said, "Well that's just politics." And Tom should have been less sensitive; he should have been tougher, and he should have been able to take it.

Well, that is accepting politics in its present state and that we cannot do. It amounts to blaming the victim, and it creates a new normal, where politics is only for the tough and the crude and the calloused.

Indeed, if this is what politics has become, what decent person would want to get into it? We should encourage normal people — yes, sensitive people — to seek public office, not drive them away.

There's a principle of law called the thin skull rule. It says that if you hurt someone who is unusually susceptible to injury, you are liable even for the damages you didn't anticipate. The person who caused the injury must pay, not the person with the thin skull. A good rule of law should be a good rule of politics. The bully should get the blame not the victim.

We often hear that words can't hurt you. But that's simply not true. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said just the opposite. Words for Jesus could be the moral equivalent of murder. He said if we insult a brother or sister we will be liable. He said if we call someone a fool we will be liable to hell. Well how about anti-Semitic whispers? And how about a radio ad that calls someone a "little bug," and that is run anonymously over and over again?

Words do hurt. Words can kill. That has been proven right here in our home state.

There is no mystery as to why politicians conduct themselves this way. It works. They test how well it works in focus groups and opinion polls. It wins elections, and that is their objective. It's hard to call holding office public service, because the day after the election it's off to the next election, and there's no interlude for service. It's all about winning, winning at any cost to the opponent or to any sense of common decency.

The campaign that led to the death of Tom Schweich was the low point of politics, and now it's time to turn this around. So let's make Tom's death a turning point here in our state.

Let's decide that what may have been clever politics last week will work no longer. It will backfire. It will lose elections, not win them.

Let's pledge that we will not put up with any whisper of anti-Semitism. We will stand against it as Americans and because our own faith demands it. We will take the battle Tom wanted to fight as our own cause.

We will see bullies for who they are. We will no longer let them hide behind their anonymous pseudo-committees. We will not accept their way as the way of politics. We will stand up to them and we will defeat them.

This will be our memorial to Tom: that politics as it now exists must end, and we will end it. And we will get in the face of our politicians, and we will tell them that we are fed up, and that we are not going to take this anymore.

If Tom could speak to us, I think he would say about the same thing. To borrow a familiar phrase, he would approve this message. But Tom is at peace, and it's for us to take up the cause.

May Tom's soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon them. Amen.

[Razgovory]

And now his Spokesmen is dead.  Probable suicide.  This is getting really fucking weird.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- The spokesman for Tom Schweich, the late Missouri State Auditor, has been found dead.

44-year-old Spence Jackson was found dead in his Jefferson City apartment on Sunday night, sources say.

A source tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jackson's death is being investigated as a suicide.

Jefferson City police have not confirmed his death, but information is expected to be released on Monday.

Jackson's death comes just one month after the passing of Schweich, who shot himself in his Clayotn, Mo. Home on Feb. 26.

Jackson called for the resignation of John Hancock, the Republican state Chairman, because of allegations that Hancock had conducted an anti-Semitic Whispering campaign against the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor.

KRCG 13 will continue following this story, and keep you updated as more information is made available.

http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=1184323#.VRlWzeHQt8w

[Caliga]

Hey man, nice shot

Need to dig my Filter cd's out now.

I think Ed was the only one who got my joke earlier.

[Valmy]

And now his Spokesmen is dead.  Probable suicide.  This is getting really fucking weird.

What the fuck? This is like some kind of conspiracy movie.