Going Pee-Wee: Missouri Dailies ‘Boldly’ ‘Eviscerate’ Tax Cut, Laud Veto

As expected, the Kansas City Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch have come down in support of the governor’s veto of the Broad-Based Tax Relief Act of 2013. Given the choice between spending taxpayers’ money and returning it to them, the governor will gladly spend it; the state’s major dailies were only too happy to support him in that strange odyssey.

Of course, their verbiage could have been a little more diverse. Under the headline, “Jay Nixon boldly rejects destructive Missouri tax bill,” the Star declared:

This is what a strong-willed, plain-spoken governor fighting for what’s best for Missouri looks like.

Speaking Wednesday in Kansas City, Jay Nixon eviscerated and vetoed a tax bill approved by the General Assembly.

Meanwhile across the state, the Post-Dispatch declared under the headline “FAIR: Nixon eviscerates GOP arguments for ‘ill-conceived’ tax cut bill”…

In an unusually long veto message that absolutely eviscerated the arguments the GOP made in passing the bill, Mr. Nixon called it an “ill-conceived, fiscally irresponsible experiment,” and that was just for starters. It was among the boldest, clearest and most significant actions the usually cautious governor has taken.

Noted. The approved adjective for the governor’s actions is “bold.” The approved adverb is “boldly.” The approved verb is “eviscerate.” Reminds me a bit of the “secret word” they used to use on Pee-Wee Herman’s show years ago.

Of course, there is nothing surprising about two of the state’s major dailies getting foursquare behind the governor spending more and returning less to taxpayers or even — intentionally or unintentionally — coordinating editorial language. The Star and Post-Dispatch‘s proclivities are well known, and while the words they’re using these days may be “secret” in the Pee-Wee sense, the newspapers’ politics are as transparent as they could possibly be. This is just another exhibition of the point.