This is Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s response to Republican state legislators who tried to trap him into a public embarrassment regarding Medicaid expansion.

…That is why I was disappointed to learn today that you had reneged on our agreement for a constructive dialogue on this matter. Given the assurances my office received in good faith from you on the form and content of the meeting, I can only conclude that this last-minute change of heart demonstrates that, as we saw last session, you and your leadership have chosen to give politics precedence over the substance of the discussion. And while I am always willing and eager to engage in a serious, thoughtful debate about Medicaid, in any setting, I am not interested in taking part in a political game at the expense of the Missourians we have sworn to serve…

Harry Reid couldn’t have said it better.  He’s always “disappointed” too.  And that expression “politics over substance” is so vague that even political junkies don’t know what it really means.

Nixon had the opportunity to call these guys out for robbing working class Missourians of the chance to get health insurance, maybe for the first time in their lives.  He could have asked the simple question:  What do you have against hard working Missouri families that you would make them suffer like this?

I guess it’s some kind of political strategy to play nicey nicey, but I don’t think it’s working.  Free Market Extremists have our state government backed into a corner, and they are not about to have a serious conversation about anything other than privatizing all public programs.   PERIOD.

The good news is that “economic populism” is in the ascendancy around the country.  States are raising the minimum wage, even in NJ where the governor vetoed the bill.  Middle class voters are finally figuring out they’ve been screwed by voting for tax cuts.  And some firebrands in Congress are no longer willing to talk about cutting Social Security and Medicare.  They even have the nerve to talk about expanding Social Security instead.  How cool is that?  My favorite new slogan is “SCRAP THE CAP.”   I hope it catches on.

Meanwhile Harry Reid and Jay Nixon will blather on with no one paying attention to them.

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As an admitted control freak, it pains me to write these words. But the truth is:  some people have too much control.

You don’t have to look far to see it. In Washington, Grover Norquist has too much control. In the world of sports, some think that Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has too much power. Donald Trump and Carl Icahn and the Koch Brothers come to mind.  And right here in Missouri we have, surprisingly, Gov. Jay Nixon.

Nixon is a middle-of-the-road Democrat saddled with a Republican legislature.He seems to prefer to keep a low profile and doesn’t like to make waves. But in one area, he has ultimate authority: the power to grant pardons or clemency to any of the 31,000 individuals locked up in Missouri prisons.

This is an awesome responsibility, and it’s one that a few other states have seen fit to grant to special boards or commissions rather than the chief executive. That’s a sound idea, and can be explained in two words: Willie Horton.

Willie Horton was a convicted felon serving a life sentence in a Massachusetts prison in 1986. He was released as part of a weekend furlough program, and he failed to return.  While he was out he raped a woman and committed several other crimes before he was captured and put back in prison in Maryland.

Michael Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts when Horton was furloughed. When Dukakis sought the presidency two years later, the Willie Horton episode came to be a major factor in the campaign against him. He was portrayed as “soft on crime,” and this portrayal may have been one of the factors responsible for his defeat.

Jay Nixon is a lame-duck governor, but he has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the U. S. Senate, or even the vice presidency. With sugar plums like this dancing in his head, is it any wonder that the specter of Willie Horton looms large?

The governor could be relieved of a daunting and possibly perilous act if the power to grant clemency was removed from his office and granted to the state Board of Probation and Parole. Perhaps experts in criminal justice or psychiatry could be added to the panel when clemency is considered for qualified prisoners who likely pose no threat to society. The result might be more second chances for those who have made grievous mistakes and tried to pay their debt to society.

I feel sorry for Gov. Nixon. He has a number of clemency petitions on his desk. One is for a woman who killed her abusive husband; she has been a model prisoner for many years. If she is forced to complete her sentence, she will be 86 years old when she is released. Another is for a man who committed murder when he was 20 years old; the jury was not informed that he possibly acted in self-defense. His sentence was 50 years without the possibility of parole.

Granting clemency to these and others will require the governor to demonstrate both cojones and compassion; courage and conviction, and some common sense.  Let’s hope that he can remember that one of the synonyms for clemency is “mercy.”

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Dear Governor Nixon: During the debate over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we learned many things as a country. Chief among them, in my mind, is that a citizenship without medical coverage is a growing problem, both for the health of our people and for our finances. People should never go bankrupt because they or their children get sick or seriously injured, but every day they do. Every day thousands of Missourians go without necessary health care. Some of them lose their livelihoods and, unable to provide for their families, they turn to the state for help.

Health care is widely regarded as a human right in developed nations, Mr. Governor, and every facet of our society reflects that. Our health care professionals take oaths to practice medicine ethically and put the patient first, to aspire to prevention before cure. All of those ideals are acknowledged in the ACA via free preventative care, rescission bans, and coverage for pre-existing conditions, among other things.

We also have laws that require hospitals to provide medical treatment to everyone who needs it, regardless of citizenship or ability to pay. Every single taxpayer chips in to programs like the VA, Medicare, and Medicaid so that the people who need health care the most–but in most cases are least able to afford it–are able to get the care they need. Responsible employers share the cost of employee health care because they know a healthy worker is a productive one. Good health is necessary to a life in the pursuit of happiness, liberty, and the American dream.

The Affordable Care Act is simply an addendum to this societal norm, this very basic right. A right we all recognize and accept, whether we gain from it politically or not, whether we will admit to it publicly or not.

This is why I’m asking you to take the first step in extending Medicaid to cover hard-working Missourians earning up to 133% of the federal poverty line by including it in your budget. Please sign this state on to the Medicaid expansion so that more Missourians in need of something as basic as medical care can live in good health, keep their jobs and their homes, and provide for their families with dignity. Health care is a human right and Missourians are people too.

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