This ruthless GOP apparatchik shows Trumpists stop at nothing

As much as I’m no fan of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, I must admit he has stumbled upon a promising cause.

And one that he has vast firsthand knowledge about: alleged misuse of public funds for political purposes, a dark art for which he truly deserves respect as a master practitioner.

Bailey sent Missouri state troopers to pay an unannounced visit Monday to St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s office with a court order allowing them to seize his cell phone. That’s a bit unusual.

Ostensibly, the reason for taking Page’s cellphone is to investigate whether he might have improperly used nearly $36,000 in taxpayer money for a mailer to sway voter opinion about a proposition on April's ballot, the Post-Dispatch reported. That was the subject of a complaint by citizen-activist Tom Sullivan of University City.

I’m guessing Sullivan had a solid point, although I’m with the 62 percent of St. Louis County voters who rejected Proposition B — the subject of Page’s ire — as a dramatic overreach by the County Council. The measure would have given the council the power to fire department directors and the county's top attorney.

But that’s water under the bridge. So, too, is Page’s not-at-all-persuasive argument that the county-funded direct mailers attacking the proposition were “educational.” Somehow phrasing like “B is bad … B as a power grab. And B does nothing good for St. Louis County” doesn’t read like it came from a textbook.

None of that, however, makes it okay that Page, a Democrat, is now having his cellphone rifled through by Bailey, who’s not just a Republican, but an ethically challenged hyper-partisan, election-denying, thoroughly untrustworthy, sniveling MAGA disciple of Donald Trump.

And I say that having voted for Republican businessman Mark Mantovani for county executive in 2022 in his failed effort to unseat Page as county executive.

For Bailey, misusing public funds for political purposes is also known as Tuesday. Since his appointment in 2023 by Gov. Mike Parson (after Eric Schmitt vacated the office in winning his U.S. Senate seat), Bailey has treated the Attorney General’s office like a political campaign headquarters with subpoena power.

His record is a highlight reel of partisan interventions. He subpoenaed Washington University for transgender medical records, a move that drew national outrage over patient privacy and stretched the law to its breaking point. He continues to grandstand with partisan probes into diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Missouri schools (and presumably anywhere else it exists).

Like so many other attorneys general, Bailey regularly churns out lawsuits at the expense of Missouri taxpayers that often represent the views of less than half of his constituents. When Republicans disapprove of the will of a majority of Missouri voters as expressed at the polls, Bailey faithfully represents his party over the people without exception.

As to public resources for political purposes, it was hard to top the help Bailey received from Parson — his former boss — during a 2024 primary race for attorney general. Parson had the audacity to use his government letterhead to attack the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) for not giving enough support to Bailey’s 2024 election campaign, as reported by the Missouri Independent.

“RAGA not supporting one of their own is quite unprecedented and deeply concerning,” Parson wrote in the letter to 10 attorneys general on RAGA’s executive committee and obtained by The Independent through a public records request.

So it’s safe to say Bailey understands the concept of blurring public resources and political purposes. And now he’s about to apply his knowledge base — and whatever other interesting facts he might find in Page’s cellphone — to champion good government.

Even Sam Page doesn’t deserve this.