Eric Greitens and the Missouri Senate race won’t be outdone on the crazy.
The field looking to replace outgoing, old school Republican Roy Blunt is crowded and crazy.
For starters, there are two go-along, get-along MAGA Congressmen, Billy Long and Vicky Hartzler. They’re both pro-Trump, but neither of them are, you know, nuts about it. So at least one of them will probably drop out before the filing date to keep their seat in the House. (My money would be on Long hitting the eject button first.)
Then, there’s Mark McCloskey, the Brooks Brothers lawyer who got famous for pointing an assault rifle at peaceful protesters. McCloskey thought that maybe he could parlay his MAGA fame into politics just because the Missouri Republican establishment covered for him. But he seems to have mistaken knee-jerk lib triggering for party support, as evidenced by this failed attempt at a rally.
But even with all of that, Schmitt has another candidate nipping at his heels.
Eric Greitens.
You may remember Eric Greitens as Missouri’s disgraced former governor. And Lordy, is he something.
His brief tenure was memorable mostly two things: Greitens signing an historic right to work law, which was later repealed by a statewide referendum. And his affair.
On his second marriage, Greitens had earned a bit of a reputation as a boy scout. For instance, deployed in a support role to Thailand, he witnessed SEAL platoon members engaging in prostitution and doing drugs. He reported them and quickly made enemies in the Navy SEAL community, as folks were court martialed, and others’ tours of duty extended.
There were other scandals. Greitens also faced questions about campaign finance fraud, allegedly using a charity’s donor list to hawk funds for his campaign, a charge investigated by then-Attorney General Josh Hawley.
And the military stuff.
Greitens faces pushback from former members of the Navy’s SEAL community, which Greitens relied on heavily in his campaigns, and the books he wrote leading up to his first campaign.
During his successful run for governor, Greitens was criticized for exaggerating his record in the military. There’s a lot of parsing here, but it’s not hard to see how this would make for a devastating ad.