In its Midwest Voices series, The Kansas City Star (a McClatchy newspaper) regularly runs guest commentaries by "citizen journalists."  Because the Star is a left-wing outfit and almost invariably endorses Democrat candidates, many of these articles aren't very edifying.  But on Saturday, November 3, the paper ran a 567-word article by Stephan Brewer, who operates his own business providing marketing research and marketing consulting to law firms in the U.S. and Canada, and it definitely tilted conservative.

Mr. Brewer's fine article, "Tuesday's election mirrors the war on drugs," has a central metaphor, which is that OPM, or "other people's money," is a drug.

Brewer describes how both politicians and citizens get hooked on OPM and what they must do to sustain their habit.  Near the end of his essay, Brewer addresses the Missouri race for U.S. Senate (hyperlinks added):

In Missouri, you can also vote for a leading Obama lackey and Obamacare supporter, Sen. Claire McCaskill. She is one of the wealthiest members of Congress.

Yet during her first term, she "forgot" to pay more than $300,000 in property taxes on her $1.9 million private plane over four years. McCaskill also had to reimburse the government more than $88,000 that she illegally charged to taxpayers for nearly 90 personal trips on her plane.

That a sitting U.S. senator who has spent trillions of dollars we don't have (and which must be paid for by generations of taxpayers as yet unborn) would cheat on her taxes should be disqualifying.  (Unless, of course, one simply must have free contraceptives paid for with...OPM.)

Mr. Brewer's drug metaphor brings up another McCaskill issue that some folks may not be aware of. Mike Hendricks of the Star reports:

It wasn't the first time personal issues rose up to bite her. In her first run for county prosecutor, her opponent in the primary ran an ad accusing her and then-husband Exposito of owning an investment property where drug paraphernalia was found scattered inside.

"It was a devastating ad," Glorioso says, especially for someone like McCaskill, who was promising to get tough on drug offenders. "It started a trend where Claire always had a personal problem in the campaign."

Two years later, Exposito was arrested for smoking marijuana at the Argosy Casino. McCaskill, who was out of town on business at the time of the arrest, painted herself as a wronged spouse.

"I am deeply saddened, disappointed and shocked," she said in a written statement, then quipped: "It's going to take about a month before I can resist the urge to kill him."

Again in the current campaign, she and her current husband are being accused by Akin of profiting from federal stimulus dollars. In TV ads, Akin calls her "corrupt Claire."

Now, I have a libertarian streak and think that marijuana should be decriminalized.  Nonetheless, the law is the law, and when McCaskill's then-husband got busted for smoking pot -- she was the Jackson County, Missouri prosecutor!

So the question becomes: what did McCaskill know about her husband's drug use, and when did she know it?

If the hypocrisy of lawmakers who load your grandchildren up with trillions of dollars of debt and then "fail" to pay their own taxes isn't enough to stick in your craw, then maybe the hypocrisy of public officials who incarcerate Americans for crimes they themselves have committed might be enough.  President Obama, the chief law enforcement officer in the country, admitted in print to heavy usage of marijuana, and "maybe a little blow."  (See this video.)

Missourians, to end the insane spending, vote on Tuesday for Todd Akin for U.S. Senate.  (If you need additional convincing, read my October 31 blog at American Thinker.)

Jon N. Hall is a programmer/analyst from Kansas City.