Many years ago, Roy Blunt shared a story with me that offers insight into why he has been such a successful politician.
At the time, Blunt was a congressman, and we were having lunch at one of his favorite Springfield, Mo., haunts — Steak ’n Shake — as he described the transition he was about to undertake.
It was late in 2006, and Democrats had of the House and Senate, meaning that Blunt, a Republican, was soon to find himself in the minority party.
“It’s easy to be in the minority,†he told me, passing on advice he had received from some friends across the political aisle. Basically, the advice continued, you can oppose nearly any bill supported by the majority party without ever having to fully define your position. If the bill cost $5 million, you wanted it to cost $3 million. If it had a four-year phase in, you wanted five. Nitpicking as a political strategy left options open.
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Indeed, leaving options open has been a political hallmark of Blunt as he rose from secretary of state in Missouri to Congress and now the U.S. Senate.
It’s why of Donald Trump for president — lukewarm as it was — was so surprising.
On Wednesday, much of the political world awoke to the reality that the movement pushed by Republican establishment types had failed. In winning the Indiana primary convincingly, Trump all but guaranteed he will be the Republican nominee for president, likely facing Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
Aghast was the emotion of the day as much of the nation reacted to the continued rise of Trump.
A Muslim friend of mine lamented brushing off her husband’s question from months ago, when he asked: “Are we going to have to leave the country?†At the time, she, like much of the nation’s political class, thought there was no need to pay much attention to Trump.
Surely a man who proposed , who referred to Mexicans as rapists and thieves, who has made too many misogynistic comments to count, would never actually be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
Instead, Trump’s willingness to appeal to a fearful sliver of white America’s fear and hatred of people different than them paid dividends in a Republican Party that has been dancing with that devil for too many years.
To date, Blunt had been politically smart about the presidential race, staying out of it other than offering relatively bland support for the eventual Republican nominee. Similarly, he has stayed out of the contentious Missouri gubernatorial primary, leaving his options open as he often does.
But Wednesday, after Trump’s rise to presumptive nominee, Blunt’s office told reporters in Washington that if he was indeed the GOP nominee.
Contrast that with what U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, told Post-Dispatch reporter Chuck Raasch:
Wagner, who faces only token opposition in November, followed the traditional Blunt philosophy of leaving some wiggle room.
So, too, did Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. On Thursday, the Wisconsin Republican said he was “not ready†to endorse Donald Trump.
So why did Blunt?
Perhaps he’s feeling the heat in his re-election campaign against Democrat Jason Kander, the Missouri secretary of state. Kander, 35, a veteran considered a long shot when he first filed to run against Blunt, has been around the same time that national Republicans have been fretting that a Trump candidacy could threaten Republican control of the Senate.
Several states with Republican incumbents are considered in play, particularly Illinois, where Sen. Mark Kirk has been one of the few members of the GOP to even meet with President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland.
But Missouri, once a bellwether, has become an odd political duck.
It is one of the states connected to its Southern neighbors that could very well vote for Trump. If Blunt had faced a serious primary opponent, that might have been a problem for him.
He’s sort of an anti-Trump candidate, a career politician whose biggest missteps have been related to being accused of doing special favors for donors. His family is fully ensconced in the lobbying business. He is the very picture of the establishment Trump has been railing against.
Perhaps that’s why he’s now willing to slowly sidle up to the billionaire reality TV star who could be president. In a state that has plenty of Republican voters motivated by the empty promises spewed forth by a dishonest pitchman, Blunt appears to be betting that without those Trump voters also putting a check by his name, Kander might just beat him.
So he’s put himself in a political box, choosing party — and political survival — over country.
It can’t be a comfortable place to be.