How Long Can Eric Greitens Hold On?
The man at the top is in trouble. The attorney general, a member of his own party, won’t defend him. There’s talk of impeachment. Republican legislators are restive and fear that he’s putting their electoral chances at risk. The exec himself remains defiant, insisting he’s the subject of political witch hunts and fake news.
This sounds a lot like what’s happening in Washington, but it’s also what’s happening in Jefferson City, as the crisis facing Missouri Governor Eric Greitens deepens. The state’s attorney general and the majority leader in the state Senate have both called for Greitens to resign after the release of a damning report this week by the state House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight, a bipartisan team.
Greitens, a Republican, was indicted in February on allegations that he took a picture of a woman with whom he had an affair in order to use it as blackmail, keeping her from revealing the liaison. (Her now ex-husband recorded her describing the incident, then leaked the tape.) The allegations laid out in the indictment were bad enough, and amounted to a felony, though Greitens denied them.
But the report released Wednesday is much worse. It describes not only an
