Bar the door! Blogger approaching!

You know that you've gotten under the skin of bad Republican governors when you find yourself in the custody of state capitol police - albeit temporarily. Such was the experience of political blogger Roy Temple, co-founder of the Fired Up! network of community websites (including Fired Up! Missouri) and former chief of staff for former Democratic Senator Jean Carnahan. Temple, a critic of the administration of MIssouri Gov. Matt Blunt, planned to attend the governor's signing into law of SB1014, the hotly-contested voter photo ID measure. Temple relates in his account of the incident that he was initially welcomed into the reception area, but was soon confronted by Spence Jackson, the governor's communications director and no friend of Temple.

As I attempted to quietly enter the Governor's inner office with the rest of the media, Mr. Jackson told me that I had to leave. When I asked him why, he told me that it was because the event was for invited guests only. I asked him who had been invited; he told me that he did not know the answer to that question. Nor did he have an answer when I queried how he knew I wasn't invited if he didn't know who had been invited.

Jackson then accused Temple of being potentially disruptive and claimed that Temple was a "physical and security threat" to the governor. He had Temple detained for about ten minutes by the security detail. Temple was then told that no charges would be filed.

Jackson tried to justify his barring Temple in terms of credentials. This from Jo Mannies' Political Fix blog at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“He came in and attempted to pass himself off as a professional journalist,'’ Jackson said. “Anyone who has seen his Web site knows that’s a farce.'’

Of course, the FEC has publicly determined that Fired Up! is indeed a media entity, but that didn't matter to Jackson.

Later, Jackson continued to rationalize his action in ever more hysterical terms.

Jackson said that was his decision, and that he had good reasons. He called Temple one of the “Carnahan hate-bloggers…The Carnahans have a deep and visceral hatred for the Blunt family.'’

Jackson also accused Temple of having “Timothy McVeigh-like fantasies.'’

Temple, a lawyer, said he was struck “speechless'’ by Jackson’s McVeigh statement, and is weighing whether to seek legal action. Temple noted that McVeigh, convicted and executed for the Oklahoma City bombing, was “a mass murderer.'’

As Steve Kraske notes at KC Buzz Blog, we haven't heard the end of this.

(Cross-posted over yonder...)