Schweich blasts Post-Dispatch while defending lawsuit

State Auditor Tom Schweich on Tuesday defended last week's lawsuit against Gov. Jay Nixon, while blasting the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for its Tuesday morning editorial about that lawsuit.

"Today, there was a gross, basically libelous mischaracterization of my viewpoint," Schweich told reporters in his Capitol office, at the beginning of a half-hour news conference.

He asked the Post for a retraction and an apology.

Schweich especially was unhappy about - and commented several times on - the editorial's assertion that the lawsuit boiled down to: "In a nutshell: The governor is wrong to cut the auditor's budget to pay for rebuilding the devastation caused by the Joplin tornado.

"That's right. Mr. Schweich wants the court and the public to believe that his budget is more important than helping a city rebuild from one of the worst natural disasters in our state's history."