Your Opinion: Senator joins witch hunt, micromanagement of MU

Dear Editor:

I voted for Mike Kehoe in 2010. I believed that he had a resume that simply demanded respect and could bring a voice of reason to that dysfunctional mess called the Missouri Senate. Mike was raised in the St. Louis area by a single-parent mother. He owned and built two very successful businesses, by all accounts he is a model citizen, morally upright and a straight shooter.

I believe now that my faith in and respect for Kehoe was unwarranted, possibly naïve. Kehoe has not provided a voice of reason and appears to be nothing more than another Republican Party hack. I certainly did not vote for him to participate in micromanagement of the University of Missouri internal personnel issues, or to witch hunt the organization Planned Parenthood.

With their over-inflated egos and hyper-inflated sense of self-importance, Missouri legislators seem to know no bounds in decency or common sense. Corrupt anti-abortionists attempt a sting operation against Planned Parenthood, releasing videos proclaiming Planned Parenthood to be "auctioning baby parts." Republican lawmakers around the country stumble in their haste to investigate, Kehoe was no exception. The videos were shown to be blatantly edited, indeed libelous, (to date 12 state investigations including Missouri, have shown no evidence of illegal action by Planned Parenthood), the mantra from these lawmakers is to not believe reality and continue to punish Planned Parenthood.

When an Assistant Professor Melissa Click was videoed requesting "muscle assistance" from fellow protesters at the University of Missouri the ensuing furor embroiled the Missouri Legislature. A large fraction of our darling professional lawmakers called for the immediate termination of Click. Kehoe individually continued the pressure, including op-eds to this local paper further calling for immediate termination.

His article published Feb. 1 stated the line of reasoning defending Click is "absurd." Perhaps Kehoe does not understand the concept of due process. Click may have erred egregiously on that protest day; however she warrants due process per the University of Missouri policy manual. (Termination of employment is considered "economic execution" in labor-law issues.)

Kehoe certainly appears to not understand that his public and continued pressure on the university to violate their policy manual has its own ethical shortcomings. Perhaps the Missouri Legislature should contact the University of Missouri and request help in building an ethics training program. The legislators (and Mike Kehoe) appear to need it.