Russ Carnahan is a member of the US Congress, representing the 3rd district of Missouri. He is a member of the influential Carnahan family. His father was Mel Carnahan, a two-term governor of Missouri who was running for the US Senate in 2000 when killed in a plane crash. Mel was the "dead man" who beat John Ashcroft in that Senate race. His wife, Jean, would take Mel's place in the Senate until 2002. Russ's sister, Robin, is currently the Missouri Secretary of State and is now running for the US Senate herself for Kit Bond's seat.
Anyway, Russ's campaign office was fire-bombed. Here is how the main St. Louis newspaper, the Post-Dispatch, wrote about it. "Police have arrested a 50-year-old man in connection with what appears to be a firebombing that caused minor damage at the campaign headquarters of U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis... Police have not released the name of the suspect, who [sic] they described as a white man, pending the application of warrants. They also did not indicate a potential motive... The building is marked with Carnahan campaign signs. Carnahan, first elected in 2004, is locked in a tough election battle with Republican Ed Martin."
The Post-Dispatch, being a more mainstream paper, let the readers connect the dots it carefully placed throughout the article. The area's alternative paper, the Riverfront Times, was less nuanced. "No motive was given for the attack, though one could suspect that the perpetrator is not a fan of the congressman. Given what we know of him -- 50, white, angry -- he certainly fits the demographics of a Tea Party member."
"The suspect was reportedly a disgruntled progressive activist employed by Russ Carnahan. An unnamed source familiar with the case released the information. Suspect Chris Powers reportedly was upset because he did not get paid so he firebombed the Carnahan finance offices at 2 in the morning."
Gateway Pundit has a picture of Chris Powers, as well as more on his "radical leftist" background.
Too bad the source is currently unnamed. Those of us familiar with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are not holding our breaths until the Post pounces on the rest of the story. Right now, I'm trusting Gateway Pundit.
This is reminiscent of the case of the Kentucky census worker first thought murdered by anti-government backwoodsmen. It turned out that "he killed himself and made it look like a murder because he'd recently taken out two life insurance policies."
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