The short, weird political career of Eric Greitens — a former Navy Seal and onetime Democrat turned secrecy-cloaked Republican and the youngest Governor ever elected in Missouri — may be at its end.
He has admitted to having an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser, whose ex-husband claims the Governor used threats of publication of a trove of compromising sexual photos to ensure her silence.
This has given ammunition to his Republican political foes who resent his use of a dark-money PAC whose secret donors financed a smear campaign against Senator Rob Schaaf.
Between the scandal, his unpopularity with state Democrats (Greitens just rammed through anti-union "right to work" rules) and his own bad odor with his own party, Greitens's political career may not be long for this world.
Rosenbaum: There had been rumors about this particular allegation for weeks. Greitens made a lot of Republican and Democratic enemies since he launched his gubernatorial bid. One of his main talking points was that Jefferson City politicians were "corrupt" and he was going to be the guy to clean things up. And since taking office, he's made some public policy moves that have deeply upset the state's elected leaders — such as shutting down a popular tax incentive to cultivate low-income housing. His campaign staffers set up a politically-active nonprofit that doesn't disclose its donors that attacked Republican senators, which is unprecedented. Needless to say, this is probably why not many people are sticking up for him at this early juncture.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is in 'serious' danger of losing his job [Chris Cillizza/CNN]
