John “The Weasel” Brunner

RADAR: Did you lose something, sir? HAWKEYE: Hi, Stinky. RADAR: Uh, sir, that’s the sort of name that kind of sticks with a fella. I’d appreciate it if you’d just call me by my given nickname.

—MAS*H

Some names stick with a fella.

A friend emailed the link and this note:

Brunner is indeed a weasel

John Brunner, candidate for governor, surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with his opponent Eric Greitens. Then, after the Kansas City Star reported that a Brunner confidant had set up an anti-Greitens website, Brunner released the recording to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

You can read all about it and listen to the recording here.

There were no smoking guns on the recording. Eric Greitens sounds angry about the website and about Brunner’s refusal to either confirm or deny complicity. (A woman can be heard in the background urging Brunner to deny, deny, deny, but Brunner never does.)

For his part, John Brunner simply evades the question and plants unverified information on the tape. Ya know, like Richard Nixon.

[Tweet “Brunner is indeed a weasel”]

Brunner’s surreptitious recording and leak is sleazy, of course, and it’s just the kind of childish politics we expect from Missouri Republicans. Brunner was supposed to be above this kind of chicanery.

I doubt the episode will have a long shelf-life even though it provides perverse entertainment for Missouri politics geeks.

The only lasting effect will be a sticky nickname for Brunner: The Weasel.