Missouri voters know that the Carnahan family fancies itself a Missouri political dynasty in the style of of the Massachusetts Kennedys. Like the Massachusetts Kennedys, the Carnahans are apparently also big fans of using the federal government to funnel massive amounts of money to their friends and family. Case in point: current Missouri Secretary of State (and presumptive Democrat nominee for the seat being vacated by Kit Bond) Robin Carnahan. A year ago in March, back when the stimulus was a relatively popular idea, Carnahan expressed her strong support for the stimulus as she began her PR campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Turns out, however, she had another (somewhat more undisclosed) motivation: her brother Tom Carnahan’s company. Tom Carnahan is the CEO of a company called Wind Capital Group, which is a purported “green jobs” outfit seeking to build a “wind farm” in Northwest Missouri. Wind Capital Group, as you might have guessed, is seeking to cash in big-time on the Stimulus, having applied directly for $90M in stimulus funds. If Robin Carnahan is elected, does anyone have a serious doubt whether Wind Capital Group will get those funds?

Of course, there’s one more major problem with this story, besides of course the standard Carnahan attempted influence-peddling. By Tom Carnahan’s own admission, the turbines to be used on the wind farm in question are manufactured not in Missouri but in India. Now, I am a big believer in free trade and have no problem with a company that buys goods in India. But given that the stated purpose of the stimulus was to help the United States economy and create domestic jobs, it seems a bit… odd… that the Carnahan family is trying to funnel money to Tom Carnahan’s company in order to generate jobs overseas.

Well, at least, it might seem odd to anyone who hasn’t followed the Carnahans.