Rumors of Billy Long's partying were around long before Jennifer Case came forward claiming the Metropolitan Grill was a cesspool for debauchery. I first heard the rumors in April, but you can't write about something if no one is talking. That would be manufacturing a story like Long suggests. Had Billy Long not lied about his Republican opponents and smeared their characters and voting records and perhaps lost the Republican primary, Jennifer Case would be an unknown name for most Southwest Missourians.
It was Billy Long's primary win that gave the former Metropolitan Grill waitress a reason to leave the following on her Facebook page:
Jennifer Rana Case You know I worked in an industry(bar) that Mr. Long frequented OFTEN and when I heard he was running I laughed my a** off, then when he won I was like what the.....OMG never underestimate stupid people in numbers I guess, no joke he's a drunk with very low moral standards
Jennifer Rana Case don't get me wrong I know lots of people with low moral standards, and I've been accused many times of being one of them, but I won't be running our government and spending tax dollars on Dewars on the rocks and hookers....in my past I would have been jealous but today I'll just pray for him
Jennifer Rana Case ...more specifically its not so much his politics( which how can we judge since he's never been a politician) that bother me, its that he treats woman with no respect, talks down to EVERYONE, drinks himself to a stupor everyday, gets real joy out of screwing people out of their homes if it means lining his pockets, using the N word and even refusing service from anyone of color and when it comes to gay people its even worse....and for me those things are not ok.....not from a politician
As early as August, just a couple weeks after the primary, this was sent to me from a Democratic operative hoping I would post it on the Billy Long is Wrong Web site. Of course, I did not. However, it was asked of me more than once to post the story. Mr. Long wants you to believe he was a victim of this story, and I am sure the words "that blogger" come up in his conversations when this was discussed. I told the people who asked me that I was tired of fighting the battles of politicians and political parties who didn't have the fire in the belly to expose Billy Long as the weakest candidate. For the Republicans, Long acceptance wasn't based on any type of credible political knowledge--it was based on the same evils Billy Long claimed to be fed up with. Big political dollars! Political fundraising is what Billy Long does best when it comes to politics. Many of the candidates didn't have the courage to publicly address Long's weaknesses. They were told to play nice, and so they left it to bloggers to expose Long.
By the time the Jennifer Case story surfaced, I was tired of doing the research and taking the hits. What good was it going to do anyway? The Southwest Missouri GOP could have run Adolf Hitler and he would have won. That's the one thing I realized about this little game. Billy Long can claim he is fed up and get away with it, because the average voter doesn't care. They will tell you they oppose the bailouts, and then allow Billy Long to stuff his political pockets with campaign money from a bailed out company that still owes taxpayers billions. It's not necessarily Billy Long who is the hypocrite. It's the voters.
So on multiple occasions, I said no. I was not going to run the Jennifer Case Facebook page. Whoever found the Facebook page only copied the text from the page, and they didn't take a screen shot. It was really handled quite sloppily to say the least.
Once the Democratic operatives shopped the story around and got plenty of rejections, they hired a private eye to seek Jennifer Case out and discover if there was anything to her Facebook page. The result was Case connecting with many of her Metropolitan Grill service team to recall the events of man night. They produced over two hours of audio, from what I have been told. I have only heard what The Fuse Joplin posted, but this audio supposedly has many other details on it as well as three employees, one which is now known as Robert Bush.
It's now obvious what happened. Once the audio was recorded, the leaked it to The Fuse Joplin, who researched the story and posted parts of it in early October. I went to bed that night unaware The Fuse Joplin was going to do anything with it. The next morning, I awoke to check my Google alerts on my Android, and there was the story. The Fuse Joplin, All Hat No Cattle, and Bus-Plunge all posted it. For the first time in the election, Long is Wrong was many hours behind on a Billy Long story.
I had many conversations with my Constitutional conservative friend Rabbi Eukel about this subject. I shared with him what I had heard, and I told him directly, I would never break this story. This story was bigger than I and deserved a professional journalist to break. It turns out the controversy centers around the News-Leader and Cory De Vera. There were claims when the story began to develop, the News-Leader, which they admit to, investigated what was being heard before Yokely broke the story. Supposedly, Case interviewed with Cory De Vera, and De Vera told Case she didn't believe her, and the reason she gave Case was stunning. According to my sources, De Vera told Case that she had ridden around with Long for a day on the campaign trail and he didn't come across to her like that. Interview over. Like so many have suggested, advertising dollars drove the News-Leader in its favorable coverage of Billy Long. Even if it didn't touch this story, there was hundreds of contradictions the News-Leader could have reported between "fed up" Billy Long and the real Billy Long. Even in the last week, the News-Leader failed to point out Billy Long was fed up with the bailouts, but took money from General Motors, a company that still owes taxpayers billions.
As well, the Busplunge author and myself met on a couple of occasions to discuss this story, and both of us had the sense to not be the first source to post it. We knew it was coming. We just didn't know how or when.
To the best of my knowledge, that's how the Jennifer Case Billy Long story played out. Of course, you know what happened a couple weeks later at the YOUNG Conservatives debate and beyond.
To blame bloggers for this story, well, this story to this day remains too big for bloggers. Had Springfield a real newspaper, well then maybe someone other than an 18 year old would have been able to provide the truth to what takes place in the back room. As of today, we have Billy Long's side of the story and we have Jennifer Case's side of the story. Me and the my friend know Billy Long hasn't always been truthful about other controversies surrounding his campaign.
