Rod Jetton Profiled in AP & Southeast Missourian

Contributing RP and former Missouri State House Speaker Rod Jetton‘s deeply personal and stunningly candid story which debuted in The Recovering Politician is now getting notice in Missouri, and on the Associated Press wire across the country.

(Click for Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3; and be sure not to miss his video interview with the RP and his video Great Debate with Jeff Smith (hilarity alert!))

Bob Miller (who shares the RP’s beloved late father’s name but is no relation) wrotean excellent piece that appears in today’s Southeast Missourian, which included Rod’s advice to future politicians.  Here is an excerpt:

After many self-inflicted wounds, Rod Jetton’s life is healing, he says.

Approaching two years after accusations surfaced of an assault on a Sikeston, Mo., woman during a sexual encounter with her, the former Missouri House speaker wrote a blog about his personal and political free fall at therecoveringpolitician.com. It appeared July 22 and was the first time Jetton had addressed the issue publicly.

Jetton pleaded guilty May 27 to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault with the admission he struck a woman in the face and choked her during sex at her Sikeston home in November 2009. The victim had previously testified in court that after finishing one glass of wine she started to drift in and out of consciousness.

Attorneys for the victim and for Jetton said they were ready to move on once the guilty plea was reached. That appears to be the case for Jetton, in some respects. While he still carries a tattered reputation, he says his life has become much more content recently.

Jetton, divorced about a month before the assault, has married again. He now works at a growing civil engineering company in Poplar Bluff, Mo., where he helps with sales, marketing and public relations plans.

A tumultuous era began, according to his blog, once he was elected as a state representative. Over time, his political pursuits and self-indulgence ruled, and ruined, his life.

Click here for the full Southeast Missourian story.

Rod’s story was also picked up by the Associated Press:

Rod Jetton says he is turning his life around after what he called self-inflicted wounds.

Jetton was a rising Republican star, ascending to speaker of the Missouri House. But in May, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault, admitting he struck a woman in the face and choked her during sex at her home in Sikeston.

The Southeast Missourian reports that Jetton used a blog at therecoveringpolitician.com to make his first public comments about the issue. He says he has married again and now works at a growing civil engineering firm in Poplar Bluff.

Click here for the full AP piece.