St. Louis Beacon - Wash U student newspaper offers its take on once-favored instructor: "Mr. Smith Goes to Prison"

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Wash U student newspaper offers its take on once-favored instructor: "Mr. Smith Goes to Prison"

By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter

Posted 7:56 pm Wed., 9.2.09

Washington University student Eve Samborn, forum editor for the campus' Student Life, this week pretty well sums up the anger and disillusionment that some current and former students may harbor over the fall from grace of former state Sen. Jeff Smith, a popular political science instructor on campus for years.

Smith, of course, resigned from his political post -- and his teaching post -- when he pleaded guilty last week to a felony related to his almost-successful bid for Congress in 2004.

Smith's army of student volunteers helped fuel that campaign, and his winning quest for the state Senate in 2006.

Samborn's headline is a takeoff of the award-winning documentary, "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore," that local filmmaker Frank Popper made about Smith's failed congressional effort.

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