Republican scoundrel in simplistic story (9)
I believe the answer is:
narrative
'story' is the definition.
(I know that story can be written as narrative)
'republican scoundrel in simplistic' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation).
'scoundrel' becomes 'rat' (rat can mean a nasty person).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'simplistic' becomes 'naive' (I've seen this before).
'r'+'rat'='rrat'
'rrat' placed into 'naive' is 'NARRATIVE'.
(Other definitions for narrative that I've seen before include "Story recounting events" , "Story line" , "Verbal account" , "Storyline" , "Popeye's vegetable" .)