Spotlight on Missouri's 4th District (SPIKE IKE!)

There is a lot of talk that Ike Skelton can't be spiked from office this November.  People say Ike is too powerful (Chair of the House Armed Services Committee), too senior (34 years in Congress), too rich (raising big money) ... and that we should not waste our time and resources on defeating him.  This same defeatist rhetoric was said about Jack Brooks (TX-9) in 1994.

Who is Jack Brooks?  Brooks was the was the most senior Representative to have ever lost a general election.  He served Texas for more than 40 years.  At the time of his defeat, he was powerful (Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary after having served as Chair of the House Committee on Government Operations), very senior (40 years in Congress), and very, very rich (known as one of the richest men in Congress, having acquired a number of banks and other businesses during his years in office).  Interestingly, he was in the motorcade carrying President John F. Kennedy when Kennedy was assassinated and famously photographed aboard Air Force One when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President.

If the powerful, senior, rich, and famously photographed Jack Brooks could be defeated in 1994, then Ike Skelton can surely be defeated in 2010.

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Sir Isaac Newton famously said: “What goes up must come down.”  While he was referring to an apple falling from a tree, the same principle should apply to the political fortune of his namesake Isaac Newton “Ike” Skelton IV in 2010.

Ike’s been in Washington for a long, long time.  34 years.  However, his time in Washington should be up in November.

You see, Ike (“Must Go” Congressman) recently voted for both the failed stimulus plan (where are the jobs, Ike?) and cap & trade. This can’t be popular in a district that gave Obama 38% of its votes (and voted for Bush over Gore and Kerry almost 2-1).

David Cole, Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party agrees: “Skelton is no longer the conservative he once claimed to be. Instead, he has become more partisan, more liberal, and more out-of-touch with the people he represents…it is easier for Skelton to say ‘yes’ to Nancy Pelosi in Washington, DC, than to do what is best for his constituents in Missouri.”

Nevertheless, Ike’s camp will no-doubt attempt to spin him as a conservative-independent “delivering for the people of Missouri.” Heck, they may even drag out some outdated newspaper headlines, such as this one from the Kansas City Star on August 1, 1996:  Skelton fires back that he is a conservative and points out that Congressional Quarterly recently rated him the most conservative of the non-Southern Democrats in the House.

The trouble with such spin is that – in the “Show Me State” – Ike’s recent voting record is all the people in his district need to see in order to send a new representative to Congress in 2010. 

Two Republicans aiming to unseat this "Must Go" Congressman are Bill Stouffer (current state senator) and Vicky Hartzler (former state representative).  The primary election is on August 3rd. 

Both are campaigning on Ike’s role in advancing the Pelosi-Obama agenda.

Since Nancy Pelosi has been Speaker… he has voted with her 95% of the time…That does not represent the 4th Congressional district. – Bill Stouffer.

Ike [Skelton] has had the cover, for many years, of either a Republican President or a Republican Congress and he hasn’t had the opportunity to vote on some of these radical procedures and plans that are now being put forth by [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, and [U.S. Senate Leader] Harry Reid, and President Obama … Now that those radical proposals are on the table we’re seeing that he’s not standing for up us. - Vicky Hartzler

MMX FLEX is impressed with both candidates and believes that the time has come for the voters of Missouri’s 4th Congressional district to SPIKE IKE and send somebody to Washington that represents Missouri, not Pelosi.

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