Free Republic

FORT HUACHUCA — The defense of the United States is going to require highly trained military intelligence professions, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday. Preparing critical intelligence providers is being done on this Southern Arizona post, said U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who assumed the chairmanship of the committee in January. Having an intelligence force that is the best will ensure the United States can counter any future enemy, he said. “It’s going to be the intelligence world that makes the difference,” he said after spending an afternoon on the post. It was Skelton’s first trip...

GARDEN CITY, Mo.| Vicky Hartzler — taking advantage of central Missouri’s anger toward and distrust of government — decisively upset 34-year U.S. House veteran Ike Skelton on Tuesday. With all precincts reporting, unofficial results showed Hartzler with 113,500 votes, or just more than 50 percent. Skelton, the Democrat, had 101,507 votes, or 45 percent. “I’ve told people all along that this district has been fed up and fired up and ready to stand up, and we did,” Hartzler told cheering supporters. Hartzler’s victory was part of a huge nationwide sweep for her party, and reflected the strongly conservative nature of...

Ike Skelton is getting crap for using foul language on the floor of the U.S. House. His Republican challenger, former state Rep. Vicky Hartzler, has debuted a new ad splicing together criticism of Skelton’s record with a March recording of him swearing at fellow Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) on the floor of the House. “Ike Skelton on what we can do if we disagree with his support for Nancy Pelosi’s extreme agenda,” the narrator says. “Stick it up your [expletive],” Skelton says in footage from C-SPAN, with the expletive bleeped out. His comments run three times in the 30-second spot....

Here is a new ad put out by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) that ties Missouri Democrat Rep. Ike Skelton to the radical Pelosi/Obama agenda. Skelton always portrays himself as a conservative back home in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District – as a friend to the military and the farmers. But, as the ad points out, Skelton has been a chief enabler of the Obama agenda, supporting Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker, and voting for many radical elements that Obama wanted passed. If re-elected, Skelton will undoubtedly support Pelosi as Speaker, should the Dems retain control. This is exactly the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top US lawmaker on Monday blasted the source of a huge cache of leaked military documents on the Afghan war and said such leakers belong in the "orange jump suits" of jailed criminals. "It is shocking that any American, much less someone in the Pentagon, would betray his country and possibly put our soldiers at risk by leaking information on the ongoing war in Afghanistan," said the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond. "The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange...

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says he opposes repealing the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., told reporters Tuesday that he traveled throughout his congressional district over the Memorial Day recess, shortly after the House voted to repeal the ban, and the issue "just wasn't raised" by his constituents. Skelton said he still opposes the bill because he wants troops' opinions surveyed first.

Skelton to Introduce Legislation to Protect TRICARE Washington, D.C.—Today, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) released the statement below regarding his intent to introduce legislation to explicitly state in law that TRICARE and the DOD nonappropriated fund (NAF) health plans meet all of the health care requirements currently under consideration by Congress for individual health insurance. These programs provide health coverage to members of the military and their families, military retirees and their families, and employees of U.S. military post/base exchanges and other nonappropriated fund activities. “Our nation’s military provides us with first-class protection, and it is our...

Two congressional members from Missouri said Tuesday that they plan to file legislation blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from developing its own greenhouse gas rules. U.S. Reps. Ike Skelton, a Democrat, and Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican, sharply criticized federal environmental regulators and warned that because EPA officials are not elected, the agency is not accountable to the farmers, business owners and other Missouri residents who could be hurt. The EPA had concluded in December that that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a danger to public health, which allows it to consider rules limiting them. That...

Democrats, looking to tamp down speculation about a wave of additional retirements, are getting assurances from some of their most senior members that they’ll be sticking around for another term. Democratic leadership sources report that some of the members most frequently rumored as retirement possibilities are, in fact, running for re-election. Reps. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah), Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), and Tim Holden (D-Pa.) have all told Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen that they’re not retiring. Five of those six members -- Kanjorski being the lone exception -- represent districts...

The chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Representative Ike Skelton, cast doubt on Friday about the Obama administration's decision to try the September 11, 2001, conspirators in a U.S. criminal court. Skelton, a fellow Democrat of President Barack Obama, asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to brief the committee about the decision to use the criminal courts instead of the revamped military commissions. "As a former prosecutor, I am not yet convinced that the right decision was made in these cases, nor that the presumption in favor of federal criminal trials over military...

Obama Touts Good Economic News, Yet Warns More Job Loss to Come October 31, 2009 ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Sunlen Miller report: President Obama touted good news in the economic recovery in his weekly address, pointing to Thursday’s report that GDP has grown for the first time in over a year and credited his administration in helping to bring about a conclusion to the current economic recession. “We can see clearly now that the steps my administration is taking are making a difference, blunting the worst of this recession and helping to bring about its conclusion,” the president said...

Here is video of Jefferson City, Missouri citizens holding a "Video Town Hall" on August 12, 2009, outside the office of longtime Democrat Rep. Ike Skelton because Skelton has scheduled no town hall meetings to discuss issues during the August recess. Sketon's office says he does not do Town Hall Meetings. The citizens decided that if he won't schedule meetings, they would meet anyway and voice their views on the issues, particularly on the Democrats' Government Health Care Plan. Citizens took turns speaking while a video camera recorded their views. The video is being sent to Ike Skelton. For his...

Rep. Ike Skelton endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, wading into the presidential fray after months on the sidelines. In a statement, Skelton, D-Mo., said he decided to back Clinton because of her support for "rural America, her commitment to National Security, and her dedication to our men and women in uniform." A spokeswoman said the Lexington Democrat, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, was not available for comment.

Even before Gen. David Petraeus began his account of the "substantial" progress brought about by the troop increase in Iraq, congressional critics of President Bush's policy had come to the depressing conclusion that the surge has done what the administration needed it to do. It has not won the war. It has not achieved reconciliation at the national level in Iraq. But it has bought more political time in Washington, bringing Bush closer than ever to reaching one of his main objectives: keeping large numbers of troops in Iraq beyond Election Day 2008. Yet if the testimony of Petraeus and...

Is Code Pink to the left what the Westboro Baptist Church is to the right? While the anti-war group and the anti-gay church denomination could not have more different politics, the bizarre tactics that both use seem so self-defeating as to give credence to conspiracy theories that they're not what they seem. The Topeka-based church, of course, is best known for attending the funerals of U.S. soliders with signs asserting that God is incurring His wrath upon America because of the country's tolerance for homosexuality. "God hates Fags" is a perennial favorite among Westboro's subtle sign-wavers. But just as the...

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) has gathered at least 202 Congress members’ signatures for a request that participants of an intelligence cell that may have identified some of the Sept. 11 ringleaders a year before the attacks be allowed to testify before Congress. Weldon has been leading the crusade for months, but his colleagues, several of them prominent members of the GOP conference, now appear to be listening. Weldon plans to send the letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the coming days requesting that he allow the participants in the cell known as “Able Danger” to testify in open congressional...

House and Senate Democratic leaders have joined together to urge President Bush to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq this year. The move is part of an effort to shake the notion that Democrats are split on the Iraq war and keep the focus on what they see as a winning issue against Republicans. Twelve Democrats, including the Senate and House minority leaders and ranking members of key committees, wrote President Bush on Sunday about the matter. "In the interests of American national security, our troops and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot...

WASHINGTON –– Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, a leading figure on U.S. defense policy, Wednesday rejected calls by some Democratic Party leaders for a quick withdrawal from Iraq. The United States has no choice but to succeed in Iraq, said the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, which will require a “more responsible” plan than a pullout based on any kind of time frame, which he called “counterproductive.” “If we should pull out prematurely or allow there to be an unsuccessful conclusion, Iraq could become a snake pit for terrorists,” Skelton told reporters. “Further than that, it would...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A military vehicle carrying three congressmen overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport, injuring two of them, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., was sent to a Baghdad hospital for evaluation, said Rep. Jim Marshall (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., who was also in the vehicle but was not hurt. Calls to Skelton and Murphy on Sunday were not immediately returned, but Marshall's spokesman Doug Moore said both suffered minor...

Two Congressmen injured after vehicle flips in Iraq A military vehicle carrying U.S. politicians overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport on Saturday and injured two members of Congress, said U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pennsylvania, was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, Marshall told the Macon Telegraph. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, was sent to a Baghdad hospital, he said. Marshall, a Georgia Democrat, said he was not hurt. The congressional delegation was riding in a box-like vehicle that troops called the "ice cream truck" that streaked through the middle...