Free Republic

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...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The wife of Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton has died. Susie Skelton was 69 when she died Tuesday morning at Research Medical Center in Kansas City. A statement from the congressman's office said she suffered a heart attack at her Lexington home. The Skeltons had just celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary in July. Susie Skelton turned 69 last Friday. Skelton is survived by her husband and three sons. Memorial arrangements have not been announced. Ike Skelton is the ranking Democratic member on the House Armed Services Committee. He's serving his 15th term in Congress. He was first elected...

The political recriminations from the cliffhanger passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement last week are even worse than we thought. Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, is contemplating revenge against the 15 Democrats who had the nerve to vote for hemispheric growth and progress. The San Francisco Democrat called a caucus gripe session in the wake of last Wednesday's vote, and an article in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call suggested that Democrats who voted yes may lose their favorite committee assignments. Our John Fund reports on OpinionJournal.com that Democratic leaders are especially mad at two Black Caucus...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee urged the Army's top civilian official Monday to seriously consider allowing an Army Reserve unit to outfit its vehicles with homemade armor while serving in Iraq. Army policy generally prohibits troops from using equipment that has not been tested and approved by the military. But fearing roadside bombs and snipers, the 428th Transportation Company turned to local businessmen to fund and fabricate special steel plates for their five-ton trucks and Humvees, which have thin metal floorboards and, in some cases, a canvas covering for doors. The...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee returned from a recent tour of Iraq with a message for the American people: The establishment media is presenting a biased and unnecessarily negative portrayal of the military and political progress in the newly freed Middle East nation. "I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon," wrote Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) Monday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether...

Journalists are giving a slanted and unduly negative account of events in Iraq, a bipartisan congressional group that has just returned from a three-day House Armed Services Committee visit to assess stabilization efforts and the condition of U.S. troops said. Lawmakers charged that reporters rarely stray from Baghdad and have a police-blotter mindset that results in terror attacks, deaths and injuries displacing accounts of progress in other areas. Comparisons with Vietnam were farfetched, members said. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the committee's ranking member, said, The media stresses the wounds, the injuries, and the deaths, as they should, but for instance...

Journalists are giving a slanted and unduly negative account of events in Iraq, a bipartisan congressional group that has just returned from a three-day House Armed Services Committee visit to assess stabilization efforts and the condition of U.S. troops said. Lawmakers charged that reporters rarely stray from Baghdad and have a “police-blotter” mindset that results in terror attacks, deaths and injuries displacing accounts of progress in other areas. Comparisons with Vietnam were farfetched, members said. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the committee’s ranking member, said, “The media stresses the wounds, the injuries, and the deaths, as they should, but for instance...

<p>The parents of an American soldier who died in Iraq after contracting a mysterious pneumonialike illness that ravaged his major organs are convinced that their son stumbled across deadly chemical weapons while clearing rubble from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.</p>