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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...

Sixteen years ago a prominent Republican stopped me on the street to complain that his party was in denial. It was falling fast, he said, with little hope. The California GOP was "like an alcoholic," the pol asserted. "We all want him to recover, but he's got to want to recover. And before that can happen he has to hit bottom. We all think he's hit bottom, but he doesn't." The man was talking about the party's addiction to gay bashing and gun worshiping, to feeding off anti-abortion and illegal immigration causes. That resulted in big hangovers on mornings after...

As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own.

He is missing one eye, the roof of his mouth and can barely eat or drink - but America's 'most injured soldier' is going back to war-Actual Title America’s most wounded soldier to return to combat is going back to the front line to serve his country once more. Captain D.J. Skelton will take charge of 192 men from his previous unit and fight in the dangerous plains of Southern Afghanistan. Friends said his achievement should have been physically impossible but he pushed through the pain because of his ‘warrior spirit’.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 1, 2010) — Today House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) delivered his farewell speech to the U.S. House of Representatives. Skelton expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to represent Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District for 34 years and also discussed his hopes and concerns for the future of our nation. Attached are Skelton’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Nov. 2, 2010) — Campaign staff for Republican congressional candidate Vicky Hartzler have joined in the criticism of a decision by local Democrats to ask the Waynesville and Saint Robert police for an escort for a political parade through the two cities on Saturday. In a press release issued Tuesday by Hartzler spokesman Steve Walsh, officials for the candidate seeking to unseat Congressman Ike Skelton noted that “Democrat Party officials in Pulaski County are now in trouble for using police officers to stage an unauthorized parade on behalf of Ike Skelton and another Democrat Party candidate last...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Nov. 3, 2010) — A red tide of Republicans swept out Pulaski County Presiding Commissioner Don McCulloch, State Sen. Frank Barnitz, and Congressman Ike Skelton Tuesday night. While Pulaski County was once a Democratic stronghold, last night’s election results showed that most Republicans won by large margins, in some cases by a three-to-one split.“What we’re seeing across the county is not just a wave but a tsunami,” said Andy Bobbitt, president of the Pulaski County Democratic Club. Only Circuit Court Clerk Rachelle Beasley, a Waynesville Democrat, escaped the deluge and won re-election. The other Democrat to gain...

Three longtime House Democrats holding gavels of power were defeated Tuesday night, with Republicans ousting Members with 98 years of combined experience who served as top lieutenants to Speaker Nancy Pelosi . Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (Minn.), Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (Mo.) and Budget Chairman John Spratt (S.C.) all lost as Republicans regained control of the chamber in a wave that has ousted at least 60 Democrats.

LAQUEY, Mo. (Oct. 30, 2010) — Republican congressional candidate Vicky Hartzler earned her reputation as a Christian conservative during a successful statewide campaign in 2004 in which voters decided by a 71 percent margin to amend the state constitution to bar gay marriage. She’s been blasted by a national liberal magazine which asked if she is the “most anti-gay candidate in America,” and conservative Christian themes were brought up several times during her Saturday morning veterans rally at VFW Post 3168 next to the Laquey ambulance base. Hartzler attacked incumbent Congressman Ike Skelton for his role as chairman of the...

LAQUEY, Mo. (Oct. 30, 2010) — With the major exception of the Missouri Farm Bureau, many organizations which typically endorse conservative Republican candidates for office have endorsed Congressman Ike Skelton for years despite him being a Democrat. That includes right to life and veterans organizations, as well as the National Rifle Association; the Farm Bureau had endorsed Skelton for 14 years until this election. However, the NRA endorsement of Skelton over his Republican challenger, Vicky Hartzler, has become a point of controversy this year. Skelton has severely attacked Hartzler for opposing a 1998 proposal to place concealed carry permits on...

LAQUEY, Mo. (Oct. 30, 2010) — About two dozen fired-up supporters of Vicky Hartzler converged Saturday morning on VFW Post 3168 next to the Laquey ambulance base to hear their candidate explain why she believes it’s necessary to oust U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Retired school superintendent David Dicke introduced Hartzler while wearing an “Ike Take a Hike” button, which he said is available for purchase from the Camden County Republican Party. Dicke predicted a Hartzler victory, and Hartzler herself said that’s important to get back on the right track. “I really believe that...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Oct. 29, 2010) — A new poll commissioned by a Springfield-area television station and Missouri State University in Springfield shows U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton up by 7 percentage points over his Republican challenger, former State Rep. Vicky Hartzler. The poll attributes Skelton’s rise to concerns over the future of Fort Leonard Wood, and both candidates will hold campaign rallies in the Fort Leonard Wood area today and tomorrow. According to the poll’s director, Missouri State University Professor Brian Calfano, Skelton’s lead in a bad year for Democrats is due to “three words: Fort Leonard Wood ... Skelton's...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Oct. 26, 2010) — Staff members for Vicky Hartzler’s congressional campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton announced Monday that they’ve appointed three Fourth District residents, including Dixon rancher Charles Bassett, to serve as leaders of the campaign’s “Farmers and Ranchers Coalition.” Other members are Brent Heid of Hartzler’s hometown of Harrisonville and Dwayne Schad of Versailles. Bassett, who is the father-in-law of State Rep. David Day of Dixon and a relative of incoming county clerk Brent Bassett, has run a cow-calf operation for nearly 50 years, has known Hartzler for nearly a decade, and was an...

(Oct. 25, 2010) — Republican Congressional candidate Vicky Hartzler has clearly identified herself for many years as an evangelical Christian, dating back to her days in the state legislature from 1995 to 2000 and then as a spokeswoman for the successful 2004 campaign to amend the Missouri state constitution to ban gay marriage. While Hartzler’s opponent, 17-term U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, has attacked Hartzler on numerous issues, he’s avoided her religious beliefs and church affiliation. Others have been less restrained. In recent weeks, some journalists have asked if Hartzler will be the young “David” to defeat the powerful “Goliath” of...

(Oct. 25, 2010) — U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton’s campaign has been running advertisements accusing his Republican challenger, former State Rep. Vicky Hartzler, of being “way too nasty.” At a Pulaski County Republican Party event, Hartzler said Skelton’s campaign ads made her “look like the Antichrist.” While Hartzler has strongly protested what she views as misleading and sometimes outright false attacks by Ike Skelton, it’s not the first time she’s been a target of negative campaigning. In her book, “Running God’s Way; Step by Step to a Successful Political Campaign,” she recounts an experience in her 1996 re-election campaign when her...

(Oct. 23, 2010) — While it wasn’t mentioned at the Pulaski County “Veterans for Vicky” rally because speaker Bill Rostad isn’t a Veterans of Foreign Wars member, the VFW endorsement of U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton being widely publicized by his campaign has come under significant attack by the campaign of his Republican challenger, Vicky Hartzler, and by some members of the VFW itself. Candidates, including Skelton, often state that they’ve been “endorsed by the VFW,” “endorsed by the National Rifle Association,” or by other similar organizations, but the VFW and NRA are nonprofit 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations which can’t explicitly endorse...

(Oct. 23, 2010) — It’s gotten much less attention than the disputed Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsement, but a similar debate is currently happening in the National Rifle Association, which endorsed Democratic U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton over his Republican challenger Vicky Hartzler while giving both Skelton and Hartzler an “A” rating. While she didn’t receive the NRA endorsement, Hartzler has also been touting her endorsements by two much smaller organizations, the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance and Gun Owners of America. Locally, the NRA also endorsed incumbent Missouri State Sen. Frank Barnitz, a Dent County Democrat, by giving him an “A-plus”...

(Oct. 23, 2010) — In an age of conservative Christian activism, some churches have become heavily involved in the “culture wars” and strongly promote political activism by their members. However, the church attended by Republican congressional candidate Vicky Hartzler appears to take encouragement of political activism to an unusually high level. Few rural churches with a membership of 400 can claim that even one of their members is a former state representative, spokeswoman for a successful campaign to amend the state constitution to prohibit gay marriage, and current congressional candidate. When Hartzler’s pastor preached last month of the importance of...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (Oct. 23, 2010) — U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton bills himself as the “soldiers’ congressman.” Given his strongly conservative district in rural Missouri stretching from Whiteman Air Force Base in the north to Fort Leonard Wood in the south, there’s little chance the district would be represented by any Democrat if it weren’t for Skelton who has served 34 years and is seeking his eighteenth term in office. However, Republican challenger Vicky Hartzler is working hard to convince veterans that a vote for Skelton isn’t in their interest. Hartzler’s “Veterans for Vicky” coalition sent three teams of veterans to...