Rep. Ike Skelton’s problems: the gays and mean Vicky Hartzler

The gays are putting our national security at risk. And Congressman Ike Skelton, a Democrat who represents mid-Missouri, is helping them do it.

That’s the message we got last week from Republican Vicky Hartzler, a former Missouri state rep and author of Running God’s Way: Step by Step to a Successful Political Campaign. Hartzler is challenging Skelton, who has held his seat since 1977 and looks mighty vulnerable to the Republican Party right now.

Skelton is anything but a flaming liberal. His career voting record has earned him a 46 percent rating from the American Conservative Union, as opposed to, say, Emanuel Cleaver‘s 5 percent or Roy Blunt‘s 93 percent. But according to Hartzler’s analysis of President Barack Obama‘s State of the Union speech last week, Skelton is helping to promote the president’s country-destroying agenda:

Sadly, the President doesn’t or won’t understand what Missourians know, that the failing policies his administration has been proposing need to be abandoned, not pushed further. He advocated continued support for failed policies advanced by Congressman Skelton and Nancy Pelosi. Both are out of touch with the wishes of the Heartland.

Hartzler went on to crib from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s talking points, complaining about “job-killing” policies that will destroy small businesses and impose communistic, apocalyptic tax increases.

But that wasn’t all:

The president says he was for national security yet supports measures to further put us at risk including cuts to missile defense programs, prosecuting terrorists in criminal court, and reinstating the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Ike Skelton has allowed the military to be used earlier to pass Nancy Pelosi’s radical agenda. What will he do now?

Ike Skelton has allowed the military to be used to pass Pelosi’s radical agenda? That sounds as if he dispatched troops to citizens’ homes to force health care on us!

And wait a second — reinstating Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? The policy still exists — and Skelton has said he’s against repealing it. In fact, gays and their friends held a rally downtown last week to demand that Skelton, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, at least hold a hearing on the issue.

I sent a note to Samantha Hill, Hartzler’s spokeswoman, asking for clarification. Thus began an exchange that started out friendly but ended much too soon.