This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 22, 2012 - WASHINGTON – For a congressional delegation that has prided itself in getting along swimmingly, Missouri’s Capitol Hill gang is spinning in a whirlpool.
The turbulence is bipartisan. This week, some fellow Republicans in the delegation criticized U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood, and urged him to quit his quest for the U.S. Senate.
This summer, two formerly friendly St. Louis Democrats from Missouri political dynasties – U.S. Reps. William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan – went at each other’s throats in a harsh primary campaign that Clay won this month.
Last year, no fewer than four Republican U.S. House members from Missouri considered a primary race to face delegation member U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. While Akin tossed his hat in that ring, the other three opted out, in decisions that they may now regret: U.S. Reps. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau; Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, and Sam Graves, R-Tarkio.
And two tea-party backed freshmen from the Show Me State also shook up the delegation in this Congress: U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, who defeated the popular and powerful delegation dean Ike Skelton, then chair of the House Armed Services Committee; and U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, a former auctioneer whose folksy ways at first rubbed some old-timers the wrong way.
Despite the recent turmoil – and the Senate campaign between Akin and McCaskill that promises to be bitterly fought between now and November – senior lawmakers contend that the Missouri delegation will get back to normal next year.
“Our delegation has always been a very close one, irregardless of party,” said Emerson, called the dean because she is the delegation’s longest-serving member. “And we try to find as many things to work on as we can.”
Such issues include responses to disasters like last year’s floods and this year’s drought, she said, on which delegation members worked together. Added Emerson: “Missouri issues are Missouri issues.”
Emerson told the Beacon that having U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., in Senate GOP leadership – he currently holds the fifth-ranking post, but could move up in the next Congress – “is wonderful for the Missouri delegation … Roy has a good relationship with the House, which is important because we really do have to work together” with the Senate.
But, whatever happens in the November election, things will change in the delegation next year. First, St. Louis is losing a House seat because of redistricting, and everyone else’s district has changed as a result of the redrawing. Second, both Carnahan and Akin will be out of their House seats, although Akin could end up in the Senate if he defeats McCaskill.
And, if today’s political survey results stand, the state’s House delegation seems likely to have only two urban Democrats, Clay and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D- Kansas City, and six Republicans representing mainly rural or suburban areas.
Turmoil intensifies this summer
Traditionally, Missouri’s delegation has been more congenial than most such state groupings on Capitol Hill. At the end of 2010, the Beacon outlined how the lawmakers focused on common ground.
At the time, Blunt – a longtime U.S. House member then making the transition to the Senate – said that “most states are pretty envious” of Missouri because their delegations didn’t hold regular meetings.
Emerson, who has just a few weeks’ seniority over Blunt, took over the delegation meetings early in 2011, and said Friday that she typically hosts a monthly breakfast in her office. The last meeting was in “May or June,” she said, mainly because of the press of business before Congress recessed this month.
“Even during the testy times of the campaign, both Russ [Carnahan] and Lacy [Clay] usually were there. And it was fine,” said Emerson. “Claire [McCaskill] and Akin were also there together. And they were always civil.”
But that civility has been tested in the weeks since then, not only between Democrat and Republican, but also among the delegation’s GOP members. Some of that tension resulted from the Clay-Carnahan primary campaign, followed last weekend by the uproar over Akin’s televised comments relating to rape and pregnancies.
After Akin's comments caused a national firestorm that threatened to affect GOP candidates across the country, Blunt – who had not publicly backed any Republican candidate in the primary race for the Senate seat – spoke with Akin "several times" in an effort to convince him to step aside, sources said.
Blunt called Akin’s rape statements “totally unacceptable” and contacted former Missouri GOP U.S. senators – and former delegation leaders – Christopher "Kit" Bond, John D. Ashcroft, Jim Talent and John C. Danforth and took the lead in negotiating the joint statement Tuesday saying:
“We do not believe it serves the national interest for Congressman Todd Akin to stay in this race. The issues at stake are too big, and this election is simply too important. The right decision is to step aside.”
Emerson didn’t call for Akin to step aside, but harshly criticized her delegation colleague on Tuesday: “Todd Akin made a reprehensible, inexcusable and dangerous comment," Emerson said in a statement. "He was wrong to say what he did about rape, and the ignorance of that view has no place in our party, in our culture or in our country."
For his part, Akin – who declined to step aside by the initial Tuesday deadline -- took to conservative radio talk shows Tuesday and lambasted the GOP establishment in general terms, not mentioning his colleagues by name, for trying to interfere in the choice of Missouri Republicans.
Accusing his critics of “an overreaction,” Akin apologized for his rape comments but said they were simply misstatements. “It does just seem I misspoke one word in one sentence on one day,” Akin told conservative commentator and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in his radio show. “I hadn’t done anything that was morally or ethically wrong. “
Akin also told radio hosts that he believed he had a higher purpose in pursuing the Senate race. That brought to mind his comments in January to the annual gathering of anti-abortion Missourians in the “March for Life” session at the U.S. Capitol. Akin invoked the Almighty in telling the group that defeating McCaskill should be their top priority. “If we work hard in this race, we can replace Claire McCaskill, by God’s grace,” Akin said.
For her part, McCaskill described Akin as “extreme” and contended this week that Akin’s rape-pregnancy comments – for which he had apologized – were typical. “This statement is a window into Todd Akin’s mind,” McCaskill said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “I hope this is one of those gut check moments [for Missourians] when they say this is not somebody we want speaking for us on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
There also has been growing tension between McCaskill and Blunt over his leadership role in the effort to replace Akin, which her political allies view as a GOP effort to overrule Republican primary voters and put in a candidate they consider to have a better chance of defeating McCaskill.
While the Akin-McCaskill rhetoric is likely to escalate during the upcoming election campaign – with the McCaskill campaign compiling a long list of other “extreme” statements from Akin on various issues, and Akin likely to attack McCaskill for backing President Barack Obama on some key votes – the Clay-Carnahan dispute ended with this month’s primary election, which Clay won handily.
The two St. Louis politicians had been friendly until last year. But after the Missouri Legislature drew up the new congressional map in a way that eliminated Carnahan’s old 3rd District, Carnahan – convinced that he had been the delegation’s sacrificial lamb – confronted Clay and Cleaver in separate incidents on the U.S. House floor.
While the Congressional Record did not record what was said, other lawmakers later told journalists what they had witnessed. A Capitol Hill newspaper reported that Carnahan cornered Clay and said: “F—- you. Thanks for your help,” after Clay allegedly declined to put his full weight against the redistricting plan. (Clay denies that.) Three weeks later, in May 2011, Carnahan reportedly had a heated confrontation with Cleaver for similar reasons.
This summer, the Carnahan campaign trashed Clay for missing about 10 percent of House votes and distributed thousands of “talking mail” pieces lambasting Clay’s position on “predatory lenders” of the rent-to-own industry. In turn, Clay denounced Carnahan for “Big Lies” and accused the generally liberal Democrat of tea party links in a series of tweets, interviews and ads.
By the end of the campaign, the two St. Louis lawmakers had alienated one another. But a day after the election, Carnahan issued a conciliatory statement, pledging his support for Clay and “a united Democratic ticket” in the November election. He hasn’t said much since and was not available for an interview related to this story.
Things may change once the dust settles from the November election and the new Congress is sworn in the first week of January. Emerson, for one, hopes some normalcy will return to a revamped delegation that will have one less House member.
“I have no doubt that we will continue to be as close as we have been,” she said.