George F. Will: Why Republicans may live to regret their stated desire for more Truman-style Democrats
Republicans regret, or say they do, that there are no more "Truman Democrats"—Democrats as hardheaded about national security as was the president who formulated the cold-war policy of containment. That regret must amuse the gangly, soft-spoken 15-term congressman from Truman country—western Missouri, where they pronounce it "Massouruh." If Democrats capture the House in November, Ike Skelton will become chairman of the Armed Services Committee. The Republicans might wish there were one fewer Truman Democrat.
Skelton, two of whose three sons are in the military, comes from a military family. His father lied about his age in order to get into the Navy, where he served on the first battleship Missouri, which had been part of the Great White Fleet that Teddy Roosevelt sent around the world to advertise America's emergence as a world power. Skelton's mother was the great-great-granddaughter of Squire Boone who, with his uncle Daniel, fought in August 1782 in northwestern Kentucky at Bryan's Station. That, not Yorktown, was, Skelton playfully insists, the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
His father, who met Truman—then a county commissioner—in 1928, brought his son to Truman's 1949 Inauguration. Framed on Skelton's office wall is a telegram from Skelton's father congratulating Truman for firing Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Like his father, Skelton speaks what he considers the truth to power. On Sept. 4, 2002, he wrote to President Bush, warning of "civil unrest and even anarchy" in the aftermath of an invasion of Iraq:
"Planning for the occupation of Germany and Japan—two economically viable, technologically sophisticated nations—took place well in advance of the end of the war. The extreme difficulty of occupying Iraq ... argues both for careful consideration of the benefits and risks of undertaking military action and for detailed advanced occupation planning if such military action is approved."...
If Skelton, 74, becomes chairman, his agenda will be: "Oversight, oversight, oversight!" Expect the Armed Services Committee to resemble a highly successful Senate committee created in 1941 for oversight of defense spending during World War II. It was known by its chairman's name: the Truman Committee.
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Skelton, two of whose three sons are in the military, comes from a military family. His father lied about his age in order to get into the Navy, where he served on the first battleship Missouri, which had been part of the Great White Fleet that Teddy Roosevelt sent around the world to advertise America's emergence as a world power. Skelton's mother was the great-great-granddaughter of Squire Boone who, with his uncle Daniel, fought in August 1782 in northwestern Kentucky at Bryan's Station. That, not Yorktown, was, Skelton playfully insists, the last battle of the Revolutionary War.
His father, who met Truman—then a county commissioner—in 1928, brought his son to Truman's 1949 Inauguration. Framed on Skelton's office wall is a telegram from Skelton's father congratulating Truman for firing Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Like his father, Skelton speaks what he considers the truth to power. On Sept. 4, 2002, he wrote to President Bush, warning of "civil unrest and even anarchy" in the aftermath of an invasion of Iraq:
"Planning for the occupation of Germany and Japan—two economically viable, technologically sophisticated nations—took place well in advance of the end of the war. The extreme difficulty of occupying Iraq ... argues both for careful consideration of the benefits and risks of undertaking military action and for detailed advanced occupation planning if such military action is approved."...
If Skelton, 74, becomes chairman, his agenda will be: "Oversight, oversight, oversight!" Expect the Armed Services Committee to resemble a highly successful Senate committee created in 1941 for oversight of defense spending during World War II. It was known by its chairman's name: the Truman Committee.