Bob Parker

Upon the invitation of Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, the expected republican winner of today's Missouri Beauty Pageant will be heading to beautiful Cape Girardeau next month.  From the Southeast Missourian:

Santorum to speak at Cape Lincoln Day next month

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has scheduled a trip to Cape Girardeau next month, where he is to be the featured speaker at the local GOP's Lincoln Day event.

Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, was invited by U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a Cape Girardeau Republican, who confirmed Monday that he had accepted.[...]

"He really understands blue collar, Middle America," Emerson said. "He has the best overall, well-rounded understanding of some of the challenges in a state like ours. I am so happy he accepted my invitation."

While this might not seem totally out of the ordinary given that congresscritters regularly invite presidential candidates of their own party to campaign with them in order to get national attention, raise money and get a photo-op, what makes it interesting is that Emerson is refusing to state who she's voting for or make any formal endorsement, even though she's already received a nice chunk of change from Romney.

Tuesday morning, Fox News ran a factually-challenged news story accusing Democrats and a handful of Republicans of pushing a "$165 billion bailout" of union pensions. Interestingly, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson found herself on the wrong side of Fox's made-up facts, and it appears to be causing her a few headaches in her upcoming primary.  Here's the segment:

In reality, the bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Emerson and others (even the very conservative Mike Pence of Indiana attached his name to the idea at one point) would cost $8-$10 billion, and FOX is working hard to obscure the true intent of the proposal. 

Indeed, fellow cosponsor Steve LaTourette (R-OH) ripped Fox for the story:

That’s nonsense and I don’t know who the pin head and weenie is at Fox News that decided to put that story together. But the true facts of this piece of legislation are as follows. This bill will save the taxpayers by saying to those corporations that have union pension plans, if you find yourselves in a bind, rather than thrusting that upon the taxpayer, it spreads out over five years the ability to bring those pension plans up to speed. That’s good government, it’s a good bill. It’s a good [Rep. Pat Tiberi (R- OH)] bill and I don’t know what they’re doing at Fox News, but they should stop smoking it and get back to reporting the facts.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson attended her very first tea party on Saturday to scrounge up votes from the super conservative wing of her party.  It's hard to tell how things went -- there weren't any real fireworks in the press and first-person accounts of the event, but both Emerson and tea party activists are working to keep their distance from each other.  The tea partiers obviously don't like a lot of her votes, and she (to her credit) wasn't all that enamored with their birther jokes and "socialist coup" rhetoric. 

From Rudi Keller's story on the rally in yesterday's Southeast Missourian:

While Emerson said she doesn't agree with everything said on stage -- she singled out [Poplar Bluff radio personality C.R.] Woolard's joke about Obama's citizenship as one example -- she said she doesn't turn away from chances to hear from any constituents. "It was my first Tea Party, and I felt I should go and listen," she said.

Bob Parker, who's running in the 8th Congressional District GOP primary against Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, is still not on the agenda for tomorrow's Patriot Rally in Poplar Bluff, but he's sendinghis best in a letter to the gathering. The SEMO Times has the whole letter -- here's an excerpt:

The truth about candidates and issues must be told if we are going to take back our Country. We must have an open debate on these issues. This is not a Democrat verses Republican debate. Many in my party, the Republican party, have failed at upholding our freedoms and rights. That is not working for Missouri, and that is not working for America. We must be ever vigilant against those that would wrap themselves in the flag but vote for un-constitutional freedom destroying bills in Washington!..

Yesterday we noted the incredibly ironic list of keynote speakers for an upcoming "Patriot Rally" in Poplar Bluff for "the next generation of the Tea Party."  Roy Blunt and Jo Ann Emerson are headlining the event, despite their considerable differences with most tea party activists. 

Bob Parker, the Texas County rancher who is challenging Emerson in the GOP primary this August, saw our story and is predictably unhappy with the establishment's hijacking of the tea party brand.  In fact, he says he tried to get on the list of speakers, but was not allowed by organizers. 

Here's what he wrote on our Facebook page:

The Daily Dunklin Democrat profiles Bob Parker today, a Republican challenger to Jo Ann Emerson in the 8th Congressional District. Like we've seen in numerous other races, Parker is staking his candidacy on tea party anger.

Parker said concerns over last fall's federal bailout of financial institutions was one of his determining factors [in running], adding that the $700 billion bailout has failed to deliver on its promises...

"What are we going to do? The national media isn't saying anything about it. We've got to take America back. I'm not going to wait until they come and knock on my door; I'm going up to Washington and knock on their doors."

Politico has an interesting story this week about tea partiers taking on entrenched GOP incumbents with primary challengers in 2010. With rhetoric similar to we've been hearing from folks like Chuck Purgason and Liz Lauber, tea party-supported candidates are challenging establishment Republicans for "what they perceive as the GOP’s stubborn insistence on embracing candidates who don’t abide by a small government, anti-tax conservative philosophy."