CD8

h/t Randy Turner

Direct link to story here.

Billy Long, as quoted in The Fuse Joplin: "Every allegation I’ve heard is 100% false, as far as my knowledge. Anything that goes on there is beyond my knowledge...It’s 100% false, internet rumor’s like I’ve fought against for the last 20 months in the campaign."

Bradley Whitford Josh Lyman has a message for prospective Tommy Sowers volunteers.

I support this message, can't endorse that mustache. 

h/t PoliticMo

The Post-Dispatch has endorsed Tommy Sowers over Rep. Jo Ann Emerson in Missouri's 8th District: 

Mr. Sowers is hard to pigeonhole: He’s a boots-wearing, pickup-driving graduate of the London School of Economics, a scholar-warrior who had the courage to lead a Green Beret A-team in Iraq but is wishy-washy on health care reform. He is targeting veterans in his campaign but is opposed to the war in Afghanistan. But Tommy Sowers would bring new energy to a district that badly needs it.

Watch it live at KFVS12.com. Here's a wrap from KFVS12.com:

The Jo Ann Emerson campaign thought they had a great hit on Tommy Sowers yesterday. "Howie Mandel, host of 'Deal or No Deal' and judge on NBC's 'America's Got Talent' cozied up to Tommy Sowers last week at a Hollywood fundraiser held in Sowers' honor," wrote Emerson spokesman Jordan Clothier.

Except that's not true.  The embarrassing press release from Team Emerson now leads with the following disclaimer:

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Emerson campaign contacted the Southeast Missourian to correct the record regarding this story. The Howie Mandel who hosted the fundraiser is a prominent Los Angeles doctor, not the comedian and TV personality. The campaign asked to have the story pulled from this web site, but it is the policy of the Southeast Missourian in such cases to maintain the originally submitted story as a matter of public record, with the inaccurate information noted.

Whoooops! 

The Tommy Sowers campaign has unveiled a new ad today, titled "Horse Manure." Rep. Jo Ann Emerson "can dump all the horse manure she wants. The voters aren’t buying it," Sowers said in a statement.

NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro have updated their "Field of 64" -- the "64 House seats we consider most likely to switch parties in the fall" -- and there are no Missouri races on the list.

This interview aired yesterday afternoon.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza has posted his "Fix Fifty" this morning -- an analysis of the fifty seats most likely to change parties this year.  There are no Missouri races on the list.

The Cook Political Report rates Missouri's 3rd District as a "Likely Democratic" seat, and Missouri's 4th District as a "Lean Democratic" seat.  The Fourth is a "Lean Democratic" seat in the Rothenberg Political Report breakdown; no other Missouri seats are listed as "in play" by Rothenberg.

Politician Rep. Jo Ann Emerson is aghast that Tommy Sowers would talk about military and veterans issues on the same day Barack Obama gave speeches about Iraq. (Oh noes!) She's so disgusted, in fact, that she published the following political statement last night on Facebook:

Released this morning: 

The Tommy Sowers campaign launched his first 30-second TV spot today, titled "Combat Bible."  The ad highlights Sowers' service in Iraq, and his opposition to "devastating trade deals and the Wall Street bailout." Watch it:

A long-time Fired Up! reader asks a good question about this passage in Jon Rust's inadequate response to the 'repugnant' letter he published about Tommy Sowers from Josh Bill, former chief of staff to the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson:

The second point -- the innuendo -- is unfair and inappropriate. I will admit: I don't see that sexual orientation has anything to do with whether a person is qualified for Congress. The same is true about race, sex, religion or national background. Each of these items is part of an individual's identity, but in themselves they are basically meaningless. Whether a person is Sikh, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Mormon or atheist, the more important characteristics are their governing philosophy, wisdom, integrity and work ethic.

My guess is that I may be a minority in this position, however, especially in the 8th District, which is what makes the paid election letter repugnant.

Is it really Rust's position that a majority of Eighth District voters are bigots as he indicates in here?  That most of his readers are more concerned about "sexual orientation...race, sex, religion or national background" than candidates' "governing philosophy, wisdom, integrity and work ethic"?   I hope he's wrong. 

The Southeast Missouri has published a disgusting letter to the editor from Josh Bill, former chief of staff to the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson and former mayor of Sikeston. The letter, headlined "Questions about Tommy Sowers," expresses concern that Tommy Sowers' website "doesn't even say how old he is or if he's single or married" (read: Is he gay?).  He also talks at length about a recent Sowers fundraiser in Washington, DC that Bill says was held in "the notorious U Street corridor of D.C.," apparently "famous for the homosexual community and notorious for everyone else."   As evidence (I'm using that term loosely), Bill points to a website that describes Local 16, the location of Sowers' fundraiser, as one of DC's "gay clubs and bars."

I wouldn't be bothered a bit if a candidate happened to hold an event at a gay bar, any more than I'd care if a candidate happened to be gay, lesbian, transgendered or straight.  Quaint questions like, "How might a person vote?" generally guide my personal candidate selection process.

Josh Bill obviously sees things differently. The intention of the letter is obvious, and it's hard to understand why the Southeast Missourian decided to publish it.  (Note that the letter that this isn't labeled as one of the paper's user-submitted stories where we often see political press releases.) UPDATE: The paper's publisher has clarified that Bill paid to have the  letter printed.

But even in Bill's narrow worldview, his letter and accusations have problems.

Politico: "There's ample risk involved in calling out an opponent’s military record, though, as a Memorial Day weekend scuffle in Missouri’s 8th Congressional District illustrates. There, incumbent Rep. Jo Ann Emerson found herself on the defensive after telling a newspaper that her Democratic challenger, Tommy Sowers, had 'never commanded anybody.' Sowers pounced on the comment, telling POLITICO that Emerson had shown a 'lack of basic understanding and respect for the military' and had sought to 'diminish' his record."

In responses provided yesterday to the Southeast Missourian and Beacon, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson refused to apologize for her demonstrably false and insulting claim that Tommy Sowers "never commanded anybody."

Instead, she came back with new accusations that Sowers is somehow trying to "cloud" the debate on the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.  Wrong answer.

Look, the facts are pretty simple:

• Emerson made a demonstrably false statement about Sowers' service record
• Confronted about her statement, Emerson refused to apologize. 

The whole point of saying that a person "never commanded anybody, [so] he might have a different perspective" on repealing DADT is to suggest that Sowers doesn't really have any expertise and wisdom on military issues.  He "never commanded anybody," so what does he know? Emerson's reply that "she wasn't disparaging anybody" isn't convincing.

Instead of apologizing, Emerson chose to accuse Sowers of a "cynical attempt to divert attention from a position he has suddenly discovered is out-of-step" with the district. This is just dumb. There is no evidence that Sowers is waffling on his position in any way.

In today's Southeast Missourian, you'll find a rather audacious claim from Rep. Jo Ann Emerson about why Tommy Sowers shouldn't be taken seriously on the issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell":

Emerson said her opposition [to a DADT repeal] is based on comments from field commanders "who have said that in very difficult situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, in combat jobs, that it is beneficial to have knowledge of that because there can be distractions. Since Sowers has never commanded anybody, he might have a different perspective." (emphasis added)

Emerson is apparently unaware that Sowers was an Operational Detachment Commander in Iraq and led a combat engineering platoon in Kosovo.  The Daily Dunklin Democrat has more: 

Sowers later spent 11 years active duty and obtained the grade of Major as a soldier. During the Balkan war, he deployed to Kosovo to lead a platoon of Combat Engineers in multinational operations. He attended the Special Forces Qualification Course, graduating 1st in his class. At 10th Special Forces Group, he led an Operational Detachment-Alpha (A-Team) of 12 Green Berets. In two deployments to Iraq in 2004-2006, he conducted a wide range of counterinsurgency operations and was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge and two Bronze Stars. He is Ranger, HALO and Jumpmaster qualified.