William Lacy Clay

Speaking last night about why he thinks term limits are a good idea, former Matt Blunt Chief of Staff/Congressional Candidate/MO GOP Chairman Emeritus/Serial Tax Waster Ed Martin said he supports limiting Members of U.S. House to four two-year terms, and would sponsor a Constitutional amendment in Congress to make that happen. In fact, he said it would be "one the first things" he'd file.

Hotflash from Show Me Progress was there and has the video:

NPR has a really impressive analysis and interactive map on their website today breaking down the uninsured population in each Congressional district. As has been noted elsewhere, some of the strongest health care obstruction efforts are coming from leaders who represent huge uninsured populations. NPR:

Of the 100 congressional districts with the highest percentage rates of uninsured people, 53 are represented either by Republican lawmakers who are fighting the overhaul, or by conservative Blue Dog Democrats who have slowed down and diluted the overhaul proposals.

In anticipation of hearings in Rep. Ike Skelton's House Armed Services Committee, a number of pro-equality groups are stepping up their efforts to demand the repeal of the nation's misguided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy.

Passed by Congress in 1993, DADT is a law mandating the discharge of openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual service members. Under the law, at least one individual per day on average is fired because they are gay or lesbian. Incredibly, almost 13,000 service members have been discharged since 1994. Since President Obama was sworn into office, almost 300 have been discharged.

For the first time, US House members are required to publicly disclose their earmark requests. The deadline to do so came and went on Saturday, and according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, Roy Blunt, Todd Akin and Blaine Luetkemeyer had not complied as of 1:45 this afternoon. 

Following up on TCS's research, Blunt and Akin have definitely posted their requests on their websites -- we don't know if TCS missed the info, or if their documents were added after being called out on The Huffington Post for noncompliance, but they're up now. 

• Blunt's requests for appropriations are available on his website. 
• Akin's requests are on the front page of his website now.

We haven't had any luck finding Luetkemeyer's list of earmark request yet -- if it's there and we've missed it, please leave a note in comments or drop us a line.

Links to view the requests from the full delegation can be found after the break.

The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy has issued its 2008 Congressional Scorecard breaking down the most important votes for middle class and low income families from last year.  It was a mixed bag from the Missouri delegation:

To create the rankings, the Drum Major Institute looks at "the good and the bad decisions Congress made in 2008—from the February stimulus bill to the Senate filibusters that killed legislation to address the home mortgage crisis and to assist the struggling auto industry."

The full scoop is at www.TheMiddleClass.org.