November 5, 2008

by Jerry Gordon, The Iconoclast, November 5, 2008

There were two glints among the Democratic Tsunami in Tuesday’s House Elections: Rep. Mark Kirk (R.10th-IL ) and Sue Myrick (R- 9th NC). Kirk won handily 55% to 45% against second time Democratic contender, Dan Seals in one of the more expensive House contests ($6.8 Million). The 10th Illinois District that lies north of Chicago is affluent and has a heavy Jewish and Democratic registration. Kirk, a reserve Naval intelligence officer, is very pro-Israel and sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He also leads a bi-partisan domestic Suburban Issues group in the House. We interviewed Kirk for the New English Review in September and found him to be one of the most effective, intelligent and moderate GOP members in Congress. He was a true maverick, a term used repeatedly at the national level in the defeated McCain-Palin GOP compaign. He voted in opposition to the Bush Administration 59% of the time.

Doubtless in an Illinois district that went heavily for Democrat Barack Obama for President, Kirk survived on merit.

That compares sharply with another GOP moderate, my former Congressman, Chris Shays, who was

defeated in a bid for an 11th term in the Connecticut 4th District. He was New England’s lone GOP House member swept out of office in the Democratic surge in Tuesday’s elections. Shays voted frequently n opposition to the Bush Administration. Yet he lost to newcomer and former Goldman Sachs official, Democrat Jim Himes. Shays says that his days in ‘elective politics’ are over, but then there is speculation that he might be urged to bid for Sen. Dodd’s seat in the US Senate, when the low rated solon and head of the Senate Banking Committee is next up for re-election. Shays will be missed, given his wide ranging work on domestic issues like the mortgage meltdown at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and his efforts on national security and foreign policy issues including support for Israel.

Over in North Carolina, there was another GOP Congressional Member returned to office, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-9th NC). Myrick, who was previously Mayor of Charlotte for 14 years,

won in her Congressional district against Democratic contender, lawyer Charles Taylor.that covers Mecklenburg, Gaston and Union The importance of her re-election victory is not lost on a few of us concerned about the threat of Islamism and the Grand Jihad in America. Myrick has been a stalwart in the bi-partisan Anti-Terror Caucus. She is the author of the Wake Up America Agenda with a program directed at apprising Americans of Saudi and Islamist influence in America, the latter reflected in secret plans of Muslim Brotherhood fronts like CAIR, the ISNA and AMC to overturn our Constitution and replace it with strict Islamic Sharia law.

Kirk and Myrick represent the best among re-elected GOP Members of Congress. Whether it is the moderate views of Kirk on domestic issues and support for America’s ally Israel or the conservative views of Myrick on Islamism in our midst in America, their positions resonated with their constituents as it should for many Americans who share their views.