[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18559-18560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING CONGRESSMAN IKE SKELTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, in 2003 I was teaching at the Bloch School 
of Business at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, serving as a 
talk radio show host on NPR and pastoring a congregation.

                              {time}  1800

  I received a phone call from Congressman Ike Skelton, who began the

[[Page 18560]]

request for me to give up my peaceful and loving life to run for 
Congress as my predecessor, Karen McCarthy, had decided not to seek 
reelection. I chose, in large part, to pursue this office at the 
request of Congressman Ike Skelton.
  Mr. Chairman, I have three sisters whom I love dearly. From the age 
of about 3 to about 7, I made requests repeatedly to my parents for a 
brother. I'm not even sure I knew how that brother could come into 
existence, but I made the request nonetheless. That never happened, but 
I can say here in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, that, if I had had a 
brother, I would have liked for his name to have been Ike. If I had had 
a brother, I would have liked for him to have had the patience, the 
intellect, and the spirit of Ike Skelton.
  There is very little secret around our home as to who is the favorite 
Congressman for my 7-year-old grandson, Isaac Cleaver. One of the great 
delights of his life--and probably the older he gets the more 
significant it will be--is already having been introduced to 
Congressman Ike Skelton at an event at Royals Stadium. In that 
introduction, he said that Ike Skelton was named after him. So, in our 
household, from my wife, Dianne, all the way to Little Ike, we all have 
great admiration and love for Ike Skelton and his family.
  It will be difficult to roam these Halls and not see Ike Skelton or 
to come into this hallowed room and not look at the seat where he 
usually sat and where the Missouri delegation would, from time to time, 
gather around him. I have said to him and to others in his presence 
that this man has the ability to walk with kings and Presidents and not 
to lose the common touch.
  As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton was one of 
the most influential human beings, not only in this country but in the 
world--the most revered Member of Congress by the military of the 
United States of America. Yet any Member of Congress, frankly, from 
either side of the aisle, could stop Ike Skelton and hold a 
conversation. He never lost the common touch.
  It will be difficult for me not to see him in this place. I speak of 
the man Ike Skelton from Lexington, Missouri; and I speak of a man 
whose career in this body will be recorded by historians as a majestic 
moment for the military of the United States of America.
  I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker, because I think Ike 
Skelton deserves far more eloquence than I can present. Hopefully, a 
combination of everything we say will match, in some small way, the 
elegance with which he served this Congress.

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