Dear Congressman Akin,

Earlier today, the US House of Representatives passed, and President Bush signed, one of the most potentially ruinous pieces of legislation in our nation's history: A "bailout" of Wall Street's financial sector.

Thank you for standing with Missouri's voters and taxpayers by voting "no" on this pernicious and unconstitutional bill. Although the "bailout" passed, it is to your credit that you stood on principle and bucked your party's misguided leadership to oppose it.

I see that my own representative, Congressman Lacy Clay, likewise voted "no," and I am grateful to him as well.

I'm saddened to see that a majority of Missouri's House delegation, and both of our US Senators, voted for a bill which will likely be remembered as the most economically damaging congressional action since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act -- a law which arguably pushed our nation from a steep recession into the Great Depression.

As a would-be successor to your seat in the House, I ask that you continue to reach across the aisle and work with other members of Congress to block implementation of this bill, and pledge if elected to continue any such work that you begin. Nothing should be off the table. Litigation by members of the House versus the constitutionality of the "bailout" is in order, and a repeal bill should be written, sponsored and moved into the legislative pipeline as quickly as possible.

Thank you again for your principled action on this issue.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Libertarian for US House

Earlier this week, in my capacity as a private citizen and voter, I strongly urged my US Representative and Missouri's two US Senators to vote against the Bush administration's "bailout" proposal for Wall Street's financial sector.

As a candidate for Congress, let me make my position clear:

I don't do "bailouts." I don't do corporate welfare. I don't expect the taxpayer to make good on investors' bad decisions.

The conventional wisdom says that politicians should never admit failure. We should drag our feet, try to put the best spin on things, and then issue a grudging "mistakes were made" and blame our opponents if the matter becomes controversial and can't be ignored.

Well, screw the conventional wisdom.

I articulated specific, quantifiable goals for the primary election phase of this campaign. Supporters wrote checks to help me achieve those goals. And I failed to do so. It's that simple.

So, as you read the details, please take this to heart: I'm not going to spin. I'm not going to offer excuses. At the end of the day, those goals weren't met, and at the end of the day only one person -- me, the candidate -- can be responsible for the fact that they weren't met. All the rest is trying to figure out why, and what direction to take moving forward.

"Certainly, [US Representative Todd Akin, R-MO] seems as safe as any Republican can be in an otherwise bleak atmosphere for the GOP," writes Deirdre Shesgreen in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The 2nd Congressional District includes the high-income, reliably Republican suburbs .... Akin won the seat in 2000, squeaking through a five-way GOP primary by 56 votes and then winning easily in the general election. He has coasted to re-election ever since."

Appearances can be deceiving. Todd Akin's seat isn't nearly as "safe" as it looks.

Over the last three elections, Akin's poll performance has declined from 67.1% to 61.3% ... versus Democratic opponents who each spent less than the $5,000 FEC reporting threshold, and with third party numbers topping out at 2.1%.

Todd Akin has been losing ground versus moneyless Democrats and "paper" third party candidates for six years. So, what does 2008 look like?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has declared that impeachment of President Bush and/or Vice President Cheney is "off the table."

Some other discouraged Americans have declared that it is "too late" for impeachment, given that only about seven months remain before Bush and Cheney leave office in the normal course of things.

I don't believe that impeachment, if justified, can ever be off the table, or that it's too late to pursue it in this particular case.

Neither does US Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment versus Vice President Cheney last November; they remain bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee. Yesterday, he introduced similar articles versus President Bush [PDF].

Both sets of articles are damning, and most allegations in each set are supported by overwhelming evidence. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and numerous members of their administration are clearly culpable in the commission of numerous "high crimes and misdemeanors," all of which warrant impeachment and removal and many of which warrant resort to the US and/or international criminal justice systems as well.