Kruse says Jim Talent 'is right beside us'

Gary Exelby photo U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, at podium, emphasizes a point as Missouri Farm Bureau president Charles Kruse looks on during yesterday's rally with farmers at Dexter Implement on Highway 114 East in Dexter.

If voters are to have a choice, they need to know differences between or among candidates.

That thought apparently was in the minds of both Jim Talent and Charles Kruse as the two pitched Talent's United States Senate candidacy to a crowd of well-wishers at Dexter Implement Co. on Highway 114 East just outside Dexter yesterday afternoon.

The two were on the last day of a two-day sweep across the state.

"Elections are about issues," said Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau and Dexter native. "And it's hard to find an issue where Jim Talent isn't right beside us [in the Farm Bureau]."

For example, Kruse said, the ideal situation for the Farm Bureau would be extension of the current farm bill, most provisions of which are to expire next September. "Jim Talent and Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas introduced legislations several months ago to do just that," he said. "And Jim, we appreciate that."

Kruse also said Talent, defending his seat against Democratic state auditor Claire McCaskill in the closest race in the country, was a "strong, strong, strong supporter" of relief from the estate tax, also called the "death tax" by opponents. "[It's] something that's very important for farmers, for small business people," he said, "people that just work all their lives and accumulate some assets.

"And at the point in time when one of the spouses passes away, it's patently unfair from the federal government to stick out their hand and say: 'We'll take half of what you worked all your life for."

Kruse contrasted Talent's position in favor of estate tax relief with that of McCaskill. "His opponent thinks that would be wrong to provide any relief on that."

According to the webpage www.ontheissues.org, McCaskill qualified her opposition by saying she supported extending the current exemption so as not to hurt "family farmers." For those who were not part of that undefined group, she called estate tax repeal "immoral."

Kruse also contrasted the positions of Talent and McCaskill on energy. He noted Talent urges recovery of more U.S.-owned oil and natural gas resources, whether from Alaska, from the continental U.S. or offshore. "It makes sense," he said. "It makes more sense when OPEC announces they may ct back oil production by a million barrels a day."

Claire McCaskill, on the other hand, opposes each of the above moves, Kruse said, "which is pretty devoid of common sense."

Kruse said those two renewable fuels could make the United States self-sufficient in energy. He noted Talent was "THE man to make that happen."

"There is one thing that says volumes about the difference between these two candidates," Kruse concluded: "The Farm Bureau endorsed Jim Talent.

"The Sierra Club endorsed Claire McCaskill."

In his remarks, Talent reiterated his pleasure in the energy bill, which mandates oil companies include ethanol and biodiesel in fuels they sell. "The question used to be "will there be a market for the corn we grow?" he said. "Now it's 'can we grow enough corn?'"

He added his opponent had opposed the energy bill, and McCaskill's website assails the energy bill, claiming "oil companies got the steak dinner, and the ethanol and renewable industries got the saltine crackers."

Talent also broadened his case for votes by saying there was only one candidate in the race who held "common-sense conservative values" of Missouri and the Heartland. "I believe people, not the courts, should determine the direction of the country," he said.

Talent contrasted his positions with those of McCaskill on several issues:

* the marriage amendment to the state constitution, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Talent said he supported it while McCaskill opposed it. The measure passed overwhelmingly.

* the partial-birth abortion ban. Talent said he supported it while McCaskill opposed it.

* federal tax cuts which he said have fueled the economy and realized an added $250 billion in revenue, causing he deficit to shrink correspondingly. Talent said McCaskill opposed the tax cuts.

"We need to secure our borders," Talent said, "we don't need amnesty." He added McCaskill had said she favored giving legal immigration priority to those illegal immigrants who leave the United States and reapply to come back in legally. "But what about priority to those who waited in line year after year and obeyed all the rules?" he asked.

Talent also criticized McCaskill on various aspects of the war on terror. "I think if there's an international phone call and Al-Qaeda's on one end of the line, we really ought to know what they're talking about," he said. "That's all the terrorist surveillance program is."

Talent said McCaskill had supported the recent Supreme Court decision that he said had effectively shut down overseas interrogations to the degree that CIA interrogators were actually buying liability insurance against the possibility terrorists might sue them. "And she thought that was a wise decision," Talent said.

The senator cited Sunday's Meet the Press debate with the auditor to assail McCaskill's position on the release of classified information by the New York Times. "She said it was okay because the terrorists already know about it anyway," Talent said.

"How does she know whether the terrorists know about it?"

Talent noted that senators have access to a great deal of classified information. "And you can't make independent judgements about whether it's okay to release it," he warned.

Talent said the terrorists were watching the United States to see whether it had the resolve and strength to win the war on terror. "I said on Meet the Press that pulling out is quitting," he said, "and setting a timetable without regard to what's happening on the ground sends a telegram to the terrorists that we're about to quit.

"And I can't think of anything that will make them stronger or more resolute."

On the show, McCaskill said she expected stability in Iraq could be achieved through some as-yet-unannounced alternative to the current strategy "in 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 years," permitted a U.S. pullout.

"As long as it takes and your position is you have two years to get your act together and we're getting out?" Meet the Press host Tim Russert asked McCaskill. "We need to give them notice," McCaskill replied, without denying the premise of Russert's question.

gexelby@dailystatesman.com