Congressmen Ike Skelton and Tim Murphy Hurt in Iraq Vehicle Flip
Congressmen Ike Skelton and Tim Murphy were injured when their vehicle overturned on their way to the Baghdad airport after visiting American troops for Thanksgiving. A third Member, Jim Marshall, was also in the vehicle but was unhurt.
Two Congressmen Hurt in Iraq Vehicle Flip (AP)
A military vehicle carrying three congressmen overturned on the way to the Baghdad airport, injuring two of them, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for an MRI on his neck, and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., was sent to a Baghdad hospital for evaluation, said Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who was also in the vehicle but was not hurt when it overturned Saturday.
“I was supposed to come tour the hospital to talk to the wounded. I didn’t think I’d be among them,” Murphy told Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV by phone from Germany. He said he expected to be home Monday night. Skelton’s spokeswoman Lara Battles said she believed Skelton was doing well but declined to comment further.
The politicians were riding in a convoy that was driving in the middle of the road, a common practice used by the military in Iraq to deter oncoming motorists. Shortly after dark, an oncoming tanker truck refused to yield, the embassy said. “Then all of a sudden brakes get slammed on. Then we hit something and go off the side of the road and tip over,” Marshall told The Macon (Ga.) Telegraph by phone from Baghdad. Marshall said that as the vehicle toppled over, he held onto Skelton, who has limited use of his arms due to childhood polio. The embassy said the driver’s quick reaction “probably averted disaster.”
The delegation had traveled to Afghanistan for Thanksgiving with the troops and then on to Baghdad to meet with troops there.
Hopefully, Murphy’s injuries are not serious.
Vehicle flip? I’d have thought it was an errant champagne cork.
Damn right. And hopefully that scumbag liberal opportunist Skelton will rot in an Iraqi hospital. That’s what he deserves for opposing Bush.
I gathered from the story that Skelton’s injuries were comparatively minor and that he was sent to the hospital as a precaution.
And we don’t wish for things like that to happen to political opponents. Let’s leave that to the DU types.