A Missouri Congressman fills a more powerful seat at the leadership table in Washington. It’s the number three job in the House and Southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt has it – House Majority Whip. He’s the enforcer – the one who keeps members of his party on track to get his party’s legislation passed. In recent history, at least, nobody has risen so fast in the House leadership as Blunt has. He’s two seats away from being Speaker. He succeeds Congressman Tom Delay who becomes Majority Leader in January. Delay was called “the hammer” because of his forceful work. Observers already are calling Blunt “the velvet hammer” because of his more easy-going style. Blunt admits he’s a little surprised by his rapid rise in the House leaderhsip and he knows there will be more demands on his time in his higher leadership role. But he says he’s confident his constituents want him to be at the high leaderhsip levels, exercising Missouri common sense on federal legislatlion.
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