The only purpose of me posting this post is to say fuck that fucker:
When Harold Ford, Jr. walked onto the Quick Center stage for his OPEN Visions forum he knew whose district he was standing in.
“There is not a better Congressman in Washington than Chris Shays,” said Ford, to a crowd of about 600 Fairfield University students and community members.
And James Carville was ready to foment a coup in order to install this asshat at the DNC. Ford is undermining one of the best Democratic House candidates this cycle, Jim Himes, as well as the party he claims to be a member of. He should be put on indefinite pariah status.
Chris Shays (CT-04) has been in office for two long (too long) decades.
Over that time, he’s had the opportunity to question countless witnesses in Congressional hearings – questionable, criminal, devious, and laughable characters ranging from Brownie to Rummy to Wolfie.
The other day, he gave an interview to a major national website. And guess who he told them had exhibited the “worst behavior” he’s seen in Congress over all those years?
“Let me just say that they were deceitful… They weren’t cooperative. And they were arrogant. And they were like, ‘How dare you question us,’ kind of attitude. And I want you to know I don’t take offense at that. There are certain things as a member of Congress I don’t like. But personally, I was just stunned by it because I haven’t see worse behavior in anyone in my 20 years in public life in Congress.“
No, not war profiteers. Or those responsible for getting us into the war. Or Bush Administration officials who refuse to answer any questions, and refuse to abide by Congressional subpoenas. (Or, say, a Congressman scuffling with a Capitol Hill police officer.)
Christopher Shays describes himself as a casual baseball fan. He’s the kind of guy who tracks the Red Sox and Yankees hardball rivalry from a distance but would never be caught dissecting box scores in the morning’s Washington Post. Actually, after coming face-to-face with some of the leading characters — namely a handful of players, commissioner Bud Selig and union leader Don Fehr — during Congressional steroid hearings in 2005, the Connecticut lawmaker has a somewhat more jaded perspective on the game.
Rep. Shays smiles thinking back on the likes of Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro parading before the House Committee on Government Reform — the sense of entitlement they carried on their broad shoulders, the way they dismissed allegations of widespread steroid use in the game, even though committee members suspected otherwise….
“But personally, I was just stunned by it because I haven’t see worse behavior in anyone in my 20 years in public life in Congress.”
It’s astounding that any rational public official would consider Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro to be more worthy of contempt or criticism than, say, Eric Prince of Blackwater:
But there is actually a long list of Bush Administration officials and despicable characters who have come before Shays who have demonstrably exhibited much worse “behavior”… only to have Shays defend and praise them:
He told Condi Rice that he was “happy” that she “resisted the temptation” to actually answer questions from other committee members. (Dana Milbank described the end of the hearing: “[Shays] hurried to intercept Rice and gave her a hug. The secretary clasped his hand tenderly as she departed.”)
He told Donald Rumsfeld that he was “particularly grateful” that he “called [the Democrats’] bluff” by merely showing up to the hearing, and refused to press him to answer any tough questions.
He told GSA Administrator Lurita Doan, accused of politicizing her office, that he thought she was a “remarkable person” and stated he thought that “when an African American happens to be a Republican… she is treated differently” by his colleagues.
All of the above seemed to have done a perfect job as far as he was concerned. The right-wing/libertarian-leaning blog The Agitator describes Shays’ own behavior thusly:
Pardon my French, but are you fucking kidding me? Shays has served with colleagues who’ve stolen from the public treasury, taken bribes, committed rape and sexual assault, and otherwise made complete asses of themselves. And the worst behavior he’s seen in 20 years was when a bunch of baseball people were (correctly) indignant about Congress shoving its nose in internal baseball matters over which had no legitimate authority or jurisdiction?
Shorter Shays:
“Forget about billions of dollars wasted, the constitution shredded, and an executive out of control. It’s baseball players that we need to really worry about.”
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So… Want to encourage real oversight, of real issues?
‘Tis the season to support Jim Himes, share a drink with you fellow Democrats, and show off your mad trivia skillz.
What: That’s right. It’s time for another end of quarter blograiser. You don’t have to be a trivia whiz – just have a good sense of humor, an interest in history, politics, or current events, and a strong desire to work for better leadership in Washington by electing Jim Himes to Congress.
Our September event was attended by over 60 people and raised over $4500 for the the Himes campaign. Relive the magic at the official liveblog thread, including a play by play of the game and plenty of pictures.
There are only four days left until the Jim Himes Blograiser & Pub Quiz. People are organizing themselves into teams, RSVP's are coming in, and we're getting a lot of love both from the netroots and local Democrats. The support from the netroots community has been overwhelming.
Currently 300 people have given to Jim through Act Blue. I'd like to see that number jump to 350 by Saturday. But to accomplish that we need your help.
Jim Himes can defeat Chris Shays. I've heard him speak, watched him meet with voters and address their concerns. I've seen his dedication to running a people powered campaign firsthand.
The last time I was in a room with Chris Shays he bragged about major beneficiary of Rove's maneuvering in the 2006 election. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has launched an investigation into whether the White House used Federal funds to aid Republicans in the last election cycle. When asked about this by a reporter Shays said: “I milked that for all it was worth.” Only last week Chris Shays threatened not to run again if his Caucus didn't give him the Chairmanship of that same committee. And if voters in the 4th district reelected him and he was denied the Chairmanship? “I will resign.”
Jim Himes can win this election and bring sanity back to Connecticut's 4th district. While Chris Shays is worried about Chris Shays, Jim Himes' priorities are education, affordable housing, and a more responsible approach to national security. We need real leadership in Congress, and Jim Himes is the man for the job.
Taking on a well funded incumbent is a tall order, and it won't happen without your support. If you're in the area sign up for our Blograiser & Pub Quiz. Meet Jim, and compete for the right to call yourself Jim's geekiest supporter. If you can't attend physically, MyLeftNutmeg will have a live video stream of the event and a live blogging thread. You can play along with us virtually. Either way it's going to be a blast!
50 donors in 4 days is also a tall order, but I have no doubt that we can reach that goal. Chris Shays is the last Republican Congressman standing in New England. With your help we can make turn that last red dot on the map blue.
One of the hottest House races of the cycle next year promises to be in Connecticut’s 4th District, where Democrat Jim Himes is waging a progressive campaign to smoke out Republican Chris Shays from his Congressional hole.
If you like what you’ve seen from Himes, or if you’d like to learn more about him, please mark the date of Saturday, September 29 on your calendar. The Swing State Project will be co-hosting a blograiser and pub quiz for Himes in Stamford, CT (all the details can be found in Melissa Ryan’s diary here). Other local blogging luminaries from My Left Nutmeg, CT Local Politics, Spazeboy, and Connecticut Bob will also be co-hosting the event.
The suggested donation is a modest $25, and I have no doubt that it will be well worth the price of admission. The Swing State Project, led by people-powered prophet DavidNYC, will be fielding a full team for the pub quiz, and we intend to take no prisoners. If you’re brave enough to challenge us, and want to gauge your cranial repository for its supply of dusty political trivia, I encourage you to join one of the other blogs’ teams (or form an impromptu one at the event). They’ll need all the help they can get.
So read all the details, drop a donation to Jim Himes, and RSVP here. Pizza, beer, and progressive Democratic politics. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night.
In case you doubted that New England’s sole remaining Republican in the House, Chris Shays of Connecticut, was not a moderate, his recent assault against the 1st Amendment during a speech on the Iraq War to a college audience should erase any of those doubts:
“Abu Ghraib was about a military unit run amuck. With proper oversight the abuses would have been easy to correct, and been corrected, without a lot of fanfare or publicity,” Shays said.
“The press would not have had a story. Our nation’s reputation wouldn’t have been in question, and a primary recruitment cry of Al Qaeda would never have existed.
“As it was, Abu Ghraib happened. The press ran the story with little obligation or inclination to contain it. Al Jazeera and Al Qaeda used it to inflame the Muslim world and hundreds of American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen and women died as a result,” he said.
So for Chris Shays, because the media shed light on the abuses at Abu Ghraib, they have been complicit in the deaths of hundreds of American servicemen and women. It’s as blunt as that. Shays had a few more unkind words for the media:
“When it comes to Iraq, the former Republican Congress was blatantly partisan. The new Democratic Congress has returned the favor. And the press, rather than encouraging Republicans and Democrats, the White House and Congress to come together, has picked sides and marshaled the facts to fit their arguments,” Shays said. “It is hard, I might add, to know with a press that is accountable to no one, where you can go to get the unadulterated facts.” […]
“In our Constitution there are checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches but the so-called Fourth Estate, the press, is on its own,” Shays said.
Perhaps Shays would feel more comfortable if we removed the media “filter” and got all our breaking news from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino directly.
The beginning of the month brought the Senate rankings. Two weeks have passed, so it is time to look at the picture in the House. As bad as this week was for the GOP on the Senate (and make no mistake about it, between Hagel’s retirement and Warner and Shaheen jumping in the race, this was as bad as it can get), House Republicans did their best to beat that. After a month of recruitment failures and retirement announcements, Republicans are not at their best in House races, and while some of them were hoping that they could reconquer the House in November 2008, that looks increasingly unlikely.
It is naturally very early to tell where most of these races are headed. House contests develop much later than Senate ones. On the Senate side, most Senators are nearing announcements about whether they will run again, and most challengers have already taken steps towards launching their campaign. But on the House side, the recruitment drive is only starting and many more retirements are still expected.
It is however a good exercise to rank these races, see which ones are already in play, which ones are gearing up to be the most competitive of the next cycle, and where the challenging party really hasn’t gotten its act together. The overall picture favors Democrats: They are defending no competitive open seats, have put together some good challengers, and are benefiting from the national environment. Many Republicans who barely survived in 2006 are now being targeted, and races that were under-funded then will be treated as top-notch opportunities next year.
But Republicans also have a lot of opportunities: Of the 31 freshmen democrats who picked-up GOP seats last fall, many hold very red districts that are likely to vote even more Republican in a presidential year. Many are already being put to the test, and Republicans are claiming some recruitment victories (CA-11 or CT-5). But the GOP will have to work hard to put all the seats it wants in play.
AZ-1 (Open): Ethically challenged Renzi’s retirement gave Republicans a better shot at keeping the seat. But this is exactly the kind of scandal-tainted seat Democrats were so good at winning in 2006, so there is no reason to think they are not favored today.
CA-4 (Incumbent: Doolittle): This district is very heavily Republican and will favor the GOP in a heartbeat again if only FBI-investigated Doolittle gets out of the race. But he is claiming he will run — and as long as he does Democrat Brown (who almost beat him in 2006) has a great shot.
OH-15 (Open): Pryce did not want to go through another nasty and close race and called it quits, and major Republicans (like former AG Petro) passed on the race since then. Meanwhile, 2006 Democratic nominee Kilroy has been campaigning for months and is likely to take away the district.
VA-11 (Likely open): Tom Davis is running for Senate, and his district is in blue-trending Northern Virginia. This is exactly the kind of place in which Virginia Democrats have been making huge progress in recent years. Nothing is set in stone until Davis runs, but a huge headache for the GOP.
Democratic seats, Lean take-over (1)
FL-16 (Rep. Mahoney): Foley’s former seat, that Mahoney only won because of the page scandal. That Republicans only lost by one point under these as-bad-as-it-gets local circumstances shows that Mahoney is not that strong here. Republicans are happy with their candidates, and plan to use Mahoney’s recent statements (such as one declaring that Congress “wasn’t the greatest job”) against him.
Republican seats, Toss-up (11)
CO-4 (Rep. Musgrave): Musgrave, best known for her obsession in the anti-gay marriage amendment, has been constantly under-performing in this district, and she won by a few points in 2006. Democrats did not pay that much attention to the race then, but they will this time. There is a primary between Angie Paccione (the 2006 nominee) and Betsy Markey (a former Salazar aide).
CT-4 (Rep. Shays): Shays survived two extremely close races in 2004 and 2006. This time, the candidate has changed and Jim Himes has been highly touted as the Democrat who will finally take out the last New England Republican. Shays is also threatening to resign or retire if leaders don’t give him what he wants.
IL-10 (Rep. Kirk): Netroots favorite Dan Seals got 47% in 2006, and is back for a rematch. IL-10 was on few people’s watchlist in 2006 but this is the kind of district the DCCC will go after this time around.
NC-8 (Rep. Hayes): Hayes won by a few hundred votes in 2006 against a Democrat to whom no one in DC was paying attention, and who received no funding from the DCCC. This time, Kissel has everyone’s attention and will get help from the national party. But Hayes, who was caught off-foot in 2006, will be prepared too.
NM-1 (Rep. Wilson): One of the closest races in 2006. Wilson thought her streak of victories against highly-touted Democrat would allow her to get a pass in 2008, but that was before the attorney scandal put her at the heart of an ethics controversy.
Senate Republicans have not been doing well for a while now. But the GOP’s disarray is now extending to the House! The series of Republicans congressmen (Pryce, Hastert, LaHood, Peckering, …) declaring their intention to retire in August started the wave of bad news, but this past week shows the GOP’s House problems go much deeper than these open seats.
First, there is the speculation about more Republicans retiring. Most of it comes from VA-11, where Rep. Davis is mulling a run for Senate, and CA-4, where Rep. Doolittle is being investigated for his links to lobbyist Abramoff. In Virginia, Republicans will have a very hard time holding the seat in Democratic-trending Northern Virginia if Davis goes for the Senate seat — but it looks very likely Davis will seek to upgrade. And in California, Republicans are praying for Doolittle to resign, but he declared a few days ago that he will be in it to the end — sending chills down Republicans’ spine (Doolittle would handily lose this very red district if he remained the GOP nominee).
And could there now be a new open seat, one that would be even more terrifying for Republicans? Could the last Republican-held seat of New England finally open up, and then surely send a Democrat to Capitol Hill? It looks like that might be the case. Rep. Chris Shays, who edged out Diane Farrell in 2004 and in 2006 by extremely close margins, is now saying he will bow out if Republican leaders do not support his attempt to become top Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Furthermore, he said, if he is promised the spot and then denied after the election, he will immediately resign. Shays added,
“I’m 61 years old. I’ve been in Congress 20 years. If I have to fight to become chairman of a committee, given the job I’ve done, I need to move on.”
There is no doubt that an open seat would make the seat as sure a Democratic pick-up as an open seat can ever be. But even if he runs he will be one of the top Democratic targets. But Shays is facing a very tough re-election race once again in 2008 against already very well-funded and highly-touted Democrat Jim Himes. Shays was always known as a maverick moderate Republican, but he has become an increasingly loyal GOP house member in recent years by supporting the war effort (remember his seemingly weekly trips to Iraq in 2006?). The Hartford Courant writes:
Four years ago, things were different: Shays was winning elections easily, and he knew he was being punished by House Republican leaders because he led the fight for campaign finance reform. Times now are different. Shays has been a fairly loyal Republican, particularly on the Iraq war, and has been a loyal member of the committee, where he chaired its national security subcommittee before Democrats won control of the House last year.
Then come Republican recruitement failures. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes of the dire state of Georgia Republicans, who are failing to come up with serious challengers to two of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents: Jim Marshall (8th) and John Barrow (12th). Both Democrats barely survived in 2006 (by one-two points each), but Republicans are not setting themselves up for a similar opportunity in 2008, especially against John Barrow. And today, Republican Mike Carey withdrew his candidacy in Ohio’s 18th district, one of the most Republicans in Ohio that is today represented by Democrat Zach Space. OH-18 is supposed to be one of the GOP’s 2-3 top pick-up opportunities, but that still requires them to field a strong candidate.
Add to all of this the mounting controversy over Republican House leader Boehner’s assessment that soldiers’ lives and the country’s money is a “small price” to pay for what we are achieving in Iraq. McCain even joined in the fray today, condemning Boehner’s remarks. And the Democrats are pouncing: Kerry – who wrote a piece about this for the Huffington Post, probably enjoying his revenge after the bogus scandal around his botched joke in the fall of 2006 – and Dean denounced Boehner in strong terms.
The picture is certainly not as perfect for Democrats in the House as it is in the Senate, but things are going their way. Check my blog this week-end for ratings of this cycle’s House races.
And now [Rep. Shays is] threatening to not run again – he’s already a top Democratic target – if the House GOP leadership doesn’t make him the head Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. If they do promise him the top spot but then renege in 2009, he says he’ll resign.
“I’m 61 years old. I’ve been in Congress 20 years,” Shays told the Hartford Courant. “If I have to fight to become chairman of a committee, given the job I’ve done, I need to move on.”
While I’m not at all surprised that the far-right-wing conservative GOP Leadership in both the House and Senate are not so quick to reward their less far-right-wing membership, I am shocked that more so-called “moderates” aren’t more vocal in demanding leadership roles, especially members in blue states whose seats would likely be an easy pick-up for Democrats if not for the current incumbents, like Shays. Eh. Oh well.
In a sign that moderate Republicans are failing to rethink their positions on a serious scale, centrist Republican Rep. Christopher Shays (CT), speaking on the C-SPAN call-in show Washington Journal on Wednesday, argued ironically that as bad as it is going, the war in Iraq must go on because leaving would hand the country over to foreign intervention. One result, Shays opined, is that “Iraq … has about 20% of the world’s oil. It’s a huge amount to allow an unfriendly country to control.”
Of all the contradictory justifications for the war that Chris Shays has pulled out of his inner anatomy – first for going in, and then for staying in – this one is either the most honest or the most reprehensible. Or, most likely, both. More at Crooks and Liars.
There are only four days left until the 
One of the hottest House races of the cycle next year promises to be in Connecticut’s 4th District, where Democrat