Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 17, 2006 23:27:36 GMT -5
Shays Works Both Sides of Politics
It's hard not to notice U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays these days. At any
time, he might be on national TV news and talk shows, expounding on
anything from his support for the war in Iraq to his disgust with the Bush
administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Can this be the Republican the voters of the 4th Congressional District
elected to represent them 19 years ago?
The same person who as a young man was a conscientious objector to serving
in the Vietnam War and 40 years later has evolved into a strong supporter
for the U.S. war in Iraq? The same man known for trying to clean up
decaying inner-city housing? Who fought for gun control? Who lobbied for a
national service program? To some, Shays, who turns 61 next month, is a
powerful asset to the district in Washington, someone who has paid his
dues while gaining national political stature - and influence. To others,
he has betrayed his independent roots, becoming the ultimate Beltway
insider, out of touch with the everyday concerns of constituents. But no
matter how his supporters or critics label him, there is no question the
Bridgeport resident has expanded his range of concerns since he joined
Congress in 1987.
A conscientious objector to military service during the Vietnam War, Shays
said he agonized over, but ultimately voted to approve, the U.S.-led
Desert Storm assault against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991.
A candidate who ran for Congress determined to "put our financial house in
order" amid rising federal budget deficits, Shays has endorsed higher
military spending.
And perhaps most conspicuously, Shays has become an authority on terrorism
who also is a staunch defender of the current U.S. war in Iraq, though he
recently called for setting a pullout timetable for American forces.
Now, as he seeks an 11th term this year, Shays is under more scrutiny than
ever, but not just because of his higher profile.
The spotlight is on the 4th District because Democrats have what experts
consider a solid chance to capture the seat, which has been in GOP hands
since 1969, as part of their effort to regain control of the House of
Representatives they lost in 1994. The Democrats need to take back 15
seats nationally to claim a majority in the 435-member body.
Largely because of waning public support for the war, Democrats - with
former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell as their standard-bearer -
think they can win the seat Nov. 7.
Shays has supported the Bush administration drive to topple Saddam Hussein
even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
After his first trip to Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led forces quickly
overthrew Saddam's regime, Shays predicted that decades henceforth "the
operation will be studied with a great amount of awe."
Even so, he acknowledged the effort would be marred if stability could not
be established in Iraq.
As his first campaign against Farrell heated up a year and a half later in
2004, Shays returned from his sixth trip to Iraq and said conditions there
were "headed in the right direction."
Then, last month, after his 14th trip to Iraq, Shays asked the Bush
administration to set a timetable for Iraqis to assume "the bulk of the
heavy lifting" from the 135,000 U.S. troops deployed.
It prompted charges that Shays is trying to shift gears away from his
support for the war because of its unpopularity in the state - a factor
widely cited in last month's Democratic primary defeat of U.S. Sen. Joe
Lieberman at the hands of anti-war newcomer Ned Lamont.
Shays, however, described his call for a pullout as a means to motivate
Iraqis to create a united and peaceful democratic state.
"If I saw action - a real strong political will to take on the militias, I
wouldn't have set deadlines," he said, a few days after his revised stance
hit the news. "But they are not moving, they are treading water and we
can't do that while our men and women are dying in Iraq."
Still, Farrell said Shays' motivation was "purely political" designed to
attract voters.
"He's thrown out the word 'timetable' because he feels it will afford him
some appeasement from voters who are so frustrated by his position," she
said.
Farrell also said she thinks the Republican victory that put Shays in the
majority brought out a more conservative side of him that has grown
stronger.
"I think [former Republican House Speaker] Newt Gingrich awakened the more
conservative side of Chris," said Farrell, who came within 4 percentage
points of unseating Shays in their first matchup.
And she suggested that spending so much time in Washington has put him out
of touch with his district.
Farrell's campaign likes to note that Congressional Quarterly shows Shays
voting with the current president 82 % in 2002. Though Shays' agreement
with Bush fell to 56.2 % last year, it's still higher than the 32 % rate
at which he supported President Reagan's initiatives in 1987. During the
Clinton years, his rate of agreement with the president ranged from 44 to
57 %.
Meanwhile, the Shays campaign staff likes to point to ratings from
political handicappers like the National Journal that place Shays closer
to the middle of the political spectrum - much where he has been
throughout a political career that began as a state representative from
Stamford in 1974.
Over that period, Shays has continued to advocate a woman's right to
choose, although he refuses to defend late-term abortions, and favors gun
control. He remains an ardent environmentalist, in contrast to others in
his party.
And throughout his career, he's retained a reputation for integrity and
been provoked to criticize the ethics of other officials, ranging from
now-jailed former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim to indicted former
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
But even Shays acknowledged that his perspectives are different from those
he had at age 20 or so.
"I have seen a lot in those 40 years that have shaped my life," he said in
an interview last week.
As an idealistic and somewhat pacifistic young man, the newlywed Shays and
his high school sweetheart and wife Betsi were volunteers with the Peace
Corps in Fiji.
But Shays - who grew up as a Christian Scientist but said last week that
he no longer adheres strictly to its practices - said his political
journey has prompted him to reconsider many of the positions he held in
his youth.
Recalling his days as a young state legislator, Shays remembered the
anguish suffered by the family of Sandy Hoyt, a Stamford teenager brutally
murdered, but whose killer received a "ridiculously short" sentence in his
eyes. The Hoyts, he said, could not believe they could not address the
court to plead for a longer sentence.
He said it was a sobering experience that not only pushed him to fight for
victims' rights but also softened his opposition to the death penalty to
the point where he would no longer vote against a bill simply because the
measure permitted execution.
He said becoming a parent - his daughter, Jeramy, a 27-year-old student in
environmental law in a combined program at Vermont Law School and Yale
University - was also a key development in his emotional maturity.
"I constantly learn new things that shape how I think and act," he
reflected. Sometimes, he said, information builds up over time, and at
other times "you get slapped by events."
Shays' confronted his aversion to war after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990.
During the runup to the debate on whether to authorize United States'
intervention, he was confronted by calls from the parents of his state
House successor, Christopher Burnham, a Marine reservist who would be
called up, not to support the authorization. But Shays said Burnham
himself lobbied the congressman to vote for it, as he eventually did.
After his initial stint on the House Budget Committee ended in the late
1990s, Shays sought a new role. With the 1983 attacks on U.S. Marines in
Beirut and the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 as
backdrops, Shays said he sought a legislative role that would allow him to
examine terrorism, feeling that it was underexplored. Shays said that in
his role as head of the National Security Subcommittee of the Government
Reform Committee, he was growing increasingly alarmed about the threat of
terrorism before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But those events, Shays said, became a defining moment for him.
"It's what I call growing up," he said of the ways he has changed over the
last 5 years.
But Farrell hopes to win over voters on the issue of Iraq, as polls have
shown shrinking public support.
"Iraq is, in fact, never going to result in greater safety for our
citizens at home," she said.
Despite Shays' stance on Iraq, Sacred Heart University politics Professor
Gary L. Rose said the congressman remains a classic so-called "Rockefeller
Republican," somewhat conservative on fiscal issues - he supported the
Bush tax cuts - and more liberal on social issues.
"He's a very specific type of congressman, which is in the tradition of a
Connecticut Republican," Rose said. While Republicans of a similar stripe
may be rare throughout the rest of the nation, he said they remain a force
in the Northeast, epitomized by figures such as former New Jersey Gov.
Christine Todd Whitman to Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in Maine.
Shays' moderate positions on social issues and "Americans first,
Republicans second" attitude keep constituents like Bill Meyer of
Westport, a 77-year-old retired marketing executive who met Shays as a
1987 candidate and is now a close friend, resolutely in the incumbent's
corner.
"He has a way of listening to people and taking their concerns seriously,"
said Meyer, who also spearheaded a Republican effort for Farrell's
re-election as the town's 1st selectwoman in 2001.
Meyer said he'd be just as protective of Farrell if Shays - who has never
lived in Westport - had sought to challenge her for her post.
Those who work with Shays say his recent high national profile doesn't
mean he's neglected issues important to his district and state.
Charles Tisdale, the executive director for Action for Bridgeport
Community Development, said Shays has a long history of concern for the
poor.
"He was always concerned about people who didn't have means to support
themselves," said Tisdale, who said he's been a friend of Shays' for 20
years.
Over the years, he said, the congressman has fought to save funds for
anti-poverty agencies, such as ABCD, and in recent weeks helped deliver an
additional $455,000 for job-training programs.
Shays has also worked closely with business-development interests in the
4th District.
Joseph McGee, a vice president of the Business Council of Fairfield
County, said Shays actively promotes efforts to assure the economic
vitality of his district's coastal cities on issues ranging from workforce
development to technology to transportation. "We see him as very engaged
in the key issues in the district," said McGee.
Chief of staff to Shays' Republican predecessor, the late Stewart B.
McKinney, McGee said that some of Shays' current stances reflect the
nation's altered interests.
"All congressmen were focused on domestic issues until there was an Iraq,"
he said.
Tisdale said Shays' career is typical for someone who's accumulated
congressional seniority.
"The more seniority you have, the more responsibility you have," he said.
But he said the current hot campaign between Shays and Farrell is
representative of the democracy that makes this nation special.
"It's great that people look at the candidates," he said. "That's what
makes us strong."
(source: Connecticut Post)
It's hard not to notice U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays these days. At any
time, he might be on national TV news and talk shows, expounding on
anything from his support for the war in Iraq to his disgust with the Bush
administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Can this be the Republican the voters of the 4th Congressional District
elected to represent them 19 years ago?
The same person who as a young man was a conscientious objector to serving
in the Vietnam War and 40 years later has evolved into a strong supporter
for the U.S. war in Iraq? The same man known for trying to clean up
decaying inner-city housing? Who fought for gun control? Who lobbied for a
national service program? To some, Shays, who turns 61 next month, is a
powerful asset to the district in Washington, someone who has paid his
dues while gaining national political stature - and influence. To others,
he has betrayed his independent roots, becoming the ultimate Beltway
insider, out of touch with the everyday concerns of constituents. But no
matter how his supporters or critics label him, there is no question the
Bridgeport resident has expanded his range of concerns since he joined
Congress in 1987.
A conscientious objector to military service during the Vietnam War, Shays
said he agonized over, but ultimately voted to approve, the U.S.-led
Desert Storm assault against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991.
A candidate who ran for Congress determined to "put our financial house in
order" amid rising federal budget deficits, Shays has endorsed higher
military spending.
And perhaps most conspicuously, Shays has become an authority on terrorism
who also is a staunch defender of the current U.S. war in Iraq, though he
recently called for setting a pullout timetable for American forces.
Now, as he seeks an 11th term this year, Shays is under more scrutiny than
ever, but not just because of his higher profile.
The spotlight is on the 4th District because Democrats have what experts
consider a solid chance to capture the seat, which has been in GOP hands
since 1969, as part of their effort to regain control of the House of
Representatives they lost in 1994. The Democrats need to take back 15
seats nationally to claim a majority in the 435-member body.
Largely because of waning public support for the war, Democrats - with
former Westport First Selectwoman Diane Farrell as their standard-bearer -
think they can win the seat Nov. 7.
Shays has supported the Bush administration drive to topple Saddam Hussein
even before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
After his first trip to Iraq shortly after the U.S.-led forces quickly
overthrew Saddam's regime, Shays predicted that decades henceforth "the
operation will be studied with a great amount of awe."
Even so, he acknowledged the effort would be marred if stability could not
be established in Iraq.
As his first campaign against Farrell heated up a year and a half later in
2004, Shays returned from his sixth trip to Iraq and said conditions there
were "headed in the right direction."
Then, last month, after his 14th trip to Iraq, Shays asked the Bush
administration to set a timetable for Iraqis to assume "the bulk of the
heavy lifting" from the 135,000 U.S. troops deployed.
It prompted charges that Shays is trying to shift gears away from his
support for the war because of its unpopularity in the state - a factor
widely cited in last month's Democratic primary defeat of U.S. Sen. Joe
Lieberman at the hands of anti-war newcomer Ned Lamont.
Shays, however, described his call for a pullout as a means to motivate
Iraqis to create a united and peaceful democratic state.
"If I saw action - a real strong political will to take on the militias, I
wouldn't have set deadlines," he said, a few days after his revised stance
hit the news. "But they are not moving, they are treading water and we
can't do that while our men and women are dying in Iraq."
Still, Farrell said Shays' motivation was "purely political" designed to
attract voters.
"He's thrown out the word 'timetable' because he feels it will afford him
some appeasement from voters who are so frustrated by his position," she
said.
Farrell also said she thinks the Republican victory that put Shays in the
majority brought out a more conservative side of him that has grown
stronger.
"I think [former Republican House Speaker] Newt Gingrich awakened the more
conservative side of Chris," said Farrell, who came within 4 percentage
points of unseating Shays in their first matchup.
And she suggested that spending so much time in Washington has put him out
of touch with his district.
Farrell's campaign likes to note that Congressional Quarterly shows Shays
voting with the current president 82 % in 2002. Though Shays' agreement
with Bush fell to 56.2 % last year, it's still higher than the 32 % rate
at which he supported President Reagan's initiatives in 1987. During the
Clinton years, his rate of agreement with the president ranged from 44 to
57 %.
Meanwhile, the Shays campaign staff likes to point to ratings from
political handicappers like the National Journal that place Shays closer
to the middle of the political spectrum - much where he has been
throughout a political career that began as a state representative from
Stamford in 1974.
Over that period, Shays has continued to advocate a woman's right to
choose, although he refuses to defend late-term abortions, and favors gun
control. He remains an ardent environmentalist, in contrast to others in
his party.
And throughout his career, he's retained a reputation for integrity and
been provoked to criticize the ethics of other officials, ranging from
now-jailed former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim to indicted former
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
But even Shays acknowledged that his perspectives are different from those
he had at age 20 or so.
"I have seen a lot in those 40 years that have shaped my life," he said in
an interview last week.
As an idealistic and somewhat pacifistic young man, the newlywed Shays and
his high school sweetheart and wife Betsi were volunteers with the Peace
Corps in Fiji.
But Shays - who grew up as a Christian Scientist but said last week that
he no longer adheres strictly to its practices - said his political
journey has prompted him to reconsider many of the positions he held in
his youth.
Recalling his days as a young state legislator, Shays remembered the
anguish suffered by the family of Sandy Hoyt, a Stamford teenager brutally
murdered, but whose killer received a "ridiculously short" sentence in his
eyes. The Hoyts, he said, could not believe they could not address the
court to plead for a longer sentence.
He said it was a sobering experience that not only pushed him to fight for
victims' rights but also softened his opposition to the death penalty to
the point where he would no longer vote against a bill simply because the
measure permitted execution.
He said becoming a parent - his daughter, Jeramy, a 27-year-old student in
environmental law in a combined program at Vermont Law School and Yale
University - was also a key development in his emotional maturity.
"I constantly learn new things that shape how I think and act," he
reflected. Sometimes, he said, information builds up over time, and at
other times "you get slapped by events."
Shays' confronted his aversion to war after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990.
During the runup to the debate on whether to authorize United States'
intervention, he was confronted by calls from the parents of his state
House successor, Christopher Burnham, a Marine reservist who would be
called up, not to support the authorization. But Shays said Burnham
himself lobbied the congressman to vote for it, as he eventually did.
After his initial stint on the House Budget Committee ended in the late
1990s, Shays sought a new role. With the 1983 attacks on U.S. Marines in
Beirut and the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 as
backdrops, Shays said he sought a legislative role that would allow him to
examine terrorism, feeling that it was underexplored. Shays said that in
his role as head of the National Security Subcommittee of the Government
Reform Committee, he was growing increasingly alarmed about the threat of
terrorism before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But those events, Shays said, became a defining moment for him.
"It's what I call growing up," he said of the ways he has changed over the
last 5 years.
But Farrell hopes to win over voters on the issue of Iraq, as polls have
shown shrinking public support.
"Iraq is, in fact, never going to result in greater safety for our
citizens at home," she said.
Despite Shays' stance on Iraq, Sacred Heart University politics Professor
Gary L. Rose said the congressman remains a classic so-called "Rockefeller
Republican," somewhat conservative on fiscal issues - he supported the
Bush tax cuts - and more liberal on social issues.
"He's a very specific type of congressman, which is in the tradition of a
Connecticut Republican," Rose said. While Republicans of a similar stripe
may be rare throughout the rest of the nation, he said they remain a force
in the Northeast, epitomized by figures such as former New Jersey Gov.
Christine Todd Whitman to Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in Maine.
Shays' moderate positions on social issues and "Americans first,
Republicans second" attitude keep constituents like Bill Meyer of
Westport, a 77-year-old retired marketing executive who met Shays as a
1987 candidate and is now a close friend, resolutely in the incumbent's
corner.
"He has a way of listening to people and taking their concerns seriously,"
said Meyer, who also spearheaded a Republican effort for Farrell's
re-election as the town's 1st selectwoman in 2001.
Meyer said he'd be just as protective of Farrell if Shays - who has never
lived in Westport - had sought to challenge her for her post.
Those who work with Shays say his recent high national profile doesn't
mean he's neglected issues important to his district and state.
Charles Tisdale, the executive director for Action for Bridgeport
Community Development, said Shays has a long history of concern for the
poor.
"He was always concerned about people who didn't have means to support
themselves," said Tisdale, who said he's been a friend of Shays' for 20
years.
Over the years, he said, the congressman has fought to save funds for
anti-poverty agencies, such as ABCD, and in recent weeks helped deliver an
additional $455,000 for job-training programs.
Shays has also worked closely with business-development interests in the
4th District.
Joseph McGee, a vice president of the Business Council of Fairfield
County, said Shays actively promotes efforts to assure the economic
vitality of his district's coastal cities on issues ranging from workforce
development to technology to transportation. "We see him as very engaged
in the key issues in the district," said McGee.
Chief of staff to Shays' Republican predecessor, the late Stewart B.
McKinney, McGee said that some of Shays' current stances reflect the
nation's altered interests.
"All congressmen were focused on domestic issues until there was an Iraq,"
he said.
Tisdale said Shays' career is typical for someone who's accumulated
congressional seniority.
"The more seniority you have, the more responsibility you have," he said.
But he said the current hot campaign between Shays and Farrell is
representative of the democracy that makes this nation special.
"It's great that people look at the candidates," he said. "That's what
makes us strong."
(source: Connecticut Post)