You may have thought it was the oversight committee that Shays was dying to become ranking member of, but you'd be wrong (from an interview with Chris Shays a couple of weeks ago by Erik Campano of WSHU - mp3):
WSHU: One thing that you've, an idea that you've expressed recently, publicly, as well as it seems to your fellow colleagues in Congress is that you would like to see yourself have the chairmanship of the Oversight Committee. I would think it would seem to most of your constituents that the major portion of oversight involves the critiquing of the work of our government agencies, not the praising.
Shays: Well, lemme ask you this. If everyone is criticizing people who have given their lives to save Americans, don't you think it makes sense for one of the people in the committee to thank them?
WSHU: Were you the only one who thanked them?
Shays: Yeah.
WSHU: None of your fellow Republicans also...?
Shays: Well, I mean there were a few others, but not in the way that I did.
Meanwhile, Blackwater is doing such a "perfect" job that they're going to be expelled from Iraq by the State Dept. in a matter of months:
Blackwater's work escorting U.S. diplomats outside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad expires in May, one official said Wednesday, and other officials told The Associated Press they expect the North Carolina company will not continue to work for the embassy after that.
Update: The New Canaan News-Review calls on Shays and Congress to provide real oversight of Blackwater in an editorial today:
We advocate no, insist on stronger congressional oversight of all outside contractors in Iraq and other war zones. During the Bush administration's first six years, a GOP-dominated Congress provided little oversight, and federal spending on private contractors spiraled out of control. A Democratic Congress is in position to do better.
We would like to see those charged with crimes against Iraqi civilians be prosecuted through the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows the extension of federal law to civilians supporting military operations. If Blackwater USA security guards fired without provocation, they should be tried.
Finally, we urge Congressman Christopher Shays, R-4, to listen to his constituents and work with his Democratic colleagues to end this awful Iraq War. This quagmire has dragged on for 4-½ years, and too many lives of America's young men and women have been lost. Please, sir, put diplomacy to work.
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