Trips number seventeen and eighteen didn't result in any unearthed ponies. So now Chris Shays is embarking on his nineteenth - nineteenth - trip to Iraq in the past five years:
WASHINGTON - Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, departed Sunday evening for his 19th trip to Iraq since U.S.-led coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003....
Shays claims to have visited Iraq more often than any other member of Congress. The frequent visits, he says, give him an opportunity to gauge progress there over time. After visiting Iraq in July and August last year, Shays recommended that the United States set firm time lines for Iraqi security forces to replace American troops.
(Update: Of course, after returning from Iraq in July and August last year, and winning re-election, Shays voted multiple timesagainst such timelines.)
Meanwhile, Shays has kept busy since trip number eighteen scrambling to cover for Bush, Condi, and Blackwater in the House Oversight Committee... racking up frequent flyer miles to the fertile crescent while doing everything in his power to prevent meaningful oversight of the Bush Iraq mess back in D.C. Looking back over the long history of Shays's ever-shifting and incomprehensible positions on Iraq, it's obvious that these constant trips haven't done much to elucidate matters for him (or to help him elucidate those haphazard positions to his constituents).
If Shays stays in office, we can look forward to trips numbers 20, 21, 22... maybe even 50, if, as he hopes, the United States builds the permanent bases in Iraq that Bush wants and Shays supports:
That's why I happen to think we need a timeline so both realize we're not going to cut-and-run and we're not going to be there forever in a military way, except for this point: We are going to have, I think, permanent bases in the area, maybe in Iraq, to maintain stability in the region.
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