Disappointed in the mindless endorsement given to Chris Shays by The New York Times, I have sent the following letter to Clark Hoyt -- the paper's Public Editor:
Dear Clark Hoyt,
In A Congressional Endorsement two years ago [October 25, 2006], The New York Times supported Diane Farrell for the seat in Connecticut's 4th District saying: "Mr. Shays may be a beacon of integrity, but if he is re-elected he will vote to continue House control by a party that has repeatedly sold out the country to special interest lobbyists. . . .[and] if he is re-elected he will support a Republican leadership that has refused to question even the most ruinous decisions . . . about the conduct of American foreign policy."
Disappointed in the mindless endorsement given to Chris Shays by The New York Times, I have sent the following letter to Clark Hoyt -- the paper's Public Editor:
Dear Clark Hoyt,
In A Congressional Endorsement two years ago [October 25, 2006], The New York Times supported Diane Farrell for the seat in Connecticut's 4th District saying: "Mr. Shays may be a beacon of integrity, but if he is re-elected he will vote to continue House control by a party that has repeatedly sold out the country to special interest lobbyists. . . .[and] if he is re-elected he will support a Republican leadership that has refused to question even the most ruinous decisions . . . about the conduct of American foreign policy."
While Chris Shays has been campaigning for the 100-Years-War Candidate, John McCain, two more pressing issues -- issues that Shays hates to deal with -- have splashed up in the news again:
Broadwater has received federal approval to build a monstrous liquified natural gas facility in Long Island Sound.
Shays has tried to avoid the Broadwater controversy by claiming that he is "ashamed" for opposing Broadwater, making it perfectly unclear where he stands. While Shays waffles, Broadwater moves closer to reality. Fortunately, CT Governor Jodi Rell and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, along with Congressmen Joe Courtney and Rosa DeLauro, have all vowed to try to prevent this environmental train wreck from happening.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a longtime opponent, called the project an environmental atrocity and vowed Friday to take the federal energy commission to court.
Shays has demonstrated that he can get fired up when he wants to -- like when he verbally abused a policeman in Washington DC. What's needed here is that same kind of fiery spirit by Shays, but this time for an important cause -- to stop Broadwater.
As for Blackwater, Shays has tried to undermine oversight of this reckless mercenary corp by claiming that the company does "a perfect job." Never mind that Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and engaged in massive war-profiteering. The fact that no Americans under its watch have ever been killed, to Chris Shays, makes them "perfect."
Now, it turns out that Blackwater has been gassing American soldiers and Iraqis to get through Baghdad traffic jams.
Officers and noncommissioned officers from the Third Infantry Division who were involved in the episode said there were no signs of violence at the checkpoint. Instead, they said, the Blackwater convoy appeared to be stuck in traffic and may have been trying to use the riot-control agent as a way to clear a path.
Shays, as a member of the Congressional Oversight Committee, has the power to help rein in Blackwater. But in Shays' opinion baseball's steroid users have the worst behavior of anyone he's ever seen in his 20 years in Congress, even compared to Blackwater, and has called Roger Clemens -- not Blackwater CEO Erik Prince -- sleazy.
So don't expect Shays to hold Blackwater accountable. In fact, Shays may need Blackwater's protection on his future trips to Iraq, which, if Shays' candidate wins the White House, may number into the hundreds ... unless of course the people of the 4th CD elect Jim Himes to Congress.
UPDATE: The FBI says that Blackwater has been trying to destroy evidence related to its shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Not surprising.
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.)
Chris Shays doesn't do oversight, but his 2008 challenger, Jim Himes, apparently does.
Today the Himes campaign debuted a website, APerfectJob.info, that documents Chris Shays' dereliction of duty on the House Oversight Committee:
Chris Shays serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But instead of using his position to actually conduct oversight of private security contractors in Iraq and ask the tough questions that his job demands, he has been using it to relentlessly defend the Bush Administration and effusively praise witnesses like the CEO of Blackwater USA:
The site gets its name, "A Perfect Job," from the phrase Shays used to describe Blackwater USA during an Oversight hearing in October. The committee was investigating the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards. This was a time when everyone, including Shays' own constituents, was screaming for proper oversight.
We advocate -- no, insist -- on stronger congressional oversight of all outside contractors in Iraq and other war zones. ... If Blackwater USA security guards fired without provocation, they should be tried.
The State Department's actions speak louder than its statement claiming continuing faith in Blackwater USA, whose guards last month allegedly fired indiscriminately on people in a square in Baghdad.
But instead of investigating Blackwater, Shays used his time at the hearing to praise Blackwater CEO Erik Prince for doing "A Perfect Job."
Watch the video:
Shays' Blackwater performance was only his most glaring example of undermining Congressional hearings. Other examples include the investigation of Lurita Doan and the Government Services Administration.
Doan had turned the GSA into a political favor machine doling out government services to Republicans in need of good press at election time - in an apparent violation of the Hatch Act. Shays himself was the beneficiary of GSA favors, but the obvious conflict of interest didn't stop Shays from acting as Doan's personal cheerleader.
Watch the video:
At another hearing, looking into the mysterious friendly fire death of American war hero Pat Tillman, Shays laid off any serious questions of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and merely thanked Rumsfeld for just "showing up."
At a hearing looking into the deaths of Blackwater contractors killed in Falluha, Shays didn't grill Blackwater executives. He ripped into the widows of the contractors.
Over the last several years, by failing to conduct any meaningful oversight of the Bush Administration, Shays has slipped into the role of a Bush lap dog.
Jim Himes, by holding Shays accountable, has become the new watch dog.
Blackwater USA™: Your One Stop Shopping Source For All Your War Profiteering and Paramilitary Needs... now with Espionage!:
The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government.
The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater.
This is getting ridiculous. What will we learn next, that Blackwater might have illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that ended up in the hands of insurgents? (Oh, wait.)
Well, regardless, perception is reality, and Blackwater's PR shop - including Chris Shays - has got to start doing a better job. Just look at these recent headlines and comments:
Anyone watching C-SPAN today? I haven't had time to catch any of Sec. of State Rice's testimony in front of the Oversight Committee, but apparently Chris Shays is hard at work proving his OversightPraise Committee credentials (and embarrassing his constituents) yet again:
The Republicans (Davis and especially Chris Shays) now attack Waxman for accusing Maliki of corruption. It gets so bad that Condi has to take a step back and note that she is worried about corruption (this could get embarrassing if the Administration ever decides to throw over Maliki based on allegations of corruption).
In a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today, Republican Rep. Chris Shays told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he "can't think of hardly anything this new Congress, my Democratic colleagues, have done to help our soldiers win in Iraq and allow them to come home, succeeding rather than failing to help the Iraqi people live in a safe and free Iraq, free from terrorism, free from foreign intervention."
"I frankly can't think of hardly anything," he repeated.
In this case, Shays - allegedly one of the more reasonable "moderates" in the GOP caucus - thinks Dems haven't been helping the troops at all. How many Bush administration funding requests have the Democrats in Congress turned down? None. How many policy requests regarding the war have the Dems rejected? None.
But therein lies the rub: it doesn't matter. Dems imagine all the nasty attack ads the Republicans will run against them next year on military matters and national security policy, so they cave before anyone calls them "weak" or insufficiently supportive of the troops. And then they're called "weak" and insufficiently supportive of the troops anyway.
Update 2: Video here (and above). My favorite line:
"I have served on this committee for 20 years. And everything this committee has done since we've gone into Iraq - and this last year in particular - has been to try to point out everything bad that is going on."
You'd think someone who had served on the Oversight committee for twenty years - or, alternatively, someone who owns a dictionary - would understand that "oversight" might just necessitate pointing out bad things every now and then.
Only 38 days after the Nisour Square shootings and a myriad of sub-scandals and related controversy, and someone at the State Department has finally lost his job. ABC News reports that Richard Griffin, the top diplomatic security official at Foggy Bottom, has agreed to resign after Amb. Patrick Kennedy's recommendations on overhauling State's relationship with its security contractors amounted to a tacit rebuke of his tenure.
New documents suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion, failing to withhold and pay millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and related taxes, and sought to conceal its conduct from Congress and law enforcement officials.
As the next step of the PR campaign, Blackwater sent an e-mail blast today, encouraging supporters to contact "elected Congressional representatives" with "letters, e-mails and calls" with the goal of "influencing the manner in which they gather and present information."
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?
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.
Support seems to be coalescing around I. Charles Matthews in Hartford as the anti-Perez candidate for the general election, as Art Feltman is expected to officially endorse him today, per the Courant:
"I ran for Mayor because the Hartford I know and love has not done well under this administration," Feltman said in a written statement. "My campaign was based on a platform of reform, good government and fiscal responsibility, values Charles understands."
If you missed it, Chris Dodd was on Air America for an hour last night, interviewing both Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Jane Hamsher. Dodd supporters Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), IAFF Pres. Harold Schaitberger, and Blue Hampshire's Dean Barker also joined host Richard Greene. Getting candidates to break out of their pre-packaged campaign boxes isn't easy, but taking advantage of non-traditional opportunities like hosting an interview (or, say, Jim Himes' hosting of FDL's book salon) definitely helps.
The State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling Blackwater USA's contract or awarding it to another company in line with an Iraqi government demand, The Associated Press has learned.
The complaint alleges that Blackwater violated the federal Alien Tort Statute in committing extrajudicial killing and war crimes, and that Blackwater should be liable for claims of assault and battery, wrongful death, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring, training and supervision.
I promised my husband I would tone down my blogging this week. We have to visit his mother in Florida, and I've been wondering if I'm on the terrorist list, being the Connecticut for Lieberman secretary.
Oh, I'm exaggerating. Only really important people like college professors are denied national flights. Not small fish like me. So here's a petition that might help to jog Joe's mind about the Katrina investigation.
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