The Loneliest Republican

[connecticut yankee]

Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.), the only Republican in Congress to call for Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) to resign as House majority leader, walked in late to a committee meeting yesterday and got the cold shoulder from a longtime colleague, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.). When Burton barely acknowledged Shays, Shays put a hand on Burton's and inquired, "Dan, is everything okay?"

"Well," Burton replied, shaking his head, "I'm really not happy with what you did."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51336-2005Apr13.html

[blogbear]

1. Coming from a guy like Burton, Shays should feel flattered..

[JerseygirlCT]

17. Exactly

not the person whose opinion I'd be worried about.

[tavalon]

21. Dan Burton, despite being a repug

is a hero to me for tenaciously championing a cause that is near and dear to my heart (and to his, hence why he is a bulldog about it). Having said that, I don't look to closely at the rest of his politics because I know I would likely be mortified.

[IronLionZion]

25. which cause is that?

I'm just curious

[conflictgirl]

28. I'm guessing...

He fights a lot for governmental attention to the link between mercury in vaccines and autism. He's one of the few congressmen to actually do so.

[tavalon]

30. The thimerosal-autism connection

His two grandchildren have vaccine (thimerosal) induced autism so he's done as much research as I have (or his staff did - in my case it was all my own blood, sweat and tears) and he knows what I know. The difference is that he has a bully pulpit in which to get his concerns aired and he does.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Dan Burton...

A paragon of ethical virtue. With his exploding watermelons.

[madinmaryland]

3. He was also one of only a couple who voted against

the impeachment acts against President Clinton. I used to see him at the train station in Norwalk (and in Bridgeport) and I personnally thanked him for voting against the rampaging right trying to impeach Clinton. I think he has said on a couple of occasions recently that the Republican party has been taken over by zealots that are out of touch with mainstream America.

[kskiska]

14. I remember how he held a town meeting

at City Hall in Norwalk (my old high school) to gauge how his constituents felt about impeaching Clinton before voting against it.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. He has, indeed.

Just wish he'd stop voting with them altogether.

He knows he can't be out-there on the right in this state. We only usually tolerate moderates. And he had a very tough race last time, and is likely to face round two of the same next time.

[MissWaverly]

4. He's going to be much more lonely in '06

It's going to be very lonely to be a Republican in DC in 2006, and the Dems are just warming up for 2008.

[connecticut yankee]

7. He's my Congressman

and I've always voted for him, even though I'm a rock-solid Democrat.

He's independent and honorable and we need more of his kind in Congress. I don't like the way many Democrats continually find fault with him. If more Republicans were like him, we would have a much nicer Congress and country.

Of course, I would have no objection if he became a Dem, but that's very unlikely.

[MissWaverly]

10. I like him, would like to see him re-elected

He's a man who truly tries to represents his voters, but I think that there's a number of republicans who will be voted out of office and one of them is our present governor, Bob Ehrlich (his motto is "So honest, it hurts").

[madinmaryland]

15. As I recall though,

he has been on the conservative side of the aisle on economic issues though. (i.e. voting on the side of tax cuts for the wealthy, for "bankruptcy reform" for the credit card companies and so on.) Socially though, he is on the liberal side.

He was my rep when I was in connecticut for 10 years, and I never voted for him.)

[tavalon]

22. That makes me feel better

as I said in another post, I try hard not to know too much about the other things he stands for. He is such a great hero to me that I couldn't bear it if he was Bush admin. clone.

[rpannier]

5. I think Shays would make a solid addition to the Democratic Party

Pelosi and others should start working on him.

[snippy]

8. Decent republicans need to take back their party or leave it.

If someone like Shays were to switch parties it might start an exodus from the republican party. But I fear that things will have to get much, much worse before something like that happens.

[Clark Bayh 2008]

11. I emailed him & asked him to switch parties... it's the only answer

to this realignment....

The republican party was once the party of Lincoln. By 1980, the republicans had realigned with Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan. The shift is complete as of 2005 with Bush, Cheney, Frist, Scalia.

Either you're for a quasi theocracy or you're not. Shays, Chafee, Snowe, Collins, Jeffords etc. should all be approached while the Schiavo issue is still fresh.

[pacalo]

20. Jeffords was getting the same treatment as Shays before he left the party.

[Pirate Smile]

6. more from the article.

The words are spoken softly and gently, but they are tough. If Shays is feeling lonely in his criticism of DeLay -- no other Republican elected to federal office has joined his call for resignation -- he is not backing down. "I believe my party in 10 years has become as arrogant as the Democratic Party became in 30 to 40 years," he continued, from a ground-floor office in the Rayburn building. "It's been a real surprise to me that the adage 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,' I really believe that has happened."

-snip-
Still, there were signs of turmoil at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans yesterday morning. Rep. Joel Hefley (Colo.), deposed as ethics committee chairman after the committee criticized DeLay, spoke about how badly the ethics quandary was handled. Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.) warned the caucus that the leadership had become arrogant.

Shays, while exempting House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.) from his criticism, says he is "certain" that one of two things will happen: "We will either deal with our arrogance or we will lose our position of authority."

[calico1]

9. Shays also got a lot of flack a couple of years back

when Mayor Bloomberg was saying on TV that NY was safe and everyone should come on down for New Year's Eve. Shays stated on a TV interview that he would advise his own children to stay away because it was a big crowd and you never know and you can never say a place is 100% safe and it was foolish in these times to say stuff like that. Bloomberg then made fun of him for saying that. Then during the election campaign period, a pro-life group (forgot the name) had a meeting and invited politicians to attend. Shays was the only Rebuplican member of the House to attend. I think he is an okay guy. He is not afraid to disagree with his Party even if it gets him a lot of flack and it has on a number of occasions.

[IronLionZion]

26. Mayor Mike is such a disappointment

He was a Dem until he ran for mayor. But in all fairness, his city depends on tourism. The big financial companies don't bring revenue for the average New Yorker the way tourism does.

[rman]

12. Would this be the same guy who is lobying Repub

representatives to respect the sunset clause of the Patriot Act?

[Norquist Nemesis]

13. More proof of cult tactics

The shunning is the same tactics used by religious cults to make members bend to their will and control every aspect of their lives.

[redqueen]

16. So Republicans in Congress PUNISH their peers for having integrity.

That explains a lot about that party.

[IronLionZion]

27. The same party that wins by suppressing the vote

The same one that used racism to slander their most popular member during a presidential primary in 2000. These people are sick.

Is it any surprise to anyone that the most popular Republicans are moderates?

[redqueen]

31. But how can they be popular, when they won't say anything

about the extremists?

[XemaSab]

19. "Consider yourself at home!

Consider yourself
Part of the family!
We've taken to you
So Strong!
It's clear we're
Going to get along!"

[roguevalley]

23. poor evil little cry baby. dan burton should go hug his illegitimate

son or perhaps one of his many mistresses.

[Redstone]

24. He's screwed. He might as well leave Washington now.

The hard-core Repubs, the ones who have the power, are going to fucking crucify him.

That's how those bastards work. Look for ever-deeper cuts in ALL Federal projects in Connecticut.

Bye-bye sub base! See ya later, Coast Guard Academy! Adios, Amtrak!

Redstone

[Solly Mack]

29. It's cause for celebration when Burton is disappointed in you

Means you did something good.