They Could Manage To Cover FISA If They Wanted

I sympathize with this lament about the absurdity of Congress spending hours' worth of hearings trying to discern whether or not Roger Clemens injected steroids into his ass, really I do. And I agree that it should be the last thing on any Congressional agenda.

But clearly the reason it was scheduled in the first place is that it's one of the only hearings in the last several years that was televised live on all the cable networks. I mean, you've got the 9/11 Commission, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, and steroids. They televised the Rafael Palmiero one live, too. More than anything, Congresscritters want face time to show that they're doing the people's business. So I don't necessarily fault Henry Waxman for holding one hearing on this among the hundreds of others about waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and the federal government. I fault the cable networks for picking this one to highlight.

Also, any hearing that can get Mike and the Mad Dog to come out against a Republican has at least some residual benefit.

Mad Dog: "Here's the thing about Shays. I'm gonna go out of my way in November. We're gonna get him the hell out of Connecticut. We're gonna get Himes in there."

A lot of Connecticut voters listen to the 'FAN on their commute.

The thing is, what should you root for - high ratings, so that the execs decide that Congressional hearings are good theater and cheap to produce, and they'll show more of them, or low ratings, so that the incentive to show meaningless Congressional hearings is taken away? I'm not sure.

Great Idea Chris

Chris Shays just starred in his own commercial.



They'll be printing up those "The Kiss II" campaign buttons in Connecticut any day now, I imagine. And great work by Jim Himes' campaign to already be on top of it. My Left Nutmeg has the pics.

Being a Republican in New England is becoming an endangered species. Shays is trying to cement that. And at what point do the George Bush/King Midas comparisons begin?

Some less friendly, lip-free State of the Union reactions here.

UPDATE: Obama video response:



Hillary goes the press release route. Edwards here.

Chris Shays, Master of Understatement

The only New England Republican left in the House is angered that Henry Waxman is actually looking into wrongdoing by the federal government on his behalf in the 2006 election. So he pulled this one out of his ass:

“It’s the kind of thing that I think might happen in a place like Russia where the party in power goes after the party that they want never to be in power,” Shays said of the investigation. “This kind of stuff just grosses me out.”

Later, speaking about Iraq, Shays argued, “Republicans and Democrats have a harder time getting along than Sunnis and Shiites.”

Right, don't you remember all of the car bombs on the House floor? The sectarian bloodshed?

This is a guy who's trying to lament the partisanship in Washington, while making one of the most partisan statements you'll ever read. Talk about feeling the pressure. Jim Hines is a top recruit for this seat, neither Sunni nor Shiite but an American who wants to see Chris Shays retired, so he can make these rants in the privacy of his own corner bar.