Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Chris Shays, the Ishmael of New England congressional Republicans – “And I alone am left to tell the tale” – is not entirely unhappy in his new role as the last moderate Republican still standing. According to a report in the Hartford Courant: "Speaker Nancy D. Pelosi, D-Calif., has clashed with Shays for years. She came to his Fairfield County district in 2004 and declared Shays a 'rubber stamp for the radical right wing, check-your-brain-at-the-door congressperson.' And worse, 'an enabler for Tom DeLay,' the former Republican majority leader who gave Shays fits. "Shays had shot back. 'Nancy Pelosi is a fraud,' he said flatly, referring to some minor trouble she'd had with the Federal Elections Commission after taking contributions that exceeded federal limits. "Thursday, though, Shays could revel in the knowledge that Pelosi is leading the fight for his plans for ethics reform: to ban gifts from lobbyists, to place tough restrictions on priv...

One can well understand why U.S. Rep Nancy Johnson would wish to put a ten foot pole between herself and Jack Abramoff, the beltway lobbyist and wheeler dealer recently sentenced for sleaze peddling.The once powerful Republican Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, this morning announced he will be resigning his seat, news reports indicate, because he failed to put a ten foot pole between himself and Abramoff. And so, smeared by a MoveOn.org ad that “links” Johnson with Abramoff, the Johnson campaign called upon her likely Democrat opponent, Christopher Murphy, to condemn the add. The “link” between Johnson and Abramoff is more than tenuous; it is non-existent. Johnson had never accepted money from Abramoff, unlike Democrat Party Chairman Harry Reid who, according to a February Associated Press report , “collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff’s firm, lobbying partners and clients” over a three year period. The MoveOn.org ad “links” Johnson with m...