11/11/08

Hang this Albatross Around Shays' and the GOP's Necks...

Now I'm looking for the correct bird simile for Shays. It can't be the dodo, that gawky, waddling, flightless, 40-pound joke of an animal that was killed off by the late 1600s on their Indian Ocean island.

Shays' defenses -- particularly in recent years as the demographics of the 4th Congressional District were changing -- were always formidable, and the 17-town district was surgically redrawn by state lawmakers back in 2001 for a Republican.
No need for a comedic double take there. In a district that was redrawn, Tom DeLay Texas style, to make it easier for a Republican to win... And Jim Himes won it. Handily.

Dixon is a dodo...
Proving once again what an out-of-touch right-wing rag Connecticut Post really is, its columnist Ken Dixon published this snarky cheap shot at congressman-elect Jim Himes in his Sunday column:
Himes is essentially a 42-year-old blank slate, a Greenwich millionaire who was in the right place at the right time.
The entire Republican party is a political albatross if the right place and right time for a communist/socialist/liberal/progressive is a district that was redrawn for Republicans.

5 comments:

Vigilante said...

It's the same ol' same ol' limousine liberal attack. Old, old, as the hills. Shay's a multi-millionaire ($80 Mil) guilty of bad judgment (joining the wrong party). 'Nuff said?

Anonymous said...

Shays actually has very little wealth apart from his house in Bridgeport.

I do wonder, though, how the districts will be redrawn in 2010 -- trade Ridgefield for the western half of Stratford? While the shift from 6->5 districts might have made the 4th more Republican, I don't think there are actually many non-ridiculous ways to change the district to make it more Democratic.

Connecticut Man1 said...

Are you sure about his finances matt? I have seen multi-millionaire numbers tossed around for him before. Though, I've never seen 8o million before?

Obviously there is no need to redistrict until population demands a change. That is the Republican way of doing things. I do, however, find it interesting that the mood of the population has shifted that much in seven years.

Connecticut has shifted a lot. Everybody calls this part of the state "conservative" yet, in my supposedly very Republican town, they voted for Lamont.

Which makes it doubly shocking that Chapin ran unopposed here. Given the voting records I could have seen Roraback running unopposed, but Chapin? I think someone to the left of him could have easily been competitive when you look at his hard right voting record.

Vigilante said...

I did not make my comment about Shay's wealth lightly. I read somewhere that he was worth something in the range between $50 million and $100 million. My bad if I was wrong. I still like the guy, but wrong party is still wrong.

Connecticut Man1 said...

I'll have to look at his wealth on a slow news day. At this point he is irrelevant unless some past scandal comes back to bite him.

I won't be surprised to see him go the lobbyist route now that he says he won't run for office again. If he isn't rich, I expect he will be soon.