The Gray Lady throws Chris Shays under the bus.
Read here!
The political calculus is remarkable. All politics is national!
Excepts below the fold
...as his party has moved to the right, Mr. Shays has taken more and more stands with which we have profound disagreement. His position on immigration reform is far closer to the crabbed, xenophobic stance of the House Republicans than the fairer, bipartisan approach of the Senate. During the campaign, his remarks about the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison -- which he minimized as "something less than torture" -- were disturbing.
The Times seems to be following the lead of Paul Krugman who wrote on the 16th: "It' s hard to think of an election in which the personal qualities of the people running in a given district or state have mattered less."
Now it is time to draw the line. 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. His position on Iraq, which has gone through tortuous re-evaluations, now seems basically sensible. But if he is re-elected, he will support a Republican leadership that has refused to question even the most ruinous decisions by George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld about the conduct of American foreign policy.
Then, there's this graf which could be a template for Democratic phone banks across the country. (Except a lot of Rs are really despicable human beings, so tailor the message.)
Mr. Shays has been a good congressman, but not good enough to overcome the fact that his re-election would help empower a party that is long overdue for a shakeup. This decision is painful, but not difficult, given the high caliber of his opponent. With due respect for Mr. Shays's service, we strongly endorse Diane Farrell for Congress.
Just a few days ago (Peace Now? A Stark Choice Between the Perception of a Noble Effort and of a Mistake,10/22/06), the NYT reported Shays saying:
"I'm not afraid to lose," said Mr. Shays. "Losing does not cause me angst. Will it be fun to call Diane Farrell on election night to say congratulations? No, that will not be fun. But I've lost before. I know what it's like. What I agonize over is sending men and women to war, and some of them are coming back in body bags. That to me is something to agonize about."
Mr. Shays, do you have that telephone number handy? 'Nuff said for now.