Shays, Hearing Voices in His Head, Admits Mistakes on Iraq

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WEEKLY UPDATE
WEEK OF JUNE 4

We started off the week stunned by Chris Shays’ admission to the Connecticut Post that he has made mistakes in his oversight of the Iraq War.

We’ve been saying that all along and Diane came right back at him, calling it "an expedient political statement that is pitifully late and inadequate." And once again she challenged him to a debate so he could answer in addition to all her earlier questions, a new one: "What other mistakes have you made?"

Diane and the rest of us find it astonishing that in year four, after nearly 2,500 American military deaths and 18,000 injuries, and hundreds of billions of dollars, Chris Shays is just coming to realize what so many of us have seen for so long - that the war in Iraq was terribly conceived and executed, its aftermath has been worse, and the Bush Administration has been allowed to run virtually unchecked by the Republican Congress and especially Chris Shays.

But Diane saw some political motives at work. "I would like to think Chris is finally willing to take responsibility for what he should have been doing all along," Diane said. "But I suspect this may be a political decision designed to put him in the better graces of voters who recognized long ago that this war was a disaster and getting worse."

Shays’ comment this week that "I was hearing voices in my own head ... I should have had hearings early on," also got our attention – big time. It is proof that all Shays has been doing these last years is blindly supporting George Bush’s failed Iraq policy while remaining deaf to the voices of reason all around him.

And Diane’s big question is: "I’m wondering what other Bush administration and Republican Party policies he supported that he is willing to admit were wrong? How many other votes did he cast as a loyal supporter of President Bush and the Republican Party that he wants to take back as we head closer to Election Day?"

Diane reiterated all these points Thursday, bolstered by veterans of four different wars, calling Shays’ election year conversion a "convenient position when you have approximately 150 days to Election Day. Where was the majority party that controls the House and the Senate when it came to providing that critical oversight function that in some cases literally meant the difference between life and death?"

We can all agree with Diane when she says: "Congress needs to change. Congress needs to be independent of the wishes and desires and the agenda of the administration. Congress needs to act in an oversight capacity, especially when it is something as critical as a decision to send our young men and women into harm’s way."

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America PAC also spoke out this week on Congressman Shays’ record of oversight on Iraq. Executive Director Jon Soltz told the Connecticut Post: "We need people in Congress who have the courage to ask the tough questions before thousands of troops are sent to war."

Apparently, the voices in Chris Shays’ head were not loud enough to quiet Soltz’s concerns or the concerns of many other valiant members of our military service.

Adam Wood
Campaign Manager


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REMINDER: Remember to join us on Tuesday, June 20th, at 8p.m. at the Garden Cinemas Norwalk for a screening of Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The cost is $25 dollars a person, with all proceeds going to Farrell for Congress. Please RSVP to Allison at [phone] or [e-mail].


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