CHRIS SHAYS GRABS CAPITOL HILL POLICE OFFICER, SCREAMING, CURSING & THREATENING HIM... LATER ISSUES AN APOLOGY, BLAMES THE WEATHER

Chris Shays, WINO under stress

With the public finally wising up to a particularly offensive species of rubber stamp Republican-- the WINO: those who publicly waver and whine to the press and their constituents about changing course in Iraq and then always vote with Bush and Cheney-- Chris Shays has been having bad days. He's the posterboy for all WINOs. Shays calls himself a moderate and an independent voice and does everything he can to trick Connecticut voters into thinking he's not a Bush-Cheney Republican. All they'd have to do is look at his Iraq voting record to see what he is. There have been 50 votes on Iraq between the original October 10, 2002 Resolution Authorizing the Use of Force and the most recent call for redeployment. Shays is still the picture perfect Stay The Course Republican warmonger. He hasn't opposed the Bush Cheney agenda for endless war once when it comes to substantive issues.

Suddenly however, confronted with the reality of a strong Democratic opponent-- Jim Himes (who will be our Blue America guest on Saturday, July 28)-- Shays is sounding like he's had a change of heart. Keyword: "sounding." With that pure rubber stamp voting record he went on CNN yesterday and started talking about withdrawing troops:

"We do not have the force structure to maintain the level of troops we have in Iraq now, and certainly to increase them. So, whatever General Petraeus tells us in September, we are still going to have to reduce the number of troops in Iraq. And that's why I think it would be wise to let the Iraqis know that now, that there will be a gradual reduction in troops.

So with all that stress-- I mean just because this fake, last minute anti-war fervor worked last year for Lieberman, there's no reason Connecticut voters plan to get fooled again-- it looks like Shays has finally lost his mind.

He physically grabbed a Capitol Hill police officer, threatened him, screamed curses in his face-- including Cheney's favorite expletive. I wonder if CNN and Fox will give Shays the same career-ending treatment they gave Cynthia McKinney when she had a similar outburst last year. I don't really wonder. She's an outspoken working class Africa-American woman. He's an upper middle class white male. They hate her and identify with him. By Monday this will have never happened.