(Cross-posted from My Left Nutmeg.)
Yesterday afternoon, in accepting his nomination for a potential 12th term representing the Fourth Congressional District of Connecticut, Chris Shays sounded a favorite attack theme of his against the Democratic party:
Shays had harsher words for Democrats. Liberal activists, he said are even more divisive.
"Though Democrats speak urgently of the challenges we face, their leaders obstruct and delay," he said.
Of course, in what should come as no surprise, one day before this statement Chris Shays was dutifully following orders from the House Republican leadership in an obstructionist, dilatory vote... a vote against Mother's Day:
It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother's Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood....
It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.
Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far.
(Yes, that was the Washington Post, not the Onion.)
This is par for the course for Boehner, Shays, and the House GOP, who have spent the last seventeen months of the current Congress participating in walkout stunts, interrupting colleagues' memorial services, and otherwise obstructing and delaying progress on critical legislation.
Shays specifically has voted procedurally to kill funding for children's health care, and just this past week did the same on legislation to address the mortgage crisis.
Who's "obstructionist," again?
Thankfully, instead of sending Chris Shays back to D.C. for a third decade of constant political games like this, voters in CT-04 will be presented with a new choice on Monday as Jim Himes is officially nominated as the Democratic candidate.
So in celebration of moms everywhere, and of more and better Democrats in 2009, please consider throwing some Mother's Day turkee Jim's way before the fundraising deadline at midnight on Monday the 12th.
(Disclosure: I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress.)