"Iraq is not a labor issue"

Rep. Chris Shays, at the AFL-CIO convention on June 23rd, as reported by PPW.com:

A heated debate took place over the endorsement of Jim Himes, a pro-labor, antiwar Democrat challenging incumbent Republican Chris Shays (4th Congressional District), a leading proponent of Bush’s Iraq war policies. Shays was the only representative from Connecticut to vote for additional funding of the war last month. He had angered the endorsement committee during an interview in which he objected to a question on the war, saying, “Why are you asking me about that? That’s not a labor issue.”

This is what the Republicans would like you to believe. I don't know how many times I've heard apologists for people like Joe Lieberman or Chris Shays say something like, "well, he votes the right way on most things except Iraq, but that's only ONE issue".

Well, besides the obvious intentional neglect of the facts, such as Shays' and Lieberman's extensive voting record on the wrong side of MANY other important issues, the fact remains that Iraq it isn't "just one issue"...

It's THE issue of our time!

Only somebody with extremely limited cognitive reasoning abilities would believe that borrowing astronomical sums of money from China to finance a disastrous war so the administration can give it's powerful backers their coveted tax breaks at the cost of mortgaging our nation's future is a good and wise thing for our country.

You'd have to either be insane, or in a clinical state of denial and self-delusion to reach that conclusion.

So, when faced with a question about his stance on Iraq, Chris Shays responded as only someone whose brittle hold on reality is threatened; and rather than address the issue in a sane and coherent manner, he instead basically accuses the person of asking an inappropriate question.

This response is very telling. And it leads to the possible conclusion that either Chris Shays is either suffering from self-delusion, or he knows what exactly what he's been doing and he's willing to continue with it at any cost to the nation rather than admit his mistake.

Either way, it's obvious that in order to stop the damage that Shays is a willing party to, we have to elect Jim Himes in November.

"I am so proud to have won the endorsement of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which represents over two hundred thousand workers who know that we desperately need a change in Washington," said Mr. Himes. "AFL-CIO members know that I will be there for them on the issues that matter, like achieving universal health care, creating new jobs, strengthening our schools and ending the war in Iraq."