Chris Shays betrays McCain in the final week

(Chris Shays with John McCain during happier times)
From Scarce at My Left Nutmeg:

Virtually certain now of McCain's imminent defeat Chris Shays effectively tosses McCain under the bus. In an interview with the Yale Daily News:

NEW CANAAN, Conn. - The first ballot has yet to be tallied, but some Republicans are already hammering nails into the McCain-Palin campaign's coffin.

Locked in a tight congressional race, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut's 4th district is the latest in a slew of Republican incumbents, including Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, to concede a near-certain victory to the Obama camp.

"I just don't see how [McCain] can win," Shays said in an interview here on Sunday.

Shays, the Connecticut co-chair of McCain's campaign, said he was disappointed by the standards of McCain's race, which has increasingly relied on mudslinging.

"He has lost his brand as a maverick; he did not live up to his pledge to fight a clean campaign," Shays said.

And for AP:

"He's taken the thing that is most valuable, his (maverick) brand, and he's not staying true to it," Shays said. "I admire John McCain more than you can imagine. He would make a great president."

But, Shays added, "I don't see how he wins if he isn't true to who he is ... a straight shooter talking about the issues."

I suppose this would be surprising coming from the co-chair McCain's Connecticut campaign if it were anyone else but Chris Shays. But right now survival is the name of the game and it's every man for himself.



And then there's this from Down With Tyranny:

Connecticut conservatives are furious and many are swearing off support for Shays. "I know he always votes the right way when we really need him," said a Republican elected official in Fairfield
County, who asked to remain anonymous, "but this is the last straw.He's just so treacherous and hypocritical. We all know McCain is going to lose but does that mean you kick him in the teeth on his way down. Christopher Shays owes Republicans an apology."

CT Bob: So, we have Chris Shays making his characteristic "change of heart" noises the last week before the election. Remember how during the closing days of the 2006 campaign he blathered desperately about wanting all our troops withdrawn from Iraq by December, 2007?

We all know how well that worked out. He forgot about his promise the minute the votes were counted. He forgot his words.

That is, until this year, when he needed to drudge them up once again, to help him hang on.

Words to Chris Shays are exactly that...just words. He did a terrible job as McCain's local co-chair, and then he abandoned the man when he realized McCain might be a political liability in the final days. He used Barack Obama's name and face in his ads in a sleazy attempt to jump on a winner's bandwagon. He will say or do anything in the hopes he'll dupe enough well-meaning voters into giving him another two years to continue George Bush's policies in Washington.

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