Bar Stumps

Bring on the crone. Bar has been kept mostly under wraps since voicing her cruel privileged feelings about the survivors of Katrina. Shays must be nervous to get the old bag out to raise dough for him....$70,000.
Shay's opponent is Democrat,Diane Farrell
The mean old bat: "Some of you might wonder why an 81-year-old, white-haired woman from Maine and Texas would care so much about the great people of Connecticut and who they elect to Congress," Bush told the well-heeled crowd. "
Hahahahaaa...who the hell is she kidding...Skull and Bones boy, Dubya the fetid lump, was hatched in New Haven, CT. Bar is at home with other wealthy folks. Her own kind.


Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., applauds former first lady Barbara Bush at a fundraiser for him in Stamford, Conn., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006. Shays, who represents Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, is being challenged by Democrat Diane Farrell. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

Last month Shays urged withdrawal from Iraq. This month he's back to full support of the war...and got Bar as his reward.
Shays Needs Bar
Barbara Bush Praises Shays
Campaigns For Him At High-Roller Event
--->

Locked in a tight re-election battle, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays called upon one of the Republican Party's biggest headliners - the wife of one American president and the mother of another. With her marquee name recognition, Bush helped raise over $70,000 from more than 100 guests at a luncheon fundraiser Tuesday to help Shays in his rematch against Democratic challenger Diane Farrell.

"Some of you might wonder why an 81-year-old, white-haired woman from Maine and Texas would care so much about the great people of Connecticut and who they elect to Congress," Bush told the well-heeled crowd. "It would be the worst possible time for us to lose a good and experienced congressman like Chris Shays. He recognizes that the global war on terrorism is the most important issue of our time."

Bush urged the crowd to keep up the pressure until the Nov. 7 election in the 17-town 4th District, which stretches from Greenwich to Oxford.

"This is not going to be an easy election," Bush said outside a private home in Stamford. "I think everybody in this yard knows that. There is no better example than Connecticut to show just how volatile an election year this is."

Less than 90 minutes after Bush's departure, Farrell told reporters at her campaign headquarters in Westport that Barbara Bush's visit was similar to one for Shays and two other Republicans in the spring by the current first lady, Laura Bush.

"It's just one more example of the Bush family rewarding a member of Congress who has been incredibly supportive of the war in Iraq," Farrell said.

Shays, in fact, has said that the race would not be close at all if not for his position on the war in Iraq. He returned last month from his 14th trip to the war-torn country to suggest that the United States should consider a timeline to begin withdrawing American troops in an effort to eventually turn over more control to the Iraqi army.

But Shays continued to defend American actions Tuesday regarding the war.

"No, it's not a mistake," Shays told reporters. "It's absolutely essential that we win this war. ... We can't afford to lose the war in Iraq because you'll see outright civil war."

Shays also distanced himself from Ned Lamont, the anti-war challenger who defeated Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in a Democratic primary that focused overwhelmingly on the war.

"I oppose the Lamont model of leaving now or prematurely in a few months," Shays said Tuesday. "One thing I'd like to say to all of you [reporters] is that you are dead wrong if you think the Lamont-Lieberman race had anything to do with what I'm going to decide on war or peace."

Despite being a Republican, Shays boldly says that he will vote for Lieberman, a longtime Democrat, because he is "a national treasure." Lieberman did not lose the primary solely because of the Iraq war, but because of reasons that included running "a bad race and he knows that," Shays said.

"A lot of us put our arms around him and said, `Joe, this is politics, and you need to be your old self,'" Shays said. "I think he's become his old self."

The Shays-Farrell race has received national attention as the Democrats try to win 15 seats to retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since the 1994 sweep that brought Newt Gingrich into power as the House speaker. Gingrich, who became a political lightning rod during his tenure as speaker, will campaign for Shays in October. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona will also be making stops in the district.

Farrell has also had her share of headliners. U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who would become the new speaker if the Democrats regain power, campaigned for Farrell recently. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the former Clinton administration official who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has visited three times and declared the race as a "top, top priority." Emanuel had targeted the race more than a year ago and talked to Farrell before she announced she was taking another run at Shays.

Tuesday's luncheon fundraiser crowd included conservative author William F. Buckley Jr., a fan of Shays and a longtime Stamford resident. He would not predict how Shays' support for the Iraq war would affect the congressman's re-election chances.

"It's fair to say the Iraq war is not popular," Buckley said, " but it's unwise to suggest that anybody in particular is going to be victimized by that."