Venomous politics as usual

When Chris Shays announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate next year, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quickly branded him a carpetbagger, of all things. These days, a carpetbagger is a person from out of town or out of state who moves in and tries to get elected. Sometimes, if the person is famous enough, it works. Hillary Clinton and Robert Kennedy, two successful candidates from elsewhere who were elected senators in New York, come to mind. Modern carpetbaggers are not to be confused with the shady northerners who sought to profit from the Confederacy’s distress after the Civil War and were known to travel to the region with their few belongings in a cheap valise made of carpet. Shays is of neither variety. Shays was born in Stamford, grew up in Darien and served as a Connecticut legislator and a congressman from that area for 30 years. He lived in Maryland because, after losing his House seat, he was appointed to co-chair a Washington-based bipartisan commission to study government contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The commission just finished its work, finding $60 billion has been wasted in the wars — or enough to finance FEMA forever. So, what’s with the carpetbagger stuff? It’s another manifestation of today’s venomous politics. If you can’t think of anything bad to say about someone from the other party, make something up — as some operative on the Democratic committee did to Shays. With years of votes in Congress and positions on everything imaginable, calling Shays a carpetbagger is hardly the best the opposition can do.A Google click would reveal he was one of the fiercest of the Iraq War hawks, second only to Joe Lieberman in his support for Bush’s mistake in the Middle East. He even denied the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were torture. But that was long ago in political life; the Bush war is now Obama’s war, so maybe it’s better to attack Shays’ valise than his war mongering.The next assaults on Shays, who enters the race as the most moderate Republican, will come from his own party. He’s pro choice, endorses gay rights and voted against the Defense of Marriage Act and the impeachment of President Clinton. And if his Republican liberalism weren’t enough, Shays also has to contend with his party’s romance with wealthy candidates willing to pick up the tab. The party has had great success with these candidates in Senate races — if you don’t count winning — so it will be tempting to let the unqualified Linda McMahon pay her own way again. The reason for this is simple. When poor candidates run, they can usually count on little or no national party support. I remember one election when the best the Republicans could do against Abe Ribicoff was an airline pilot who got 34 percent of the vote and flew away, never to be heard from again. These candidates rarely did better than the sky pilot’s 34 percent, so it was probably exciting for the party when McMahon dramatically increased that total. By spending $50 million, McMahon was able to amass 43 percent of the vote in 2010, not nearly enough to win, but if she plunks down another $25 million or so next year, who knows? Or maybe the Republicans could go one better and find a celebrity carpetbagger who’s also rich. The only real carpetbagger in recent history to run in Connecticut was James Buckley, who opposed Congressman Chris Dodd in 1980. Although a member of the storied Buckley family of Sharon, Buckley had been a senator from New York, having run as the Conservative Party candidate there in 1970 and beaten a Democrat and a liberal Republican. But when he ran for re-election — as a Republican — he lost, so he moved to Connecticut, where Republicans happily nominated him for the seat vacated by the retiring Abe Ribicoff. Buckley got 43 percent of the vote. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.