Chris Shays Says It's Either Him or Tom Davis

By: Lowell
Published On: 9/14/2007 2:27:15 PM

Well, isn't this interesting:

Rep. Christopher Shays [R-CT] said today he will not seek another congressional term unless House Republican leaders support his bid for the job of top GOP member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

He is meeting with leaders and other key members now.

If they do not give him significant backing "I'm absolutely not going to run," said Shays, who said he is giving no one any deadlines.

And who is the "top GOP member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee?"  That's right, it's this guy....er, this guy.  Ha.

Comments



Three Term Limit for GOP Committee Chairs and Ranking Minority Members (jsrutstein - 9/14/2007 6:59:17 PM)
If Tom Davis were to return to the House in 2009, he would have served four years as Chairman and two years as Ranking Minority Member of the Oversight and Reform Committee.  I think under GOP rules he'd have to give that up.  He's also a member of the Homeland Security Committee, but I don't know if he'd be in the running to be the Ranking Member there, or if he could get the leadership to bump someone else in another Committee.  I would think if Davis foregoes an uphill battle for the open Senate seat and keeps his VA-11 seat in the GOP column the leadership will be grateful and reward him accordingly.


Davis and Shays--Honest, moderate Shays forced into back seat. (Andrea Chamblee - 9/17/2007 11:38:07 PM)
Like recognition for Shays, my comment is better late than never. The Hill newspaper reported Shays was supposed to get the Chair years ago, but Tom Delay loaned his buddy Tom Davis a "Hammer, Junior" on his staff to bully the Republicans into chosing Davis.
[Tom] DeLay's office was ... effusive and predicted [his] victory for the NRCC Chairmanship.

"Tom Davis is going to be an excellent NRCC chair because he has the tactical, political and fund-raising experience to get the job done," said DeLay spokesman Michael Scanlon [now having pled guilty as a felon in the Abramoff scandal]. "He is far and away one of the best political minds on Capitol Hill."
By taking the helm of the NRCC, which is charged with recruiting and bankrolling candidates, Davis would catapult himself into an inner circle of only eight elected leadership officials who oversee the House's day-to-day operations, plot strategy in weekly Tuesday sessions and set the congressional agenda.


More here.

Between the two of them (Davis and Delay) they turned the Committee Chair into a cash cow for the RNCC, telling government contractors that to get a contract, and to avoid an oversight hearing when they f*ed up, that they had to pay campaign contributions.