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On highway issues, and Mr. Shays' road
by Sarah Littman
May 17, 2005
I'll be the first to admit that mathematics was never my strong point in school.
Alert reader Malcolm Davies caught a mistake in my last column. I'd messed up
the liter/imperial gallon/U.S. gallon conversion. Mr. Davies worked out that at
88 pence per liter, the equivalent price of a U.S. gallon would be $6.72, rather
than the $4.43 I'd calculated.
Imagine filling up the Hummer at those prices. Wanna make a bet we'd see a lot
fewer behemoths around town?
On the round-trip drive to New York City on Mother's Day, (trying to stifle road
rage because I was stuck behind some idiot crawling along in the outside lane),
I realized I'd omitted another pet road peeve from my previous rant. Answer me
this: What moron of a road planner designed roads so that the ramp for vehicles
entering a highway comes before the ramp for those exiting?
Surely there would be many fewer accidents if the reverse were true, because all
the cars filtering right to exit would be off the highway before the cars
filtering left to enter it appear. Every time I see the chaos as cars entering
and leaving a highway jockey for position, I can't help wondering what thought
process (or lack thereof) went into this design.
But enough road-ranting. Spring is in the air, and I'm feeling playful. So
here's another "Guess who said it" for you:
"Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment
insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of
that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of
course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are Š a few Texas
oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas.
Their number is negligible, and they are stupid."
No, it's not Al Franken. That quotation came from none other than Republican
President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, dated Nov. 8,
1954. Astonishing, isn't it?
I find it fascinating to see how far the Republican Party in its current form
has drifted from its roots. And I'd venture that few in politics are feeling
this more keenly than moderates like U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport.
Last month, Shays earned two public rebukes from Greenwich Republican Town
Committee Chairman Alfred Camillo for his opposition to congressional
intervention in the Terri Schiavo case and his call for House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay's to resign over ethics violations. Camillo's comments make clear how
difficult it is to be moderate
Republican these days.
The GOP chairman wrote: "If one person, an elected Republican official, year
after year, month after month, continuously attacks fellow Republicans in
positions that are supported by a wide majority of Republicans around the
country, and if the Republican official is on certain issues is going to be
aligned with the Democrats, then we certainly, as Republicans, have the right to
question that."
I wouldn't fancy being in Mr. Shays' shoes, because now he's in the position of
being attacked from the right and the left. He's angered Democrats by voting as
a moderate on bills when there is no chance they will pass, and then for
appearing to change tack and fall back with the party line when his vote is
necessary for passage. Under a known DeLay tactic called "catch and release,"
moderate Republicans are permitted to vote against party lines if a bill is
unpopular in his or her home district, without reprisal from "The Hammer" --
unless that vote is necessary to support the bill's passage.
A recent example is Shays' vote with the DeLay camp to defeat the Capps
amendment, an attempt by Rep. Lois Capps to strip the provision in the energy
bill that would shield the manufacturers of MTBE from product liability
lawsuits. MTBE is a fuel additive that has resulted in groundwater contamination
in more than 1,800 community water systems in 29 states (including our own).
Despite a reputation as an environmentalist, Shays was the only member of the
Connecticut delegation to vote in favor of giving producers of MTBE total
immunity from lawsuits.
I admire Mr. Shays for being the first Republican to call for DeLay's
resignation and for speaking out against the interference of Congress with the
workings of the judiciary in the Schiavo case. Mr. Camillo, on the other hand,
appears to put party loyalty over the need for higher ethical standards and the
preservation of a traditional Republican value: states' rights.
But let's face it: Mr. Shays is in a lose/lose situation. I don't envy him.
Sarah Littman, who lives in Greenwich, is author of "Confessions of a Closet
Catholic," published by Dutton Children's Books.
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