After all, he figured, "there will be a number of issues Democrats favor that the Republican majority was not willing to take up." These are strange new times for the 19-year congressman. If Rep.
Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, loses his seat to Democrat Joseph Courtney - a recount is proceeding - Shays would be New England's only House Republican when the 110th Congress convenes in January. Yet he almost feels bulletproof, someone who was not shy about supporting the Iraq war in a year when that was political poison, who continued to say nice things about President Bush even as the approval numbers sank, and who still managed to beat Democrat Diane Farrell handily. Even his longtime nemesis, speaker-in-waiting Nancy D.
Pelosi, D-Calif., no longer bothers him. Shays seemed almost more optimistic about her than whomever may replace current House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
, as leader of the Republican minority. Top candidates are current Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, conservative leader Mike Pence, R-Ind.
, and current Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas. Shays opposed Boehner for majority leader earlier this year. "I'm not thrilled with any of them," he said.
"Boehner is someone who's more willing to reach out to Democrats, but my problem with him is he's one of the guys who didn't want to deal with the ethical challenges facing our Congress." Boehner and others will be frantically working the phones this week, because one vote can make a difference. "I'm not taking their calls," Shays said.
"I am totally open. I have committed to no one." His preference, he said, would be the more moderate Rep.
Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., current chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.
Davis represents an affluent, diverse suburban Washington district similar in many ways to the Fairfield County area Shays represents. If Davis got a leadership job, Shays probably would become top Republican on the government reform panel, where he now serves as vice chairman. He heads its national security subcommittee, a forum for examining U.
S. policies on terrorism and Iraq. Shays will lose both the committee vice chairmanship and subcommittee chairmanship.
The new subcommittee leader likely will be Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, or Rep.
Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y.
, both of whom have worked closely with Shays. So although he will lose most of his subcommittee staff, and may have to go through more logistical hurdles to travel to Iraq, the subcommittee's focus is not likely to change. The usually measured Pelosi and Shays have been sniping at each other for years.
In 2004, Pelosi called Shays "brain dead," as well as "a rubber-stamp-for-the-radical-right-wing, check-your-brain-at-the-door congressperson." Even after Shays retained his seat in 2004, she refused to relent, calling his claims that he was a moderate "a masquerade.
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