Constituent Opposition on Iraq Won’t Faze Shays
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – While Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) would love to have strong support from his constituents for military action in Iraq, his support of striking preemptively remains steadfast even though some members of the Norwalk Common Council disagree with him, Betsy Hawkings, his chief of staff, said Wednesday.
“Chris has said, ‘I would rather tell you the truth, do what I think is right and lose the election than put my finger in the wind, do something I don’t agree with and don’t think is right just to win reelection,’ ” Hawkings said.
The Norwalk Common Council was deadlocked at Tuesday’s meeting on a resolution opposing preemptive U.S. military action against Iraq. The motion was tabled until next week.
Hawkings said such a resolution, while it expresses legitimate concerns, would not sway Shays’ opinion.
“Chris works hard to be responsive to the concerns of his constituents, but that can mean that in a situation like this, they need to hear the truth about a very real threat,” Hawkings said.
Shays said that while he is doing all he can to convey his reasons for supporting military action against Iraq, he does sometimes withhold sensitive, classified information, according to Hawkings.
“He thinks it’s critical that he do all he can to communicate to his constituents how real the threat is, but at the end of the day there may be information that he has that he can’t give out,” Hawkings said.
These comments followed a week of community meetings throughout the 4th District, which culminated in a forum on the Iraq issue Sunday in Westport. Both Shays’ office and those who attended Sunday’s meeting said attendees opposed preemptive military action instead of prolonged United Nations weapons inspections.
Hawkings pointed to the 23 hearings Shays held before Sept. 11 about terrorist threats at home and abroad as chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security as assurance that the congressman has closely monitored the Iraqi threat to America.
Over the course of 41 hearings, some classified, since 1999, the subcommittee has found that Iraq produces illegal weapons and materials and could eventually use them to threaten the United States.
“The mere existence of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of despots, tyrants and terrorists constitutes an imminent threat to our security,” Shays said during last October’s debates on the Iraqi war resolution. “That threat must be addressed before it manifests itself full-blown in a smallpox epidemic or a mushroom cloud.”
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
