The TWO-FACED God JANUS is Chris Shay's IDOL, for Shays is a TWO-FACED HYPOCRITE who SAYS WHAT HE WANTS TO WHEN HE FEELS IT IS HELPING HIM POLITICALLY. I HAVE SEEN FEW SCOUNDRELS LIKE Shays WHO ACT ALL HOLIER THAN THOU WHEN THEY ARE AS HYPOCRTICAL AS SAY, CHIMPya IN HIS HYPOCRISY!!!!! Shays OUGHT TO BE TARRED AND FEATHERED AND RUN OUT OF TOWN ON A RAIL, THE MEALY-MOUTHED, WHINY, COWARDLY WIMP HYPOCRITE repugnicant-repub fudge-pachyderm!

Fourteen months ago, the Connecticut Republican (Shays).... announced that most U.S. troops should be removed from Iraq in 2007, saying that "the only way we are able to encourage some political will on the part of the Iraqis is to have a timeline for troop withdrawal." That position helped Shays squeeze out a 51 percent victory in his antiwar home state.

Hmmm...is there a pattern here with Connecticut legislators saying anything they can to get re-elected and then fall back into their true neocon positions? Reminds me of another legislature from Connecticut.

Perhaps there are statistically significantly more people who believe in the 'supernatural' in Connecticut then in the rest of the country.

That should read "Why HAS crappy reporting and commentating become so acceptable these days",

and Chris Shays is smarmy, not smary.

Need more caffeine. NOW!

I agree--that was a great line about Shays:

"vigorous defense of the administration in odd-numbered years."

and I hope Shays' opponent uses it in 2008 to dump that smary jerk.

But: Dana Milbank just mouths conventional "wisdom" in his columns, and, his appearances on Olbermann, so why is he relevant?

A stupid question, perhaps, given the Post's stable of columnists (Kurtz and Broder immediately leap to mind, for some reason)...but why is crappy reporting and commentating become so acceptable these days?

Is this the same WaPo reporter who recently (10/16) conflated Social Security and Medicare to claim that Baby Boomers would "bankrupt the nation"? As Paul Krugman aptly put it,

It has become standard practice among privatizers to talk as if there is some program called Socialsecurityandmedicare. They hope to use scary numbers about future medical costs to panic us into abandoning a retirement program that's actually in pretty good shape

Mr. Milbank persists in repeating distorting and misleading and thoroughly debunked arguments to scare us into thinking that Social Security is in big trouble. These are not the actions of a reporter, but a partisan hack. When debunked information resurfaces again and again, despite correction from the likes of Krugman and even Alan Greenspan, one can only conclude that it is done willfully and maliciously. (for more, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3200)

I'm not a fan at all.

IMHO, any "reporter" who doesn't challenge fishy fantasy from an interviewee during questioning isn't doing his/her primary job: ascertaining the facts. To then write that story containing those fishy facts...as the truth...makes the "reporter" a co-conspirator.

Of course, if it's a FOX News "reporter" we're talking about here...never mind.

Seems a shame Milbank couldn't call Shays' office and ask who he was referring to and then call that person for a reaction. I thought that was what reporters do.

into NY and go hunting with his favorite neocon, President Cheney. I'd bet a pheasant dinner Shays has never shot a gun. Also, if I were him, I'd be suspicious if Darth asks him to wear the pheasant costume for the pre Halloween hunt...

You're usually a fan of Dana Milbank? That smug weasel frequently makes misleading smears like this one. I've gotten so annoyed with him that when I see him show up as a commentator on Countdown, I Tivo through to the next segment. It always seems to me that he'd rather make half-hearted, unclever jokes about stories than provide any meaningful insight, leading me to believe he doesn't have any.

If things really improved in Iraq, it would certainly help the Republicans. A pony would be nice too.

It's ALL THE NEWS TO PRINT THAT FITS.

That's the new journalism. And just for those who think I mean column inches, it's all the news that fits within the confines of administration-approved hype, spin, talking points, cover-ups, obfuscation, hidden agenda, and out-and-out crap.

That's what happens when the Free Press is a limited partnership.