(Guest Blogged by Howie Klein)
Jim Himes is our Blue America candidate today. We’re trying to help him overcome rubber stamp Republican incumbent Chris Shays in southwest Connecticut. He’ll be live blogging at Firedoglake today at 2pm, EDT. But we also asked him some non-political questions that might help put him in some kind of context.
He’s a huge blues fan; loves classic Muddy Waters, Nina Simone, Buddy Guy, more recently, Ben Harper. But the song he picked out for Crooks & Liars fans, his own all-time fave: Baby, What You Want Me to Do? by Etta James. Two of his favorite authors are Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety) and Mark Helprin (novel only– like Winter’s Tale and Refiner’s Fire). Right now he’s reading Drew Westen’s book, The Political Brain, the premise of which is that we make our political decisions with our hearts more than our brains. Since starting to campaign, Jim hasn’t had a lot of time for TV but he is a huge Jon Stewart fan– watched The Daily Show every night– and a West Wing fanatic too. Don’t forget to come over and meet him today at FDL and if you’d like to see a progressive Democrat who opposes the occupation of Iraq representing CT-04 instead of a classic Republican WINO, here’s your chance to make a difference.
One Trackback To “Blue America Welcomes Jim Himes“
But can he protect us from the Terrorists?
Blue America.
Now that sounds a little better than “Yellow Dog Democrats.”
Are the “Yellow Dogs aiming for a yellow America?
L.A. Confidential @ 1:
is a pigs ass pork?all hes got to do to do that is get rid of bush cheny!walla terriorists gone!
equilibrio @ 2:
nah were just going to scrub the yellow off the repigs backs!
Is Chris Shays a liar?
Is Chris Shays a liar?
they wear their pants on backwards so you cant see wether they are comeing or going,
Jim sounds like a really cool guy. Good luck to him. He’d be a great congressman
If Jim’s soul is as deep as Muddy’s Blues, then the guy is a good man.
He sounds like a man after my own heart-I loves me the Blues and Helprin IS indeed a fine writer.My favorite–which I strongly recommend–is “A Soldier of The Great War”.
Let’s hope that he’s willing and able to take the gloves off in his campaign against the dissembling and unstable Shays. Once campaign season really gets going Shays will do his predictable faux moderate dance just as he did the last time. Remember when he was criticizing the Bush regime and said he wanted to end the war? Right after the elections, he flip flopped and became one of Bush’s rabid henchmen. He also scurrilously and shamelessly attacked the Blackwater widows and freaked out and assaulted a police officer. These facts need to be brought to light by the Himes campaign. The Corporate Media will not do it for him. Anybody else notice that Shays’ incident with the police officer has been buried by the same media that hounded Cynthia McKinney for months on end?
Great Etta James cameo:
18 Lovelight
19 Tell Mama
20 Baby What You Want Me to Do
21 Hard to Handle
22 Midnight Hour
I would love to see someone wipe Chris Shays off the map and it really looks like this guy may fit the bill.
We really need to promote good well bread Americans in all of our states, city’s and counties to get out there and stand up and be heard, because there will defiantly be a whole lot of vacant positions we will need to fill with good honorable people who will take the constitution and the bill of rights, serious and follow the laws of this land. We want our country lead by honest forth right people who will take these matter serious.
We can and should do much better in our choices of government officials. The federal government is a very important operation that these people need to understand is not about making money.
These people are paid well enough to provide for a good life for them selves and their families and I know that because of my 36years in this institution. There is just no reason to have the kind of crap this new gang is putting out and we are just not going to stand for it.
If you want to get rich, engaging in illegal conduct, then you need to keep your ass out of our government and take on a job robbing banks or something and we are going to make this current gang of thugs an example of what not to do in official government postions of authority and they all can be very sure of that.
I hate both parties!!! Repugniscums and Demographics!!!
So the Republicans and the Corporate Media have you just exactly where they want you. Good job at voter suppression. The next Republican candidate and corporatist ringer in the Democratic party will thank you.
Defeat Christopher “Little Joe” Shays!
StCyrlyMe @ 15:
That sounds pretty racist to me…just sayin’
“the military, which has done so well.”
what defending the country and constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic?
911 was the only attack ever on american soil and the FWads get medals and re-elected(kinda not really).
the issue should be wiping out the damage done to the country, constitution and the money supply for the last 40 years.