(Cross-posted at Daily Kos.)

Chris Shays (CT-04) has been in office for two long (too long) decades.

Over that time, he's had the opportunity to question countless witnesses in Congressional hearings - questionable, criminal, devious, and laughable characters ranging from Brownie to Rummy to Wolfie.

The other day, he gave an interview to a major national website. And guess who he told them had exhibited the "worst behavior" he's seen in Congress over all those years?

(Cross-posted diary from Swing State Project.)

As DavidNYC suggested yesterday over at SSP, with each passing quarter, the presidential candidates will take away more and more air from other races. Now is the time to throw some support the way of deserving candidates before the 2Q ends this weekend.

In that spirit, here's an update on Jim Himes' campaign in CT-04 - Chris Shays' district, the last spot of red in the House in all of New England:

There are just under 500 days remaining until Election Day 2008. And I intend to spend every one of those days running a different type of campaign, one that focuses on person-to-person contact and real grassroots participation.

Now is the time to build the foundation of this campaign. And I'm looking to you to help build it. Become a Founding Member of our campaign today, and help us reach our goal of signing up 500 new Founding Members before June 30th.

What will you get for being a "Founding Member" of the campaign? You won't get any special access or treatment. You'll get something much more meaningful: the opportunity and responsibility of being one of the first people to join our effort to change the direction of our country and address the real priorities of our district.

Himes' non-political background is diverse (grew up in Latin America, public schools, Rhodes Scholar, Goldman Sachs VP, now works at an affordable housing nonprofit), he's already impressive as a candidate at this early stage, and he's looking to run a different type of campaign in a district that is usually dominated by big media buys.

Shays' time is finally up in 2008, if the netroots and grassroots starts building the foundation for this campaign now. Contribute or sign up to volunteer and help Jim reach the goal of 500 "founding members" of the campaign before this month is over.

Or sign up for email updates here.

Disclosure: I am currently doing some early volunteer work online for Jim Himes.

Update: Thanks to everyone who stopped by... it was a great conversation. Here's the full post.

Please feel free to join us!

Last week, the Stamford Advocate editorial page praised Ned Lamont for his continued engagement and political activism since the election.  Ned has stayed incredibly busy with a teaching gig at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, numerous appearances in support of Democratic candidates and local DTC's, speaking engagements around the country, and efforts to support more progressive legislation at the state level and progressive challengers to Republicans in the Senate.

Hope you can grab a sandwich to eat at your desk and enjoy a great lunchtime conversation with our favorite courageous Connecticut Democrat here at MLN at 12:30 PM on Friday, June 1.  We can discuss Ned's thoughts on the recent Iraq-related votes in Congress, recent Congressional trips to Iraq, and other timely topics of interest....

Back in April, in the face of massive public support for a clear timeline to end the war in Iraq, only two Republicans in the House and two in the Senate dared to buck the White House's pressure tactics and vote for the Iraq Accountability Act. The four were Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), and Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD).

Coincidentally, all four are now facing potential primary challenges from the right.