Next week, my thirteen-year-old daughter is going on a class trip to Washington, DC. She’s a good kid and I’m excited she is going on the class trip. Yet there are times when she doesn’t clean up her messes well enough, and I can easily imagine telling her sometime before the trip that she can only go to Washington if she cleans up her mess.

What typically happens when you tell teenagers to clean up a mess is that they promise to do so, but then rarely get around to it unless you constantly nag them about it.

When she is in Washington, her class will be meeting with Rep. Shays and it seems as if the topic of cleaning up ones messes provides a great talking point for her and Rep. Shays.

As you will recall, Rep. Shays, when challenged last year, said that he would favor a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq. Yet he has consistently voted against any sort of timeline. He argues that the timelines aren’t the right ones. That sounds an awful lot like a teenager promising to cleanup his mess, but not getting around to it.

So, I hope I don’t have a confrontation with my daughter about cleaning up a mess and that when she is in Washington she gets to say something like:

Rep. Shays: You’ve told the voters in Connecticut that you would favor a timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but when the issue comes up, you vote against it saying that the timing isn’t right. That sounds a lot like me telling my dad that I’ll clean up my mess, but not right now, because the timing isn’t right. That wouldn’t fly with my dad and your line about the timing not being right doesn’t fly with the voters. So, when will you clean up your mess and support a timeline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq?

(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg )