They call themselves "moderates." Republicans like Christopher Shays of Connecticut. Shays represents Connecticut's 4th District - a conglomeration of yuppie refugees from Manhattan. Up and comers who have made it financially but are still "sensitive" to the needs of whatever and whoever is the cause of the moment.

Shays was one of those "moderates" hyped by the media for not wanting to impeach Clinton. A man who doesn't mind partial birth abortion, or passing one more gun control law, or shutting up advocacy groups by instituting one more useless campaign finance reform bill. As a co-sponsor of the Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Bill, Christopher Shays imagines that what is needed to cure the problem is one more law. Never mind that those on the books already are not enforced.

When the brain-dead of any political persuasion, point to the "soft" money contributed to the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign as a reason for yet another law, they fail to realize there are plenty of laws on books. The problem was that Clinton's chicanery was never addressed by Congress. Democrats had too much to lose in the deal and Republicans were too scared. Clinton's Justice department turned a blind eye and pretended there was no problem. Just ask FBI investigator Charles La Bella how his investigation was ignored by Janet Reno.

The same do-nothing attitude exists in the enforcement of gun control laws.

Shays is a moderate of biblical proportions. He is a lukewarm guy who is neither hot nor cold. A fiscal conservative, praised by taxpayer organizations, he is otherwise a statist. He doesn't care one wit about following the Constitution. His actions speak for themselves. During impeachment, he was one of the Republicans who said no. Then later said he might have changed his mind had he known about Juanita Broadrick. No matter that there was a sitting President who had broken numerous laws - Christopher Shays didn't think it rose to the level of impeachment.

Nor does he care to outlaw a medical procedure known as partial birth abortion - a totally unnecessary and barbaric medical procedure - not to mention the ethical and moral considerations surrounding it. He cares not for the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution or indeed the 4th and 10th for that matter.

Additionally, he is a man who wants the U.S. to continue to pony up more money to pay the "arrears" blackmail due the Godzilla of government bureaucracies - the United Nations. Never mind we already have spent billions or continue to carry a disproportionate load while our military careens around the world implementing U.N. policy.

His latest gambit speaks volumes about the elitist nature of his core beliefs and those of most moderate Republicans. Americans ought to be outraged by the likes of Shays. But they are not. They don't listen and more importantly, they don't hear or understand.

In a recent interview with the Heartland Institute's Environmental News Shays opined about his bill, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (H.R. 488): "I'm trying to create as much public land as possible. I would love it if 60 percent of Connecticut were owned by the government in wilderness." The article continues that it would be difficult converting Connecticut to government-owned, off-limits-to-man wilderness. He said: "It will take some time to reclaim what is now privately owned land in Eastern and Midwestern states."

That is why he said he is supporting making land off-limits by starting in the West. He has proposed legislation which would designate lands in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming as wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The bill would severely restrict mining, logging, road maintenance, and all use of motorized vehicles except snowmobiles; though, eventually, their use would be halted too. The amount of land this bill will confiscate is three times the size of Connecticut.

Before he leaves office, Clinton plans on appropriating more lands to federal designation as he did in Utah, with the 1.7 million acre wilderness designation of the Escalante Staircase. Bruce Babbitt has already stated that more confiscation - whoops, designation - will occur. Babbitt maintains this land will be confiscated i.e. designated with or without congressional approval. Millions of acres in the West are going to be off limits to human use - but this time they are going after the East Coast as well.

Clinton's legacy will consist of stealing land to create a giant out door museum and soul-mate Shays will be one of the curators. However, don't for a moment think this will be "public" land. The perfidious notion that "public" lands is what it purports to be shows how much the American public has been bamboozled. There is very little "public" about it. Restrictions are going to keep you and I out of it. Unless you are a card-carrying member of the Sierra Club or one of the other environmental - last home of socialism - green groups or other approved elites.

To find out what happens to these so called "public" lands - ask the people who live in the areas affected. Ask the people of northern Minnesota who have trouble getting permits to get on their own Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Ask the people of the Western states who are being run out of business because of an elitist quasi-religious view of the environment.

The good people of Connecticut need to remember how things work. "First they came for the gypsies, then they came for the Jews, then they came for the Catholics, but what was that to me -- until they came for me."

You know what a Judas Goat is? It is a dumb animal who leads the unthinking "sheep" to the slaughter. Are Christopher Shays and other moderate Republicans the Judas goats of our times?