In striking contrast to the Democratic party's abandonment of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman for being too conservative, the Rhode Island primary saw the major campaign institutions of the GOP rally behind maverick Liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee to push him to a strong 54% to 45% victory over conservative challenger Stephen Laffey on Tuesday.
Chafee's moderate-to-liberal positions on issues like abortion and the war in Iraq had alienated a lot of religious and hawkish Republicans who encouraged and supported the pro-life and pro-war Laffey in his primary challenge. Laffey had raised a lot of money and up until the last few weeks most of the polls had shown him neck and neck or even leading Chafee.
Then in the final weeks of the campaign the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee really came through for Chafee with direct donations and ad campaign sponsorships totalling more than $1.2 million, plus additional staff and expertise to turn out independent voters to vote in the Republican primary and give Chafee the win.
Cynics are pointing out that Chafee is the incumbent and they may have only supported him because they thought he would run more effectively against moderate Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, but there may be more significance to this development. It may be a reminder of who really controls the GOP and a sign of things to come.
The Republican National Committee is run by Ken Mehlman who is relatively politically moderate and widely rumored to be gay. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is headed by Elizabeth Dole whose voting record in the Senate is fiscally conservative but socially fairly moderate. Rep. Tom Reynolds, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, has a more moderate voting record than either of them.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Arch Conservative
What the GOP should have done to Chaffe was handcuff him to Mccain and throw him under a bus.
2 - Michael J. West
In fact, Dave, Zingzing once made a comment that has stuck with me ever since:
"Bing, you can't be for real."
3 - Georgio
umm If Arch is going to handcuff McCain than why would he not include Juliani who is a moderate also ..I being a Liberal would find it hard to dislike this trio...
4 - Arch Conservative
Dave...what kind of Republican takes either Chafee or Mccain seriously?
And georgio I guess we could handcuff Guiliani too abd throw all three of them under the bus.
I have made it clear who I'm supporting in 2008.
Mitt Romney! A real republican.
5 - Scott
Chafee's support by the RNSC and Lieberman's "lack" of support by the DSCC can be attributed to the fact that the only way the Republicans could hold Chafee's seat (which is not certain) is with Chafee. Hell, they had already conceeded that had Laffey won the primary, they wouldn't have given him any money. Lieberman's seat is a "safe" Democratic seat (no matter if Lieberman or Lamont was the nominee - and now both are nominees) and the DSCC would've been nuts to shell out millions when they have so many other targets and chances to actually flip Republican held seats this year. Republicans are actually pretty steamed that the RNSC paid out so much defending Chafee in the primary when their money could've gone to defending other seats.
6 - Dave Nalle
Dave...what kind of Republican takes either Chafee or Mccain seriously?
Um, the sane kind?
Republicans are actually pretty steamed that the RNSC paid out so much defending Chafee in the primary when their money could've gone to defending other seats.
Yes, I mentioned that in the article. The irony is that they're steamed at the RNSC which did the right thing here rather than at Laffey and his backers who were working against the best interests of both the party and the country.
And regardless of everything else, this action is an acknowledgement that Chafee in office is still better than the alternative for the GOP. And IMO his presence does a lot to remind the GOP what issues and positions they ought to be considering.
Dave
7 - RJ Elliott
Screw Chafee. I hope the RINO loses to the Democrat Whitehouse.
The GOP can't win on the issues in RI, so instead it offered support to a Democrat-in-GOP-clothing in a desperate attempt to "keep" a Senate seat for a guy who votes against the GOP on the big issues like 70% of the time...pathetic...
8 - Dave Nalle
RJ, have you actually LOOKED at Chafee's voting record? He's fiscally conservative and pretty moderate on social issues. Just because he's not pro war and pro life the extreme right has tried to make him out to be a closet democrat, but they're just wrong.
Do you remember Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, Barry Goldwater and Bob Dole? They'd all have been right at home with Chafee just as they were with his father who held the same views and was never called a RINO. Why is it that those views which were okay 20 years ago are now suddenly anathema to the new pro-life, big spending warhawks who claim to be the 'real' republicans?
I've got news for them. Chafee is closer to the traditions of the party that freed the slaves, integrated the federal workplace, broke the monopolies and the unions and fought and won the cold war.
When your party is wrong, voting with them is NOT a virtue.
Dave
9 - Nancy
Amen, Dave. As I've pointed out elsewhere, the parties as they currently stand are SO out of touch with reality and the people that they no longer can validly claim to represent us in any sense. Both parties are also way out of whack with their own political traditions as well, picking and choosing candidates that reflect the priorities of the party leaders, NOT the voters themselves. Talk about special interests. Personally, IMO Chafee & many others (including Lieberman) would do well in the interests of truth in advertising to become Independents, but I suppose that might strip them of whatever party financial support they might be able to get, altho I wonder if they wouldn't be better off without it. At least we'd have the beginnings of a viable & desperately needed 3rd party!
10 - Nancy
& Al, don't hold your breath waiting for Romney to get the GOP-RNC nod for Prez; it ain't gonna happen. His base of appeal is too narrow, & he's got other PR problems the RNC isn't going to want to fight to deflate, when they have plenty of other more easily defended candidates out there. Alas, the perception is everything.
11 - Dave Nalle
Why anyone would hold out fanatically for an unelectable non-entity like Romney when we have so many better potential candidates in the GOP is absolutely mystifying to me.
Giuliani, Mark Sanford and even McCain make Romney look like a political chump.
Dave
12 - Nancy
As I said, he's got too many perception problems and there are too many other GOP candidates who don't. Like it or not, a LOT of voters are extremely leery of voting for a Mormon (just like they were leery of a Catholic before Kennedy), the more so because the LDS church DOES indeed keep its members on very tight leashes, and the higher they are in public life, the tighter the leash, so a vast majority are reluctant to hand over the ruling of the US to Salt Lake City. Whether this is true or not, that's the popular perception, like it or not.
Now, after defying Bush on the CIA torture demand yesterday, I have a suspicion McCain isn't going to be the RNC candidate of choice, either. Actually, I thought that a long time ago, even when he started sucking up to Bush during the 2004 elections, obviously in the hope he'd get the RNC nod & list of donors. I suspect that was his price for campaigning for Junior in 2004, but if he believed them, the more fool he, 'cause I think they yanked the football on him, and they'll use this as an excuse. The RNC/GOP doesn't want anyone who thinks for himself or can't be controlled, and McCain is not as biddable as they'd like.
Before he opened his big yap & made the "Macaca" good, I'd have said George Allen had a good shot at it, but that may have dumped him a little lower in the selections, since anyone running opposite can use that as a bias card. Maybe they'll just wait & hope the MSM & public forget, but I doubt it.
I don't know about Giuliani; outside the East coast he's not that well known - altho that can be amended, of course, with a war chest the size of that the RNC has.
What are other's thought on this? Dave? Anybody?
13 - Scott
If the GOP is interested in keeping the Presidency in their hands they have to nominate either McCain or Giuliani. Allen, Romney, Huckabee and Frist are all pretty much unelectable at this point.
14 - Dave Nalle
Scott, Frist is actually halfway moderate and semi-sensible. But I agree he's not a very good candidate. He's just too stiff and hasn't been popular enough on the Hill. Plus running from the legislature rarely works.
IMO the GOP should do everything it can to convince Mark Sandford to run and shake things up with a dark horse candidate, but Giuliani will do in a pinch.
Dave
15 - Nancy
I think between his business entanglements & putting his foot in his mouth over Schiavo medically, Frist is out of the running. Also, as you pointed out, he's not very personable in public, and he isn't well liked by the independent voter contingent because he's popularly perceived as a WH lapdog. There's other candidates with less problems. Sandford...I don't know much about him. What're his qualifications over, say, Giuliani?
16 - Dave Nalle
Sandford is younger and healthier than Giuliani and doesn't have the same controversial personal life. He's also a governor rather than a mayor, which helps a lot as far as being qualified.
But more importantly he's not a vague moderate like Giuliani, but more of a traditional fiscally conservative socially liberal republican, which I think will sell better with the party base.
Dave
17 - Arch Conservative
Mccain is the chump Nalle. Do you actually think the GOP will give him the nod?
Guiliani seems like a decent fellow and I would even consider voting for him if he weren't so socially liberal. But that is the reason he won't be the GOP's guy in 2008 either.
George Allen is a real conservative but not bright enough. he's not ready for primetime.
I'd vote for Gingrich but I doubt he'd make it.
You might think Romney is a nobody Dave but the election is 2 years away and living in New England I am probably more familiar with him than most oN BC. I can tel you Romney is a quality guy. He's a true conservative with a track record of success. The biggest strike againsthim is that he is in fact a mormon and close minded people like Nancy will use that reason alone not to vote for him. But I think he can overcome this and show people he's a mormon but he's just a regualar family guy who doesn't go around injecting his faith into everything.
Romney 2008!
Oh and guiliani, mccain, gingrich, romney, huckabee, even george allen would all trounce hillary so I hope you moonbats do run her.
18 - RJ Elliott
Dave:
Chafee has voted -
for Campaign Finance Reform
against Judge Alito's confirmation
against Bush's tax cuts
against the flag-burning Amendment
against a ban of Partial-Birth Abortion
against a ban on "Gay Marriage"
for "Hate Crimes" legislation
for the new Prescription Drugs entitlement
against the War in Iraq
for illegal-immigrant amnesty
against William Pryor for federal judge
against drilling in ANWR
ETC.
He also says he voted for Kerry in 2004.
So, he's basically a Democrat in GOP clothing...why should I support him?
Why do you???
19 - RJ Elliott
By the way, my source for a lot of the above was this...
20 - Dave Nalle
RJ, I do agree with him on 5 of those items and don't much care about several of the others. But the POINT is that he keeps the GOP honest and is a reminder that it IS a big tent.
Dave
21 - RJ Elliott
Mark My Words:
If the GOP "holds" the Senate by a total of 50-50 (with Cheney as the tie-breaking vote), Chafee will "pull a Jeffords" and become a Dem...giving control of the Senate to the Democrats...
I honestly don't think it will come to that, because I think the GOP will still have a 52-48 or 53-47 advantage in the Senate after November...but I don't trust this bastard one bit...
22 - MCH
"Dave:
Chafee has voted -
...against the War in Iraq..."
- RJ Elliott
So which is worse, RJ:
voting against the war in Iraq, or blogging macho pro-war rhetoric while sending others to fight your battles for you...?
23 - IgnatiusReilly
"And regardless of everything else, this action is an acknowledgement that Chafee in office is still better than the alternative for the GOP."
You didn't complete the sentence.
"...to win the seat."
It's all about winning control of the sentence. Liberal Repub is better bet than a Conservative one. Why would the moderates all of a sudden get a voice over just one seat considering all the other candidates they support. You are deluding yourself about the way the party works.
24 - Dave Nalle
Chafee isn't going to pull a Jeffords if the party continues to move in the right direction. What you need to realize is that the GOP has been off track and needs to return to where it was before the Clinton administration, when moderates and conservatives could work together and had common interests. Bigotry and extremism should stay in the Democratic party where they belong.
Dave
25 - Scott
Dave, why so paranoid lately?