R.I. conservatives working hard to unseat 'moderate' republican Chafee

[bigtree]

in the upcoming primary . . . Chafee's defeat, and the emergence of a pro-Bush conservative could open the way for the Democratic challenger to tap into the extreme unpopularity of Bush in the state (22% approval in Rhode Island)


Club: Chafee worth beating

The Republican advocacy group Club for Growth unveils a new attack ad as it continues its drumbeat for challenger Stephen P. Laffey.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

With barnyard sound effects and toe-tapping music reminiscent of The Beverly Hillbillies, the conservative Club for Growth is attacking U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in a new television advertisement that paints the Republican incumbent as "just another tax-and-spend politician."

The Club for Growth, an influential anti-tax organization that can steer millions of dollars into political races nationwide, supports Stephen P. Laffey, the two-term Cranston mayor who is challenging Chafee in the Sept. 12 GOP primary.

The Club is a Republican advocacy group, and it's taking a calculated risk in backing a challenger against a sitting Republican U.S. senator in one of the most Democratic states in the nation. "There are risks to this race," the Club says in an endorsement of Laffey on its Web site. "Probably, there are more risks than any other recommendation we will make for 2006."

One risk is that a battered Chafee could survive the primary but lose the seat to a Democrat in November.

The Republican who prevails next month will probably face Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election. The former U.S. Attorney and state attorney general is expected to defeat businessman Carl Sheeler, a political newcomer, in the Democratic primary. Without a well-financed primary opponent pounding him over the air, Whitehouse has enjoyed a summer of building his image through issue ads that play off dissatisfaction with Washington and the Bush administration. (President Bush is more unpopular here than in any other state; a SurveyUSA poll released Tuesday puts the president's job approval at 22 percent in Rhode Island.)


full report: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060817_ad17.32bbd58.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. If Laffey wins, this seat belongs to Whitehouse...

it is so stupid for conservatives to try to run a far-right individual in RI. It'd be like us trying to run a far-left candidate against Ben Nelson in NE.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Have you not seen that advocated thousands of times here?

I can't tell you how many arguments I've gotten into about that.

[SteppingRazor]

8. Yes, I have...

and I've gotten into some debates about it myself.

I believe running a very liberal candidate against Ben Nelson would be about as dumb as running Laffey against Chafee -- from a purely political standpoint.

[warrens]

2. I think a Dem will take that seat no matter who runs

Chafee is a decent guy, but I think all Dems want a majority in the house and senate. Chafee will have a hard time explaining how having a moderate repug trumps having a dem senator. He used to be able to make that case.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Work harder, you pig fucking SOBs!!

I want that state on a SILVER PLATTER, DAMNIT!! :D

[Arugula Latte]

5. Go, Laffey!

You rightwing Neanderthal nutsack! :woohoo:

[hfojvt]

6. are Bush and Republican Senators

going to be campaigning for Chaffee? Or does the challenger not have a shot?

[SteppingRazor]

9. The GOP, I'm sure, recognizes this as a vulnerable seat...

they'd be fools not to dump money into the race, along with the requsite visits by popular GOP politicians -- I said popular, mind you, which means, no, don't expect a visit from Bush. They hate him in RI.

[Hoosier Dem]

7. Chafee is a pretty decent guy...

The Dem leadership has made overtures to swithc parties or pull a Jeffords and go I on more than one occasion. He decided not to do it.

Chafee decided to ride the Rethug train and now its going downhill with no brakes. Even if he survives the primary, I don't see him surviving the fall. He made his own choice.

[nealmhughes]

10. I hope Chaffee get the nomination.

He is up there on my very small list of Republicans whom I would actually enjoy meeting and notjust to see if there was the flesh of infants stuck between their teeth.

If we want a strong debate in the Senate, then in my opinion, it is vital that there be a range of views: apparently, Oklahoma and Utah will be lost to the Enlightenment -- and they were off to a good attempt in the early 19th Century before the LDS came to Utah and the Five Civilized Tribes had sovereign nations before the Europeans came. So that has the Strom Thurmond/Lester Maddox crowd locked in there for a while, so they will be allowed to be spokesmen for the radical right and actually say something appalling and stupid occasionally in order to shock the public and kick their evil crew to the curb.

Let's face it, the genius of the Constitution is its mediocracy. The majority will swing one way or another in the Congress, but they are balanced by a judiciary which varies wildly in its temperment, depending upon which party supported their nominations; along with an Executive which is at the theoretical will of the people every four years.

Now, I hope the pendulum is swinging towards the progressive side of its arc and stays there for a long while. But as long as we have our 3-branch system, it will go from one extreme to the other and then from full dead center to the other before back to center again and again to the other extreme...it is human nature. It is also human nature to jump on bandwagons and even for those not on it to claim they had been in order not to be out of style.

I hope the country swings to the Left, and stays there as long as it did under FDR and the judges he appointed, but I realize that the entire thing is a cycle, and there is nothing we can do about it except to no accept the "less of two evils" when a progressive dark horse candidate is out there but people choose not to vote for her because she is an unknown.

I know little about the Democratic candidate, but I would probably vote for him were I a resident of RI and PP, but I am not. Were I a Republican, which by the grace and God and the 50:50 chance that there actually a Hell, I am not, I would definitely see thru the shennanigans and vote for Chaffee.

This is of course, corte duree thinking, for the plus longue duree, which in the long run (no bilingual puns intended) isn't very long in reality, acceptance and working with a moderate over a radical is preferable to having only a handful of progressives vs. a chamber of radicals Bushistas.

[Grebrook]

11. The Anti-Incumbent mood will kill Chaffey just like Lieberman, Mckinney...

Schwartz, etc...

Good news for us.