RI, there's no good reason to keep Chafee

[BurtWorm]

Unless he switches parties, he is a Bush-Cheney enabler no matter how "liberal" his vote is.

RI DUers, do the independents in RI realize this?

[kentuck]

1. Democrats stand less of a chance winning the Senate...

if RI keeps Chafee. Simple as that.

[skipos]

2. A vote for Chafee is a vote for a Republican senate majority and

all the bad shit that comes with it.

[gaspee]

3. I keep trying to explain this

But I don't think people not from here can get it.

People like Chafee. hell, I like him on a personal level and I'm practically a socialist.

On the top of the RI statehouse is a statue called The Independent Man. Rhode Islanders like to think of themselves as independent. Most voters are non-affiliated. Chafee seems to be independent. He's not, really. Though I do think he's a good person and tends to vote his conscience.

And truthfully, if the dems held the Senate with 55 or so Senators, I might actually vote for Chafee. I voted for him for mayor. I would vote for him for governor.

For a silver-spooner, oligarchy member, he's surprisingly down to earth. He's fairly honest. When asked if he thought Bin Laden should get the death penalty during one of the debates, he said no. He didn't try to spin it, except for saying if you are anti-death penalty, you can't make exceptions. If you make any exceptions, then you are not anti-death penalty. Even if people don't agree with him, they like that he does seem to buck his party.

Of course we have our conservative assholes and of course we have our racist/sexist/homophobi/war mongers. They're everywhere, but they are a surprisingly low percentage of people around here. There is a very live and let live attitude.

I guess it's going to boil down to whether or not enough people get just how important it is to not have a republican majority. I don't know if it's going to happen or not. I know it's one of the themes of Whitehouse's campaign.

The other factor is that Warwick, the city Chafee was mayor of, has the largest percentage of voters in every single election. Langevin is from Warwick as well. If you're going to win a state-wide office in RI, you've got to win in Warwick. And, with Chafee having been a very popular mayor... it makes it tough to take Warwick from him.

Chafee was mayor here for seven years and he was a really good mayor. In RI, people actually know their elected officials. Which makes it really hard to get rid of incumbants.

And then, you have a very common attitude that all politicians are crooks and bums, so what does it really matter anyway? And in a state with a large number of corruption convicted politicians, Chafee has never been accused of being dishonest. Not even by the Laffey campaign when they went way negative.

So, like I said, people *like* Chafee. They feel he represents them. He's the underdog, the little guy, bucking the rest of his party. I don't think like that, but I know a lot of people who do.

All that said, I do think Whitehouse has a good chance to win. But it's going to cost money and he needs to hammer home that no matter how much people like Chafee, he's a Bush enabler. And he can't go too negative on Chafee. I think the Club For Growth ads are one major reason Laffey lost. People were getting pissed.

I'm, obviously, voting for Whitehouse and I'm willing to talk politics with people, but you can't really come on too strong, either, because Rhode Islanders really hate being told what to do. And the national groups need to stay away. Outsiders shouldn't get involved because that will piss people off. Like the Club for Growth did.

All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm not kidding myself into thinking it's going to be easy.

Edited to add...

I think the person best suited to come here and campaign for Whitehouse is Bill Clinton. People around here love Clinton and he has been here many times. High profile events where regular people (ie, not rich) can come would be best. Seriously, people aroung here love Clinton.

[BurtWorm]

5. I like Chafee for the most part, but he's a Republican

and that's a huge strike against him in this day and age. Maybe Whitehouse's angle should be that an Independent Chafee would be a better bet than a Republican Chafee. Until Chafee leaves the party of Bush and DeLay and Frist and Rumsfeld and Cheney and Pat Robertson, he's complicit in their power grabbing and war mongering. He's a big part of why they're able to do what they do.

[Crankie Avalon]

4. Actually, I've read Chafee may now vote to confirm Bolton for real...

...once the recess appointment ends as payback to the Repubs for backing Chafee in his tough primary challenge. He voted against Bolton last time and that was why the nomination didn't get out of committee so Bush had to do the "recess appointment." That is now expiring and Chafee "owes" the tRepubs one.

Something to think about.

[Bumblebee]

6. No, it's probably the other way around. See:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091302025.html

He now needs to shift left to win and a pro-Bolton vote would kill that.

I like him too -- but much less so after all these GOPers, like Laura Bush and Rove, came to his aid. Hope it will affect others as well.

[bdamomma]

7. if Chafee lets Bolton in, he can kiss his seat away in November