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Nov
9
If I were a Republican, I would have voted for Rhode Island’s GOP Senator, Lincoln Chafee. I really like what I’ve read about him – and I admit that I know little else. Likewise, if I were a Democrat in RI, I’d have voted for the Democratic opponent, Sheldon Whitehouse, simply to get more Dems in the legislature, not because I didn’t like Chafee.
And that’s really the loss the Republicans had visited upon them Tuesday: Americans want to see what the other party can do, or at least folks who think differently, come from a different perspective and shake things up a bit.
By all accounts, Chafee sounds like the kind of politician I’d really admire. And, for much of his career, his neighbor Joe Lieberman was too.
Isn’t it fascinating how Rhode Island and Connecticut share a border and are home to a very conservative Democrat who ran as an Independent, and a very liberal Republican who now may leave his party, yet only one came out a winner – the one who says he’ll still caucus with the Dems?
If those results don’t teach you something about semantics and soul, then you’re just not listening to America carefully enough. Except now? A few folks leftover in D.C. are going to have to.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:36 pm November 9th, 2006 in Politics
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4 Responses to “Lincoln Chafee”
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I was sad to see Chafee go. He’s one of the few who has consistantly stood up for a woman’s reproductive freedom and to limit the power of the federal government. With the last of the moderates out of the Rep. party, all that’s left are the far right zealots, dooming any thoughts of compromise.
Terry – I completely agree with you. Although spinsters and campaign managers and politicians’ handlers think they’re so smart using stats and demographics to figure out who will win and how, there’s an element of soul that’s getting ignored and ends up eliminating people like Chaffee. The system could really suffer by such losses. I guess we’ll see.
Joe Lieberman is a very conservative Democrat? The Joe Lieberman with an 2005 ADA rating of 80? As compared to a very liberal Republican such as Lincoln Chafee with a 2005 ADA score of 75? I guess it’s all relative.
Of course, because Joe is so “conservative,” perhaps he should switch to the Republican Party. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I’d be glad to have him.
Look, I’m not going to pretend that I use those phrases with enormous accuracy, when I say I’m a wonkabee, I mean it. I don’t pretend to be James Carville, you know. I just put out my thoughts and see what comes back at me.
And, I appreciate the boomerang effect – I learn from it. And I will try not to be so casual in how I use very conservative Dem versus very liberal Rep.
But it is relative, and it’s also temporal, as in, 20-20 hindsight makes you review the assessment, don’t you think? And – what might be characterize one way in RI, is going to go down differently in OH, true?
Not sure what else to say, except thank you for reading and commenting. I’ll keep these things in mind.