Chafee makes a politically poor decision
Today, the recently defeated Republican Senator from Rhode Island wrote an op-ed in the NY Times where he attacks the Bush administration policies. He previously made comments that he was considering leaving the Republican Party . His comments make no sense for the following reasons:
(1) If he wanted to leave the Republican Party, he should have done so a year or two ago. If he had wanted to become an independent and caucus with the Democrats like Jim Jeffords or alternatively wanted to become a Democrat he could have done so and it would have been to his political benefit to do so. He not only would have been re-elected but would have easily won re-election as a Democrat. Instead, he not only lost a time consuming race but now looks incredibly disloyal as the RSCC dumped millions of dollars into his campaign for both the primary and general election and vindicates those who supported his primary opponent.
(2) He is not particularly politically astute. The title of the article, "Holding to the Center, Losing My Seat" indicates that Chafee is not considerably knowledgeable about the American electorate. His positions are that of a liberal and not of a centrist. As one liberal columnist pointed out there was almost no discernible difference between Chafee and his liberal Democratic opponent Sheldon Whitehouse on the issues, the only major difference was party affiliation.
While he voted with the Republican Party over 50% of the time it was almost always on procedural issues as opposed to substantive issues like taxes. The only three major issues he sided with Republicans were CAFTA, tort reform (which some Democrats supported) and confirming John Roberts. In the case of Roberts it should be noted that he reluctantly supported him and many in the Democratic Caucus voted for because of Roberts' tremendous performance before the Senate Judiciary despite extreme pressure from liberal interest groups for a filibuster.
He is to the left of the American electorate on: judges where he favors a litmus test based on abortion, gay marriage, at the time Iraq (although now his position is in the center), guns, taxes, and a host of other issues. While I agree with some his positions and while he can argue that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right, he should be able to recognize that he is not the center. Senator Zell Miller, was never called a centrist, but was aptly named a Conservative or sometimes a Conservative Democrat. His positions were not only to the right of the Democratic caucus but also to many Republicans by the end of his short Senate tenure.
Senator Miller recognized this and typically argued that his conservative positions were in the mainstream for the state he represented which is true, just as Senator Chafee's liberal positions were in the mainstream of Rhode Island constituents. However, Miller unlike Chafee seemed to recognize that his positions were not centrist ones in the country as a whole.
(3) There is no advantage to him switching parties now that he is out of office as the Democrats have no incentives to do him any favors and Republicans are probably upset with him.
So all in all, he chose a poor time to lash out at the current administration and to contemplate switching parties.
(1) If he wanted to leave the Republican Party, he should have done so a year or two ago. If he had wanted to become an independent and caucus with the Democrats like Jim Jeffords or alternatively wanted to become a Democrat he could have done so and it would have been to his political benefit to do so. He not only would have been re-elected but would have easily won re-election as a Democrat. Instead, he not only lost a time consuming race but now looks incredibly disloyal as the RSCC dumped millions of dollars into his campaign for both the primary and general election and vindicates those who supported his primary opponent.
(2) He is not particularly politically astute. The title of the article, "Holding to the Center, Losing My Seat" indicates that Chafee is not considerably knowledgeable about the American electorate. His positions are that of a liberal and not of a centrist. As one liberal columnist pointed out there was almost no discernible difference between Chafee and his liberal Democratic opponent Sheldon Whitehouse on the issues, the only major difference was party affiliation.
While he voted with the Republican Party over 50% of the time it was almost always on procedural issues as opposed to substantive issues like taxes. The only three major issues he sided with Republicans were CAFTA, tort reform (which some Democrats supported) and confirming John Roberts. In the case of Roberts it should be noted that he reluctantly supported him and many in the Democratic Caucus voted for because of Roberts' tremendous performance before the Senate Judiciary despite extreme pressure from liberal interest groups for a filibuster.
He is to the left of the American electorate on: judges where he favors a litmus test based on abortion, gay marriage, at the time Iraq (although now his position is in the center), guns, taxes, and a host of other issues. While I agree with some his positions and while he can argue that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right, he should be able to recognize that he is not the center. Senator Zell Miller, was never called a centrist, but was aptly named a Conservative or sometimes a Conservative Democrat. His positions were not only to the right of the Democratic caucus but also to many Republicans by the end of his short Senate tenure.
Senator Miller recognized this and typically argued that his conservative positions were in the mainstream for the state he represented which is true, just as Senator Chafee's liberal positions were in the mainstream of Rhode Island constituents. However, Miller unlike Chafee seemed to recognize that his positions were not centrist ones in the country as a whole.
(3) There is no advantage to him switching parties now that he is out of office as the Democrats have no incentives to do him any favors and Republicans are probably upset with him.
So all in all, he chose a poor time to lash out at the current administration and to contemplate switching parties.
posted by The partisan moderate at 8:00 PM
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