Posted on 11/09/2004 7:04:16 AM PST by BlackRazor
Chafee ends speculation: He'll remain a Republican
After angering many in his party with Election Day comments, the senator says he was partly swayed by GOP leaders in the Senate.
BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee said yesterday that he will remain in the Republican fold and "work hard to regain the support" of Republicans upset over his Election Day comments on his vote against President Bush and his consideration of a party switch.
Chafee said he would also reach out to Mr. Bush "at the proper time," adding, "I wouldn't blame him if he were angry at me."
Chafee has publicly wavered on his support for the president for more than a year. He first endorsed Mr. Bush, then withdrew the endorsement. Later he renewed his support but finally disclosed what he called a "symbolic protest" vote for former President George H.W. Bush.
In an Election Day interview that raised eyebrows from Rhode Island to Washington, Chafee also said he would not rule out quitting the GOP.
Yesterday the senator said, "I think it's really important to Rhode Island that I caucus with the Republicans," since the voters gave Mr. Bush a second term and bolstered the GOP's majorities in the House and the Senate.
Asked whether he would now rule out leaving his party, Chafee said, "Yes, at this stage, that is my intention." He explained that he is reluctant to pledge to remain a Republican "forever."
Chafee said, however, that he made a commitment to stay in the party when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called him the day after the election to say they value him as a member of the party.
Chafee also said he had rebuffed the invitations of Senate Democrats who had approached him since Election Day to leave the GOP. He declined to name any of the Democrats.
A few days before the election, Ken Mehlman, Mr. Bush's campaign manager, was asked about Chafee's plan to vote against the president. "That's his right," he said, declining further comment.
Chafee's decision to stay put was not a great surprise. He had long said it would be difficult for him to imagine leaving the GOP. Many observers had expressed doubt that he would leave the party at a moment when its power was rising and his leverage as a potential swing vote was diminishing.
"I find it very difficult to believe" that Chafee will leave the Republican Party, Patricia Morgan, the state Republican Party chairwoman, said last week. Morgan defended Chafee's record as a good Republican and portrayed him as a victim of prodding by reporters.
"The media forced him to make statements that were contrary to how he actually views his role," Morgan said, speaking of Chafee's months of inconclusive public musings about whether he would support Mr. Bush and remain a member of the Republican Party.
"You guys backed him into a corner," Morgan said, "and he wasn't adept enough at dealing with the media to sidestep the issue."
Chafee's Election Day remarks "damaged him a lot, and I don't know what the future holds or whether he will be able to rehabilitate that," Morgan said. Chafee has plainly raised the likelihood that some Republican will run against him in the 2006 primary, according to Morgan.
Chafee denied that he had been forced to say anything he didn't want to say. "I'm responsible for what I say," he said. "I think I am adept at sidestepping a question if I have to."
Opposition to Mr. Bush and to Republican policy is, of course, popular everyday fare in Democratic Rhode Island. Chafee's articulation of such views may enhance his popularity in the state. But his commentary last week was not as well received inside the GOP.
Political professionals find "a couple of good reasons to be stunned" by Chafee's remarks, according to Jennifer Duffy, a Senate campaign analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
"The first one is: Who would opt to be in the minority?" said Duffy.
"The second reason is just that he chose Election Day to talk about it," Duffy said, meaning that Chafee's timing rekindled doubts about his loyalty at the very moment when other Republicans were working furiously at the local, state and national level to win victory for the party.
Chafee acknowledged that he had heard from many Republicans angry about his remarks. But he also said that roughly as many people, mostly Democrats, applauded them.
Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth, a conservative fundraising organization, said the election reduced Chafee's influence. "People like Lincoln Chafee are losers, because Lincoln Chafee lost all his leverage" with the four-seat increase in the GOP majority," said Moore, whose organization this year helped to finance an unsuccessful conservative primary election challenge to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Specter won reelection last Tuesday.
Moore said he has no interest in bankrolling a GOP primary challenge to Chafee in 2006 because a conservative might have trouble beating him in Rhode Island and because the net effect of a bloody Republican primary could be to throw the seat to the Democrats.
"We recognize that he can be an asset" to the party, "even though he is sometimes a problem child," Moore said of Chafee.
Duffy said Chafee's Election Day remarks may make it more likely that some Senate GOP conservatives "will be okay with a primary" challenge to Chafee.
Norman Ornstein, a nonpartisan analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, said he believes that Chafee's Election Day remarks may cause "some grumbling" among conservatives in the victorious Senate Republican Conference. But in the end, Ornstein said, he doubts Chafee will be in any way punished or ostracized.
Nobody wants to be on the losing team, Chafee included. The goal is to get the dims to switch.
Can anyone say "Primary"?
Norman Ornstein is nonpartisan?
Chafee: one who chafes.
Chafee is of course no help on most legislative issues, but I doubt very much that many freepers are even aware that he voted with the President and with the GOP caucus, repeatedly, throughout 2003-04, against the RAT filibuster of our judges.
Notwithstanding this crucial support, Hell, let's purge him and every other moderate in our caucus and turn the Senate gavel over to the RATS. Ideological purity at all costs. Yep, that'll help the President get his judges confirmed and his legislative agenda enacted.
Hehehe. Reverse Damascus Road conversion?
Just shutting his mouth would show more respect for his father.
Getting into another line of work is a good idea too.
RINO alert!
Is there anybody in Rhode Island that can be persuaded to run against this spineless little RINO in 2006? The republicans need to weed out the RINO incumbents wherever possible.
I guess he got to thinking, and realized it would really SUCK to be a dim-o-crat right now.
Let Chafee remain as long as he is useful. Not a second longer. After his comments he simply cannot be trusted.
Of course: it didn't matter. His vote wasn't needed.
If he votes to end filibusters against pro-life nominees this session they will pass and he will lose his job.
Great, a real powerhouse of a senator...way to be RI, next time pick a man with some cajones -
Of course his vote was needed, and it will be needed going forward. We were only 2,3,4 votes short of getting the 60 we need.
I haven't a clue of where you are coming from.
Ms. Morgan, you need to find a new job if you advocate lying about positions, especially about supporting the President. The party does not need your type. You'd be better off with the Democrats where that sort of thing is standard.
As for Chafee, he should have the courage to be who he is: A Kerry Democrat. He puts his finger in the air and waffles based on the direction of the political wind. He has no courage. He has no conviction. We don't need him. We are better off losing with a genuine Republican that winning with a dishonest RINO.
Of course he will remain a Republican. Only in a warped democrat mind would someone drop out of the majority party, thus losing status, power, and pork just for the leftist cause. One looks at the utter stupidity of Jim Jeffords, who switched himself into irrelevancy.
Mr. Chafee, Goodbye!
Of course, they can switch parties; that is one's perogative. But LEAVE the damn office and let the people appoint a successor until the next free election.
i don't know how you could not be aware of that.
Now, as you youeself frequently point out, it will be a very near thing whether a filibuster of a reasonable pro-life judge can succeed. Now, the votes of our moderates will be needed to stop the nominees.
They can't hide behind the Dems like they did before.
Our moderates didn't get their high NARAL ratings from voting against their voters' wishes on the filibusters.
Unless the filibuster is changed nominees will only be approved if they are acceptable to moderates with NARAL ratings of 83 to 90. Or if our moderates vote against their constituents' wishes.
It's a sure recipe for giving those seats to Dems.
Oh gee...aren't we lucky? I'm sick of Chafee, Snow, Collins and Specter. We should count the as 'Rats, they're more liberal than most actual 'Rats, and work with our 51 seat majority.
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