Posted on 12/11/2005 9:32:26 PM PST by RWR8189
Describing his 1976 challenge to incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan wrote, "It was time to scale back the size of the federal government, reduce taxes and government intrusion in our lives, balance the budget, and return to the people the freedoms usurped from them by the bureaucrats."
Reagan helped define the mission of the Republican Party. By re-establishing limited government as the central principle of the GOP, he laid the groundwork for the political revolution that bears his name. Almost 30 years later, the Republican Party is at a similar defining moment. Once again, challengers to certain Republican incumbents are needed to help restore limited government to its rightful place at the center of the Republican agenda.
Today, the Club for Growth PAC will endorse Steve Laffey, the Republican Mayor of Cranston, R.I., in his primary challenge against Sen. Lincoln Chafee. Steve Laffey is a pro-growth, Reagan Republican. Sen. Chafee epitomizes the GOP's waning commitment to limited government and economic freedom.
Sen. Chafee has consistently opposed tax cuts. Citing the federal deficit, he opposed the Bush tax cuts that have generated our powerful economic expansion. But his concerns about deficits don't extend to government spending. Bills he has sponsored would add nearly a half-trillion dollars in new spending over 10 years. The National Taxpayers Union gave him a dismal 49% rating for his profligacy with taxpayer money. A close ally of organized labor, he opposes school choice, and just last month voted for a minimum-wage increase. A recent Boston Globe profile describes his ideology as "well-suited for a centrist Democrat."
Despite his liberal record, Sen. Chafee is warmly embraced by the Republican Party establishment which dutifully enforces an unprincipled, though ironclad, mutual-defense agreement that ignores ideology.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
RI was the state that refused to send delegates to the constitutional convention and was then the last of the original thirteen to ratify the Constitution. Yet RI people like to lecture us on "constitutional" issues. I cannot imagine Chafee (I forget the spelling.) losing that primary, however.
Oh, well, it sounds like a waste of money to give to Laffey then. What about John Spencer in NY?
I don't know him, I'm a Rhode Islander.
Spencer is the Republican mayor of Yonkers (or former mayor?) who is trying to run for the H.R.C. seat in 2006. It must be a futile mission.
RI is the only state east of Minnesota that I have never visited. My daughter drove to Providence once from NYC but could relate little about her day-long trip.
Hold on now...Why is Pat Toomey for him? Is it somehow that he would over all advance the conservative cause?
I just have a lot of questions and would like to learn more.
Rhode Island is two worlds.
Inside rte 295 is a socialist enclave of homos, crimaliens and welfare chiselers. The mayor of Providence is a happy communist who has declared the capital a sanctuary city for all enemies of America and a gun free zone. That explains all the crime. That and all the spoiled brat commie punks who attend Brown University.
Outside of 295, Rhode Island is beautiful country. The south coast is an undiscovered treasure, with great beaches, fishing and hunting. We are generally well armed and capable, self reliant and patriotic.
If there was no metropolitan section, Rhode Island would be the nicest place to live.
Your description of the dichotomy of tiny RI makes a lot of sense actually.
It is a microcosm of the nation.
And the former Mayor, who has a pasta sauce named after him, is in jail.
At least Buddy wasn't an America hating faggot.
I wonder if President Bush will campaign for his "good friend" Chafee like he did his "good friends" Boehlert and Spector.
"Laffey is pro open borders, anti-gun and anti-business. He's a socialist, just like Chafee"
He's a socialist. He comes off as a fiscal conservative because the unions have bankrupted his city, so he has to beat them back in order just to get paid.
Unlike Chafee, who is lazy and has the decency to live in Virginia with his family so we don't have to put up with them much, Laffey is ambitious.
His pro crimalien invader stance makes him an enemy of the nation.
Throw your money away on him if you want. He's going nowhere.
Laffey will never win the statewide and it looks likely that Chafee will not either, since the republicans in RI hate the bitch. I predict the next socialist junior senator from Rhode Island will be Sheldon Whitehouse.
I'll be sitting out the election as there are no candidates to vote for.
I still say that Pat Toomey wouldn't endorse a socialist. And as for Laffey being "ambitious," he'll never be anything higher than U.S. Senator, so I don't see your concern.
And if a Democrat replaces Chafee in the Senate, I think we'd be better off than if Chafee stayed a Republican Senator. See http://auh2orepublican.blogspot.com/2005/08/what-to-do-about-insufferable-senator.html
I don't know Pat Toomey.
Unfortunately I do know Laffey because up to about a year ago, he was the great hope of Rhode Island conservatives.
Then his policies became known and conservatives abandoned him.
Whitehouse would be better than Chafee. There was some talk of Bob Weygand running but that hasn't materialized. For a dem, Weygand wouldn't be too bad, almost like Leiberman.
I'll be happy just to see Chafee go down.
Better an admitted enemy than a traitor within.
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