Posted on 05/20/2006 7:52:20 AM PDT by got_moab?
Laura Bush lavishes praise on Sen. Lincoln Chafee during a fundraiser at the Providence Biltmore that raises $150,000 for his reelection effort.
PROVIDENCE -- First Lady Laura Bush swooped into arguably the most Democratic state in the nation yesterday to boost the Senate candidacy of incumbent Republican Lincoln D. Chafee and urge a crowd of GOP stalwarts to work hard for his reelection.
"I'm so happy to be in Rhode Island and have this chance to support your U.S. senator, Lincoln Chafee," said Mrs. Bush. "He is an important member of the U.S. Senate."
"For him, public service is a family tradition and there is nothing wrong with that," Mrs. Bush said, in a smiling reference to both her husband's political lineage and that of Chafee, whose father, John H. Chafee, was also a senator.
While President Bush's popularity remains low in Rhode Island, as in many of the blue states of the Northeast, the first lady cuts a much more conciliatory figure. Today she will give the commencement address at Roger Williams University, in Bristol.
The latest 50-state survey of President Bush's job approval by Survey USA shows just 23 percent of a random sample of Rhode Island voters approve of the job the president is doing. That rating ties Rhode Island with New York for the lowest among the 50 states. The poll of 600 adults carries an error margin of about 4 percent.
President Bush has not visited Rhode Island since he became president. Blue-state Republicans have recently taken to inviting the first lady to campaign for them in districts where Mr. Bush is unpopular.
"She is identified with issues that almost nobody disagrees with and her [poll] numbers are a heck of a lot higher than her husband's," said Darrell West, a Brown University political scientist.
When she speaks, it is usually about such topics as literacy, children's education and historic preservation, matters that do not carry the partisan blemishes of war, taxes and Social Security privatization.
Mrs. Bush was true to form last night, praising Rhode Island in her 10-minute speech for its record on historic preservation and Chafee for his support of those projects. She also said Chafee has been in the forefront of the push to wean the nation from dependence on foreign oil.
Along the way, she dropped in a few projects for which Chafee has received federal support, including the Providence Performing Arts Center and the Southeast Light on Block Island. She also lauded Chafee's work on behalf of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor.
Last night's two-tiered fundraiser at the Providence Biltmore -- $500 per person for the reception, $2,500 for a private photo session with Mrs. Bush -- harvested more than $150,000 for Chafee's campaign.
"She seems to be a nice person," said William Lynch, Democratic state chairman. "I don't have anything bad to say about her except for her taste in men."
A spokeswoman for Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, Chafee's primary challenger, said he would stick with comments he made earlier this week, which were that Mrs. Bush's appearance at the senator's event shows Chafee is the candidate of the Washington "insider" crowd.
But Chafee referred to the primary and Mrs. Bush's endorsement: "We take these primaries very seriously and your presence in our state is greatly appreciated," he said.
The crowd was thick with top Republicans, led by Governor Carcieri and his wife, Sue; Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian; Susan Stenhouse, the GOP secretary of state candidate; Kerry King, the GOP lieutenant governor candidate; GOP state Chairwoman Patricia Morgan; and even Dennis Michaud, who recently announced his GOP primary candidacy against Carcieri.
Chafee has a reputation for opposing some of Mr. Bush's top priorities. For example, he was the lone GOP senator to vote against the Iraq war, and he also opposed the president's tax cuts.
"Yes, sometimes we do disagree on some issues, but eventually we do work together," Chafee said.
A theme Chafee is pounding home lately is his ability as a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to bring federal projects back home. "Drive around Rhode Island and see all the road and bridge works . . . thank goodness Linc Chafee is on the right committee," he said.
About 25 people protested yesterday outside the Biltmore. Many of them decried the war in Iraq. Nick Schmader, 59, of Warwick, held up a sign reading "Laura, is war your family value?"
Schmader, a member of the Rhode Island Community Coalition for Peace and the Green Party, said he and others turned out because of the Iraq war, the threat of war with Iran and the fact that a member of the Bush family was here. He said the first lady is being sent to events such as this one because President Bush's approval ratings are sliding.
As a black Bentley pulled up to the hotel, Shane Jones, 24, of Providence, held a sign reading "$500 a plate? I don't make $500 a week. www.marxist.com." Jones, who works in retail, said neither Republicans nor Democrats honestly represent working people.
At one point, protesters standing across the street from the Biltmore unfurled a banner reading "No blood for oil!" At about the same time, at the height of downtown rush-hour traffic, a Greyhound bus broke down in front of the Biltmore, just short of blocking a view of the protesters from the hotel. "Another 30 feet and people would have said it was conspiracy," Providence police Patrolman Jim Carr said.
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What a gentleman. Sometimes it's best to say nothing, Mr. Lynch.
That's the kind of slimy statement that probably would arouse Mrs Bush's ire but she's probably too decent to reply.
Yeah, sure.
This is the perfect example of what is wrong in American politics. Candidates are all decided from the top down instead of from the bottom up. He with the most bucks wins.
Cue the "LAURA IS A RINO TAKE HER DOWN" frenzy.
Thirty years from now,Mr Bush will be greeted as "Mr President".Thirty years from now,you'll be greeted at the nursing home with "is it time for a diaper change?"
I better not hear from that Dole woman looking for Senate campaign contributions to elect idiots like Chafe.
Next time, maybe Laura Bush can support a candidate that actually voted for her husband.
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She's a lady as well as the "first lady". As we saw with Mrs. Clinton, the title alone doesn't guarantee refinement.
Based on your incredibly interesting response, I'm guessing 1. You've never had a dime to give to the RNC, ever, and 2. No one here cares what a moron who calls the President a "nitwit" has to say, especially considering you just read an article that spells the Senator's name about half a dozen times and you STILL can't spell it. Twice. Nitwit.
Think of it like this.How often does the democRAT Senator from RI vote with the Republican leadership? About 0% of the time,right?
So if Chaffee votes with us 1% of the time,we're ahead in the game,right?
Trust me when I tell you this...RI is,believe it or not,the most depressingly blue state in the nation.Someone like Chaffee is the very best we can hope for from that state.
He is the *least* of about a million evils there.
Do we like this senator????????????????????
Precisely.
This is like Specter/Toomey all over again. An incumbent is preferred to somebody who is better. It's all about scratching each other's backs.
When the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators) was ratified in 1913, the Republic was lost.
Maybe he was referring to Chaffee.
["For him, public service is a family tradition and there is nothing wrong with that," Mrs. Bush said, in a smiling reference to both her husband's political lineage and that of Chafee, whose father, John H. Chafee, was also a senator. ]
Yup, nothin wrong with the good old time religion of elitist family dynasties.
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