Posted on 09/13/2006 4:47:47 AM PDT by steve-b
Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) beat back a strong primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey (R) tonight, a victory for which national Republicans deserve considerable credit.
The Republican National Committee, White House and National Republican Senatorial Committee coordinated on a vast voter identification effort on Chafee's behalf that, combined with sophisticated microtargeting and a big get-out-the-vote operation, won the day for the senator....
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
Hopefully the RNC knows what they are doing. We shall see. I just can't see how someone who does not completely vote for our President is the "better" candidate according to them.
Which is why I won't give to the RNC or NRSC a dime unless I send them the "Amigo de Mexico" dollar.
"Party over country"
Amen to that. The RNC is now no different that the DNC.
All they think about is power and getting an "R" elected no matter who or what is behind that "R".
It disgust me to no end that the RNC ran attack ads against Laffey. FOX News previewed one last night and it showed a pool of sharks swimming and stated Laffey was tax and spend politician after your money.
Chafee may have won the primary, but the GOP will lose in the end for these attacks against conservatives in order to keep a liberal like Chafee in power.
Reap what you sow.
I threw one of their mailers in the trash yesterday.
It is a tight election year the RNC will not risk losing any GOP senator even if he is the most liberal as in the case of Chafee. Laffey has zero chance of winning the general election in Rhode Island, absolutely zero chance whereas Chafee has at least 50% chance of winning it.
It was amazing that Laffey managed to get over 45% of the vote against an incumbent. I applaud him, and am sorry he lost.
Now my hope is that Chafee realises how much he owes to the republican party, and acts accordingly.
He doesn't need to be re-elected for another 6 years, so a couple of years of actually pretending to be a republican would be nice.
I hope his more liberal votes of the past year were just a ploy to help get him elected in November. And yes, that is about how I feel about his character, unfortunately -- he may be a nice guy, but he doesn't come across like it.
I don't like the behind-the-scenes politics. But realise that if Bush really wanted him re-elected, the administration might have actually given him permission to vote against Alito, and against a couple other things we weren't going to get 60 votes for anyway.
Even getting the old on Bolton may have had the blessing of the white house -- they don't need Bolton confirmed until the end of the year, after all. Again, I'm not happy with him, and wish Laffey had won, but you never know what games are being played.
All that said, now that Chafee is our pick, I do hope he wins. I would feel much more comfortable with Laffey, but Chafee is better than Whitehouse, and if Chafee jumps at 50/50 it will be no different than electing Whitehouse to begin with.
I wish we could kick Chafee off some committees though.
You reackon if Bush got down on his knees and begged her that Hillary Clinton would change parties so the GOP would have even bigger wins?
I was mad they interfered in open primaries. I don't mind them interfering to back incumbents, the senate re-election committee obviously exists to back the incumbent senators.
I didn't send them any money because they were running negative ads against Laffey. I wouldn't have minded them spending money to support Chafee, although I bet that doing so would have hurt Chafee in the general election.
can someone tell me if the repubs in control ever back anyone but the incumbant? I don't think so...that would show party disloyalty. I don't see what the fuss is here....Chafee represents his state...we may not like his state, but he's the poster boy for it.
The President will never do this; do not get emotional because the RNC did not support Laffey. You want them to waste their money for someone who is surely going to lose the general elections in Rhode Island.
Don't bet on it not happening but not as extreme as I said. Right now though some are so party blind that if Hillary R. Clinton declared she was a Republican many in here would be singing "Hail to the new Princess" because she's a Republican. They'd do it and never mind the fact the change would not mean change in platform or beliefs in her case. I posted years ago there would be a Republican Kennedy elected and would be praised. The GOP still thinks highly of Arnoid their Republican Kennedy who is about as liberal as his wife's Uncle Ted.
precisely...and the positions they hold either in congress or senate...it's all about the political power...
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