Good things come in small packages

For those of you sick and tired of watching Democrats Ned Lamont and Joseph “kiss their ass” Lieberman battle each other in Connecticut, I give you Rhode Island.




On September 12th The Republican Party will hold their Senatorial primary in Rhode Island. On one side is the very moderate incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee. His persistent challenger, and current mayor of Cranston, is Stephen Laffey.





The outcome on Tuesday could help determine whether the Democrats have a shot at taking back the Senate.

In Connecticut, the Democratic Party is supporting the more liberal outsider against the moderate incumbent. In Rhode Island, Republicans are going to spend more than a million dollars in television ads to make sure that the more conservative challenger Stephen Laffey doesn’t stand a chance. One advertisement goes as far as to use a line Republicans have used in countless attacks against Democrats, mocking him as “tax-and-spend Steve Laffey.”

You might be asking yourself ... why would Elizabeth Dole, who runs the Republican Senate campaign committee, and Karl Rove support the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Lincoln Chafee?

After all Mr. Chafee has opposed many centerpiece Republican policies, from the war in Iraq to tax cuts to most restrictions on abortion. This week, he even helped force a delay on the confirmation of John R. Bolton as the United States ambassador to the United Nations.





The answer is found at the rotten core of politics. It’s not what someone stands for that really counts. In the end, it’s all about who has a better chance of winning the seat.


"It's so small, Rhode Island could kick the crap out of it in a war.”
-Dudley Moore in Arthur (1981)