Magnanimous in Defeat: Lame-duck Chafee to oppose Bolton nomination

[FlashHarry]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/lincoln-chafee-opposing-j_b_33743.html

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Good for him! Maybe he can reach across to Voinovich

and pull him back to reality, too!

[Kagemusha]

2. Bush trying to ram this through a lame duck session's low.

And I hope it fails.

[AlCzervik]

3. Good for you Lincoln, you maintained your principles.

[ps1074]

4. Chafee is a good guy

I feel sorry for him, but he didn't switch parties and needed to go.

[bemildred]

5. Always nice to see a principled stand. nt

[Dhalgren]

6. He should switch parties, unless he's too liberal...

[FlashHarry]

7. Kind of sad to see him go

Though we needed the seat, obviously. Jim Leach in the House, too. I guess moderate Republicans are an endangered species.

[brentspeak]

12. Good point about Leach

It's a shame that he gets booted out, but Jean Schmidt doesn't.

[IA_Seth]

23. A SHAME?

You know what's a shame? To have Iowa's 2nd district represented by a Republican when the district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

You know WHY that was able to happen for 30 years? Because Leach's sorry ass would vote 'moderate' every now and then, and then turn sharply to the right whenever he was told to do so. He wasn't moderate, he was a politician and a toady and enabler to everything we hate. It was allowed to happen for so long because Democrats were suckered by his little song and dance.

Leach would vote to let a bill to the floor and then vote against it, or the other way around...either way he did was was politically expedient and NOT what his constituents would have wanted.

And THAT is why he is gone. There is nothing shameful about it.

Seeing people sorry to see his punk ass gone, now that's a shame.

[brentspeak]

25. I didn't say I was sorry to see him gone

:eyes:

I'm thrilled that Loebsack beat him (needless to say). I meant that it's a shame there's more RW wacko Republicans than moderate Republicans that the Democrats now have to deal with. Maybe I should have been more clear on that.

[jamesinca]

18. Moderate republicans are endangered

The only thing left in the party are the malignant and they will not vote for a moderate. Dems will not vote for a Repub given the choice so the moderate Repub will lose every time in this current environment. Chaffee had a hard race in the RI primary for a reason. The fact that an incumbent even had to face something more than token resistance in a primary tells you something.

Lieberman, same thing. Votes repub, caucus with the dems. He won with 50% The republican in the CN race only got 10%. Lieberman tends to run to the right of republicans in CT if I remember correctly. I forgot where I was going with this LOL.

[sarge43]

8. Now that's a man.

Senator, come on over into the light. We'd love to have you.

[brentspeak]

9. Lincoln deserves a lot of credit for remaining Republican

Had he switched to "Independent", he would probably have won reelection. But he was hoping the Republican party would get back to its sane roots of Dewey/Eisenhower/Nixon (the latter, domestic-wise, I mean). I hope he gets back into politics, because we need decent Republicans in a two-party system.

[sarge43]

10. Good point, but

the current pack of Repugs would probably kick him in the teeth for trying.

[brentspeak]

15. They did a good job of it, actually

The Club For Growth, a middleman for GOP dirty tricks operations, spent millions trying to oust him in the R.I. Republican primary. Their ads against Chafee during the primary hurt him later on in the general election.

[sarge43]

20. What those trolls did to McCain should have given him a heads up.

Well, a thank you and good luck to him. He's a classic New England Republican; he deserved the party that used to be.

[Canuckistanian]

14. What, pull a Lieberman?

The Rethugs would have lynched him. If you thought Lieberman generated some rage in the Dem party, just try leaving the GOP.

[jackster]

11. Chafee is one of the good guys...

I would love to see him as a Dem but applaud him for staying in his party and trying to bring it back into reality.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Goddamn, homie

That's how a straight-up guy acts. He obviously cares about the country.

Well played, Lincoln Chaffee.

[aquart]

16. Now, that's class.

Maybe he can help rebuild his party into something worthy of respect.

[judaspriestess]

17. he seems like a decent down to earth guy

too bad the party he is loyal too didn't feel the same about him. Best wishes to him.

[David__77]

19. I'm glad he lost. That is all.

I have no compliments for him. He abetted the Bush crimes and even had the gall to say things would get worse if the Democrats seized congress. He forfeited the moral high ground. I'm glad he lost.

NOW, he may redeem himself by being a sort of Republican version of Zell Miller commenting from the sidelines.

[GOTV]

21. One guy was all it took?

How do they know that?

[Vidar]

22. Thank you yet again, Mr. Chafee.

[TheBaldyMan]

24. Chaffe is the only Republican I can think of that I'm sorry to see go.

Even after defeat he tries to do the decent thing, that says more about the guy than any number of accolades.

[Jacobin]

26. He voted against the IWR

That's something I wish I could say about many of our congresscritters.

[goforit]

27. I love you chafee!!! I'll help you run on your next endevor!