Chafee will vote for Bolton Nomination

[Leilani]

no link...just heard on C-Span Wash Journal, according to Vaugh Ververs of the Hotline.

He reported that Condoleeza Rice talked to him personally, & assured him Bolton will work for her, & foreign policy will be less confrontational.

IMO, the Kerry call to push Chafee might have backfired. If I was a Senator, I wouldn't want a colleague interfering between myself & my constituents & pressuring me on an important decision.

I thought it was heavy handed, but didn't voice my opinion at the time.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. It's all lies, they want to destroy the UN and they hired the right guy

to do it.

[Leilani]

3. I agree with that.

Just disagreed with strategy to deal with Chafee.

[Mass]

2. That would have surprised me

Of course, Chafee not being able to do the right thing is Kerry's fault. Is it not nice!

It would say it has to do with the 06 election. Now that Chafee has a bona fide liberal against him, he needs to give alledgance to the right wing to avoid a primary fight.

[Leilani]

4. No, my point is

when you publicize something, like was done to Chafee, you put him a in a funny spot. Remember, he is STILL a Republican.

And I've found he makes some good decisions...he voted against the IWR.

Sometimes a subtle approach is more effective.

[JI7]

5. considering he voted for Rice and especially Gonzales

i don't think he would have done differently with this.

but a Democrat will run against him in 2006 with backing from the Party so he wont be around much longer anyways.

[Mass]

8. Whitehouse running put him in a hard position

With Brown running against him, he was nearly assured of his reelection just with Democrats voting for him. With Whitehouse running, he needs all Republicans votes.
Anyway, I am not surprised. As soon as the BG reported he could vote against Chafee, his aids started to say it was not so. They chickened out.

[Leilani]

11. Of course his own race involved in this.

There were several articles posted here about the calls & emails to him. He even spoke publically about the messages he had gotten.

Therefore, he's put in the spotlight, & he's almost forced to vote for Bolton because he has to maintain SOME Republican credibility.

This is just my opinion, & you are of course free to disagree.

But I find that Kerry has a political tin ear. His last debate was a perfect example. Edwards had already made a point about Mary Cheney during his debate. Why did Kerry need to mention it again? It sounded mean spirited, & hurt his public image, even though he won on debating points.

I could list a bunch of incidents, but I'll limit it to 1 example.

[Mass]

15. OK you made your point

Let me disagree with you on both counts.

[paineinthearse]

18. I don't understand RI dems

Why can't the dems run a successful campaign against Chaffee? His clame to fame is a family name. Big deal.

There are hundreds of Mass volunteers willing to travel south to help the cause, are you listening, Mr. Johnson?

A moderate rethug is still a rethug and is not a "good" thing.

DU can help. If you have freiends and family in RI, tell them about the RI forum. It is terribly underused - last post was 24 hours ago; 214 total posts).

[Mass]

19. They have to run Dems that are more liberal than he is.

I hope that Whitehouse will prove to be that way and win.

[JI7]

20. i think using the national Republican party against Chafee is pretty smart

he already brought up Tom Delay.

[rooboy]

6. Politically speaking, you're probably right...

but we've gone so far into the abyss now that even Chafee should realize that letting these bastards progress any further might destroy the USA and more. It's time to fundamentally make the right choices.

[BlueIris]

7. If true, there goes my respect for him.

So much for conviction, eh?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mass]

10. Here is the Providence Journal article relating to that

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20050408_chafee8.24fb490.html

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his vote may determine whether John Bolton becomes the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, April 8, 2005

BY SCOTT MacKAY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee says he will vote to confirm John Bolton -- a staunch conservative and President Bush's choice -- as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations unless some significant new anti-Bolton information surfaces during a Senate hearing next week.


As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his vote may determine whether John Bolton becomes the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.


Chafee called the opposition "organized" and said he has received many telephone calls, e-mail messages and letters. "You take every phone call and e-mail and letter seriously," Chafee said. "I don't want to minimize how Rhode Islanders feel about this. I'm listening."

[Leilani]

12. Thanks for this post!

It proves my point!

The opposition was "organized."

I know when I'm pressured by someone, it pisses me off, & it sometimes affects my decision, & backfires on the person who pressured me.

[Mass]

14. Before the calls, Chafee had said he would vote FOR Bolton

After the opposition, he said for a few hours he would vote AGAINST Bolton because this was what his constituents wanted, and, as I understand it, after Rice called, he decided otherwise.

I think he caved to the pressure of Republicans threatening to run somebody against him.

[Leilani]

16. That makes no sense.

If the Repubs run a more conservative challenger to Chafee in the primary, they lose the seat. They'd rather keep Chafee even though he bolts on some votes.

In Pennsylvania, the WH backed Specter against a more conservative challenger. The fundies are still angry about that, but the WH has said they will defend all incumbents.

The Repubs can count, & their strategies, though slimy, have been effective.

[Mass]

17. It is still a very effective threat

Chafee had always said he was leaning towards confirming Bolton, except for a few days after the calls were made.

This is not a surprise for most people in NE that he would end voting party line on this one.

[karynnj]

22. Look at the whole sentence

Yes, the opposition is organized - and it likely would NOT have occured if it were not! - but the rest of the sentence shows that he is taking it into consideration to some degree. As MASS said before the Kerry effort, Chafee had indicated that he would likely vote to confirm.

For most people, Bolton is NOT known and who the UN representative is is not a question that excites them. For the last few years, there has been an implicit threat to Liberal/Moderate Republicans that if they don't toe the line, they will be challanged in the primaries. The Republicans are in a stronger position to do this now than they were last year, so the threat to Chafee is there. The opposition has at least caused the issue to surface enough that Chafee has to consider that if he votes with the administration on this bill there will be political consequences.

[LittleClarkie]

27. I don't blame Kerry for hammering hard on Bolton, it makes sense for him

since Bolton was so obstructionist during Iran/Contra. I don't get the feeling Kerry is terribly fond of the man. He seems more antagonistic toward Bolton than Negreponte. I wonder why. Both were involved in that time.

[LittleClarkie]

26. I don't understand

Should we not be organized? Action alerts not a good thing? I'm not sure we can wait for spontaneous action.

Eh, damned if ya do, damned if you don't.

[Leilani]

28. Of course we should be organized

but some situations call for some finesse.

When Jeffords left the Republicans it was a huge surprise. Nobody knew the Dems were working quietly behind the scenes to lure him.

If he had been targeted publicly by Dems, bet he wouldn't have jumped.

[karynnj]

38. Kerry is on the committee and obviously knows Chafee well

I would suspect that they or their staffs have talked to some degree about his position. His stated position has become less firmly "yes", so I think that over-all the effort has been positive. Kerry (correctly, I think) feels this nominee is very bad and thinks if he can get the word out to people in Delaware how bad he is they will be a force balancing out the Republican stay in line effort.

I have yet to see even one Republican vote no on a nominee this year. In this case you have a state with a relatively liberal population and a moderate Senator. Stimulating the population to ask that he represent his state and vote against a very RW extremist doesn't sound bad.

[Leilani]

39. I completely understand your point

And I would hope the Dems are working behind the scenes on Chafee.

My post opined that Chafee is in a box, & airing all this publicly may be less effective, because it then pits him very openly against his own party. It may force him into their arms.

Let's face it, moderates of either party are dead meat these days.
Repubs target Dems, Dems target Repubs.

I grew up in a time when both parties had liberals & conservatives, & I liked it that way.

The country was much more unified, & politics was not a Bloodsport.

[karynnj]

41. I think I may have grown up in the same time period

I first followed politics in the early 60s when I was about 10- 12 years old.I think that it really did make things work better when the parties weren't so polarized. If you look at the Senate that Kerry spoke to in 1971, there were not only liberals on both sides, but there were also anti-war proponents on both sides. The idea of lock step following a party line was not there. Even more impressively when the Watergate info really came out there were many Republicans who did not fight to protect Nixon.

I do understand your concern and think on a more high visibility item, say SS reform I agree with you. But I think that over the last several years, most people do not write their congress people. In particular, Democrats have lost so much so often that we need to develop some kind of grassroots organization and to stay alert. We don't really have that now, so I think various people (Kerry is only one of them) are trying to deal with this.

[jmcon007]

13. Yeah, let's believe Condi. That's the ticket! Will we ever learn?

[m_welby]

21. That is disappointing

I was hoping my senator would do the right thing on this one.

Linc is on the ropes as it is, no matter what he does he is targeted by the dems in RI. I like his independence and I respect his breed of republican, but the dems need to take back the senate and his seat should be an easy grab.

There is a tradition in RI that we have one senator from each party, and usually both quite admirable (See the records of Claiborne Pell(D) and John Chafee (R)), but I don't think Lincoln will survive this one, he won last election as the son of his father, he needs to win the next election on his own.

[saltpoint]

23. Well damn. I am struggling to find that high card in --

-- the deck for Lincoln Chafee, but he makes it harder each time he does something like this.

Bolton is a monstrous asshole from the Jesse Helms Swamp Disease division of the Republican Party.

This is a vote that ought to be real clear on the points.

I can't speak to Chafee's political instincts -- would need help from RI DUers there -- but I wish he'd switch to the Dems and stop this balancing act.

[safi0]

24. If Daschle, Bowles, Carson

Tenenbaum and Castor or some other mix of 5 Dem. Seantors had won there election or in Daschle's case re-election I'm almost certain Chaffee would have defected. The reason he didn't was because why would he switch to a party that was deeply the minority party. Giving up things like Committe positions and things like that. I bet Chaffee was hoping the Dems. would take back the Senate because from his perspective it would be the best of both worlds, he gets to remain a member of the majority party, but perhaps more importantly would cruise to re-election, unlike whats likely to happen which is Chaffee being involved in a dogfight.

[saltpoint]

25. Hi, SafiO. Yes. That's my take also, although I didn't --

-- get it in the big picture version you have it.

I appreciate your post. I want to like Chafee more than Republicans like Martinez, Coburn, Stevens, etc. but he keeps kowtowing to his party.

At moments like these I kind of get homesick for Claiborne Pell!

[safi0]

30. As good as Collins, Snowe and Chaffee

can be there still Repubs. Especially in Chaffee's case he faces a tough re-election soon. He knows that hes gotta turn out Repubs. as well as win over some moderate Dems. Personally, I do like the guy do I wish hed switch over, absolutely, but I also understand why he didn't. Whether or not I agree with it is another story but I understand why he did what he did.

Personally though I don't care how moderate the guy is hes still a vote for Frist as Majority Leader, to me that alone is enough reason to go after him. For those who know how the Senate operates know how much different it is to be the majority part then the minority party. For example I can almost gurantee if we were the majoity party right now Alberto Gonzales would not be AG.

[saltpoint]

31. Have to agree on all points.

Is Whitehouse liberal enough and/or appealing enough to defeat Chafee?

I'm with you all the way on your point on Gonzales, too.

[safi0]

33. I haven't the slightest clue about Whitehouse

All I know is hes got a really cool name and if he ran for Pres. someday he could have some great stump speeches. I don't live in RI, so I really have no idea about anything about the guy

[saltpoint]

36. He DOES have a pretty cool name.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that he had announced for the race.

[Mass]

34. Here is the Providence Journal article announcing his bid

http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20050405_sheldon5.23d583f.html

Langevin, when he renounced to run, had suggested that Brown should quit the race too and let the place to either Kennedy or Whitehouse. I dont know a lot about Brown, but he is quite young (35), and though he is the sitting SoS, he does not seem to have a great job satisfaction (though I am not sure why).

From what I heard about WhiteHouse, he is a good solid liberal in RI.

[saltpoint]

37. Hey Mass, thank you for that article. I hope Whitehouse --

-- has some good fortune, since Chafee seems reluctant to bolt his party. Politics are politics, I guess, and I'd rather have a pretty liberal Democrat than a pretty moderate Republican.

'appreciate your extra steps.

[Leilani]

29. Don't forget Mongiardo in Kentucky

who almost pulled a huge upset.

And he was not a happy camper, because he said he got no help from the Dems....he was sure he would have won with a little assistance.

That race was a real shame.

[safi0]

32. I was just naming

Off Five Dems who were in close races. I left off the guy who ran in Alaska too, forgot his name, plus the LA senate seat was a seat that they had a shot at too.

I was talking to some people about the KY race and they said the reason Mongiardo didn't receive any funding was that, that was a seat that wasn't really considered winnable. Everyone thought Bunning would just ride Dubya's coattails to another term and they were right for a long time. It wasn't until Bunning started doing some real weird shit that the race really tightened up

[Leilani]

35. Agreed. Everyone thought Mongiardo was a long shot

However, as time went on & the race became closer & closer, I wish the Dems had helped him. There was time, but they blew him off.

Lots of races were close; with Kentucky, a few dollars would have won the race.

[ProgressiveConn]

40. Mr. Chafee seems to actively want to lose his job.

Thank you Mr. Chafee for making your seat less secure with every day you go along with this crap.