Chafee also has a good chance of losing in the general; he's running significantly behind the Democract, Sheldon Whitehouse, in current polls.
I feel bad for Chafee, really. He's a good man, and he had to see his father, John Chafee, suffer almost exactly the same fate: a national GOP busily moving far to the extreme right telling him "we don't need your kind." If the national party machine had supported him against Laffey from the beginning, or if some influential people had had a talk with Laffey and gotten him not to run at all, he wouldn't have had to go so negative in the primary and end up so damaged against Whitehouse for the general. If control of Congress weren't in question -- I believe in both houses there are enough seats in play to flip control -- I'd rather a smart, honorable, moderate-liberal, experienced and respected Republican like Chafee stay there to put on the brakes, than have the seat go to a Democrat who hasn't got that kind of track record yet. But it's a remarkable example of the GOP cutting off their nose to spite their face, as Chafee's seat in very blue Rhode Island was a lot like the governorship in Massachusetts; and I think the value of getting Democrats back in control of the Congress outweighs my sympathy for Chafee right now.
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Date: 2006-09-13 01:58 pm (UTC)I feel bad for Chafee, really. He's a good man, and he had to see his father, John Chafee, suffer almost exactly the same fate: a national GOP busily moving far to the extreme right telling him "we don't need your kind." If the national party machine had supported him against Laffey from the beginning, or if some influential people had had a talk with Laffey and gotten him not to run at all, he wouldn't have had to go so negative in the primary and end up so damaged against Whitehouse for the general. If control of Congress weren't in question -- I believe in both houses there are enough seats in play to flip control -- I'd rather a smart, honorable, moderate-liberal, experienced and respected Republican like Chafee stay there to put on the brakes, than have the seat go to a Democrat who hasn't got that kind of track record yet. But it's a remarkable example of the GOP cutting off their nose to spite their face, as Chafee's seat in very blue Rhode Island was a lot like the governorship in Massachusetts; and I think the value of getting Democrats back in control of the Congress outweighs my sympathy for Chafee right now.