The conservative magazine The National Review is continuing to hammer the Ocean State's RINO Senator Lincoln Chafee like a bent nail.While noting the "difficulties of being a Republican in Rhode Island", the Review details the woeful conservative credentials offered by Chafee, and endorses an actual Republican in the 2006 primaries: Cranston mayor Steven Laffey. The Review rightly takes Chafee to task for being one of four Senators to vote for the Syria Accountability Act - a position made even more egregious by the fact that Chafee is the chairman of the Middle East subcomittee for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
A recent Providence Journal poll of registered voters showed Chafee squeaking ahead of likely Democratic candidate Matt Brown. Dare I suggest Chafee widen the gap even larger by dropping the conservative pretenses and just run as a Democrat? Actual Republicans in Rhode Island are sick of trying to explain and excuse Chafee's lack of Republican bonafides, and even though any actual Republican candidate would lose the 2006 senate race, Democrats are already winning by virtue of Chafee's stances on, well, nearly everything.
Obviously, this is ground I've covered before, but it's nice to see that American conservatives outside of New England have paid some attention to the woeful politics of the Ocean State, especially for anyone to the right of, say, Lincoln Chafee.
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Ronald Reagan is often credited with sparking the conservative movement, yet he often quipped that when he became a Republican he didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left him. If Reagan was a Democrat and the party changed around him positioning Reagan as the ultimate conservative, what happened to all people who were already Republicans?
Is it possible that there isn't as much of a difference between the Democrats and Republicans as the extremists in each party would have you believe? Is it possible that, (Dare I say it?!), Reagan was a RINO, or at least would be labeled as such today?
Coming from the Bay State the idea of a Republican Senator seems like some far-fetched fantasy, but at the same time the fact that Chafee is considered 'moderate' is hardly shocking. Heck, when I say I'm a Republican I hear yes, but you're a Massachusetts Republican, which implies some direct blood link to the Kennedy clan.
So, my initial reaction was that maybe Chafee is getting a raw deal, that the RINO label is all BS because some people can't deal with a Republican unless he's conservative on every damn issue.
So looking at the New American's conservative index (http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2004/07-12-2004/108-3.pdf) I see that the average score of our U.S. Senators is 41 and that 21 Senators scored 40 or less. So far it seems like there are a lot of moderate Republicans out there and the RINO label is really a lot of bull.
Except for Chafee, who is tied with fellow Republican for the lowest score on the index with fellow Republican George Voinovich. Oh, I have no problem with a liberal Republican, but when you're more liberal than Ted Kennedy...that's a problem.
So my fellow Republicans in Rhode Island go ahead and vote for Steven Laffey a man who by all accounts is more than a Republican In Name Only and take heart even if Laffey wins the primary but goes down in defeat against the Democratic challenger, chances are he'll more conservative that Chafee too!
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