So I guess we wait until after the focus groups are done to find out what Laffey believes?

Marc, the Senate Committee isn't "sacrificing ideology". It is doing what's best to promote the ideology nationally and that means keeping Chafee. If the GOP loses the RI and PA seats, Republicans will be in a great deal of trouble and they know it.

My bet: Laffey will run left to appeal to Democrats.

1. Marc: great post.

2. Dan Yorke: great interview (or maybe Marc cleans you up well).

3. The institutional weakness of the state party has convinced outsiders that the state is more liberal than it is. So they’ve given up on us. But we elected a pro-life Congressman in RI, and Jack Reed is the most popular politician in the state, in part, because he is considered sane on national security issues, especially by Democratic standards.

4. I guess I’m on an island by myself here, but this “ending career” talk really bothers me. Yes, let’s end the career of a talented Republican politician as soon as we can. Lord knows, we’re overflowing with talented Republican politicians here in Rhode Island. Is the party even going to bother to field candidates in the Congressional elections this year?

5. Laffey won’t run to the left of Chafee. He’ll run as the actual moderate (which may be true) vs. Chafee as the worst possible mix of Rep/Dem characteristics: radical position on abortion (pro-partial birth, anti-parental notification), incoherent on national security, crony of big business.

Anthony,

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NSC) has nothing to do at all with promoting or advancing any ideology. They quite plainly stand for nothing. They certainly don't stand for Republican principles or for backing candidates that do. They are a fundraising mechanism for incumbents. They'll support crooks, liars, and imbeciles with equality of opportunity, as long as their person happens to be an incumbent seeking reelection. The NRSC spokesman, Brian Nick, on the radio earlier, basically admitted that their organizations' support for Chafee has nothing to do with him personally, but on their own perceived self-interests in holding the seat, based on the assumption that if Laffey were to win the primary, that he would or could not win the general election. Flatly, I believe their assumption to be grossly mistaken. Mr. Nick should really find work in another field, because no one with half a brain that listened to the radio today is going to buy the talking points which Dan Yorke rightly called him to task on.

Currently, the GOP holds 55 Senate seats. Demographics in most regions of the country (except the Northeast) would tend to indicate that the GOP will be in a position to add to that total; not lose. I agree that PA could be an issue, Rick Santorum doesn't do something to stop the bleeding. Hopefully, the RNC will be at least as supportive of Sen. Santorum, as they were of Sen. Specter in 2004. All things being equal, the GOP could probably afford to lose a little deadweight in the Senate anyway.

I wouldn't go placing any bets too quickly (especially in Rhode Island casinos) on "Laffey running to the left." The idea of Laffey running to the left of Chafee is kind of funny, in that Chafee is already to the left of about 1/2 of the Democrat caucus! Don't confuse "populism" with communism. As for Mayor Laffey, he's just going to be Laffey. What you see is what you get. That means he'll be his own man, who won't be afraid to speak his mind -- who will be willing to take on those issues, interests, and people which he believes are working against the best interests of most hardworking Rhode Islanders.

For the primary, Laffey wants to appeal to registered Republicans, and Republican-leaning independent voters, much like Gov. Carcieri did to win in 2002. As I always love to point out, Gov. Carcieri wasn't the endorsed or establishment candidate either, going into his primary. Much of the then establishment tried to talk him out of running, too.

Lastly, a reminder: Laffey is trying to win the Republican primary, not the Democrat one!

Anthony,
Will largely responded, but I'd just like to add, for my own part, that you'd get a better idea of how I feel if you disabuse yourself of the notion that I'm some sort of Laffey cheerleader. What I most definitely am is conservative, and it troubles me, though it doesn't surprise me, when I see the political party that I had hoped could maintain some smidgen of ideological consistency sacrifice it for the purpose of maintaining power. Especially when, as Will pointed out, the chances that Chafee's seat is that important seems slim to me. I may be wrong, but I just don't think there is as much to worry about as the GOP Senate Committee does. If I had to guess, I think they are doing a bit of fear-mongering to drum up more donations. Cynical? Yup.

Fear-mongering in politics? I'm aghast! For the record, while I support Mayor Laffey over Senator Chafee, I am not marching in lockstep or a mindless drone or whatever other perjorative term one could think up. I'm probably much more conservative than Mayor Laffey -- and that's okay. All I know is that he is motivated to do good for the right reasons; he is certainly more conservative than the sitting Senator; and that he's not in it for the money. Given all of my choices, or not choosing at all, I choose to support the Mayor. Not obly do I believe he can win; I believe he will win.

Let's just say, I had a somewhat similar issue as Sen. Chafee did, as to whether or not to vote for President George W. Bush last Fall. However, my main concern was the feeling that the President wasn't conservative enough! However, unlike the good Senator, I actually did vote for the President in the end. I still display my Bush-Cheney '04 bumper sticker on my car!

Methinks that we should disabuse ourselves of the (now quaint) notion that the Republican Party is "the" (or "a")party of conservatives / conservative values.

We conservatives IMHO would be better off not supporting the party per se, but supporting individual candidates that are conservative (or at least mostly so).

And if there are no such candidates, sit out that race, if not the election entirely (or throw away votes on inconsequential third-party candidates as a "protest").

And if the means that on occassion Democrats (who might not otherwise have) win elections, so be it. True, it will be painful, and perhaps in some instances disastrous. But in the longer term, perhaps necessary.

After all, but for the disastrous Jimmy Carter odds are we wouldn't have had President Ronald Reagan.

I agree with Tom (mainly). There has been a trend over recent years to celebrate "the middle," and to denegrate those who hold "partisan" views or ideology, as if that's a horrible thing. There's no shame in advancing the notion that in order for you to be right, someone else has to be wrong. As much as society tries to advance the notion that "everyone has to be a winner," it is not something that happens in the real world.

Quite true, the Republican Party, in reality, is not "the conservative party." However, it is the party where conservatives who wish to preserve or to change public policy, have the best opportunity at having their ideas implemented through the democratic process. Since we do not have a parliamentary form of government in the USA, in order to get to 51%, it's sometimes necessary to work with those whom you do not agree with on everything. As Reagan put, "work with those who agree with you at least 85% of the time," and then once you've gotten most of what you want, then focus your efforts on the remaining 15%. A necessity in our form of government is that in order to have any lasting influence over public policy at all, one must first gain power.

I do have some disagreement with Tom, regarding the idea of "throwing away a vote." While I'm not suggesting that voting should be based on the concept of "the lesser of the two evils," I am suggesting that it is very important "not to make the perfect the enemy of the good." That means, if on the whole, a candidate agrees with a super-majority of your own views, or the principles of the party that you belong to, you should feel comfortable voting for that candidate, even if you disagree with the candidate about other, less consequential issues.

Using the above criteria, I could not in good conscience vote for Sen. Chafee in a primary, as he is much more often in disagreement with my own personal views, than those rare times that he is in agreement with them. However, in a general election, should he get that far (hypothetically), and my main choices are Sen. Chafee and Whitehouse, I could, based on the above concept, then justify a vote for Sen. Chafee. However, my moral obligation is to do my best to see that it doesn't even get to that point! My main disagreement [with Tom] here is my strongly-held belief that by "choosing not to choose" from the choices provided, that one is actually making a choice (one could use the Nader analogy). Your vote does not occur in a vacuum; it occurs in the real world, with real results. If one is going to "throw away a vote," it better be for a very, very good reason(s) that outweighs the good which is inherent in that vote.

That being said, adherence to an ideology or philosophy based on sincere belief or as the result of a logical process, is far preferable to blind obediance to "the Party," right or wrong. When the Party is right, then follow it. When it's wrong, then it's your duty as a citizen and as a member of that party to point that out, in order to give them a chance to consider an alternate point of view and see the error of their ways. If they still won't go along with your ideas, then you should not feel like you should need to remain silent for "the good of the Party" or "for party unity" (any of this sound strangely familiar?). It reminds me of a great Reagan quote, where he was talking about the necessity of Peace through Strength, and countering critics who labeled him as a warmonger: "You and I can have world peace right now. Surrender!"

Again, much of what Will said falls in line with my philosophy, too. In short, I'm a pragmatic conservative. I'll fight to the bitter end to get my ideas through, but in the end I will vote for that candidate who comes closest to me on the issues. Sometimes it means holding your nose. (BTW, Will, I wasn't trying to impugn you as being a Laffey Drone or something. I hope you didn't take it that way. Instead, it seems that there are a few who think that anyone who doesn't appear to support Chafee "blindly" is ipso facto "blindly" supporter of Laffey.)

In that light, I suppose one could argue that the GOP Senatorial Committee is doing a sort of preemptive strike using the same mentality. They calculate that Laffey has no chance to to win in the general election, so why waste time? Perhaps they're being "preemptive pragmatists"? Anyway, for the record, you can consider me an uncommitted conservative, leaning Laffey, but wary of where he'll go next. (Guatemala?) ;)

1. Will & Andrew: I did not say that Laffey would run to the left of Chafee. I said he would "run to left" which I meant as to the left of where many of us (or at least I) believed he previously stood.

2. Will: Laffey "what you see is what you get": I couldn't disagree more. Laffey is opposed to oil companies (unless he's making money from them), he's against taxes (unless he's forced to raise them), the list goes on. You may trust him, but I still have several question about his positions.

3. Marc: Never said that you were a Laffey cheerleader. Actually, I hadn't given it a thought....but come to think off it, there is some thing a little sexy about pom-poms......

4. Marc: I disagree. I believe Chafee's seat is important to keeping GOP control. Give me a 10 seat Repbulican majority and then we can talk.

5. Will and Marc: It's not spreading fear in an effort to generate donations. It is rational questioning arising from general election poll numbers. I, too, am a pragmatic conservative which is why I'm voting for Chafee.

6. Tom W: You should vote for Laffey. For people like Tom W who are willing to accept the loss of a Senate seat because he believes things will be better in the long term, although painful in the short term, I agree that Steve Laffey may be the better candidate (depending on where Steve finally comes down on the issues).

And finally--

When I vote, I look at three things: issues, electability and character.

First, does the election of this candidate help or hurt the advancement of my beliefs?

Second, can this candidate get elected?

Third, does this person have the character to represent the office?

Chafee, while I disagree with most of his positions, helps advance my beliefs in a broader way by supporting the majority leader and giving the GOP the majority. While he's pro-abortion, he is supporting John Roberts for the Supreme Court which is important to me.

Second, he's shown that he is electable by winning huge over past Democrat opponents.

Third, while I disagree with Chafee, he is saying and doing what he feels is best for RI even though I'm left shaking my head sometimes.

Laffey does better on my first criteria than Chafee. He is more conservative and would vote for the majority leader. I'm a little concerned about some of his recent comments, but there is little doubt that he is more conservative than Chafee.

Laffey falls far short in the second category. I haven't seen any evidence, either in polls or just talking with everyday people, that Laffey stands a chance in the general election.

Finally, some of Laffey's recent comments have got me questioning Laffey's character. I don't want someone just telling me what I want to hear. Maybe it's not a character issue at all, but just poor communications work, I don't know. If that is the case, Laffey should fix the problem immediately.

Anthony,
Fair enough. It's a tough thing trying to divine rhetorical motive (and aim!) when not face to face. Anyway, I understand your rationale, and, until further notice (and a change at Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball), I don't think Chafee is as crucial to maintaining a Senate majority as you. Like you, I'd love a 60 Senator, filibuster proof majority, but don't think it's possible in the current political climate. Concomitantly, I think Laffey has a better chance than you in the general, but I understand your reservations as I have them too.

As far as the "spreading fear" bit, I meant that the GOP Senate committee is trying to "scare" up more donations (I've gotten the fundraising letters...) Finally, me, poms poms and a skirt are not anyone's idea of "sexy." More like Klinger then Klum, if you get my meaning.