I encourage EVERYONE - including the occasional "leftie" that peruses this site - to read Mr. Owens' original speech. (I only wish I'd been there to see it live.)

He distilled the essence of the American founding, and then juxtaposed that against the current "mindset" and "conventional wisdom."

Read it, then re-read it!

This is posting is so inaccurate and shows such a lack of class, I feel obliged to respond to Mr. Owens.

Chafee's voting record is to the right of the most conservative Democrat senator according to every such public ranking, so for a "Yellow Dog Democrat" to be offended by his liberalism is nuts.

Chafee has taken unpopular stances on many issues, when the easier path would have been to take a different position, so the "he doesn't believe is anything" charge is baseless. You may not like the guy, but nobody in this state will believe that he is "spineless". Maybe they will in the South where you came from.

Limited government requires spending in line with a balanced budget. Chafee is what used to be called a "budget-hawk", a term that hasn't been used in many year. But that doesn't count as limited government anymore apparently.

I don't know about the 9/11 reaction and this is a prime example of an unverified, second-hand assertion ("a friend of mine who is a liberal said Chafee didn't react when he asked him a question")--so I'm reluctant to make a comment about this charge (I thought there was a policy to not put up information that can't be verified on this site, but I guess it only applies to one side). Suffice to say, I do recall Chafee's reaction to the incident. Maybe Chafee didn't give the reporter the sound bite he was looking for, but to suggest the Chafee wasn't bothered by the 9/11 attacks is just factually untrue. It is shameful to suggest otherwise.

From Owens' comments, it was obvious that the point of his speech was to embarass Chafee, just as Kanye West's comments were to embarrass Bush after the New Orleans disaster--"I looked right at him" and "I was elated" when I heard that Chafee was livid. Shameful and classless.

So let me get this straight, you used Senator Chafee's name to raise money for the North Kingstown GOP and then proceeded to intentionally insult the person who helped you raise the money? Afterwards you were glad that you embarassed a special guest? Nice. Real classy.

I guess that what you can expect from a guy who thinks Aaron Tippin is a "philospher". Ahh yes, the Honky-Tonk Superman! "Last night I broke the record for acting a fool/My favorite waitress said I went a little too far/When I came roller skating down the bar". A true philsopher! I apologize to those of you who aren't country music fans, but those of you who are will understand why I find calling Aaron Tippin a philosopher so funny. To quote the great futurist, George Jetson, "I'm sorry Mr. Sprocket"

I don't think most conservative have ever agreed with all of Chafee's policies, but Mac Owens should crawl back under the rock from whence he came.

I have voted Republican for years but I will abstain before voting for Chaffee again. His father had principles.

Just an add-on to my earlier posting.

I think what really bothers me the most isn't what Mac Owens said, but the fact that he is a U.S. Naval War College professor. He should be stimulating debate and discussion rather than engaging in innuendo and name-calling, particularly when the person he is calling names helped secure funding for the Naval War College.

Is it really proper decorum for a Naval War College professor to call a United States Senator a "spineless disgrace"? Is this what we can expect from someone who is supposed to be teaching the leaders of our nation's military? Perhaps the next time, Chafee is asked to help the Naval War College or attend one of their functions, he should be addressed as Spineless Disgrace Chafee rather than Senator Chafee.

Rather than crawl under a rock, maybe Mac should just get a job in the private sector. That's one way to reduce government spending.

Mr. Owens is entitled to say what he believes, as was the Colorado college professor who equated the 9/11 victims to Nazis. I guess I just find it disappointing.

JClancy, just for future reference the last name of the guy who you say you've been voting for all these years (but aren't voting for anymore) is spelled Chafee, not Chaffee.

Anthony,

Regarding the verification comment, there is a difference when someone puts his full name and reputation behind a second-hand story and when an anonymous commenter repeats gossip that could possibly lead to charges of libel against the host of the forum. I'm sure you know what I'm referring to.

Additionally, Mac's friend would be considered a secondary source in academic work and such usage is entirely within the bounds of responsible scholarship. Whether it is the same in journalism, I don't know, but I would imagine the bounds of acceptable practice are similar.

Finally, I've included a substantive portion of your comments regarding both your (presumably) first hand account of Sen. Chafee's reaction to 9/11 and your opinion of Mac Owen's actions during his speech in the body of the main post.

Marc, I appreciate you posting the comment and look forward to Mac's response. I'm assuming you were refering to comments made about AG Lynch at around the time former State Democrat Chair Dufault made his loathsome comments about Carcieri(?). I suppose there is a fine line between gossip and commonly held knowledge depending upon what circles you run in, but I don't think anyone would want or expect you to expose yourself to libel.

For the record, my comments on Chafee's reaction were based on the response I saw at the time via TV, radio, newspaper. I was obviously not there when Mac's reporter friend asked the question, but I along, with several thousand Rhode Islanders saw Chafee's response after 9/11. The mere fact that I saw Chafee's response on the air and in the paper shows that at least two reporters were able to get Chafee to talk after 9/11 (or else I never would have seen/heard his response!).

This certainly does not prove or disprove Mac's assertion that that Chafee refused to give his 'liberal reporter friend' a quote. Nor does it defend Chafee's response, which was more dovish than it should have been given what had happened.

It's simply that Mac's comments gave the impression that Chafee didn't respond at all to the attacks (and implicitly didn't care about them) while I, along with every Rhode Islander who watched Channel 10's coverage or read the Projo's coverage of the attacks, know this to be incorrect.

Anthony, You are correct regarding Dufault, etc. And Mac's response is up.