Rhode Island Alito Supporters Meet With Senator Chafee
After meeting with members of Rhode Islanders for Judge Alito and the Rhode Island Judicial Confirmation Network on Friday afternoon, Senator Lincoln Chafee stated that still he has not taken a public position on how he would vote on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, but that he has 99% of the information he needs, and will announce his position before the vote is taken, possibly by the middle of next week. Senator Chafee believes that it is unlikely that the nomination will be held up by a filibuster.
Eugene Bernardo of Rhode Islanders for Judge Alito praised Senator Chafee for taking his responsibilties seriously, looking at the nomination with a fair and open mind, and conducting a dignified process.
Joseph White, also of Rhode Islanders for Judge Alito, described the meeting with Senator Chafee as a “brainstorming session” with particular emphasis on the areas of constitutional law of importance to the Senator; the 1st amendment (interpretation of the the establishment clause), the 14th amendement, the commerce clause (finding an appropriate balance between what is and what is not regulated), and Roe v. Wade.
When asked about the particulars of the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation process, Senator Chafee responded that issues like the Concerned Alumni of Princeton “could have been dismissed more quickly” and more important issues, particularly constitutional issues, could have been discussed. (Senator Chafee produced a copy of the constitution from his jacket pocket at this point). Senator Chafee noted that some of his fellow Senators had done a good job, but a few had “gone off on filibusters, talking too much”.
Mr. White added that it was obvious Samuel Alito was very similar to John Roberts, who was confirmed by the Senate to the Supreme Court earlier this year, and that President Bush had done a great service for the American people by finding two great Supreme Court nominees.
I think Senator Chafee is being quite reasonable. And Alito is much, much more incendiary than Roberts. A tougher vote if he wants to win a general election.
The vote on Alito is tough for Chafee not because it will anger the average general election voter but because it will really anger NARAL, enviromentalists, and other liberal special interest groups, that he kisses up to.
Merlin is correct. Politics aside, the Alito vote is a no brainer! Judge Alito is well qualified, intelligent and has a great judicial temperment, although I only garner this info. from actually watching the hearings, which Senator Chafee admitted not doing (I PITY THE FOOL).
This is what happens when you try to serve two masters as Chafee is doing, if he votes for Alito, his left-wing general election base goes nuts, if he votes against, he gets beat in the primary even worse than he already is.
All these gold chains around my neck represent the chains my ancestors wore when coming to this county, but they could just as easily represent the chains of indecision Chafee has forged over these past 6-7 years.
BA Baracus
Chafee will win the primary, laffey lover. He is much, much better positioned. Laffey lets the rink burn down, fractures the party, and keeps putting his foot in his mouth.
Chafee is better financed and sane. It helps.
Do I want a Senator to try and appease every interest group under the sun with his votes, or do I want someone who has conviction? Waiting this long is absolutely pathetic – and the comment that he has 99% of the information is even worse.
Almost every successful executive will tell you that the key to leadership and good management is securing the 20% of the information that comprises 80% of the relevance to a decision. To secure 99% of the information would probably take one-year of research.
So if Linc magically did secure 99% of the information, CAN’T HE MAKE A DECISION ALREADY!! The truth is that he has probably obtained very little information and that if he secured enough information he would be incapable of deciding anyway.
You know what this is so telling about -the lack of ideology of Chafee and the bountiful amount of it with Laffey. If one has an ideology, he basically has a mental checklist of what views he is in accord with by political area. It becomes a simple matter to compare these to the decisions and public statements made by the nominee. If there is agreement in a majority of areas, with a weighting by the importance of the issue, then vote for him for God’s sake; otherwise, don’t. How much more simple could this be??
How long did it take Steve Laffey to take a position? Well – slower than a NY minute, but not that much slower.
I can’t take it! I want to not like laffey too! But he’s good, he’s dam good! Waited to Thursday, just as the hearing were over and BOOM! comes out with a statement that just blows Chafee away!
I’m out of this race and moving on over to the dem. primary. Chafee is a liberal–no problem there but we got two over in the dem primary. No need to defend this guy chafee in a rep. primary. It’s over.
Henry:
You must be a former Enron Accountant, Chafee has NO chance of winning a Republican primary because REPUBLICANS vote in a Republican primary, Chafee does not have enough lilly-white yankee republican friends to make a difference. And $$, how much has Laffey raised since Sept., $700K in the 3rd quarter alone, smoking Chafee, I bet Laffey is already over a million raised, and Chafee has had 6 YEARS to raise money and has like $1.2 million, pathetic!!!!
I won’t even approach the sane comment, all you had to do was hear Chafee on WNRI and WPRO in the last couple of weeks to know that Laffey is the real Republican (Alito, tax cuts, Iraq, dynamic economy, the list goes on, and on, and on). Anti-Laffey people never bring up the issues, only character assassination, right Henry?
It would be great to get the two in a room together to debate, as Laffey has suggested on many occasions, but Chafee must know, in an exchange of ideas, he has no chance….
Finally, Chafee won’t face Laffey in the primary, he will be an independent by July, you heard it here first.
I PITY THE FOOL!
Bosco:.
Maybe you should run a pool:
Chafee will declare he is an independent on
My guess July 12, 2006 the Wednesday after the week of the 4th.
J Mahn
My bet in the pool (if I were for gambling), would be that Chafee will make his announcement that he’s running as an Independent on June 15, 2006, just before the RIGOP State Convention.
Chafee’s not a rocket scientist, but he is smart enough to know that the chances of him winning the Republican primary are extremely unlikely. Primary voters are usually the most principled voters. My guess is that they would prefer to vote for someone with them.
I’ll join your pool. I think that Laffey will announce he is running as an independent or on a third party ticket. I have no doubt that it will be a conservative ticket but it will not be the Republican one. Laffey is constantly attacking Republicans on his website and he wants our vote!? I think he is positioning himself to be a populist and declare his new ticket sometime in June.
Another issue I take issue with is when I hear people calling Laffey another Reagan. Laffey does not have the CHARACTER of Reagan. Reagan was honest and would not sink to character attacks such as those done by Laffey. (see electlaffey.com)
Remember it was Reagan who said “The eleventh commandment is ‘Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican’.”
1, Chafee and his allies broke the 11th amendment with attack ads in the fall of 2005.
2, Chafee himself brought up pixelation on the radio, and attacked Laffey’s character.
3, Chafee is only approved by 38% of RI Republicans based on Survey USA poll.
4, Chafee votes with Democrats on big issues like tax cuts, and terrorism.
5, Chafee is not acting like a good Republican and will likely run as independent, probably waiting until the last day of declaration on 6/28/06.
Return to Chafee base and try again with a new blogger name.