I’d like a specific answer, from Mayor Laffey, whether this (PDF) is satire:

There are many people who are too weak to live by any moral principles; they decide what is best by their own irrational whims and desires. These cowards attempt to justify their actions in two ways. Firstly, they try to bring others down to their way of life by exhorting them to compromise their values. Secondly, these moral milksops say that no one can be wholly good so please don’t accuse me of being all bad. It is these same ingrates who belittle people who have clear, simple answers to the world’s problems. They accuse others of seeing things in black and white, as if that was bad, impossible, or somehow wrong. What these poltroons are really saying is “Please don’t discriminate between right and wrong.”

Now, I’d be the first to express pretend astonishment that the Providence Journal would offer this particular college-age Laffey column as “a sample of a humor column by Stephen Laffey in a campus newspaper,” rather than, say, the column from which Scott MacKay has drawn his first example, from which the headline was drawn, and on which Laffey was specifically using the humor defense. If the Providence Journal intended to prove that its pretense toward journalistic neutrality is merely a cover for aspirations toward status as a political force in this state, it could have comported itself no better.
That doesn’t, however, excuse Laffey for taking the politically expedient route of disavowing all of his writing at the time. How refreshing it would be if the mayor would quickly put a larger sampling of his college columns on his Web site and explain what principles expressed therein were legitimately held and which were “over the top.” Doing so might (one can only surmise) help to resolve some of the ambiguity that Rhode Island conservatives find in his persona.

Anchor Rising readers are invited to use the comments section of this post to give their own real time reactions to tonight’s Republican Senate debate between Lincoln Chafee and Steve Laffey (WJAR-TV Channel 10 @ 7:30 pm). Also, Channel 10 political reporter Bill Rappleye will hold a pre-debate discussion with Robert Weygand, Susan Farmer and Jennifer Duffy beginning at 7:00 pm.
Insightful comments, witty comments, and even comments that spin like Lynda Carter in an old episode of Wonder Woman are all welcome, but personally insulting or crude posts will be deleted as soon as I see them.
The comments will open at 7:30 are open now!

The final debate in the Republican Senate series, originally scheduled for tonight, has been moved to Saturday at 7:00 on WJAR-TV Channel 10.

After the third Laffey/Chafee debate, I went “black” and avoided all punditry. Thus, here are the four (uninfluenced) items that stuck with me after the debate last night.
First: Chafee’s labeling of Federal tax dollars to local/state government–what Laffey calls “pork”–as “property tax relief” was pretty clever. Never heard that one before. And though Laffey tried to pooh-pooh it by saying he’s never heard a voter praise Chafee for tax relief, I think it was a rather ingenius attempt to blunt the “pork” argument. I’m not sure if it worked, but it was at least original.
Second: Laffey’s explanation about why he called for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation. To paraphrase, “The administration went to war based on the worst case scenario and fought it based on a best case scenario.” Simply put, a good sound bite. It was clearly aimed at the independents in both the primary and the general election. Whether or not they view it as a genuine feeling or political gamesmanship is an open question.
Third: Laffey won the debate, both on style and on the substantive issues. I suspect that this is especially true in the eyes of most GOP members. However, while Laffey scored some points amongst the independents, Chafee probably did enough to keep a hold of most of them. If this were a debate prior to the general election, Chafee would have come out looking better. But it’s not.
Fourth: Because this was on C-SPAN, I couldn’t help but wondering what the average conservative Republicans across the land must have been thinking while watching the debate. Perhaps something like, “Those are what they call Republicans in Rhode Island?”
Most national political junkies–those most likely to watch a GOP debate in tiny, Democrat dominated RI on C-SPAN in the summer–probably knew that Lincoln Chafee is a moderate Republican who seems to enjoy being the far outlier of the GOP. However, I don’t think that the idealized “typical GOP” member was aware of Steve Laffey’s populist bent. He called for Rumsfeld’s resignation, accused the GOP run Federal government of corruption, and railed against “Big Oil”, to give a few examples.
Whether we in Rhode Island realize it or not, President Bush still has strong support in the GOP base across the country. What that base saw were two “Republicans” doing their damndest to distance themselves from a President of their own party (Glenn Reynolds makes a good point about this tactic. MAC); a President that most national GOP members agree with on most of the issues (Believe it, it’s true!). I don’t think they are envious of the choice that RI Republicans have to make in September. When viewed through the lens of what a “typical” conservative Republican might be, neither Laffey nor Chafee fits the bill.
But this isn’t Kansas: this is a uniquely Rhode Island race. Those of us who have been following it understand that both of these candidates are trying to do two things at once. They have to run against each other in the GOP primary and keep an eye on the Independent-dominated general electorate. That’s something that probably can’t be fully appreciated in other parts of the country. After all, what other state’s largest voting block doesn’t identify itself with either political party? Rhode Islanders like to take their cue from the Independent Man standing atop the State House. It would seem that–regardless of who they elect in the GOP primary–they’ll have that Man, in one form or another, to support in the general election.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal:

[Senator Elizabeth] Dole won’t be campaigning any more for Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who is considered the most vulnerable incumbent Republican.
Chafee, a moderate Republican who publicly announced that he would not vote for Bush’s re-election – he instead wrote in Bush’s father’s name – is facing a strong primary challenge from the right.
The Almanac of American Politics describes Rhode Island as “almost always one of the most Democratic states in presidential elections.” Even if Chafee wins his primary, he faces a strong challenge from the state’s former attorney general.
Nick said that Dole has no plans to go to Rhode Island between now and November. She did visit the state earlier this year.
Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University in Providence, said that is probably a good thing.
“Elizabeth Dole has good credibility on the right, (but) Chafee is pursuing independent voters now more than Republican voters,” West said.

Is Elizabeth Dole giving up on Lincoln Chafee, or is she being politically pragmatic, as implied by Darryl West?