The Gang of 14 and Lincoln Chafee
The chattering class believe they have picked up this oh-so-sad trend that the Center are being blasted by party extremists. The gold standard of the bi-partisan caucus was the “Gang of 14”, who came together to, as far as I can tell, push a couple of lower judicial picks of Bush aside to with great permanence disallow the Democratic Party from filibustering any Bush appointee to the Supreme Court. Speaking for Senator Dewine of Ohio:
Later, when pressed by a reporter, she was more succinct: her husband had defected, she confided, in order to save the Senate.
“Saving the Senate” from what, precisely, I’ve never quite been able to tell. Saving the Senate from I suppose legitimate procedural manuevers the in-party at the time always derides as illegimate and the out-party always portrays as noble, and saving the Senate from his party making creative re-interpertations of procedural rules.
The gist is that Mike Dewine, Lincoln Chafee, and Joseph Lieberman are all doomed — DOOMED — DOOMED — and how sad that is, sad, sad, sad. The Gang of 14 will just have to drop to 11, until we cast about and notice that the new Senate Freshmen include three candidates who fill the media-love for their interpertation of what fills the bill as “Sensible”. I remind the thumbed-into-the beltway media that the number fourteen was a cast that’d ensure neither party’s apparatus could override the 55-45 split in the Senate. A gang of 2 may suffice in the event of a 50-50 Senate; and to avoid the filibuster, it’d have to be — a gang of Twenty? Does that even make any sense… mygod, it’d have to be a gang of TWENTY-TWO!! The “gang” having to be composed of equal numbers of each party, and having to be composed of enough of one party to avoid a 40 vote block for a filibuster.
But beyond the death of this stupid “Gang”, is the more parlimentarian party government. The case against the most liberal Republican from the least Republican state, as per letters to the Providence Journal:
#1: Lincoln Chafee is a nice guy. A smart guy. A good person. Like his father before him, he has served Rhode Island well. At any other time in history, he would deserve to be re-elected.
But not this time in history.
Now, Lincoln Chafee is just a pawn in an endgame. A Bush enabler. As with other New England moderates (Olympia Snowe and Joe Lieberman come to mind), so-called independent voices, his time has come and gone.
The weight of the world actually depends on this upcoming election cycle. So sentimentality just won’t cut it.
I used to believe in Tip O’Neill’s “All politics are local.” But now I know better. And it’s well past time for change. Change that Linc Chafee can’t help us with. Lincoln Chafee is part of the problem.
I know it stinks, but I urge the folks of Rhode Island to vote for anyone but Linc Chafee this year. Because a vote for him is, quite simply, a lost vote, a vote by proxy for the Bush administration.
And this great country can’t afford many more of those.
AND
Lincoln Chafee is a nice guy. A smart guy. A good person. Like his father before him, he has served Rhode Island well. At any other time in history, he would deserve to be re-elected.
But not this time in history.
Now, Lincoln Chafee is just a pawn in an endgame. A Bush enabler. As with other New England moderates (Olympia Snowe and Joe Lieberman come to mind), so-called independent voices, his time has come and gone.
The weight of the world actually depends on this upcoming election cycle. So sentimentality just won’t cut it.
I used to believe in Tip O’Neill’s “All politics are local.” But now I know better. And it’s well past time for change. Change that Linc Chafee can’t help us with. Lincoln Chafee is part of the problem.
I know it stinks, but I urge the folks of Rhode Island to vote for anyone but Linc Chafee this year. Because a vote for him is, quite simply, a lost vote, a vote by proxy for the Bush administration.
And this great country can’t afford many more of those.
If the party extremists don’t throw out Lincoln Chafee in the upcoming primary, the general voting populace of Rhode Island likely will in November.