This was a tough race to watch, as Rhode Island Republcian incumbent Lincoln Chafee held off a challenge from the hard right of his party and retained the nomination for the state’s U.S. Senate seat.
The anti-Iraq War Chafee is an interesting character. As MJ Rosenberg writes in the TPM Cafe,
Sen. Chafee is the Senator the neocons (John Bolton, for one) most hate. And he is a good and decent man (and about the least senatorial senator I ever met; I mean that in a good way).
He not only voted against the Iraq War but also voted against the nomination of Samuel Alito and has been critical of the way in whcih the United States has dealt with the Israel-Palestine conflict.
At the same time, a Republican majority in the Senate — even if it includes someone like Sen. Chafee — leaves the GOP with too much power. It will continue to control the various committees and subcommittees, menaing that “drown-the-government-in-the-bathtub” types and anti-environmentl zealots will still have too much decision-making power.
So, as I said, I am torn. In the end, progressives like me have to remember that Sen. Chafee opposed the war and every anti-war candidate that wins is a loss for the Bush foreign policy, but also hope that enough Republicans lose their seats to shift control away. (The best outcome might be a Chafee win with some other Democrat putting the party over the top.)
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 