Lincoln Chafee is still alive out there somewhere
Destined for the remainder bins, and essentially doomed to be unread as most political memoirs by mere Senators are, (beyond which, the Iraq War is soooo very yesterday… right?), yet I can not help but get the feeling that this book is going to be quoted and mined for the next hundred years with occasional references to explain various points about the political climate in the Senate during the lead - up to the War in Iraq and the passing of the Iraq War Resolution (and hence the political climate of some future date).
(I cannot find an online source for this, which is:
Commentary - Chafee’s book zaps Bush, both parties
Scott MacKay; Journal Staff WriterProvidence Journal
Commentary - Chafee’s book zaps Bush, both parties
Byline: Scott MacKay; Journal Staff Writer
For instance…
“Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill.
They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment.
Interesting to note that Lincoln Chafee (ex-Republican) has endorsed Barack Obama for president, and this now reads like a shot in the arrow at Hillary Clinton.
A bewildered Chafee, seeking an explanation, turned to an unnamed Democratic senator who opposed the war but was well-respected by his party’s leaders. This senator tells Chafee “in confidence” what concerned the Democrats. “They are afraid the war will be over as fast as Gulf One. Few will die, the oil will flow and gasoline will cost 90 cents a gallon.”
[…]
“Instead of talking tough or meekly raising one’s hand to support the tough talk, it is far more muscular, I think, to find out what is really happening in the world and have a debate about what we really need to accomplish,” writes Chafee. “That is the hard work of governing, but it was swept aside once the fear, the war rhetoric and the political conniving took over.”
The cynicism and disdain for the Democrats he would have hoped to be on the side of takes on stark relief when we get to this:
Unlike members of his own party, Democratic senators were not getting the influence, home-state goodies, White House invites and Congressional pork that goes with being in the majority. […]
Naturally. At the end of the day, the parties crash down to:
Of the general election, Chafee writes that he was both “irked and amused” at the “parade of Democratic Bush enablers” who trekked to Rhode Island to campaign for Whitehouse.
“Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, and others who had voted for the war urged my constituents” to defeat him, Chafee writes.
Yet, Chafee doesn’t mention that such GOP war supporters as former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, Arizona Sen. John McCain and First Lady Laura Bush traveled to Rhode Island to raise money or campaign for Chafee.
Undoubtedly the only one of those to make a public appearance, or at least the most publically — maybe your Fred Thompson made an appearance — and note that George W Bush uttered not a word in Rhode Island, astride your Lincoln Chafee would be the John McCain. Two things to note with this one: #1, again, Lincoln Chafee is for Obama. #2: McCain has been winning those Republican primaries with the margin of victory coming off of anti-war (as defined per stance with Iraq posturing) Independents and the slim pickings of anti-war Republicans. It’s a testamont to the insanity of our politics, and that “Moderate” status he has successfully engendered. Why he would be running around with
McCain in that election in the first place.