Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Brown has decided to leave the race to Laffey v. Whitehouse or Chafee v. Whitehouse. Now there are only two Democrats left in the race for the US Senate.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
A Plea for Stupidity at the Voting Booth: Chafee's Wife Makes an Appeal for Democratic Votes in September
Senator Chafee's wife, Stephanie, couldn't help making an appeal to Democrats to disaffiliate from their party (now) so they can vote for her husband in the Republican Primary (in September), according to a vigilant and astute Andrew Morse at Anchor Rising (HT: WR). Go there to read the complete and appalling full text of her letter.
Let's examine the ramifications:
We have a "maverick" Republican US Senator who appears to need and want Democrats to vote in the Republican Primary so he can have the privilege of running against a Democrat.
This plan tends to backfire in a number of ways:
Let's examine the ramifications:
We have a "maverick" Republican US Senator who appears to need and want Democrats to vote in the Republican Primary so he can have the privilege of running against a Democrat.
This plan tends to backfire in a number of ways:
- His actions will have a tendancy to disenfranchise members of his own Party in their Party Primary. Not a friendly gesture to fellow Republicans.
- He polutes the Primary voting pool.
- He provides Democrats with two bites at the apple
- Democrats could set him up to win so he could lose against their candidate in November
- Democrats could vote in the Republican Primary instead for his opponent, Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey, thinking that he'd be the weaker candidate against Whitehouse or Brown, thus working against him.
- Republicans, learning this, will react to salvage their Party from a Democrat intrusion by ousting Chafee.
The ramifications go on and on.
My thinking is this will give Laffey a good deal to work with among Republican Party stalwarts.
A Plea for Wisdom in the Whitehouse
Peggy Noonan again says something insightful. This woman is a delight to read and ponder.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Per Capita State Aid to Education Gets an F Minus
Carroll Andrew Morse at Anchor Rising has done some very nice research on state aid per pupil by the major RI communities. You'll be aghast when you learn that some towns are provided per pupil aid that exceeds the annual tuition of some of the finer private high schools in the area!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
The Journal Launches a Full Front Offensive for Chafee
For the life of me I cannot comprehend how it is that Senator Lincoln Chafee is considered to be a brave and thoughtful maverick in the US Senate for “pressing Israel firmly” toward the peace process. The purported “news” article in Sunday’s Providence Journal would have us believe that Chafee is that rare sage who cleverly devises exactly how to tweak the dials in pursuit of just the right balance required between Israel and Palestine; but that his efforts are only to be dashed by the blunderbuss of a Bush administration’s broad strokes and the nuttiness of his opponent, Stephen P. Laffey.
Consider the verbs associated with the proper nouns in this article which demonstrate its bias. To wit:
Supporters call Chafee a courageous voice…
They praise Chafee for…
Critics put Chafee outside the mainstream…
[Chafee’s] dogged support of the peace process is in Israel’s long term interests….
Laffey advocates a…stance so strong that it…puts him in the minority…
Critics say Laffey’s positions make him captive to the pro-Israel lobby.
Chafee says…that Laffey appears to be a member of the Christian right…
…Laffey deflected questions…
Chafee has been “an early critic of the Bush administration…”
This last one is right at least. Chafee has been about as much of a critic of the Bush administration as just about any Democrat in the Senate.
In September he will face a vote of confidence by Republicans on that matter among others, and this poses a dilemma for him.
In an April 14 article in the Washington Post, Chafee came to grips with his dilemma. He said, after a meeting with the Exeter Republican committee that “once [he] could count on voters in Rhode Island to tolerate his maverick ways, but this time the response is blank stares. ‘Nobody listened to my reasoning,’ Chafee recounted as he piled hay into a wheelbarrow. ‘They [fellow Republicans] support the president on everything.’.”
Well, perhaps it seems that way to him.
There is an underlying and false premise on the part of Chafee, and dare I say, the writer of this news article in the Projo, and that is that it is possible to press Israel through firm stances to work with the Palestinians. Chafee (and the writer) appear to blame Bush for not putting enough pressure on Israel prior to the election in Palestine which ushered in the Hamas majority.
This is at least simplistic and at most outrageous. Hamas support had been building for many years due to the gross corruption of the ruling Palestinian Authority, first under Arafat, and then under his successors. Moreover, under Ariel Sharon and his Kadima party successor, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel has been returning land to the Palestinians. The only other more moderate position left would be to hand over all of Israel to the Palestinians. And Hamas continues to pursue exactly that.
If anyone wants to be applying pressure, it should be on the Palestinians. And very soon, Chafee’s fellow Republicans will be applying apt pressure on him.
This front page news item in Sunday’s Providence Journal would have us think of Chafee as some sort of courageous and sagacious maverick who is warding off barbarians at the gate, but in the meanwhile members of his very own are thoroughly perplexed by his wild and inconsistent positions. Now that a time is coming, and very soon, for a contemplation and review of his behavior, those enamored of his liberal, though inconsistent positions are racing to his defense.
Consider the verbs associated with the proper nouns in this article which demonstrate its bias. To wit:
Supporters call Chafee a courageous voice…
They praise Chafee for…
Critics put Chafee outside the mainstream…
[Chafee’s] dogged support of the peace process is in Israel’s long term interests….
Laffey advocates a…stance so strong that it…puts him in the minority…
Critics say Laffey’s positions make him captive to the pro-Israel lobby.
Chafee says…that Laffey appears to be a member of the Christian right…
…Laffey deflected questions…
Chafee has been “an early critic of the Bush administration…”
This last one is right at least. Chafee has been about as much of a critic of the Bush administration as just about any Democrat in the Senate.
In September he will face a vote of confidence by Republicans on that matter among others, and this poses a dilemma for him.
In an April 14 article in the Washington Post, Chafee came to grips with his dilemma. He said, after a meeting with the Exeter Republican committee that “once [he] could count on voters in Rhode Island to tolerate his maverick ways, but this time the response is blank stares. ‘Nobody listened to my reasoning,’ Chafee recounted as he piled hay into a wheelbarrow. ‘They [fellow Republicans] support the president on everything.’.”
Well, perhaps it seems that way to him.
There is an underlying and false premise on the part of Chafee, and dare I say, the writer of this news article in the Projo, and that is that it is possible to press Israel through firm stances to work with the Palestinians. Chafee (and the writer) appear to blame Bush for not putting enough pressure on Israel prior to the election in Palestine which ushered in the Hamas majority.
This is at least simplistic and at most outrageous. Hamas support had been building for many years due to the gross corruption of the ruling Palestinian Authority, first under Arafat, and then under his successors. Moreover, under Ariel Sharon and his Kadima party successor, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel has been returning land to the Palestinians. The only other more moderate position left would be to hand over all of Israel to the Palestinians. And Hamas continues to pursue exactly that.
If anyone wants to be applying pressure, it should be on the Palestinians. And very soon, Chafee’s fellow Republicans will be applying apt pressure on him.
This front page news item in Sunday’s Providence Journal would have us think of Chafee as some sort of courageous and sagacious maverick who is warding off barbarians at the gate, but in the meanwhile members of his very own are thoroughly perplexed by his wild and inconsistent positions. Now that a time is coming, and very soon, for a contemplation and review of his behavior, those enamored of his liberal, though inconsistent positions are racing to his defense.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Who's on First
United States Senator Lincoln Chafee, quoted in the Washington Post (HT: WR). It reads like an Abbott & Costello dialogue:
"Nobody listened to my reasoning," Chafee recounted as he piled hay into a wheelbarrow. "They [RI Republicans] support the president on everything."
This is a delicious article about the wall the Senator is about to hit. You can read the entire piece here, but you do have to sign up for free online access.
"Nobody listened to my reasoning," Chafee recounted as he piled hay into a wheelbarrow. "They [RI Republicans] support the president on everything."
This is a delicious article about the wall the Senator is about to hit. You can read the entire piece here, but you do have to sign up for free online access.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
We Must Win
An excerpt from an editorial out of the pages of Tuesday's WSJ:
John C. Calhoun believed slavery was a cultural given that could not be undone in the South. Lincoln knew slavery had deep roots--but he believed that could, and must, change. He set about to do just that. Lincoln believed slavery could be overcome because he believed human beings were constituted in a particular way. In the "enlightened belief" of the Founders, he said, "nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows." Lincoln believed as well that the self-evident truths in the Declaration were the Founders' "majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man."
What has plagued the Arab Middle East is not simply, or even primarily, culture; it is antidemocratic ideologies and oppressive institutions. And the way to counteract pernicious ideologies and oppressive institutions is with better ones. Liberty, and the institutions that support liberty, is a pathway to human flourishing.
But read the whole thing on how Messrs. Buckley, Will and Fukuyama are not correct on the war in Iraq; and I'm a big fan of all of these guys - usually.
John C. Calhoun believed slavery was a cultural given that could not be undone in the South. Lincoln knew slavery had deep roots--but he believed that could, and must, change. He set about to do just that. Lincoln believed slavery could be overcome because he believed human beings were constituted in a particular way. In the "enlightened belief" of the Founders, he said, "nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows." Lincoln believed as well that the self-evident truths in the Declaration were the Founders' "majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man."
What has plagued the Arab Middle East is not simply, or even primarily, culture; it is antidemocratic ideologies and oppressive institutions. And the way to counteract pernicious ideologies and oppressive institutions is with better ones. Liberty, and the institutions that support liberty, is a pathway to human flourishing.
But read the whole thing on how Messrs. Buckley, Will and Fukuyama are not correct on the war in Iraq; and I'm a big fan of all of these guys - usually.
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