Apparently out that he’s really worn out his welcome, Lincoln Chafee has withdrawn from the Republican party.
Mark Noonan, in noting the story [1], says:
We could have backed a man last year against Chafee – I mean, as the Republican Party we could have. In other words, Chafee could have left the party last year and saved the GOP all the money and effort we poured into his re-election effort. Chafee’s opinions haven’t changed. The GOP hasn’t changed – things today are as they were when Chafee happily accepted GOP largesse for his re-election effort.
[2]There are those who will point in duration to this story as compared to the story previous as regards Liz Edwards. [3]And I could see the argument, but for one small thing… The amount of disagreements between Elizabeth Edwards and the democratic party are stored now a small as compared to the amount of disagreement between Lincoln Chafee and his former party. Further, Elizabeth Edwards is only disagreeing with a small yet vocal corner on the far left of the democratic party. Whereas, Lincoln Chafee is what is and always shall be bucking the values of the mainstream of the party he claimed as his own.
As such, the argument is comprised of comparisons of Apples and truck tires.
Mark is quite correct, in that the man should have been told in no uncertain terms that he was not going to be running as a Republican last year. Win or lose, the party would have been better off for it.
The press twisting the story in its usual fashion, has decided to mark the downfall of Lincoln Chafee as the results of a wave of anti Republicanism. However, the given the stands Chafee had been taking, … mostly with the Democrats… one needs to seriously ask whether or not his loss of the seat wasn’t in fact a wave of anti liberalism within his own district. After all, we are always told that all politics is local. Yet, his lawsuit is blamed on a nationwide wave. Somehow that doesn’t add up.
Lincoln Chafee, meanwhile, needs to get over himself. The values he brings to the table never WERE Republican values. He’s out of a job, today, because of that lack.