From John Fund, in today’s WSJ Political Diary:
Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican Senator from Rhode Island, has left the GOP and endorsed Barack Obama for president.
The move can only be considered a slap in the face to John McCain, who came to Rhode Island to assist Mr. Chafee in a hard-fought 2006 GOP primary against conservative Steve Laffey. Mr. Chafee won the primary narrowly, and then went on to lose the general election to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.
Asked about how his sudden shift in loyalties will be perceived, Mr. Chafee told reporters: “I’m sure Sen. McCain will understand.”
That’s up to Mr. McCain, but somehow I doubt that all the donors to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which pumped over $2 million into Rhode Island to save Mr. Chafee in his primary, will understand.
Nachama Soloveichik, who served as press secretary for Mr. Laffey and now works at the Club for Growth, has published an open letter to Senator Elizabeth Dole, who ran the NRCC in 2006. She points out that Mr. Chafee’s pending apostasy was already well in evidence in 2006: He had refused to vote for President Bush in the 2004 presidential election, voted against both Bush tax cuts, and cast the only Republican vote against the confirmation of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. To be sure, the NRSC’s job was to save Senate seats for Republicans in 2006, but it proved abysmal at the task. Rather than invest in Senate races that wound up being lost to Democrats by a handful of votes — Montana and Virginia come to mind — Mrs. Dole wasted precious resources trying to save the unreliable Mr. Chafee from a Republican challenger.
“It’s not about liberal or conservative. It’s about protecting incumbents no matter what their views,” is how Mrs. Dole defended her decision back in 2006. But this is precisely the attitude that has led Republican donors increasingly to sit on their wallets this election cycle.
This is an exquisite example of why I have never donated a penny to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Technorati tags: Election 2008, Elizabeth Dole, Lincoln Chaffee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Politics.
Tags: election 2008, elizabeth dole, lincoln chaffee, national republican senatorial committee, Politics
