W. JAMES ANTLE III: Chafee at the Bit
Laffey, Steve
Danish newspaper publishes satirical cartoons of Muhammad; after a storm of protest, Berlin's Deutsche Oper delays plans to stage a Mozart opera with a scene of The Prophet's severed head;...
...When the debates were scheduled, I showed up and debated him along with the Democratic candidate...
...of Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: 35,000 No...
...Ideological movements are about ideas and values...
...At times, Laqueur weakens his case with overly bold, longterm extrapolations of Europe's demographics that invite incredulity, e.g., "In 200 years some countries may have disappeared...
...Chafeethenhintedthattheonlyreasonhehadn't switched parties before the election was that his GOP affiliation helped him bring home federal dollars to RhodeIsland...
...BOTHLAFFEYANDHISGOPOPPONENTShadapoint.It was wasteful to expend so much time and money attacking an up-and-coming Republican politician in order to prop up an unreliable senator who might have pulled a Jim Jeffords in any event...
...Lincoln Chafee...
...In the end, Laffey's story is really about the frequently ignored difference between the Republican Party and the conservative movement...
...But Europe, unwilling to make the effort to create credible clout, didnothavemuchofeither.Thislackofpoliticalwill, combined with malignant demographic/social changes, certainly means, he concludes, "the end of Europe as a major player in world affairs...
...Thisisan overstatement--John Chafee was certainly a liberal by GOP standards...
...The GOP microtargeting machine was able to swell primary turnout by identifying and mobilizing liberal-leaning independents to vote for Chafee...
...Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 33,219 Total No...
...A good portion of Primary Mistake is devoted to Laffey's coming to terms with why, as an American citizen who met the constitutional requirements to serve in the Senate, people kept telling him he couldn't run...
...Throughout the campaign he polled well against Chafee, yet trailed the Democrats...
...And for an expertonEurope,hehasadisconcertingwayofreferringtoitas"thecontinent"whenheisincludinginsular Britain...
...In keeping with the B O O K SI NR E V I E W O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 6 7Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign) By Steve Laffey (SENTINEL, 224 PAGES, $25.95) Reviewed by W. James Antle III W. James Antle III is associate editor of The American Spectator...
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...Laqueur faults Europe's political leaders for authorizing the lavish distribution of entrance permits to so-called asylum seekers whose status could not be verified, and for shunting them into welfare programsfromthedayofarrival.Heattributesthisto a failure of nerve, along with Europe's prevalent cultural and moral relativism...
...today Germany is decisively back as Europe's most powerful economy and biggest exporter...
...Based on Chafee's liberal record, Laffeyseemsalmostperplexedbythisdecision: When I ran for reelection as the mayor of Cranston, there was an Independent candidate running whose only claim to fame was that he wantedtokeepathirty-five-footinflatablegorilla in his backyard...
...His sense of humor comes in handy, because without it his tome might be defined by sour grapes...
...He rarely mentions the extent to which his critics were able to use his funny-guy routine against him, such as when they unearthed articles he wrote as a College Republican at Bowdoin...
...Chafee was at least a possible winner whileLaffeywasalikelyloser.Therewas just one problem: Chafee didn't have very much in common with rank-andfileRepublicans...
...Laqueur's great virtue is that heeschews timorous political correctness and dares say thatthepreeningEuropeanemperorisdangerouslyif not terminally naked...
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...Laffey had no such luck with Lincoln Chafee and theRepublicanleadersinWashington.Herecallsmeetings with Elizabeth Dole's NRSC staff where they told himhecoulddowhateverhewanted,buttheywerenot going to support him...
...Chafeelosttheelectionanyway,sinceRepublicans only represented about 18 percent of the electorate in theheavilyDemocraticOceanState.Andhedidn'tseem particularly grateful for his party's support...
...A successful businessman before going into politics, Laffey looked at the Cranstonpartyeldersthewayhelookedathis"threeyear-old daughter, Audrey, when she throws all the shampoo bottles in the toilet" and said he would spend a quarter of a million dollars of his own money to win the nomination...
...He was endearingly referred to as Gorilla Man...
...In 2004, he did not vote for Bush's re-election...
...Soft power was a nice, cuddly idea as an alternative to military power...
...If Laffey could have held onto the seat, the national party would have given Chafee as little help asitprovidedtheill-fatedBobSmithinhis2002New HampshireprimaryfightwithJohnSununu.Reading Primary Mistake made me repent of my own lack of enthusiasmforLaffey'sprimarychallengebutIdoubt many GOP operatives will be so moved.Laffey downplays the substantial support he received from outside groups like the Club for Growth, which are almost as influential as the NRSC...
...Chafee subsequently told reporters it was "no secret" that he disagreedwithBushonawholehostofissues,including "the environment, the war in Iraq, and women's reproductive freedoms...
...But on the whole this is a compelling, eye-opening, and timely survey that authoritatively confirms the saddening impression, held by many of us who have long known Europe, that it is changing permanently for the worse...
...Chafee at the Bit IN THE LONG LIST OF REPUBLICAN REGRETS about the 2006 elections, there is undoubtedly an entry for Sen...
...Laffey is no Gorilla Man...
...The GOP ran ads attacking Laffey for raising taxes and allowing illegal immigrants to use consular ID cards from Mexico and Guatemala, even though Chafee voted againstalltheBushtaxcutsandsupportedamnesty...
...The gift will be counted against your required minimum distribution but will not be counted for income tax purposes (in exchange, the IRS does not permit a tax deduction on this amount...
...But when it came to most basic conventions of party loyalty, Lincoln Chafee was not his father's son...
...Laffey describes the national party's "grand strategy for getting Linc Chafee reelected and holding on to the majority in the Senate:attackmepersonally,importout-of-statevolunteers, and get liberals out to vote...
...This is an innovative way to limit your tax liability, support publication of The American Spectator and help train the next generation of conservative journalists.THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FOUNDATION STATEMENTOFOWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT ANDCIRCULATION Publication Title: The American Spectator Publication Number: 0148-8414 Filing Date: 8-30-07 Issue Frequency: Ten per year Number of Issues Published Annually: 10 Annual Subscription Price: $39 (New) $49 (Renewal) Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 1611 N. Kent St., #901, Arlington, VA 22209 Complete Mailing Address Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: The American Spectator Foundation Inc., 1611 N. Kent St., #901, Arlington, VA 22209 Publisher: Alfred S. Regnery, 1611 N. Kent St., #901, Arlington, VA 22209 Editor: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., 1611 N. Kent St., #901, Arlington, VA 22209 Known Boldholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None The Purpose, Function and Nonprofit Status of this Organization and the Exempt Status for Federal Income Tax Purposes: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months Issue Date for Circulation Provided: September 2007 Average No...
...Washington Republicans also joined the Chafee campaign in inviting Democrats to disaffiliate and vote in the Republican primary...
...Political parties are about winning elections and wielding power...
...That think-tank view, Laqueur says, was based on wishful thinking on the part of "Euroenthusiasts in their dreamworld...
...and Mohammed Bouyen stabbed, shot, and tried to behead the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh because he made a film about the abusive treatment of Muslim women...
...Even Gorilla Man can run and get 4 percent of the vote...
...But Steve Laffey, the man who tried to unseat him in last year's Republican primary, still remembers.Thetwo-termCranstonmayorhasevenwritten a book, Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006 (and Sabotaged My Senatorial Campaign), to remind everyone else...
...I never thought to say, "Why is Gorilla Man running...
...Iliterallycameclosetofallingoffmy chair,"hesaidafterameetinginwhichincomingVice President Dick Cheney explained the administration's agenda to Senate Republicans...
...Onthewar,abortion,SamuelAlito'sconfirmation, taxes, and same-sex marriage Laffey agreed with the B O O K SI NR E V I E W 6 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 Republican base while Chafee was on the other side...
...Thesubtitlesaysitallasfarasthebook'sthesisis concerned, but it doesn't begin to describe the color with which Laffey tells his story...
...He was twice elected mayor of an overwhelmingly Democratic city, winning a second term by a landslide margin...
...According to Laffey, the man GOPleadershadpickedtobethenomineeresponded byburstingintotearsandwithdrawingfromtherace...
...Pope BenedictXVIapologizesafteraMuslimuproarovera speech they didn't like...
...Confusethetwoandyouwindupwithsomethinglike the Chafee-Laffey primary contest...
...Also, developmentshaveovertakensomeofhismaterial,suchas his description of Germany's economic doldrums...
...This may be, he surmises, out of guilt for its aggressive nationalism of the past...
...Laffey's oeuvre included such '80s-era chestnuts as, "When I hear [Boy George] sing, `Do you really want to hurt me, do youreallywanttomakemecry,'Isaytomyself,YES,I want to punch your lights out, pal, and break your ribs...
...Coming from a family whose Republicanism was more in line with Nelson Rockefeller than Ronald Reagan,Chafeehadservedasmayorof Warwick...
...He recalls getting similartreatmentwhenhefirstdecided torunformayorofCranston:Theparty establishment told him not to bother because they already had a candidate...
...It's all a far cry from the heady days, not so long ago, when some American observers were predicting that the 21st century would belong to Europe, thanks to a burgeoning EU, its social safety net, and its sophisticatedwieldingofsoftpowerandsubtlediplomacy...
...But on primary day, 54 percent of those who voted in the Rhode Island Republican primary agreed that the only vote that counted was the one that allowed the GOPtoorganizetheSenate,dashingLaffey'shopes.In November,DemocratsandIndependentsfeltthesame wayandvotedChafeeoutofofficebyasimilarmargin...
...Consequently, the NRSC funded a very negative campaign against Laffey--in no small part because it was difficult to run a positive campaign that would encourage conservatives to vote for Chafee...
...Copies Distributed: 33,219 Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 90 percent Statement of Ownership will be Published: October 2007 Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher 8-30-07...
...Laffeyclaimsthattheonlythings the two Chafees shared were "a last nameandaYchromosome...
...He inherited his father John's Senate seat in 1999 and was elected in his own right the following year...
...Once Chafee was renominated, 94 percent of Rhode Island Republicans voted for him in the general election even thoughhispositionsonmostissueswereindistinguishablefromthoseofhisDemocraticopponent...
...jokes about his surname, Laffey is a pretty funny guy...
...Most people have since forgotten about the ingratitude of Rhode Island's forgettable former senator...
...Twodaysaftertheelection, he told reporters hewasunsurewhether he would remain a Republican...
...Though he does see this episode as an example of Republican dirty tricks against him: "I can just imagine Liddy Dole squirreled away in a dark corner of Bowdoin College's Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, drooling over the dust-covered pages of Bowdoin's twenty-year-old newspapers...
...The gift is made on or before December 31, 2007...
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...TotheBeltwayRepublicans,thatwasalltherewas toit.Inhead-to-headmatch-upswithDemocraticcandidate Sheldon Whitehouse, Chafee was within themargin for error and Laffey wasn't...
...Talk about a single-issue candidate...
...This is America...
...When asked ifhethoughthisdefeat might have helped the country by turning the SenateovertotheDemocrats,hereplied,"Tobehonest, yes...
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...The younger Chafee almost immediately established himself as a critic of President George W. Bush'spolicies...
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...He contrasts this with more self-confident nations likeJapan,China,orSingapore,whereillegals"would have been sent back within days, if not hours, to their country of origin...
...All told, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and other edifices of the national party spent over $1 million to dragChafee,themostliberalRepublicansenator,across the finish line in a competitive GOP primary...
...Those resources would have been better spent finding a primary challenger for Conrad Burns or hiding GeorgeAllenuntilElectionDay.ButifChafeecouldn't beatWhitehouse,Laffeydidn'tstandachance...
Vol. 40 • October 2007 • No. 8
