Is Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) a Liberal?
Fri Oct 13, 2006 at 09:04:50 AM PDT
The best argument for voting for Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse over incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee in the Rhode Island Senate race has to do with control of the Senate. In order to stop the Bush agenda we need a Democratic majority in the Senate, and that majority will be impossible should Chafee's seat remain under Republican control. But for many Rhode Islanders (and even to my surprise many kossacks) that argument is not enough. I have heard "Lincoln Chafee is a liberal and so I am, and I vote for the man, not the party," or words to that effect more times than I care to recount. So let's examine Chafee's record to determine just how liberal he is.
The graph above was generated from data from the non-partisan
National Journal which every year assigns a liberal and conservative ranking for each U.S. Senator and Congressman. The blue diamonds represent the liberal rating and the red squares represent the conservative rating. The closer to the top left the blue diamond is, the more liberal the Senator. Likewise, the closer to the top right the red square is, the more conservative the Senator. I have marked Chafee's positions along with those of other well-known Senators. (If you want to know where your Senator ranks visit the
National Journal.)
As you can see, Tom Coburn (R-OK) is the Senate's most conservative Senator, while Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is the Senate's most liberal, with Rhode Island's Democratic Senator, Jack Reed, not far behind. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) is the current ideological center of the Senate. Chafee was ranked the 44th (of 100) most liberal Senator. Only two Senate Democrats earned more conservative rankings than Chafee; Nelson and Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Senators Lieberman (D-CT), Bayh (D-IN), and Clinton (D-NY), who have all come in for their fair share of abuse from progressives, all rate as considerably more liberal than Chafee.
How can this be you ask? "Chafee voted against the war! He's an environmentalist! He supports gay rights!" Let's take a look at a few of the specific votes that pulled Chafee's score down in order to understand why:
Bankruptcy: Chafee voted for the bankruptcy bill that was written by lobbyists for the credit card industry. This bill, which was signed into law by President Bush, makes it much harder for individuals to file for bankruptcy (corporations are still in the clear). Worse, Chafee also voted not to exempt military families from these draconian new rules. So when our National Guard members are called away from their jobs to fight in Iraq, if their families can no longer make ends meet, it is extremely difficult for them to seek bankruptcy protection.
Social Security: This was the number one issue that made me realize I had to volunteer for Sheldon Whitehouse. When President Bush was advocating a phase-out of Social Security I tried for months to get a straight answer out of Senator Chafee's office as to where he stood on the President's plan. I'm still waiting. Back in 2000 Chafee made some statements in support of privatization of Social Security, but since then he has been much harder to pin down. But when it came time to cast a "sense of the Senate" vote "that Congress should reject any Social Security plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in debt," Chafee voted nay. I slowly came to realize that I could not depend on my Senator to preserve Social Security, the most successful government entitlement program ever created.
Environment: Chafee is known for being a strong advocate for the environment. Unlike some of his other caucus members, Chafee will not tell you that global warming is a "hoax," and he voted against opening the Alaskan wilderness to drilling and for stricter emissions standards on automobiles. But our environmental laws are only as good as the officials who are charged with enforcing them. And when it came time to cut off debate about the nomination of radical anti-environmentalist and corporate crony Stephen L. Johnson to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Chafee voted in favor of cloture. With that one vote he negated all his other pro-environment votes. Our environmental protection laws are worthless if the EPA refuses to enforce them, and Senator Chafee should know this. As a self-proclaimed environmentalist, Chafee should have done everything within his power to prevent Johnson from becoming head of the EPA.
Hurricane Katrina: I don't need to tell you what a horrible disaster Hurricane Katrina was, and how badly the federal government failed its citizens in response to it. But when the Senate had a chance to make life easier for Katrina survivors by providing "emergency health care and other relief for survivors of Hurricane Katrina," Senator Chafee voted nay, and the motion failed. After all the failures of the federal government in response to Katrina, Senator Chafee could not see fit to provide the people of the Gulf Coast with the extra help they needed. I think this one vote alone should be enough to put to bed the myth that Lincoln Chafee is a liberal. A liberal believes that the government should be there for its citizens in their time of greatest need, and when the people of New Orleans and other areas devastated by Katrina needed our help, Senator Chafee said "no."
Lincoln Chafee may take the "liberal" position on certain issues, but when you look at his record on the whole he does not deserve to be called a liberal. So the next time someone tells you Lincoln Chafee is a liberal, direct him or her to this diary. Rhode Island can (and will) do better with Sheldon Whitehouse.
Full Disclosure: I am an unpaid volunteer for the Whitehouse for Senate campaign. I have no financial or personal connection to Sheldon Whitehouse (or Lincoln Chafee for that matter). Basically, I'm just an ordinary Rhode Islander fighting to put the Senate back under Democratic control.
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