Politicians are all the same, except the ones that aren't like the rest. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) comes from a long line of politicians; in this small state, he is certainly among the "elite," to use a topical term. But unlike most life-long politicians, this man is unfailingly honest.
Is he perfect? No. He was a Republican for most of his life and cast votes that many of us would disagree with. But he also supports abortion rights, same-sex marriage, funding for stem cell research, voted against the tax cuts, and was the only Republican senator to vote against the resolution to use force in Iraq. Most importantly, in Lincoln Chafee's political life, he's done what he felt was right regardless of political considerations or pressure from within the party.
He's written a wonderful book that I would recommend to all Kossacks: "Against the Tide: How a Complaint Congress Empowered a Reckless President."
It's not an autobiography, but is devoted almost entirely to his only full term in the U.S. Senate. He fell victim to the Democratic sweep of 2006, losing a close race to Sheldon Whitehouse after a vicious Republican primary.
Chafee took President Bush and Vice President Cheney at their word when they ran as "uniters" who offered a "humble" foreign policy. His vision for the Bush presidency was quickly smashed after a meeting with Cheney, when the vice president laid out their "shockingly divisive" agenda. But what really shook Chafee was his first meeting with the new president:
When the meeting ended, I felt worse about him than when I arrived. I was shaken. I admire old-fashioned values, chief among them, honesty. Even at this early date in his tenure, the president had demonstrated an undeniable capacity for mendacity. America took him at his word when he said he was a uniter, not a divider; that our foreign policy would be humble; that he would address climate change by regulating carbon dioxide. In the first months of his administration he had already turned his back on these bedrock campaing pledges.
My visit with the new president did nothing to assuage my apprehensions. The man, and by that I mean the inner man, the essential man, seemed unequal to the awesome powers entrusted to him. I was worried about the damage he might do over the next few years, never mind in a second term, which seemed unthinkable at the time.
Well, he's had two terms, and it's been worse than Chafee or any of us could've ever imagined. But as sharply as Chafee criticizes the Bush administration in his book, he's even more outraged at the Congress. He slams the Senate Republicans for refusing to check this president's authority, and for deliberately setting a divisive agenda whenever an election was looming. You should read his accounts of some of the GOP caucus meetings. Frightening.
He has separate chapters for each of the major debates that took place in Congress during his time, paying particular attention to the Bolton, Rice and Alito confirmation hearings. There's a chapter on ANWR; Chafee actually flew to Alaska to tour the land, so he could participate knowledgeably in the debate. He talks about the administration's failure to achieve a solution to the Isreali-Palestinian conflict, and writes about all the other things you'd expect, going into great detail.
But never is Chafee's book more riveting than his account of the run-up to war in Iraq. Nobody asked the tough questions, and he recounts what it was like being there and watching Republicans AND Democrats being brainwashed one by one into buying what Bush and Cheney were selling. He traveled to Langley and asked to see all the intelligence they had, and suffice it to say he was unimpressed. There's too much of that to quote, but I will quote from "Against the Tide" one final time:
I find it surprising now, in 2008, how many Democrats are running for president after shirking their constitutional duty to check and balance this president. Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill. They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment, in my view.
That's not a Daily Kos diary, but a sitting Republican senator at the time of the vote. I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Chafee this afternoon; he was a gentleman and gave a wonderful talk about his book and time in the Senate. He has not a partisan bone in his body; he did not leave the Republican Party, but rather the Republican Party left him.
You might've guessed where I'm going with this; after disaffiliating from the GOP in 2007 to become an Independent, Senator Chafee has endorsed Barack Obama for president. The same Barack Obama who came to RI twice to campaign for Sheldon Whitehouse, including 3 days before the '06 election. I believe that Chafee ought to be offered a good speaking spot at the Democratic convention, if not a job in an Obama administration. He's a great messenger for this campaign's bipartisan appeal, as well as a reassuring communicator who is widely seen as diligent and honest.
As an aside, today I asked Mr. Chafee if picking Sec. Rice as a running mate would be enough to disqualify John McCain from the presidency by itself. He agreed that it would be.
This diary is sort of all over the place, but I'm a big fan and this book really moved me. There's nothing really new here, but you know the man was there and is telling the truth. He's not like the rest at all.