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• Friday, September 1, 2006 06:51 AM

  Rhode Island

  I live in Rhode Island, and I saw that ad two days ago. Frankly, I was pretty shocked - not at the ad itself, but that it would actually be broadcast in Rhode Island. We don't usually see that level of ugliness here.

  I've been quite aware of Chafee's rather contemptible voting habits:- voting "liberal" only on votes that don't matter to the Republican leadership, but a reliable party member in the clutch, like other New England Republicans. And I was quite annoyed recently to get a newsletter from him, printed and mailed at taxpayer (my!) expense, which was little more than a campaign advertisement. That's just sleazy.

  I've met Whitehouse, and while he didn't knock my socks off, he did seem competent (you can read my writeup of the dinner at http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/225041.html ). He did seem like a standard Democratic candidate, but I will say that while much of what he said was standard Democratic talking points, he did show real passion when the topic of the environment came up - or rather, of the environmental lawsuits he'd overseen as state Attorney General. He was REALLY pissed that the Bush Administration and the EPA had stalled enforcement and changed regulations to accomplish back-door nullification of the suits.

  So while he may not set the Senate on fire, I do think that he'd be better than Chafee, and he does seem to have at least one issue that he really cares about. I have no idea what Chafee cares about, except apparently getting re-elected and not offending the GOP leadership too much.

  —Peter Maranci Read Peter Maranci's other letters
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