I think this tells a lot about what is wrong with politics. It explains why, no matter who is in power, the position of the poor does not change.

In our interview, Whitehouse, who comes from a similarly elite background as the incumbent senator, acknowledged the peculiar personal contours of a race against Chafee. "You have to make people understand that this election is not about Lincoln Chafee," he said. "I personally like Lincoln Chafee. The Whitehouse family and the Chafee family have been very close. His son Caleb and my son Alexander are classmates. His father and my father were classmates at Yale."

Chafee could be counted on to vote with the party whenever it counted; the party arranged to allow him to dissent when it was necessary for his survival in a blue state, but only when they had the votes lined up anyway. So you'd see him regularly voting for cloture (the vote that counted) and voting against the final bill or nominee. And you'd never see him on talking head shows bashing his own party.

"And you'd never see him on talking head shows bashing his own party."

Which is why the Democrats were justified in dumping that douche Lieberman, even if he could usually be trusted on the issues, and the Republicans are justified in supporting Chafee, even if he sometimes (often?) dissents from the party line.

I can feel it. I can smell it. The winds of change.

When Chafee went with the gang of 14 I heard Joe Scarborough say it would be the death of him in Rhode Island with his home base...chuckle,chuckle,chuckle...funny old world, eh?

The trouble with politics is, indeed, that the plight of the poor does not change. What's worse, the definition of "poor" has become adjustable. At a time in our history when poverty is relative and so not readily distinguishable even to those so afflicted, the obscenely wealthy continue to control both parties, while we, on both sides of the aisle, continue to wring our hands over which crew's turn it is to run the lives of the poor, the nearly poor and the soon-to-be-poor. I guess the real problem with politics is that it is politics at all. If we as a nation were blessed with decent peripheral vision we would understand that it doesn't matter which party has "control" of the Senate and the House, nor of the White House, but that decent and honorable men and women who are representative of their constituency are elected. But no, instead we continue on furnishing our rut, pulling the switch back and forth, electing the same ruling class of disconnected, derealized and far-too-afluent scions of "power families." There is no Santa Claus and there is no Mister Smith to go to Washington, it seems. There is just the one cistern from which we will continue to scoop the algae off the water down there in the dark, where decent people never go.

I'm a native Rhode Islander and still live there. I honestly can't stomach any of my voting options in this race. As a Democrat, I suppose I'll vote for Whitehouse, simply because I have to support the party's efforts to claim the Senate, but I honestly don't think he's up to the demands of the job. Plus, as an old-money scion, he just doesn't "get" my boring working-class concerns. I could, of course, disaffiliate on voting day so I could go in and cast my vote for Chafee, the quintessential RINO (Republican In Name Only), but he is obviously of the same old-money lineage and completely fails to convey any prosects for substantive political and social change, or any excitement at all. No, the only reason I'd vote for Chafee would be to cast one more vote against Laffey, who many folks here just can't stand. However much mileage he gets out of his epic battle against the Cranston crossing guards, he didn't endear himself to many Rhode Islanders in the process. He comes off as an egomanaical, insulting, bullheaded, meanhearted petty tyrant once you've seen him on the local news often enough. I personally can't stand the idea of him representing me and my family on the national level. Anyway, the Mexican-ID commercial tries hard, and unsuccessfully, to tap into a local non-issue. Not like there's no problems in RI arising out of illegal immigration, but it's just not the high-visibility issue here that it is further South and West. No, ultimately the people who vote for Chafee over Laffey will do so because they don't like Laffey, or because they still feel loyalty to the Chafee name. Chafee's father, longtime Senator John Chafee, was a Rhode Island institution who was highly respected and well-liked. I don't think any of us need to be reminded how far a political son can get on the strength of his father's name.

The most politically accurate statement I could make come election day would be to just stay home. I won't, but I'd like to.

So none of the candidates are 100% what you like? What an unexpected surprise. You still get to vote whether you want even more Republican debt, even more silly posturing on the international stage, even more pointless warfare leading to the deaths of thousands of people. With your vote you get to influence whether your country finally decides to take climate change seriously, something which ultimately affects your livelyhood and your survival.

Alternatively you can sit at home and feel sorry for yourself because none of the candidates is exactly what you want.

Oh, so the Dem is too old money for you. What in the hell do you think second generation Senator Chafee is , dude. Oh, you're too funny.

More importantly Chafee has supported every one of Bush's country-club policies that destroy the middle-class. A Democrat won't, and more importantly, a Democratic controlled Senate won't be putting the gems the GOP has put forth - like having nurses and truckdrivers paying higher tax rates than billionaires.

But you folks seem to have abandoned all pretense there is a political process at all. If all you want is to have everyone sign a proclamation stating they are slightly to the right of Bakunin than do that. But it's not really a political 'action' as it were. And to be fair, how many of you really want the DNC to succeed so as to persecute all those who were in power before - c'mon you know you do.