The junior senator from Rhode Island was in, by his own staff's admission, a lose-lose situation. If he votes against Judge Alito he strengthens the hand of his more conservative primary opponent. If he votes for Judge Alito he strengthens the hand of the two prominent Democrats who are running for his Senate seat. So what does he do? Why he makes a "principled" statement and comes out as a vote against Alito - but at the same time appears to come down on the side of opposing a filibuster to block the Alito nomination. Uh, senator, if Alito is as bad as you say he is, and you are in a position to stop him from sitting on the Supreme Court for 30+ years, uh - shouldn't you try a tiny bit harder to stop him from taking that seat? My read on this is that Chafee turned a lose-lose situation into a really-lose, piss-off-everyone situation.
Posted by armand at January 30, 2006 01:20 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics