Chafee's foe saves attacks for Bush
2006-10-17
Source: Boston Globe
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rss feedSheldon Whitehouse is running against Senator Lincoln D. Chafee. But all he talks about these days is President Bush.
Campaigning in North Providence recently, Whitehouse blasted away at the president. There's the "mess" in Iraq, the ``disgrace" of the healthcare system, and an administration that's "in the pocket of the oil and gas industry."
"We need a Senate that will stand up to this administration and ask hard questions, and tell that man [Bush] 'no' when he needs to be told 'no' to," Whitehouse, the Democratic candidate, told about 150 people who came to North Providence High School for an evening of pasta and politics.
Call it the blue-state Bush effect: While the president emphasizes tough conservative stances on terrorism and taxes to shore up core Republican voters in advance of next month's election, his actions have the opposite effect in predominantly liberal states like Rhode Island, endangering even very moderate GOP incumbents.
Chafee is an unlikely target of Bush-bashing. The scion of a legendary political family in Rhode Island, Chafee is easily the most liberal Republican in the Senate, opposing the Bush administration on tax cuts, the Iraq war, energy policy, a Supreme Court nomination -- even the president's own reelection in 2004.
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