{"id":2215,"date":"2004-07-29T10:24:43","date_gmt":"2004-07-29T15:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2215.html"},"modified":"2004-07-29T10:24:43","modified_gmt":"2004-07-29T15:24:43","slug":"i-guess-linc-wont-be-on-the-stage-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/i-guess-linc-wont-be-on-the-stage-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"I guess Linc won’t be on the stage in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dems had issued a stern warning to nearly everyone: keep the party’s message positive and the Bush-bashing to a minimum. So it was a surprise to many that on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the festivities began in Boston, a respected U.S. senator offered a harsh critique of the president and his handling of the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

In fact, this senator, generally known for being reserved and mild-mannered, was unusually blunt about his feelings. He said Bush had made a “host of mistakes” and agreed with the Dems’ rank-and-file that the war has made the United States less safe than it was before.<\/p>\n

But the real surprise wasn’t that this senator was breaking with the Dems’ positive message; it was that the senator in question is a Republican<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee criticized the Bush administration on Tuesday for a ”host of mistakes” in its postwar reconstruction of Iraq, saying the country is less secure than before and that basic infrastructure is still not working. <\/p>\n

The senator, on a tour of a Middletown company that provides security details to contractors in Iraq, said the U.S. effort will fail if the White House doesn’t do a better job of working with other countries in the region and re-engage itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know, I’ve always liked that Chafee guy. I wonder what it’d take to get him to switch parties?
\n
\nIn fact, just for fun, I thought I’d remind readers of this gem from a NYT profile on Chafee from March 2003:<\/p>\n

After a while, I asked Chafee if there were any major pieces of Bush’s agenda with which he could wholeheartedly agree. He paused for about 10 seconds, with his hands pressed together prayerfully.<\/p>\n

“It’s difficult,” he said finally. “Because he’s chosen a divisive path, and it is working for the administration. On so many issues, they just pound the wedge in.”<\/p>\n

In other words, I suggested, he has a hard time finding even one point of agreement.<\/p>\n

“Yes, I do,” Chafee answered, looking embarrassed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know what I call someone who disagrees with every aspect of Bush’s agenda? A Kerry voter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dems had issued a stern warning to nearly everyone: keep the party’s message positive and the Bush-bashing to a minimum. So it was a surprise to many that on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the festivities began in Boston, a respected U.S. senator offered a harsh critique of the president and his handling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}