Chafee rethinks his political future, party

By KATHERINE GREGG
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In his first interview since losing the Republican U.S. Senate seat that has been in his family for three decades, Lincoln D. Chafee said a lot of people had been coming up to him "and saying, 'We're sorry you lost, but glad the Congress switched' " from GOP to Democratic Party control.

Asked if deep down, despite his personal disappointment about the outcome of Tuesday's election, he felt the same way, Chafee looked into the TV cameras and said: "To be honest, yes."

"When you enact a divisive agenda, don't talk to the other side, I don't think that's good for the country," Chafee said. At least now, "I think the president is going to have to talk to the Democrats. I think that is going to be good for America."

But he admitted that on the most personal level, "losing is traumatic. It's a kick in the guts mostly because you've vested so much time and energy. You hit the point of exhaustion and then boom, the numbers aren't there."

In a free-wheeling interview Thursday, a serene Chafee did not rule out a return to the political arena at some point; half-joked that he now has a house in Providence that would enable him to run for mayor there if an opening presents itself. He also left the door open, again, to possibly changing his party affiliation.

He almost laughed when asked if it might have been helpful to him and other Republicans across the country if Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had resigned before _ rather than a day after _ Tuesday's political tsunami.

Chafee, who so famously cast the only Republican vote against authorizing the Iraq war, never joined his opponent's call for Rumsfeld's resignation, saying the decision was the president's. Thursday, he admitted wishing "it had happened two or three weeks earlier," but said he doubted "it would have made any difference" in his Rhode Island race in a year of built-up anger over his party's divisive national agenda and handling of the war.

His only bit of advice for the Democrat who bested him by 26,726 out of 383,822 votes cast, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse: "Do not fall into the pack mentality."

His only flashes of anger at the collision of local and national currents that swept him from the office he has held since 1999 were directed at his September primary opponent, Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, who "chose for his own self gratification to oppose a sitting Republican," making the GOP's chances of holding the seat "a whole lot harder."

Chafee also fretted for the future of his party if moderates, like himself, are attacked _ as he was _ by the far-right flank of their own party as he described the Washington-based Club For Growth, which decided he wasn't conservative enough on purity-test issues and poured a bundle of money into Laffey's campaign.

As for his own future, he said he doesn't want to "encourage" or "discourage" the inevitable talk about him running for governor when incumbent Governor Carcieri ends his second and last term in 2010. But he said he really hasn't thought much beyond next week when he returns to Washington.

Will he remain a Republican? "I am going to look at where I am and my plans for the future." Question: So, "you are saying you are looking where you belong and it may not be the Republican Party?" His initial answer: "That's fair."

But he also described himself as a "loyal Republican" who, like his father _ the late Gov. and U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee _ spent years trying to build "a two-party system" in Rhode Island, so "I don't want to communicate that I am all of a sudden flying the coop."