The long suffering people of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations elected Linc Chafee Governor in 2010, on the Independent line.
When Chafee was a Republican Senator, he was ranked as the No. 1 RINO by Human Events. Chafee lost his reelection bid in 2006 to Sheldon Whitehouse.
In 2010, Chafee ran for Governor and eked out a win in a three way race beating the Republican candidate 36.1% to 33.6%, with the Democrat who famously told Obama to shove his endorsement of Chafee, coming in at 23%.
Since winning, Chafee has governed as expected, out liberaling Democrats on issues like illegal immigration, where he has sought to turn Rhode Island into a sanctuary state.
Now Chafee is on board as a national co-Chair of the Obama campaign. So Chafee has moved from RINO to IINO, Independent In Name Only:
President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has named 35 national co-chairs, including Governor Chafee and actress Eva Longoria.
It was in declining the offer of a largely ceremonial chairmanship of President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign that then-Senator Chafee, a Republican-turned-Independent, gave his first clue of what was to become a long path out of the Republican Party.
Atop the Rhode Island State House dome stands a statue of the Independent Man.
Under the dome sits the Independent In Name Only Man.
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I looked at that Human Events list of RINOS.
Mitt Romney was number 8.
And people still want to try to convince us that he’s a conservative?
severely conservative
Re Romney. William Saletan has a devastating analysis of the flip flops on abortion and what it says about Romney’s character. The conclusion:
“Which persona is real? Neither. Romney’s soul isn’t in the five minutes he spent as a pro-lifer in that interview, or in the two seconds he spent as a pro-choicer. It’s in the flux, the transition between the two roles. It’s in the editing of his record, the application of his makeup, the shuffling of his rationales. Romney will always be what he needs to be. Count on it.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_conversion/2012/02/mitt_romney_s_abortion_record_flip_flop_or_conversion_.single.html
, Slate has
Mitt Romney on Romneycare for America:
In fact, however, as Newsweek writes, “During a speech in Baltimore on Feb. 2, 2007, Romney outlined his ambitions for the Massachusetts plan. ‘I’m proud of what we’ve done,’ he said. ‘If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing it, then that will be a model for the nation.’”
At the very least, Romney has clearly viewed his efforts as a model for other states across the nation. On April 11, 2006, the day before he signed his health care legislation into law, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (called “Health Care for Everyone? We Found a Way”), “How much of our health-care plan applies to other states? A lot.”
In his book, No Apology, he wrote of Ted Kennedy (on page 174 in the hardback edition), “[T]o his credit he saw an opportunity to work in a bipartisan fashion to try an experiment that might become a model for other states.” Three pages later (on page 177), Romney wrote, “From now on, no one in Massachusetts has to worry about losing his or her health insurance if there is a job change or a loss in income; everyone is insured and pays only what he or she can afford….We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country….”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/romneycare-bout_598289.html?page=1
Lincoln Chafee’s worst legacy is what he did when he was mayor of Warwick. Rocky Point Park had survived more than a hundred years and several hurricanes, but it couldn’t survive Lincoln Chafee.
When Rocky Point fell on hard times, and got behind on its taxes, Mayor Chafee ordered the city public works crews to go all around the city and take down the arrows that pointed the way to the park. This may sound like a small thing, but it wasn’t. Rocky Point was far from Route 95, and it was hard to find. It sat at the end of a street in a residential neighborhood that bordered Narragansett Bay. I lived in Warwick my whole life and I couldn’t find it without those signs.
It was a petty, mean thing to do and it put the last nail in the coffin of Rocky Point. How did he expect them to survive when he did the one thing that ensured people couldn’t find it?
I cry every time I think about what he did. I’ll never forget the morning I opened the Providence Journal and read that Rocky Point was gone. It was on the front page, above the fold. Rocky Point had closed. Lower down below the fold was another article about the state offering Bob Kraft millions of dollars in tax incentives to move the Patriots stadium to Providence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt1VvqVH42M
That is so sad. I looked at the video. Was it an amusement park? It’s hard to tell.
This is what RINO/lefties do: ruin everything.
It was the best amusement park in the world. Here’s a better video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMVX7Ud8Rck
At about 20 seconds in the video you can see the pool. It was a huge salt water pool and every summer we used to be bussed there from our playgrounds all around the city. We’d spend half the day at the pool, the other half at the park. The pool was filled in and closed years before the park finally died, but it was something.
You know what the worst part is? Everybody assumed there was this big conspiracy to take the land. It was prime waterfront land and was worth big bucks. I figured there’d be million dollar houses on it in no time. But that never happened. So it became a wasteland. Sad. If there is a God, they probably couldn’t build on it because of environmental regulations. Now that would be justice.
I’ll never forgive Chafee for ordering those arrows taken down. He has the tears of generations of Rhode Islanders on his shoulders.
Sickening, Jaynie.
We had a park in Minnesota called Paul Bunyan Land. They sold it out to a strip mall and built(I think) a Kohls on it.
Government intrusion SUCKS.
OT, but in the ballpark:
1. Checked my PO Box today and found a mailing from my incumbent Senator, Scott Brown. He talks about how Soros and Streisand are funding his liberal ideologue opponent, Professor Warren. He says he is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s top target. He identifies himself as a frugal fiscal conservative. Sounds like he is seriously considering coming out as a R-R-R-R-(come on Scottie, you can do it!)-Republican.
2. I am, within reason, a Big Tent conservative. I will of course vote for Brown over Warren. I might even give him the token donation that is all I am currently in a position to do–but first I want to see him beg.
3. Bill, unless you’re no longer interested, I’m going to ping the Brown campaign, mention your CPAC award, and suggest they contact you about the interview they declined some time ago. I presume you’re open to face-to-face, telephone, or email.
Apparently you’re not interested.
One can only assume that Warren will be claiming some of those Brown leaners because they used the streets that were paid for by everybody
Brown 49%
Warren 40%
Republican Sen. Scott Brown holds a decisive lead over Democrat Elizabeth Warren in the race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. According to a new Suffolk University/7NEWS (WHDH-Boston) survey, the freshman senator garners 49% of the vote — nine points ahead of his main Democratic rival. It’s the first time a poll put Mr. Brown in the lead since last fall. Suffolk University was also the first to show Mr. Brown ahead in 2010 when he upset state Attorney General Martha Coakley.
That upset was driven largely by the independent vote. And the new poll shows Mr. Brown again heavily drawing his support from this group of voters. Among the 52% of respondents who identified themselves as independent, 60% supported Mr. Brown while only 28% supported Ms. Warren.
But .. but Professor, Veep Biden says “Rhode” Island is spelled “Road” Island and such a high government offical couldn’t be wrong .. could he? 🙂
Professor, to what extent do you think Linc’s membership in the Republican Party was just an attempt to politically cash in goodwill towards his father?
Completely. He had a storied last name, otherwise he was just a guy who shoed horses.
I don’t suppose we can send five guys named Igor to Colorado kidnap a certain former mayor of Cranston and forcibly make him run for senate? Or is Whitehouse too unbeatable?