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Chafee, Thy Days Art Numbered
04/10/2003

Here's what Lincoln Chafee, a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, had to say to the state's major paper by way of comment on yesterday's historic events:

Even Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the delegation's sharpest critic of the war and the only Senate Republican to oppose it, expressed satisfaction at "the ability of our fighting people to engage [the enemy]. The way they performed, I've got to be honest, is really impressive."

But Chafee expressed skepticism that President Bush would match his pledge for a "vital" United Nations role in postwar Iraq with the kind of American commitment needed for the U.N. to remain "a viable entity." Key Bush administration members "have been disdainful" of the U.N., Chafee said.

"All over the world, there is a feeling that this was a belligerent incursion," Chafee said, voicing fear of long-term damage to America's international standing.

"In the short term, it hasn't been good," Chafee said. "The Canadians are booing our national anthem at hockey games."

Didja catch that "I've got to be honest"? In other words, the Senator would prefer to say otherwise, I presume. To take the liberation of Baghdad as an opportunity to worry about the inclusion of those who would have stopped it is appalling. But to so drastically misunderstand what has actually happened vis-à-vis "America's international standing" ought to be grounds for immediate dismissal from the nation's elite 100.

Chafee couldn't even emulate his Democrat pals (also quoted for the article) and shift the topic of conversation as quickly as possible to the next stage in an effort to "move beyond" something that they got terribly, terribly wrong. Of course, none of them have really got an opinion about that next stage — except to say that, whatever the right thing to do might be, they're pretty sure that President Bush isn't doing it.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 01:08 PM EST