Lincoln Chaffee Unleashed

Rhode Island’s former Senator, Lincoln Chaffee has a book out. Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.

In his book, which does a nice job of naming names, Chafee makes it clear that Senator Snowe assured him she would oppose Alito to the Supreme Court, but caved when threats of a primary emerged. The Portland Press Herald followed up on Mr. Chaffee’s recollection in which she responded:

"First of all, no one threatened me with a primary challenge," Snowe said last week. "It was an excruciating decision for me because I am so concerned about Roe v. Wade, but I had to be held to the standards I already established when I voted for (Chief Justice John) Roberts.

"How was I going to explain to people, certainly to Republicans, that I was departing from those standards?" Snowe said. "So that was the struggle that I expressed to him

It should be noted that Senator Snowe, running in the same election environment as Chaffee, won reelection with 74% of the vote

Chaffee also gets his digs in with Senator Collins, essentially asserting that the Homeland Security Committee was busy being busy and ignoring the important things -- a theme that has been used effectively in the Allen campaign.

Mr. Chaffee, according to the Politco.com, is no longer a registered Republican and has subsequently endorsed Senator Obama for President. Rumors in Rhode Island are that he plans a run for mayor of Providence or perhaps Governor in 2010.