Chafee Wins! (The GOP Says "Hooray?")

I wrote about the Lincoln Chafee-Stephen Laffey primary race the other day, pointing out the bizarre situation in which the GOP found themselves -- forced to root against someone who was far closer to the party's values and to support someone who has been nothing but a thorn in the party's hind end. The GOP can move on now. Sort of. Chafee has won, meaning that the GOP got what it wanted -- the candidate that it did not really want.

In November Chafee will square off against a former state attorney general and US attorney for the state, Sheldon Whitehouse who yesterday easily won the Democratic Senate nomination yesterday against two lesder candidates. As Rhode Island goes, so may go the Senate.

One wonders how Whitehouse will gain traction, however. Chafee, largely because of the enduring popularity of his late father, John, has a great deal of support in the otherwise overwhelmingly Democratic state. Whitehouse's war opposition won't win him many points given that Chafee became persona non grata in his party largely because of his vocal opposition to the war. Chafee is enough of a social liberal to make Whitehouse seem like little more than a cipher or an opportunist. Perhaps the discontentment with the national GOP will create a riptide that will pull Chafee under, but for now, it looks as if the GOP can breathe easily, even if most within the party are holding their noses.