STRANGE BEDFELLOW Dems pounce on report of a Rove-Chafee connection BY IAN DONNIS

The Washington Times, the conservative daily in the nation’s capital, is an unlikely source of grist for the Democratic mill. But a July 21 story in the newspaper, indicating that Karl Rove, Rhode Island Republicans, and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee have tried to dissuade Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey from challenging US Senator Lincoln Chafee in a GOP primary, has sparked Democratic talk of a Rove-Chafee connection.

The liberal blog Rhode Island’s Future (www.rifuture.org/blog/), which has covered Laffey like a suit, responded to the report last week by writing, "Question: Why has Linc Chafee not criticized Karl Rove? Answer: Karl Rove is sticking his hands into Rhode Island trying to convince Steve Laffey not to run against Linc." It didn’t take long for Bill Lynch, chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, and Phil Singer, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to release similar statements critical of Chafee.

Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan says the senator, prior to a call from the Phoenix, hadn’t been asked whether he would support Senate hearings on Rove’s role in leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. "I think the senator wants to let the special prosecutor [Patrick] Fitzgerald do his job, and he’s going to report out in October," Hourahan says. "The senator will be comfortable with that. It sounds like it will be a thorough report." Reports of Rove talking with Laffey are "totally erroneous," he says, although the Cranston mayor has cited conversations with Elizabeth Dole and Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman

Laffey, meanwhile, recently told WJAR-TV’s Jim Taricani that he’s using the summer to decide if he will challenge Chafee. Citing unidentified sources, Taricani reported that Laffey offered to drop out of the Senate race in exchange for being made president of the University of Rhode Island, although Laffey’s press secretary denied this.

As previously reported, Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, a high-powered DC guy (who happens to be a liberal Democrat) got paid in gold bars, and agreed to repay big bucks to the federal government, after he represented convicted Rhode Island money launderer Stephen A. Saccoccia. The new twist is that Luskin once interned at the Providence Journal. "He was very well-liked," recalls metro columnist Bob Kerr. When another intern from Harvard sported underwear bedecked with the letter H, "Bob would remind him that it didn’t really matter where he went to school." Now, though, says Kerr, "It’s just kind of strange to see him in something that I find so hideous."