TALKING POLITICS Bolton becomes an early issue in Senate contest BY IAN DONNIS

To his supporters, US Senate Lincoln Chafee is a moderate Republican who brings candor, independence, and a maverick streak to his votes in the Senate. Democrats, though, in a preview of the sharply contested 2006 Senate campaign to come, cite his anticipated support for John Bolton as United Nations ambassador as a prime example of how Chafee sides with the Bush White House when push comes to shove.

In a national e-mail earlier this week — with the subject line "Know anybody in Rhode Island?" — Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry describes how Chafee "is under enormous political pressure from the White House and right-wing organizations to cast the deciding vote in favor of Mr. Bolton. That’s why we’re urging Senator Chafee’s constituents to contact his office immediately and call on him to resist that pressure. Remember to be polite and say that you are a Rhode Island resident." The e-mail includes contact numbers for Chafee’s offices in Washington, Providence, and Newport.

For liberals and Democratic partisans, Chafee’s inclination to support Bolton is emblematic of what’s wrong with a GOP senator representing this bluest of blue states. Although Chafee famously voted against the war in Iraq and favors a far more conservative approach to deficits than the president, critics invariably point to his vote for Bush’s nominees and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in contending that party loyalty outweighs the senator’s concern for his constituents.

Chafee, a potentially decisive swing vote on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Post this week that he planned to back Bolton as UN ambassador, even after the State Department’s former intelligence chief cited Bolton as a "bully" who abused his power and authority. "It’s all focused on one incident," Chafee told the Post. "We’re not really seeing a pattern." Although the senator previously conceded that the Rhode Islanders who have contacted his office "overwhelmingly" oppose Bolton — who has been highly critical of the United Nations in the past — he said the president deserves to have his nominees backed by the Senate.

Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan tells the Phoenix, "Senator Chafee is taking into account the very well-organized groups that are contacting us, but he is also working from the evidence that he is seeing from this hearing . . . He doesn’t believe that the average Rhode Island is paying much attention to this, but that these are well-orchestrated lobbying organizations, on both sides, that are contracting us." Hourahan says Chafee has been favorably impressed by testimony that Bolton, who has previously expressed a unilateralist worldview, will take his foreign policy orders from the State Department and the White House.

Meanwhile, Chafee’s two Democratic rivals for his US Senate seat, former attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse and Secretary of State Matthew Brown, have been critical of his inclination to support Bolton. With the pending race remaining a national priority for Democrats, such criticism will only intensify.

"The risk for Chafee is that Rhode Islanders will view this as a litmus test vote in terms of his relationship with the administration, because part of his argument for staying in office is that he’s a maverick who stands up to the administration," says Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University. "If he votes in favor of this guy, it becomes a very public counter-example." West predicts the Bolton "will become an issue in the Senate race, because it’s an example of what the Democrats don’t like about Chafee . . . He may have to spend months defending the vote."

Of course, there would also be fallout if Chafee sides against the White House on Bolton. As West says, "He needs to play to the base of the GOP in order to raise the $3 million that he’s going to need [for the Senate contest]."