Talking Politics

Rise of the political bogeyman

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:51:17 GMT

Impotent on the issues, the GOP turns to scare tactics. Be afraid!
The Republicans appear headed to a second straight national pummeling, which will leave it marginalized in the federal government and an increasing number of state houses. Many party faithful are already noting the need for the GOP to move back toward the moderate center to survive. But the conservatives with microphones are heading down a very different path — and their followers, who now dominate the Republican Party, are going right with them.

America's 25 scariest conservatives: Who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond? By David S. Bernstein.

On his evening-drive radio talk show, WTKK-FM’s Jay Severin recently advised his listeners on how to deal with a Barack Obama presidency, which he increasingly considers inevitable. Severin’s prescription: use any means available to hinder the administration’s ability to operate. Stay on the attack, with any and all complaints and accusations and protests, to gum up the works and prevent Obama and the Democratic-led Congress from accomplishing anything on their “radical,” “socialist” agenda.

“Our job is to undermine him in every possible legal way . . . undermine and destroy his political ability to govern or to have any hope of a successful administration,” Severin expounded on his blog, comparing the task to Colonial minutemen resisting King George. “Start destroying Barack Obama['s] political credibility . . . until he gets elected on November 4th, and, even harder, every day, every minute, and every second after.”

The Republican Party appears headed to a second straight national pummeling, which will leave it marginalized in the federal government and an increasing number of state houses, as well as out of the Oval Office. Many party faithful are already noting the need for the GOP to move back toward the moderate center to survive; to refocus on a reasonable policy agenda, rather than a series of absolutist beliefs and paranoid accusations.

As Severin’s comments indicate, the conservatives with microphones are heading down a very different path — and their followers, who now dominate the Republican Party, are going right with them.

Rush Limbaugh has proclaimed that a John McCain loss will prove the failure of “big-tent” conservativism, and demonstrate the need for greater ideological rigor. Sean Hannity has essentially proclaimed the upcoming election an ACORN-rigged illegitimacy. The most popular conservative Web sites, publications, and voices — National Review Online, Free Republic, Michelle Malkin — obsessively traffic in the most slanderous and crackpot Obama theories, from his supposed lack of US citizenship to William Ayers’s alleged ghost-authorship of Obama’s books.

None of this is new to Republican politics. Indeed, the Republican Party seems stuck in the 1970s, rallying the “silent majority,” as Richard Nixon called his voters in 1969, against the counterculture: radical Vietnam protesters (Ayers), subversive socialists (“spreading the wealth”), Black Power movements (Reverend Jeremiah Wright), permissive free-love advocates (“teaching sex to kindergarteners”), and abortionists (“partial-birth” procedure).

Wacko patrol: America's 25 scariest conservatives

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:49:03 GMT

The Phoenix ranks the individuals who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond.
Imagine what will happen once the relatively sane folks now running the White House and the Republican National Committee pack up and go home?

The fire-breathing reactionaries already wield extraordinary influence on the right — imagine what will happen once the relatively sane folks now running the White House and the Republican National Committee pack up and go home? Here, the Phoenix ranks the individuals who will hold the most sway over the right-wing message machine in 2009, and beyond. You’ll recognize many, and wonder why others are missing. Bill O’Reilly, for example, doesn’t make our list, because he’s now more of a follower than a leader — when’s the last time he had an original thought, scary or otherwise?

25) KATON DAWSON, CHAIR, SOUTH CAROLINA GOP
The right tried to get him to run for Senate against Republican Lindsay Graham this year. He’s your likely next RNC chair. Buckle up.

The enthusiasm gap

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:53:53 GMT

This election, with Obama having stoked pennant fever in Denver, it is the Dems who have cornered the excitement market
The selection of gun-shooting, anti-abortion, creationist, doctrinaire conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee has finally got the GOP’s conservative base excited.

The selection of gun-shooting, anti-abortion, creationist, doctrinaire conservative Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee has finally got the GOP’s conservative base excited. The right-wing talk-show hosts and religious leaders who had been lukewarm over McCain — and fearful that he really might put Senator Joe Lieberman on the ticket — are beside themselves with glee.

Once again, as in 2000 and 2004, the Republican base will get fired up for November. Conservative religious groups will distribute fliers about abortion, homosexuals, and atheism. Evangelical churches will run busses to the polling places. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will warn, hour after hour, of the impending socialistic state of Barack Obama, and the inevitable nuclear attack on American soil.

Palin is part of McCain’s attempt to reclaim the Republican advantage in party-base enthusiasm, an edge which arguably won the past two presidential elections for the GOP. This year, that advantage was seen as heavily favoring the Democrats.

But not only has McCain started to energize his conservatives, fervor was also waning in recent weeks among Democrats, due to in-fighting, uncertainty, and tightening poll numbers — to the point that Democrats arriving in Denver this past week for their national convention seemed surprisingly nervous about the election, and noticeably cautious in their enthusiasm.

Like Red Sox fans in the 86 years of darkness, Democratic insiders bear the scars of past broken hearts, from times when they previously let themselves believe that their time had come — only to see victory elude them like a ground ball between the legs of Al Gore and John Kerry.

To mix Red Sox metaphors, it is as though they have come to expect that Karl Rove lurks in the batter’s box like Bucky Dent, always ready to drive one over the Green Monster and beat them in the end.

Obama needs his base — the delegates and party activists in Denver — to believe again that this is, really, the year his party’s dreams will come to fruition. He needs them to believe, so that they will be passionate speakers on his behalf back in their home states; so that they will fill his coffers with money; so that they will spend endless hours registering voters, making phone calls, and doing all the grunt work of the national campaign — in short, so that the enthusiasm gap this time works in the Democrats’ favor.

Opening-night jitters

DAVID S. BERNSTEIN — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:07:14 GMT

The DNC’s primary colors
The Democratic National Convention started off with a strange vibe that might be summed up in one word: restraint.

HIDE THE PRIDE: As Michelle Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention Monday night, many in the crowd admitted to holding back their emotions in an effort to sell Barack Obama as a candidate who transcends race.

DENVER — The Democratic National Convention started off with a strange vibe that might be summed up in one word: restraint. Much is being pent-up here; emotions are being held in check.

One obvious aspect of this comes from the Clinton-Obama rift, which is real, though generally misunderstood. In truth, there are two very separate issues that have been conflated: the reticence of many Hillary Clinton voters to commit to pulling the lever for Barack Obama, and the inner tensions among the elites, insiders, and activists.

The first is politically important but not extraordinary, and has little to do with the mood here in Denver. Remember that millions of people who are not particularly party-oriented took part in the super-hyped Clinton-Obama primaries; many millions voted for Clinton for reasons that do not transfer readily to Obama. The vast majority will ultimately vote for him (some 80 percent already say they will), but many will not; the same would have been true had any other Democrat emerged from that race. (And the same is true among Republicans for McCain.)

But what’s affecting Democrats in Denver is quite different, and as old as politics. Politics is a game of alliances and power, which can have very crass effects on the psyche that — at the risk of sounding psycho-analytical — often gets masked with self-righteousness, self-pity, and/or misdirected anger. Four years on, for example, some Massachusetts political players are now able to talk (privately) about how much they had, despite themselves, mentally already packed their bags for the inevitable jobs waiting for them in and around a John Kerry administration; and how long the disappointment and finger-pointing distressed them and their political relationships.

In simplified terms, a lot of that is going on with the Clinton camp right now, and it has people on all sides walking on eggshells. Many Obama delegates, and even many former Clinton supporters, are outraged at the concessions being made to Hillary and Bill — but they won’t be caught dead saying so on the record. Clinton delegates are biting their tongues as well, aware that every display of support for their preferred candidate will be seen as sabotage, and will hurt the party’s chances of winning in November.

Privacy invasion

AL DIAMON — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:33:03 GMT

Politics and other mistakes
Let’s talk about Susan Collins’s sex life.

Let’s talk about Susan Collins’s sex life.

Just kidding. Even though Collins, a Republican US senator seeking re-election in November, went on the radio recently and talked about John Edwards’s extramarital relationship, she knows she’ll never have to face similar scrutiny of her own affairs. Assuming, of course, that she has any affairs to scrutinize. If we rely on her media exposure to assess her sensual side, we can only conclude she’s been celibate since birth.

Perhaps that lack of close coverage is the result of an obscure Maine law that expressly forbids any discussion by the news media of elected officials’ carnal instincts, libidinous thoughts, and bodily appetites. Unless some bold, investigative, journalistic outlet, such as the National Enquirer, decided to open an office here (do you think the Baldacci administration would offer a tax break?), there’d be no legal way to publish photos of our junior senator skipping naked through the blueberry barrens with a slightly-out-of-focus figure, who could be anybody from developer Michael Liberty to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to SpongeBob SquarePants.

Unless it gets posted on YouTube.

But, as I said, this column is not about Susan Collins’s sex life. Or — thank the gods of licentiousness — that of her Democratic opponent, US Representative Tom Allen. The voting public is not clamoring for those sorts of personal revelations. Unless the other person involved is really hot.

What this column is about is the Important Issues in the Senate election.

Like, um ...

Hey, was that 1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Chellie Pingree holding hands with hedge-fund manager and mega-contributor S. Donald Sussman?

Sorry. Got distracted. Back to the Important Issues.

Of which, there seem to be two: 1) whether Allen is a tool of the Mafia and its affiliated unions, who have ordered him to crush the resistance of workers opposed to corrupt labor bosses, and 2) whether Allen is owned and operated by this country’s foreign foes, who plan to employ him to weaken the United States militarily and morally.

Hmmm. I wonder where the rumor that Collins is dictating the agenda in this race got started.

Obviously, both these claims can’t be true. There’s no way Iran and the Teamsters would be willing to share control of Allen. You can’t have a puppet senator devoted to undermining the national defense on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while setting aside Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for advancing the cause of forced unionism and the death of the free-enterprise system. To accomplish either of those objectives would take a full work week.

Lynch sides with Bush in opposing shield law

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:40:14 GMT

Talking Politics
As he gears up for a gubernatorial run in 2010, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has assembled an eclectic and sometimes contrary portfolio of issue-related stances.

As he gears up for a gubernatorial run in 2010, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has assembled an eclectic and sometimes contrary portfolio of issue-related stances.

As I wrote earlier this year (see “Patrick Lynch goes for broke,” News, January 23), “The AG seemed a progressive champion — and he incurred the wrath of Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin — when he ruled that the marriages of same-sex couples who wed out-of-state should be recognized in Rhode Island (a week earlier, his sister, Pawtucket City Solicitor Margaret Lynch-Gadaleta, had married in Massachusetts her longtime partner).

“Yet civil libertarians were outraged when Lynch, backing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance amendments, recently supported the role of private telephone companies to help US intelligence agencies.”

Earlier this year, Lynch emerged as a strong supporter of Barack Obama. Yet he has now placed himself in the ironic position of sharing George W. Bush’s stance on an impor-tant issue affecting the press — and everyone’s right to know.

As Ed Fitzpatrick reported last week in the Providence Journal, “Lynch is refusing to support the Free Flow of Information Act, which would create a qualified federal shield law for reporters,” even though the bill is backed by 42 other attorneys general.

The legislation would make it more difficult for judges to compel reporters to identify confidential sources.

Fitzpatrick’s story noted that a bipartisan letter sent by 41 attorneys general (one wrote separately to endorse the bill) “said the act would bring federal law into line with the laws of 49 states, including Rhode Island. They noted reporter shield laws have been adopted, through legislation or judicial decision, in every state but Wyoming.”

In explaining the opposition of Lynch, who last month became president of the National Association of Attorneys General, spokesman Michael J. Healey cited the issue as being one of federal legislation and how Rhode Island prosecutors bring more cases before grand juries than their out-of-state counterparts.

“Our position has nothing to do with First Amendment issues,” Healey told Fitzpatrick. “It’s simply about the propriety of a state that relies on the grand jury as much as we do telling the federal government how they should conduct grand juries. Our rationale is more based on jurisdictional issues than on philosophical issues. To be clear, we absolutely respect the work of journalists and how vital they are to our society.”

With its lack of county-based district attorneys, Rhode Island is an anomaly, and it’s no surprise that Lynch would think first of jurisdictional issues and his constituency in law en-forcement.

State’s renewable energy effort goes into neutral

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:59:49 GMT

Talking Politics
When it comes to advancing the cause of solar energy in Rhode Island, nothing is ever easy, or so it seems.

When it comes to advancing the cause of solar energy in Rhode Island, nothing is ever easy, or so it seems.

Back in March, Allco Renewable Energy of New York announced plans to build a solar farm in Johnston — the first large-scale renewable project in Rhode Island — raising the prospect of much-needed jobs and investment. As described, it would be the largest such venture east of the Mississippi, and the location, a former Superfund site, would generate at least $200,000 annually for the town.

Last Friday, though, Governor Donald L. Carcieri vetoed the related legislation, objecting to a three percent bonus — “unnecessary and unearned,” he calls it — that National Grid would receive for buying renewable energy. In his veto message, the governor also noted that the bill does not require projects funded by Ocean State ratepayers to be located in Rhode Island.

Carcieri also called a guaranteed set-aside for solar energy projects “perhaps the most troubling provision of this legislation . . . The requirement to mandate 5MW [megawatts] of solar energy could cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars more than other sources of renewable energy, not even accounting for the three percent bonus to the local distribution company. The General Assembly should not impose such an onerous burden on the hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island ratepayers by including this provision in this piece of legislation.

Proponents of the bill — who were taken by surprise by the veto, considering how Andrew Dzykewicz, the governor’s energy adviser, had testified in favor of the measure — see the situation very differently.

Bill Fischer, a spokesman for Allco Renewable Energy, calls subsidies a necessary part of moving forward state-based efforts for renewable energy, and Rhode Island stands to be left behind, he says, in the region. Fischer points to efforts in Connecticut, where that state is offering $70 million in solar rebates over the next two years, and in Massachusetts, when Governor Deval Patrick recently announced the opening of a solar manufacturing plant in Westboro that is expected to create 375 jobs.

“This was well thought-out legislation that would have created renewable energy projects in Rhode Island and, more importantly, the beginnings of a green job sector,” Fischer says. “Developers do not want to go into states that are hostile toward renewable development or states that don’t have sufficient laws on their books embracing development. Carcieri’s veto set Rhode Island back.”

As rising gas prices have raised the focus on alternative forms of energy, it often remains a challenge, not surprisingly, for this car-dependent nation to make a broader embrace of a different way of doing things.

Mixed reviews: A state budget for desperate times

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:41:44 GMT

Talking Politics
The budget consensus reached by Governor Carcieri and legislative leaders last week represents just another marker of Rhode Island’s ongoing dire straits.

There’s nothing like pain to focus the mind, or so the saying goes, so the budget consensus reached by Governor Carcieri and legislative leaders last week represents just another marker of Rhode Island’s ongoing dire straits.

To some, the budget — which cuts state spending from last year by almost $100 million — makes the best of a bad situation.

In a statement, Carcieri called it “a major step forward in my six-year effort to make Rhode Island state government fiscally responsible. It builds on a number of the reforms — including pension reform — that we implemented in years past.”

The governor adds, “Working together over the last six months, we have successfully resolved a nearly half a billion dollar budget deficit without raising broad-based taxes. That is a major accomplishment by any standard. But by contrast with past years, this budget plan represents a completely new way of doing business in state government.”

The merits of the budget, however, depend on where you stand.

Advocates with the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College, for example, faulted the House-passed budget for making sharp cuts to the Family Independence Program, the state’s cash assistance welfare effort. One out of five people receiving assistance — most of them children — will lose their benefits, they say, in the next few months.

“It’s truly shocking that a major overhaul of the welfare program would be made through the budget process -- and not through an evidence-based approach of determining how best to move parents into sustainable employment,” Kate Brewster, executive director of the Poverty Institute, said in a news release. “These are changes based on ideology and were not even necessary to balance the budget.”

With an editorial headlined “A responsible budget,” the Providence Journal was mostly positive, although it noted that $91 million in supposed personnel savings have yet to be de-termined.

Tom Sgouros, editor of the RI Policy Reporter (whatcheer.net), offered a more critical assessment.

In an e-mail, Sgouros says the budget contains hidden expenses (including increased traffic fines and court costs), a tax cut for those earning more than $250,000, and an arbi-trary and potentially actionable restriction on the number of young people who can be aided by the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, among other dubious meas-ures.

“There is barely a hand’s width of distance between the governor and the House leadership,” Sgouros writes. “The budget reads like the governor’s second draft. There are some important modifications here and there, but the basic thrust of his intent is intact — the budget is balanced by spending cuts that affect the poor and middle, and tax cuts that affect the people at the top of the income heap.”

Scott takes another bite at the Kennedy apple

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:46:54 GMT

Talking Politics
Anyone running against a Kennedy can count on a very stiff challenge.

Anyone running against a Kennedy can count on two things: a measure of robust support from those who can’t stand New England’s leading political dynasty, and a very stiff challenge in turning that particular individual out of office.

Dave Rogers, a former Navy SEAL, learned this the hard way when he ran serious campaigns against US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy in 2002 and 2004, raising a bundle of cash and using some of the gimmicky touches that can help to propel a successful campaign. He still got badly beat both times.

Yet Republican Jonathan P. Scott of Providence, who on Monday announced his second run against Kennedy, characterizes nay-saying about challenging his well-known oppo-nent as besides the point.

“I believe that this is an election cycle that will not center on Republican and Democrat or on conservative and progressive,” Scott says via e-mail. “I believe that this will be about outsiders and insiders; challengers and incumbents. 2008 is the year of the grassroots, and that’s where the money and support will come from.

“I’m asking everyone who believes that government needs to be fundamentally changed and power returned to the people to support me. This race is not about Congressman Kennedy. His family has had another terrible crisis recently and I certainly wish Senator Kennedy a full and fast recovery. This is about the system. Senator Obama has shown us that the people are ready for something different, and Ron Paul has shown us that the people understand that they, too, can support candidates with their $25 donations, which add up and buy the loyalty of elected officials away from the lobbyists and beltway insiders. I plan on appealing to that new and energized grassroots.”

Scott, 41, who develops non-profit groups, describes himself as a social moderate and fiscal conservative. He has an adopted son and serves of the board of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank.

Kennedy, who won a seat as a state representative as a 21-year-old student at Providence College, faced his most serious challenge when Republican Kevin Vigilante ran against him during his first campaign for Congress in 1994.

“Something in 2008 is different,” Scott insists. “The people want their government back. They are more willing to get involved. They are once again taking responsibility for who they put into office and they are realizing that they are the employers and the politicians the employed.

Claiming the nomination, Obama achieves the re-markable

IAN DONNIS — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:05:49 GMT

Talking Politics
On Tuesday, the Democratic Party’s historic embrace of a black presidential candidate seemed both unremarkable and amazing.

Ten-5 plan for Providence City Council sparks sharp debate

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:53:47 GMT

Ten-5 plan for Providence City Council sparks sharp debate
Critics react to the plan to reformulate the Providence City Council.

It didn’t take long for critics to respond after I wrote last week about a plan (see “New push: add at-large seats to Providence City Council,” News, This just in) to reformulate the Providence City Council by keeping 10 ward-based seats and adding five at-large positions.

Bloggers Matt Jerzyk of rifuture.org, who is an occasional Phoenix contributor, and state Representative David Segal (D-Providence) of providencedailydose.com, equate Ward 2 Councilor Cliff Wood’s 10-5 concept with downsizing democracy.

“This is a BAD idea, unless seats are allocated proportionally,” Segal wrote in one post. “. . . Two quick points about the 10-5 plan: It’d mean more representation by rich, white, high-turnout portions of town, and therefore more influence by moneyed interests.”

“The city would be setting itself up for a civil rights lawsuit, as Ward 11 — the only seat held by an African-American — would be chopped up into majority white and Latino areas,” Segal continued. “A city that is 15 percent African-American would likely be left with no African-American on the city council.” Referring to the 2002 election, when Juan Pichardo became Rhode Island’s first Latino state senator — but only at the cost of Charles Walton, the only black member of the chamber, losing his seat — Segal wondered whether the lessons of that contest have been learned.

Jerzyk weighed in with this: “It is disturbing to see so many ‘liberals’ support the idea of downsizing the Providence City Council from 15 wards to 10 wards and then adding 5 at-large seats. This effort will reduce the ability of Providence residents to run for office, reduce the minority representation on the Council (from four to two or one or zero), and position the wealthy areas of our city to have a wind-fall on the Council. I support the progressive solution: Councilman Seth Yurdin’s idea of keeping our 15 wards and adding two-to-six at-large seats to the Council elected on a ‘proportional representation’ system to ensure ‘one-person, one-vote’ throughout the city.”

Let’s acknowledge a few things:

• The tradition of not publicly criticizing things in other councilors’ wards promotes parochial thinking. A rare exception came some years back when Luis Aponte spoke critically about a development pro-posal for Eagle Square, which is outside his ward.

• There is a Cicilline-esque patina to Wood’s effort. Certainly, the mayor, who might run for reelection, as opposed to pursuing a gubernatorial bid, would like to enhance his influence over the council.

BeloJo celebrates Black History Month

PHILLIPE AND JORGE — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:43:35 GMT

Carcieri appointment wins Casa Diablo approval
Is it just Phillipe & Jorge, but something seemed patently wrong, if not offensive, when the Urinal ran a headline on the top of its February 20 Vo Dilun section that read: “Black lawyer named to judicial panel.”

Is it just Phillipe & Jorge (as is often the case), but something seemed patently wrong, if not offensive, when the Urinal ran a headline on the top of its February 20 Vo Dilun section that read: “Black lawyer named to judicial panel.”

Perhaps this made sense, given some of the past controversy about Governor Carcieri’s predominately pale-skinned judicial appointments. Well, OK. It is an improvement from years ago, when your superior correspondents would note headers emanating from Fountain Street like, “Two blacks rob liquor store.” Still, there must be a better way to note the governor’s appointment of our longtime friend, Dennis Coleman, to the state Judicial Nominating Committee.

Dennis, a Brown graduate, quarterbacked Bruno Uno’s football team in the early 1970s, and, according to the Other Paper, took part in the major game when Brown played Penn and its black QB, Marty Vaughn, in 1973. Coleman has since become a mega-agent for the likes of Indy Colts Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy and Boston College basketball coach Al Skinner (formerly at URI), among other sports luminaries. He serves as president of the Brown Sports Hall of Fame, has been a legal champion of black professional athlete associations, and is an incorporator of Kent Memorial Hospital.

Considering Coleman’s track record at the prestigious Boston-based Ropes & Gray law firm, a more apt headline celebrating his designation might have been: “Nationally renowned lawyer named to judicial panel.”

Sleep tight, Fritz Pollard.

Get wet
A United Nations official is reported to have said in the late 1990s, “The wars of the 21st century will be over water.” While he likely referred to more immediate concerns in Africa and the Middle East, it is also high time that we Rhode Islanders begin looking at our own finite water supplies.

To that end, a statewide water conference, “Water for Rhode Island — Today and Tomorrow,” will be held Thursday, March 1 from 5-9 pm at the Save the Bay Center, 100 Save the Bay Drive, Providence. Legislators, town planners, zoning boards, town council members, and interested people are urged to attend. The event is sponsored by a variety of state agencies and organizations dealing with water supply issues in the state.

The keynote address, “Securing Our Water Future: A Call to Action,” will be presented by Amy Vickers, an internationally known engineer, author, and consultant. Panel discussions will include “The Easy Years Are Over,” and “Meeting the Challenge,” with a host of local water management experts.

Registration is $20 and includes a boxed supper. Register by calling 401.621.8048, or by downloading a registration form, under News and Information. As always, be there or be thirsty. (Full disclosure: Phillipe works with, and in some cases, is employed by members of the sponsoring partnership. That alone should be a recommendation.)

The Milquetoast and the Blowhard

ADAM REILLY — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:05:42 GMT

Rhode Island’s Shakespearean Senate battle
Now is not the time for Lincoln Chafee to be timid.

SWAGGERING BULL?: Cranston mayor Steve Laffey (left) is running a cocky, McCain-style campaign, painting incumbent Lincoln Chaffee as a blue-blooded liberal

BARRINGTON, RI, AUGUST 30 — Now is not the time for Lincoln Chafee to be timid. The seven-year incumbent US senator is trying to fend off a nasty Republican-primary challenge from Cranston mayor Steve Laffey, who’s painting Chafee as a weak-kneed moderate and running at him from the right. And Laffey may be getting the better of the battle: late last week, a Rhode Island College poll showed him leading Chafee by a hefty margin — 51-34 percent — among likely Republican-primary voters.

But at this particular moment, standing outside the Barrington Shaw’s Supermarket a day before the aforementioned poll came out, Chafee is weirdly incapable of mustering the intensity his situation demands. There’s a tentativeness when he approaches possible voters, an almost fragile delicacy to his retail politicking. Chafee’s preferred opening line (“Best wishes — Senator Chafee”) suggests he’s saying goodbye. When he puts his arm around someone, he holds his elbow out from their body, thereby keeping physical contact to a minimum. And his quiet pleas for votes — “September 12th, need your help” — often come a second too late, when the intended audience is already out of earshot.

Still, people seem pleased to see him. A Shaw’s employee waits patiently with his dustpan while Chafee finishes another conversation, then mentions the statue of Chafee’s father in Bristol’s Cold State Park (John Chafee was governor of Rhode Island and later represented the state in the US Senate) and vows his support. Several people pointedly wish Chafee good luck. And when the senator tries to shake one middle-aged woman’s hand, she acts like she’s just met a rock star: “Oh my god!” she yelps, hands fluttering around her face. “Oh! This is the most exciting time of my life!”

When I ask, Chafee says he’s feeling good about the race, but it’s an unconvincing take. At one point, the senator tells his three aides how much harder it is to campaign outside in cold weather. “Well,” he adds, “I hope I’m standing here in October.” “You will be,” his spokesman promises. Later, as we discuss the dynamics of the campaign, Chafee sounds like a man who’s feeling the pressure in his bones. “I’ve been up there on the tightrope,” Chafee says, pantomiming keeping his balance. “Having to run a primary in which the electorate wants me to support the administration, and the other electorate in the general election angry if I ever cast a vote with them.”

Depena leaving RI Democratic Party post for city job

IAN DONNIS — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:54:05 GMT

Talking politics
After attracting mixed reviews during two-and-a-half years in the job, Depena is leaving to take a position next month as executive director of the moribund Providence Human Relations Commission.

Depena (right) with former gubernatorial candidate Myrth York.

When Melba Depena was selected as executive director of the Rhode Island Democratic Party in 2003, the bright and energetic 31-year-old native of the Dominican Republic was seen as a smart choice to help make the party more welcoming to women and Latinos. But after attracting mixed reviews during two-and-a-half years in the job, Depena is leaving to take a position next month as executive director of the moribund Providence Human Relations Commission.

Bill Lynch, chairman of the state Democratic Party, confirmed Tuesday that Depena is slated to assume the leadership of the Human Relations Commission in early-to-mid July. “She’s done just a great job,” says Lynch, describing the new role as a “tremendous job opportunity for personal advancement . . . It was only a matter of time before someone saw her capabilities and recruited her away, which is essentially what happened.”

After the Phoenix reported the story on its Web site Tuesday afternoon, Rhode Island Democrats released a statement Wednesday morning. The press release, headlined, “RI Democrats thank Depena for effective leadership and service,” includes plaudits from Senator Jack Reed, US Representatives Patrick Kennedy and James Langevin, House Speaker William J. Murphy, and Senate President Joseph Montalbano.

In an interview Wednesday, Depena, now 35, expressed satisfaction about her tenure with the Rhode Island Democrats, claiming credit for helping to build infrastructure -- including the hiring of two staffers and more than 20 organizers -- raising the party’s public profile, and assembling a coordinated campaign in preparation for the November 2006 campaigns.

Speaking privately, however, a number of Democrats express disappointment about Depena’s efforts as executive director of the party. As one party member says, “I think people are very proud of her in the Hispanic community, but she didn’t really follow through on what she said she was going to be doing. She didn’t come as advertised.”

The prospect of change near the top of the state party comes as Rhode Island is playing an increasingly prominent role in Democratic efforts to gain ground nationally this November. Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty has emerged as a strong competitor to Republican Governor Donald L. Carcieri, and with US Senator Lincoln Chafee facing a GOP primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, Democratic Senate frontrunner Sheldon Whitehouse is well positioned for the general campaign.

Lynch says a replacement for Depena has not yet been chosen and that interviews are ongoing.