Former US Senator Lincoln Chafee says he won't support Hillary Clinton -- or anyone who voted for the Senate authorization for the war in Iraq -- for president in 2008.
"Anyone who voted for the war is disqualified in my view," Chafee said during an appearance broadcast yesterday on WJAR-TV's 10 News Conference. " . . . It was a key moment in our history . . . Anyone who bought in . . . has no right to be our next president."
The former senator, now ensconced at Brown University's Watson Institute, was the only Senate Republican to vote against the war authorization.
Other highlights from Chafee's appearance:
-- The Republican-turned-independent liked Barack Obama's recent answer about why he doesn't wear an American flag pin. "It's almost suspect, those that wear their flags [on their proverbial sleeve]," Chafee said. "What, you've got wear it [your patriotism] on your lapel?"
-- Post-Senate life is "terrific," and beyond receiving fundraising letters, he does not remain in touch with his former Senate colleagues.
-- Chafee, who, with his wife, is super-duper-rich, continues to blame the cost of Steve Laffey's primary challenge last year with costing him his Senate seat. Chafee defended his decision to run as a Republican, saying that leaving the party while in office would have hurt Rhode Island.
-- The former senator doesn't yet have an answer on whether he will run again for elected office, but he said he "spends a lot of time thinking about it." If he is to run for mayor of Providence in 2010, he noted, he will have to "get busy" in the city's neighborhoods.