The Chafee Squeeze

Lincoln Chafee is in an impossible spot. He's in a battle with far-right challenger Stephen Laffey for the Republican nomination to the US Senate next week. And if he wins that, he'll be in a tougher battle with Sheldon Whitehouse in the general election in Rhode Island, maybe the most anti-Bush state in the Union.

He also happens to be on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which scheduled a vote today on the confirmation of John Bolton as US Ambassador to the UN (Bolton's in there right now on a recess appointment which will expire in January). If Chafee votes "no" on Bolton he'll get bashed by Laffey from the right; if he votes "yes" he'll get bashed by Whitehouse from the left.

To quote Joshua, the computer in the 80s classic WarGames, "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday scrubbed a planned vote on President George W. Bush's bid to keep John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, did not explain why the vote on whether to send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate was removed from the day's agenda and did not say if or when it would be taken up again.

Given Democratic opposition to Bolton's nomination, all Republicans on the committee would have to back him in order to send his name to the Senate with a full endorsement. Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who is locked in a tight re-election bid, has not publicly said how he would vote.

If Chafee gets through the primary, at least he'd only be fighting a one-front war. Then he can make the vote and have an out. Doing it now would be a no-win situation. And we all know that for the GOP, politics is more important than getting work done. So they delayed the vote.

Meanwhile, Laffey has an excellent shot of taking the primary and making all of this a moot point. And it'd be a case of Republicans eating their own, as Whitehouse would slaughter Laffey in the general. Somehow I've missed all the articles about "crazy conservative activists purging their party of moderates." Must check Google again.

UPDATE: Confirmed. This was entirely Chafee's call to delay the vote.