Chafee is better than nothing. He's far better than Kerry and Kennedy next door.
Yes and no. He votes better than what we could expect from a Dem Senator from RI. That is true--a 40 percent rating versus an 8 percent rating, as shown by the comparison with Dodd. However, to the extent that someone like Chafee takes a committee position from someone like Kyl, we are better off without him...so long as we have a safe majority. That's the beauty of the 55 vote majority. I'd rather drop it to 54 or 53 if it means that we get a better chair of Judiciary or Foreign Affairs, and then let the Dems have Rhode Island. We'll take Nebraska and New Mexico and Michigan and Minnesota.