Thread: Lincoln Chafee to run for president

Lincoln Chafee to run for president

David Jackson, USA TODAY6:14 p.m. EDT June 3, 2015


(Photo: Steven Senne, AP)


ARLINGTON, Va. -- Former Rhode Island governor and ex-Republican Lincoln Chafee joined the Democratic presidential race Wednesday with a long-shot campaign focused so far on one major issue: Hillary Clinton's 2002 vote for the Iraq War.

"I enjoy challenges," Chafee said in an announcement speech at George Mason University in Arlington, Va.

A former senator himself — the only Republican in the chamber to vote against the Iraq resolution — Chafee has harped on Clinton's vote in preparing to challenge her for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

The war -- based on "false premises" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction -- killed too many Americans and cost the nation billions that could have been spent on education, infrastructure, health care and other domestic needs, Chafee said.

The result has been "destructive and expensive chaos in the Middle East and North Africa," the new candidate said.



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Chafee also raised questions about contributions to the foundation started by former president Bill Clinton. At one point, he said the integrity of the Secretary of State's office -- the job Hillary Clinton once held -- has been called into question.

Clinton, who served alongside Chafee in the Senate, has expressed regret for her Iraq vote, telling reporters last month that "what we now see is a very different and very dangerous situation" in Iraq.

"I made it very clear that I made a mistake, plain and simple," she said.

The issue hurt Clinton in her 2008 campaign, as she lost the Democratic nomination fight to Barack Obama.

While not mentioning Clinton by name in his initial remarks, Chafee said that senators who voted for the 2002 Iraq resolution did not do their "homework" on the George W. Bush administration's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Chafee said he did study the evidence at CIA headquarters, and found the case weak.

"'Flawed intelligence' is completely inaccurate," Chafee said. "There was no intelligence. Believe me I saw everything they had."

In outlining his challenge to Clinton in 2016, Chafee pledged to "re-invigorate" the United Nations, cut back on National Security Agency surveillance programs -- "and while we're at it allow Edward Snowden to come home" -- end "assassinations" by drone strikes, and eliminate "ambassadorships for sale."

Chafee also pledged to end capital punishment, re-think the war on drugs, and adopt the metric system.

"We have to find a way to wage peace," he said.

Chafee, who endorsed Obama's presidential bid in 2008, won the Rhode Island governor's race as an independent in 2010, dipping into his family fortune to finance his race.

He formally became a Democrat in 2013 but decided not to run for re-election as governor amid low poll ratings.

Chafee, 62, is the son of one of Rhode Island's most powerful Republicans, the late former governor, senator and Navy secretary John Chafee.

Growing up on an estate in Warwick, R.I., Lincoln Chafee attended Andover prep school. One of his classmates: former Florida governor and potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.



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A former member of the Warwick City Council, Chafee won election as that city's mayor in 1992, a race decided by only 335 votes. Mayor Chafee won re-election three times.

After Sen. John Chafee's death in 1999, the Rhode Island governor appointed Lincoln to serve out his father's unexpired term. He won election to a six-year term of his own in 2000.

Rising frustration with the increased conservatism of the Republican Party marked Chafee's tenure in the Senate, as he clashed with the Bush administration over issues ranging from Iraq to energy policy.

While stressing a record of working with both parties, Chafee lost his re-election bid in 2006 to current Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...race/28399971/

Wooof, he has belonged to both major parties. Says the Iraq war was wrong thing to do. correct. and has cost billions. I think he has already misspoke, I think that war has surpassed a trillion dollars and still counting in treasury cost. That is adequate to pass on consideration of this fella.