Lincoln Chafee

The lame-duck presidency of George W. Bush has begun with Lincoln Chafee 's rank breaking move.

Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week's election, said he would block Bolton's nomination.

Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination would move forward without his support.

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.

"And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."

The committee, dominated 10-8 by Republicans, requires a majority vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. A tie would be the same as a no vote.

After months of quietly stonewalling John Bolton's nomination, yet not strongly enough so as not to ruffle any Republican feathers, now Chafee finds the resolve to kick Bolton out. It seems the senator from Rhode Island finally grew a spine. Does this make him a prodigal politico? Has Lincoln Chafee sprouted a conscience and finally seen the moderate Republican light?

The feeling here among the Big Apple's grassroots is that winning Congress is going to be far more powerful for the Democratic Party than taking over the Senate. That said, I am very excited that Whitehouse has smacked Chafee out of the Senate.

Had Lincoln Chafee been a true pro-choice candidate as he had led NARAL to believe he was, he would have voted against both John Roberts and Samuel Alito. He did not. And for that matter, his ass needed to be thrown out of the Senate.

Tomorrow, of all days, the Roberts court starts deliberating on the late-term abortion ban. Thank Lincoln Chafee for voting the two most anti-abortion justices this country has ever had the misfortune to have seated in the Supreme Court.

This morning I sent a bunch of emails to several feminist and pro-choice bloggers on the matter of Matt Brown. Right after the Alito confirmation I sent an email to Matt Burguess, Matt Brown's communications director. I've been receiving their press releases probably like everybody maybe many other political bloggers all around the country.

I am fed up with what I think is a lack of vulvas, not cojones, effecting the political discourse around choice. We need more feminists raising money, evaluating and promoting candidates, getting on the TV and radio and newspapers and the net and blasting over and over and over again that forced pregnancies are anti-American, that forced pregnancies are a new kind of slavery, that forced pregnancies are a fundamental crime against humanity.

We need to have more women speak like this publicly to all candidates, Democrats and Republicans. I was introduced here in New York City to Eric Massa, an upstate New York candidate running for Congress. I was very happyt to know he's running against Randi Kuhn, a Republican who has been taking tons of money and support from the extreme right with organizations like Focus on the Family and the Homeschool Legal Defence Association. But then, he lost me. When I asked Mr. Massa how we stood on abortion he flubbed, he fumbled, he totally ho-hummed.