While we're off on this uber-mega-tangent, I thought I'd throw in a little political weirdness...

I live in Rhode Island, a very liberal state. One of our senators, Lincoln Chaffee (R) is up for reelection. This is where the republican party is being weird. As I mentioned, we are quite liberal up here and our senators tend to be the same. Chaffee has been very outspoken against the war in Iraq and many other right-of-center initiatives. Frankly, he's a Democrat in Republican clothing.

Of course, he's going to have to defend his seat against a candidate from the Democratic party. However, some nutjob republican is also trying to get his seat. And what is he attacking? He's claiming Sen. Chaffee isn't republican enough.

This perplexes me.

There's little to no chance of a conservative republican taking that seat. I would think, then, that the republican party would have a vested interest in keeping ole' Linc in office.

I mean, sure, he's not the most conservative guy on the senate floor, but isn't it better to have one of your guys on the floor than one of theirs? It's not like politics at that level pays much attention to party lines, anyway.