FOR RHODE ISLAND VOTERS

Laffey for Senate (WSJ-BOTW)
The Senate's most liberal Republican pulled a stunt yesterday that may backfire: He prevailed upon Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to postpone the scheduled vote on the confirmation of U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, the Associated Press reports:

Chafee . . . faces a difficult primary Tuesday against a conservative GOP challenger. Delaying the vote until later could spare Chafee from potentially alienating some GOP voters by supporting or opposing Bolton.

Seems to us this move is more likely to alienate Republicans, making them more likely to say, as Kim Strassel put it, "We might as well have a Democrat."

Chafee's objections turn out to be not to Bolton himself but to Israel. We've obtained a copy of the letter the senator sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in which he offers this complaint:

Phase one of that Road Map [to Mideast peace] states clearly that Israel will freeze all settlement activity. Yet, just this week, it is reported that 690 homes will be built in the West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim and Betar Illit. While the official US policy has been against settlement activity, no credible observer could think that the US could not do more to stop these new actions.

Interestingly, while Chafee can't abide Jews building houses, his letter has nothing to say about the Palestinian Arabs who've been firing rockets at Israeli civilians from Gaza--which would seem to be a much more serious departure from the "road map."