1115.org

Political Wire has a Brown poll showing Republican Lincoln Chafee maintaining leads over both of his likely challengers, Sheldon Whitehouse and Matt Brown.

Josh Marshall wants to know who’s to blame for the candidate most likely to beat Chafee, Jim Langevin not being in the race anymore.

You may remember that we covered this ground back in March (to the chagrin of some of our readers.)

This week has been especially painful for those who covet a united Democratic party. First came word of a letter written by Victoria Hopper (wife of Dennis) and signed by several actors, screenwriters and studio executives to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) regarding the 2006 Senate race in Rhode Island. Schumer, in his role as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is responsible for recruiting candidates and raising money to fund their campaigns. Hopper et al. are angry about the DSCC selecting RI Representative Jim Langevin who is pro-life over RI secretary of state Matt Brown who is pro-choice. The letter itself incorrectly identified Schumer as a “conservative Democrat,” called Langevin ” an “unsuitable candidate,” suggested that the fight over abortion was “the core and soul of our party,” and insinuated that a primary battle would be a “waste of Democratic resources.” Not the best way to go about gaining credibility.

I hope Hopper et al are happy that their ideological purity turned a pickup seat for Democrats into a hold for the weakest Republican in the Senate.