Sleazy politics

Here is example number 100,001 of why most people are disgusted with politics and politicians.

PROVIDENCE -- Less than a week before the Republican primary, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee has become the target of a push poll attacking him for supporting abortion rights.

A push poll is a telephone survey in which questions are designed to weaken support for one candidate or build up support for another. The negative campaign tactic is illegal in some states, but not Rhode Island.

Chafee, who is running for a second full term, faces Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey in Tuesday's Republican primary.

Several voters said yesterday that they received automated telephone calls asking whether they would vote in the primary and which candidate they would choose. Those who chose Chafee heard graphic descriptions of an abortion procedure opponents call "partial-birth abortion," which the poll said Chafee supports.