RICE OFFERS CONGRATS TO CHAFEE

ABC News’ Kirit Radia reports:  Secretary Rice called Sen. Chafee (R-RI) to congratulate him on his primary victory Tuesday night.  Chafee has had disputes with the Bush Administration’s foreign policy in the past.  During today’s State Department briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack was asked why the Secretary of State called to congratulate a Senator who had disagreed so vehemently at times with US foreign policy.
After saying it was a congratulatory call that Rice was "happy to make," McCormack refused to get into the details.  He said only vaguely, "It was a call of substance."

QUESTION: Can I try something else a little bit out of the way? The secretary spoke to Senator Lincoln Chafee.
MCCORMACK: Sure.
QUESTION: She did, and congratulated him. I wonder if we could get into it a little more deeply, if that’s possible.
Does she — I don’t know if it came up, I don’t know if she asked. But did he say he would support Mr. Bolton’s nomination?
MCCORMACK: That’s going to be a decision for Senator Chafee. We certainly hope that he would. John deserves an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate, and we would hope that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would see fit to report him out to the floor and he can get a vote.
MCCORMACK: Because if he gets to the floor, we think he’s going to win.
And in terms of the conversation, I’m not going to get into the private conversations. They did talk. And the secretary was happy to talk to him.
QUESTION: It’s interesting for several reasons. His stated reason for not proceeding with confirmation the other day was that he had questions to ask, critical questions, clearly, about U.S. policy in the Middle East. Apparently, he doesn’t quite agree with what the administration is doing.
And here’s the secretary of state calling to congratulate him. So I was wondering, did any of that come into the conversation? Did his delay on Bolton come into the conversation?
MCCORMACK: Look, the secretary talks to U.S. senators frequently. On any given week, she will have had multiple conversations with U.S. senators. I don’t talk about the contents of those conversations.
QUESTION: Do you consider it a political call?
MCCORMACK: A political call?
QUESTION: Yes.
MCCORMACK: He’s on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
QUESTION: Was that why she called him? Or did she call him because he won the primary election?
MCCORMACK: It was a call of substance.
QUESTION: It was a call of substance?
MCCORMACK: Yes, the senator is on the committee that supervises or oversees the State Department.
QUESTION: It was an issues call.
MCCORMACK: It was an issues call.