For the past several months, former Rhode Island Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse has been waging a campaign for the Democratic senatorial nomination in the state. Others seeking the office include the incumbent, Republican Lincoln Chafee; Steve Laffey, the conservative Republican mayor of Cranston; and the Secretary of State, Democrat Matt Brown (with whom we spoke last week).

On Friday afternoon, Whitehouse and I spoke over the telephone about a range of topics related to his campaign. I can't seem to upload the interview at this moment, so I hope the rush transcript will suffice.

Jonathan Singer: Many political pundits would say that Lincoln Chafee, just like his father, works with Democrats nearly as often as he does with his own party. Even in a state as blue as Rhode Island, how do you run against someone trying to position himself as an independent?

Sheldon Whitehouse: I think the best way to do it is to let the people of Rhode Island know what the facts are, and they include that Linc Chafee votes with his leadership and with the White House about 80 percent of the time; that he has been a critical vote for them on things like the Republican Medicaid bill that is causing great consternation right now in Rhode Island among seniors having to cope with the confusion that surrounds the new Part D benefit; and that when all is said and done, once he has decided to organize the United States Senate under this right wing Republican leadership, all of his other votes – even if they appear defensible on the surface – are in fact window dressing because this leadership is what is setting the table in the Senate.

I don’t know how he’s going to vote on Judge Alito. If he votes against him, then the people of Rhode Island should look at the circumstance that because of Chafee’s contribution to the Republican majority, there is somebody as right wing as him as a candidate, and he’s responsible for that choice even if he takes a fig leaf vote against him.

Singer: There are issues, as you said, upon which he votes strongly with his party, and those include today’s vote on the PATRIOT Act, which he voted in favor of cloture on the bill. How would you have voted?

Whitehouse: That was very discouraging. For anyone representing the people of Rhode Island, which is a state that takes its civil liberties very seriously and has a very independent tradition, to vote the way he did I think is very, very unfortunate. The PATRIOT Act is riddled with excessive provisions, and the Senate appears to have made a concerted effort to deal with some of those, but instead of the bill that the Senate Judiciary Committee worked on, they’ve tried to railroad this other bill through. I think it’s very excessive in dealing with the difficult question of balance between liberty and security that America constantly has to face.

Singer: Where do you stand on the Murtha resolution, speaking of national defense and issues like that?

Whitehouse: I’ve been in favor of rapid and responsible withdrawal from Iraq throughout this campaign. My personal belief is that we are causing as much or more, in terms security problems by our presence there, than we are gaining through the courageous and dangerous work of so many American soldiers, and that, while we have to be responsible about extracting ourselves, the sooner we are out of Iraq, the better for everyone.

Singer: Your primary opponent Matt Brown says that you’ve shifted your position on that issue. Is that a fair assessment of the history of your stances on Iraq?

Whitehouse: I don’t think so. I have defined what I mean by “rapid,” but my position has always been that there should be a rapid and responsible withdrawal of our troops. What I’ve said is that when I mean “rapid,” I don’t mean tomorrow and I don’t mean three years from now either. I mean that by the end of ’06, I would expect to see most, if not all, of our troops redeployed. And I think that’s been a consistent position. It’s a little bit of a surprise that he would find that to be a substantial change in position considering that he came into the race actively supporting the stay-the-course proposition of the Bush administration himself.

Singer: Getting back to issues of Senator Chafee and his Republican Party. Jack Abramoff, Randy “Duke” Cunningham – a number of corruption/ethics issues swirling around the Republican Party. Earlier this month, Josh Marshall reported that a staffer in Chafee’s office had come up in a number of emails relating to usage of Abramoff’s skybox in the stadium in Washington. How hard are you going to hit this issue of ethics against Republicans, generally, and Chafee, specifically?

Whitehouse: I’ve been a United States Attorney. I’ve been an Attorney General. I’ve lead significant public corruption investigations. And I take the breach of faith that public corruption represents extremely seriously.

A friend of mine who was an extremely highly-placed figure in the Clinton Department of Justice is encouraging me in my race and supporting me. And among the reasons he said to a gathering recently is that we need to have people who have that kind of law enforcement experience down here because when the day comes that the Senate again enjoys Democratic control and the Senate investigative function is no longer being squelched by the Republican monopoly on power, to use the quote, “it is a target-rich environment for Senate investigation.” I very much believe that to be true. I think that the abuse of power and the extreme levels of the Abramoff scandal, at the slightly less extreme but perhaps even more damaging levels of putting incompetent people like “Heckuva Job Brownie” into significant leadership positions at FEMA, and further into the corruption, for instance, at the EPA of its mission to protect the environment by stuffing polluting industry lobbyists into key decision-making positions. I don’t know that we’ve seen anything like it in America before.

Singer: Specifically on the issue of lobbying, your primary opponent Mr. Brown has pointed to his successes as Secretary of State in trying to rein in and reform lobbying in the state. Where do you stack up specifically on that issue?

Whitehouse: I’m not in a position to comment on what my opponent has or hasn’t done as Secretary of State. As I’ve said, I have a very lengthy record of public corruption investigations and I think a strong reputation for integrity in government.

Let me just give you a seconds of background on me to just to give you kind of an appreciation of where I’m coming from. I grew up the son of a Foreign Service officer who was in turn the son of a Foreign Service officer. As a little boy, I can remember being thrown over the wall from our house into the Saudi compound next door because there was rioting going on outside and my mother was scared for the safety of myself and my little brother. My father was at the Embassy trying to cope with things, so that was the decision she made to protect us.

Experiences like that kind of bond you to the government career that your family has embarked on and I am, as a general matter, extraordinarily proud of the American government. I think the American system of government is ultimately the path to peace and prosperity for our world, and that we, in the United States, have consequently a nearly sacred obligation to conduct ourselves in that system of government with the highest level of integrity so that it can in fact be an example that other countries are proud of and follow. That’s kind of my core belief. So anyone who trespasses on that, to me, is damaging something that is very significant, and very special, and I think that kind of conduct is intolerable, and that’s one of the reasons I’m running for this office.

Singer: Are there any local issues – something like a bridge or an Air Force base – that you’re going to specifically point to during your campaign?

Whitehouse: In terms of what?

Singer: I don’t know. Getting more funding for road projects, or improving schools – Rhode Island issues, or local issues.

Whitehouse: I think the most significant issues that we are facing here in Rhode Island are putting together a prescription drug benefit for seniors that does not confuse and frighten them. I can tell you from my travels among seniors and through the senior centers of Rhode Island that they are very confused and often quite frightened by that confusion.

And then making sure that the federal government comes through on the promise that George Bush broke to fund No Child Left Behind so that our public schools don’t have to strip out there arts programs, their music programs, their gifted programs, their honors programs, their science labs – anything that is not essential to the purpose of teaching to the test, as NCLB demands.

Singer: One final question. What would you like to say specifically to members of the liberal blogosphere to get them more involved in the campaign?

Whitehouse: I think the members of the liberal blogosphere have a great opportunity in this Rhode Island case. I think Bob Casey has done a great job in Pennsylvania and looks in a very strong position against Rick Santorum. That’s a seat we can and should take back. It’s my belief that Rhode Island is the second most likely win.

I invite anybody reading or listening to this to go to WhitehouseForSenate.com and participate in our website, which has a running blog. We would be really privileged, and the campaign would be assisted, by people of good faith sharing their views and helping us win this race, because as a lot of people around the country have said, it’s hard to imagine a way to win the Senate back without winning this seat in Rhode Island.

Singer: Terrific. Well thank you so much for your time and good luck.

Whitehouse: Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate this opportunity.

[THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.]