Although recent reports had him considering a switch to the Democratic Party if the Senate were tied, ultra-liberal Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.-R.I.) apparently is going to stay with the majority GOP as one of its 55 senators. Admitting the senator had called a switch in the event of a tie "something I would consider," Chafee press secretary Steve Hourahan told HUMAN EVENTS' John Gizzi that the tie "was the issue for Chafee. But since the election," the aide said, "a switch has never been discussed and the senator has no plan to make any announcement about anything." Chafee, one of the fiercest Republican critics of the Bush Administration, announced last month that on November 2 he was going write in George H.W. Bush for President rather than vote for George W. Bush.