EAST PROVIDENCE -- The Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate -- incumbent Lincoln D. Chafee and his challenger, Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey -- emerged from behind warring television ads yesterday to defend their charges in a WPRO-radio debate.

Chafee portrayed Laffey as an intemperate pawn of special-interests, including the "pro-life" lobby and the far-right flank of the Republican Party. Laffey cast Chafee, who did not support President Bush for reelection, as "irrelevant" within Senate Republican ranks.

They touched on taxes, spending, the Iraq war, stem-cell research and issues of character. Talk show host Dan Yorke poured fuel on the flames by playing snippets of their attack ads.

After hearing a Chafee ad criticizing Laffey for raising taxes in Cranston, Yorke asked, what would any mayor have done in Cranston?

Chafee said he wasn't attacking Laffey for raising taxes, he was digging at the support Laffey has received from the hard-line anti-tax group, The Club for Growth. "Maybe you had to do it, but don't go to Washington saying no matter what happens -- Katrina, wars, whatever it is -- I'm not going to pay for it," Chafee charged.

Asserting the "ad is false," Laffey insisted: "I've made no pledge to the Club for Growth about anything."

The two sparred over federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which Chafee supports and Laffey opposes.

Laffey favors more federal money for research on adult stem cells, which are gathered from bone marrow without destroying an embryo. The mayor said his position is based on "a business evaluation," not morals.

He said he doubts embryonic stem-cell research will produce cures, though "if facts come up to change my opinion I may change my answer. . . . I'm just a businessman, I want cures now. My father has Alzheimer's."

Chafee piped in, "All the more reason you should be supporting embryonic stem-cell research -- your father has Alzheimer's."

"But I think adult stem-cell research is the way to go," Laffey said. "That's the bang for the buck."

The discussion led to one of the iciest exchanges. Chafee, who is pro-choice on abortion, accused Laffey of making a "political" decision on stem cells "because the pro-life community is helping him in the primary."

"Go ahead and say how," Laffey challenged.

But Chafee continued: "And when you say I might change my position if further scientific research comes out, I'm thinking, yeah, after the primary."

Yorke tried to move the conversation. But Laffey said: "No, no, no, we have to stop this. He has no evidence for what he says and it's quite frankly embarrassing to see a U.S. senator time and time [again] not have the evidence to support his thoughts."

After the debate, Chafee said he has heard anecdotal evidence that abortion opponents have been supporting Laffey.

Yorke also played snippets from a Chafee ad that accuses Laffey -- heard shouting "Stop this right now!" in a 2004 Cranston City Council meeting -- of taunting firefighters "who opposed his policies."

But Laffey said, "nobody taunted anybody." He said his "Please stop this right now" was aimed at "a firefighter who was trying to incite other people nearly to a riot condition."

"If that's not you on the video or that's not you in the audio, I'll gladly take the ads down," Chafee said.

Chafee got his turn to denounce as "absolutely false" a Laffey claim that he voted "to provide Social Security benefits to illegal aliens."

"No illegal aliens would get benefits," said Chafee, under the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill he supported. Saying he preferred the term immigrants to aliens, he said they would only "get benefits if they paid into them and once they become legal."

At one point, Yorke told Chafee he sometimes comes off as "insulted" at having a Republican opponent. With seats such as that held by Democratic U.S. Rep. James Langevin going unchallenged by the GOP, Chafee said he would have "wish[ed] the small Republican Party in Rhode Island could have dissipated our talent around."

He also took issue with Laffey's oft-repeated statement that he ended a successful investment banking career "to come save the City of Cranston." Chafee alleged that Laffey's first interest was an elected job in Washington, and had met with Republicans there.

"You won't deny, mayor, that when you came to Rhode Island you really wanted to run for an office in Washington," said Chafee, recalling that he personally met with Laffey at the time and urged him to run for mayor.

"Sure we met with a lot of people," said Laffey, acknowledging a meeting with Chafee at his home. But Laffey said that while he "just tried to be polite when I met with you and listen to what you had to say. You had no influence on what I was doing."

They differed again on the Iraq war. Chafee voted against it; a vote Laffey has said was wrong. In defending the vote, Chafee said he visited the CIA and asked to see the evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs. "I came out of that meeting unconvinced. . . . I said, 'This is all you have?' And now we're in a war three years later losing American life after American life on a false premise. There were no weapons of mass destruction."

Laffey called for accelerated training of Iraqi troops, and reiterated his call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. "We need new blood in there to set a new direction."

Chafee said Israel's push into southern Lebanon to root out Hezbollah fighters was "not a smart move," which has empowered Hezbollah and flooded TV sets in the Arab world with images that could harm American efforts in Iraq and elsewhere.

Laffey criticized Chafee calling for a cease-fire "before Israel achieved its political goals, which was to make sure they can degrade Hezbollah's ability" to launch attacks.

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