The announcement this week that Sen. John Chafee would retire in 2000 was sad news for the people of Rhode Island, whom he represented so well, and for all of New England, which gained from his judgment and from his skills as a lawmaker. Certainly, he will be missed for these things, but missed also for what he represents.

Sen. Chafee is a member a species endangered for the moment — Rockefeller-style Republicans, who might be broadly distinguished from the majority of the party leaders by their belief in the power of government to do good. Though fiscally conservative, they have a tradition of supporting environmental laws, education and civil-rights reforms, and, perhaps most important these days, of displaying a welcome reluctance to impose their personal or religious beliefs on everyone else.

Like former Maine Sen. Bill Cohen and others who have recently retired, Sen. Chafee’s style of leadership — one that respects and refuses to demonize the opposition, that seeks compromise, that values the dignity of the process of governing — has been out of step with the current political culture. The traditional Northeastern Republican has been pushed out of leading roles and replaced by people who too often have shown a myopic meanness of spirit, who have favored tearing down the structures of government before understanding why those structures exist.

The good news is that extremism has a short half-life. Sen. Chafee sees political styles as coming in waves: The tide appears to be going out on this one. Moderate Republican leaders such as Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, Sen. Jim Jeffords, Gov. George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole are growing in importance as the nation tires of the constant confrontation produced by current leaders.

Sen. Chafee still has nearly two more years of service before he leaves that confrontation behind, but when he does, he is likely to leave it for Maine, for at least part of the year. The Chafees have been coming to Maine since the senator’s grandfather arrived in 1896 for a vacation in Sorrento. The senator’s father, one of six children, was born here and one member or another of the family has been here ever since.

At least as important a connection to Maine, however, is the senator’s work. He and Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell undertook and successfully passed the 1990 Clean Air Act. With Sen. Bill Cohen, he helped deliver Medicare reform; with Sen. Olympia Snowe, he developed the details of welfare reform — the inclusion of child care, maintenance of effort for states, etc. — that softened the bill considerably. Like Sen. Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins, he is part of the centrist coalition, the bipartisan group of moderates that talk to each other often enough to avoid the kind of hostility witnessed during the recent impeachment proceedings.

If Sen. Chafee is right and the current wave of politics soon recedes, the public will be the beneficiary. By the time that happens, unfortunately, Mr. Chafee will gone from the Senate, perhaps comfortably at home along the Maine coast.