Besides a gift for gab, Sen. Lincoln Chafee's spokeswoman and former radio personality Debbie Rich has a gift in the kitchen.

Each year she bakes hundreds of batches of chocolate chip cookies -- with and without macadamia nuts -- and passes them out to reporters at Rhode Island's various media outlets. The inspiration for the cookies apparently comes from Rich's family, which used to run a bakery.

Today, she visited The Journal newsroom, passing out dozens of personally wrapped bundles of the cookies to reporters, editors and photographers alike. And while Debbie was upbeat as usual, the mood was a bit somber.

This will likely be her last cookie delivery for a while. Her boss lost his job when voters elected Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse to the U.S. Senate in November. And while Chafee has taken a fellowship at Brown University for the coming year, Rich -- who worked for Chafee since his days as a Warwick mayor -- has yet to land a new job.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples