Background On Jeffords's "Defection"

["Jay Moore" <research@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeffords Didn't Switch, He Just Stayed Put While
Both Parties Shifted Right

by Terry J. Allen

VERMONT. Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords has a few
things in common with George W. Bush--an Ivy
League education and an astounding inability to
speak in fully formed sentences. They both come
off as a bit dim. It is as easy to underestimate
Jeffords as it is hard to underestimate Bush.
And it appears that the Republicans
underestimation of Jeffords will cost them
big time.

Over the years, Jeffords politics have remained
rooted in the Rockefeller wing: fiscal
conservative, social moderate. But his party--
no, both parties-- shifted right. It was like
some inflated "Mother-May-I" kids game where, on
the count of three (or in this case on the
counting of contributions), everyone took a
giant step right. For a quarter century,
Jeffords stood his ground, more or less. But now,
the parties have shifted so far right that
Jeezum Jim finds his political home has shifted to
the mainstream ... of the Democratic Party.

The media have floated a Hindenberg of hot air
speculating that Jeffords abandoned the
Republicans in hissy fit after being dissed by
Bush. When a Vermonter was awarded "Teacher of
the Year" at a White House ceremony, Jeffords
was not invited. He was being spanked, the
conventional wisdom goes, for not supporting
Bush's $1.6 trillion cut. But Jefford's sins ran deeper
than one vote, and the Bush crew tried bullying the
Vermonter by floating threats to deep six his
favorite issues: special education and the New
England Dairy Compact. The clear message was
that unless the senator towed the party line,
programs he cared about and had accumulated
enough seniority to do something about, would
swoosh down the congressional toilet.


The Bush administration's treatment of the
laconic Vermonter probably came as a bit of a
shock. In Vermont, the senator's nickname is
"Jeezum Jim," referring for a certain shitkicker
naivete. If it's a pose, it's been a consistent
one. As are Jefford's politics. Back in
1976 when he was first elected to the US
Congress as Vermont's only representative, he
was an unremarkable mainstream Republican,
if a bit eccentric. Not being rich when he went to
Washington, Jeffords slept in a camper or his
office couch or something. If the Republicans
had been on the ball, they would have
pegged him right then as a traitor to party values.

Over the years, first in the House and now in
the Senate, the guy has been no saint and his
principles go only so far. He supports abortion
rights and opposed ban of partial birth
abortion, even when Vermont's liberal darling,
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, supported it.
Jeffords also backs gay right and favors a
stronger United Nations. He is a ferocious hawk
on military spending, but so are most of the
Democrats. And he is deeply grateful to the
medical establishment, and the insurance and
pharmaceutical industries, which are his largest
campaign contributor.

But unlike many politicians, Jeffords has a
bottom line and he must have realized that he
would have to cross it on a daily basis if he
wanted to stay on the right side of the Bush
administration.

It's one thing to support a politically
antithetical appointee like Ashcroft, with whom
Jeffords sang barber shop quartet. It's another to
realize that there would be no end to the
compromises, with no paybacks in the end.

Like much of the country, Jeezum Jim got
snookered by Bush's populist campaign promises to
support education and the environment, govern
with compassion, eschew ideological
appointments, be a uniter, blah blah blah.

One day, Jeffords put a finger to the breeze,
felt an ill wind for his issues and
constituency, and just switched fingers.

© Terry J. Allen tallen@xxxxxxx

terry j. allen
v: 802-434-3767
f: 802-434-3446
e-mail: tallen@xxxxxxx