Jeffords Jumps From GOP,
Lands In Taxpayers' Wallets
But it's certainly clattering along on bare rims.
Jeffords' decision to leave the GOP and become a wink-wink, nudge, nudge "Independent" just now was irresponsible at best, and highly suspect.
Jeffords knew that with the Senate party balance teetering at 50-50, his defection would completely upend that chamber's structure, and that its ongoing work -- the work of the People, that's you and me, folks -- would grind to a complete halt as the ponderous machinery of government accommodated this sudden, screeching, shifting of gears.
Thanks to one man's ill-timed (or was it?) temper tantrum, the movement of legislation through the Senate has been derailed entirely, as the committee chairs -- which hold the power to schedule or not schedule bills for committee discussion, floor debate and final vote -- shift from Republican to Democratic hands.
There's a complete time-out on the field as Republican-sponsored bills that were on their way out of Republican-chaired committees are benched and Democratic legislation that had been riding the pine on Republican committee calendars suits up to take the field.
It's easy to dismiss the whole shabby episode as the sort of partisan shell game we have come to expect from Capitol Hill. But we taxpayers have to understand that Jeffords' little stunt throws a major time-and-money wrench into the works that transcends party politics.
While the newly-empowered Senate Democrats re-shuffle committee assignments, mark up new legislation, order new stationery and decorate their new offices, the meter doesn't stop running. Because of James Jeffords "sudden" decision to abandon ship, we are paying our Senators for re-tooling instead of making laws.
Now, I have nothing but the utmost respect for a Senator -- or anyone, for that matter -- who truly follows his conscience, no matter what the personal and political consequences. Had James Jeffords wanted to divorce himself from the Republican Party purely for his own ideological reasons -- if he really couldn't stomach the GOP program any more -- then I'd say amen and farewell. No one should be forced to identify with issues and agendas they cannot in good conscience support.
And Jeffords would have us believe it was policy differences with the new Bush presidency and "the changing nature of the national party" that prompted his decision.
Problem is, his divergence from his Republican colleagues is old news. Party loyalty has rarely troubled Jeffords; his nominal identification as "Republican" never stopped him from voting across the aisle.
Jeffords was the only Senate Republican to support Bill Clinton's health care legislation in 1994, and he also supported Clinton's veto of Republican-backed legislation to ban "partial-birth" abortions. Jeffords also voted to acquit Clinton during his 1999 Senate impeachment trial.
He could have departed at any time, if he was so unhappy. Or he could have held his nose for another year to see if the 2002 election would tip the balance of power in the Senate off that precarious 50-50 cusp -- freeing him to salve his own tortured conscience without usurping the conscience of every American who stepped into a voting booth last November.
But that didn't happen, did it? Jeffords pulled his little switcheroo at the only time in American history that one man could change the entire political complexion of the Senate.
Either Jeffords planned the whole thing well in advance with the Democratic leadership -- and we'll see just how richly he is now rewarded for his "independence" -- or he just wanted to pull off the most irresponsible and selfish grandstand play in American political history.
"Independent?" My eye. There is nothing "independent" about James Jeffords -- or his scheduling of "the most emotional time that I have ever had in my life," as he put it in announcing the switch last Thursday.
"I ran for re-election as a Republican just this past fall, and had no thoughts whatsoever, then, about changing parties," Jeffords said.
Yeah, and Bill Clinton only shared a pizza with Monica Lewinski.
