WEEKLY COLUMN:
JDM vs the WORLD

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FINE PRINT

Love him or loathe him, you can say this much about Jim Jeffords: He sure does smile a lot.

Hey, can you blame him?  For a brief moment this week, Jeffords became the most powerful man on the greatest nation on Earth.  With his recent defection from the Republican Party, the now Independent Jeffords has alienated a good portion of the American populous and single-handedly thrown control of the United States Senate to the rival Democratic Party, all in one fell swoop.  Now that’s what I call power.

Not bad for a quirky senator from the state of Vermont, huh?  Really, it’s no wonder he smiles so much.  You’d have to crown him King of the Universe to make his grin any more giddy.

Then again, from what I’ve heard, he’d settle for governor.

Obviously, Sen. Jeffords is comfortable with his decision; one would only hope so, considering all the havoc he has wrought.  What’s disturbing is that the people in his home state are apparently content with it as well.  In fact, his desertion of the GOP is expected to bolster his chances of winning the gubernatorial race he so desperately lusts for.

That’s right, bolster!

Last year, a certain rough n’ tumble tomboy with a seedy reputation won a Senate seat in the state of New York despite having never served a damned day in any office of any kind ever.  Her name was Hillary Clinton and I still don’t know how the hell she pulled it off (Rick Lazio’s mediocre campaign aside).

Yet this acceptance, reverence even, for Jeffords’ decision makes Hillary’s victory seem richly deserved.  It takes a lot for me to say that.  But my mind simply boggles at the very logistics involved in this one.

Of all the sleazy things a politician could do, this ranks right up there with the worst of them.  What Sen. Jeffords has done is set a terrible example for what Americans can expect from their elected officials.  On the other hand, Americans seem to like their leaders as liars.

In part, I can sympathize with Jeffords decision, seeing as how he considers it an internal moral dilemma.  Personally, I am someone who only recently began to identify with solid political beliefs after several years of seeing both sides too well to tell which one I agreed with.  Therefore, to an extent, I can appreciate what he is going through.  People do change, after all.

However, his is only partially a philosophical stand.  It’s very much a political statement as well.

For starters, he says that he can no longer support Republican efforts in good conscience.  Good, so we’ve got that out in the open.  The fact is, his actions go beyond merely standing up for what he believes in.  He was already a moderate Republican and his voting record shows he has legislated accordingly.

Theoretically, he could have stuck it out with his existing affiliation.  There’s no law that states a sitting Republican senator must vote conservative down the line.  Basically, the way he chose to handle things goes to show his decision was born of something more than just the issues.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see if his defection was, in fact, based on something even more.  As in kickbacks; we’re talking about a possible leadership position within the Democrat-controlled Senate.

To coin a phrase right out of the Election 2000 lexicon, say it with me now, Stolen Senate.  OohÉdoesn’t have a very nice ring to it, does it?

They say Jeffords was ticked off at the White House, that he and the sitting President were at odds.  Well, considering the way he tends to vote--read, liberal--it’s really no wonder, now is it?  I mean, the man told Dubya to his face that he thought he’d be a one-term head honcho.  With friends like these, who needs partisans?

Again, though, a difference in opinion is fine.  It’s his right as a human being and as a citizen of the USA.

My disgust has little to do with the power shift, despite the fact that it has come on one man’s whim.  The Senate has been clumsy in its treatment of President Bush’s proposals, anyhow, so I’m not entirely sold on this making a tremendous difference.  And, to a degree, perhaps the country is better off when the checks and the balances aren’t on the same side.

What I find offensive is the fact that this man’s current term is brand spanking new.  He was re-elected to his Senate seat just last year.  By his own admission, he’s been eyeing a disaffiliation for several months now.

Do the math.

There’s a very good chance that he had no intentions of remaining a Republican even during his campaign.  That’s what irks me so.

If he was going to make the switch, wasn’t November 2000--not late-May 2001--the appropriate time to do it?  I can’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.  That’s what my gripe boils down to.  Disenfranchised voters, the likes of which the Florida recounts only vaguely resembled.

Talk about your broken campaign promises.

At any rate, although things will undoubtedly be awkward for a while, the Senate should work itself out fine.  As long as it serves the people and serves them well, that’s all I care about.  Meantime, if Jeffords has designs on becoming governor of Vermont, he had better offer an apology to the local Republicans who were duped into voting for him.

Otherwise, come his next election, someone’s going to wipe that smile right off his face.  And that’d be a shame.

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