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MANCHESTER, Vt — Jumping Jim Jeffords has bounced into history as the man who changed the balance of power in Washington. The longtime liberal Republican Senator from Vermont gained national and global fame for his supposedly purposeful change of conscience, heart, and mind in moving from the Republicans to Independent, thus tipping the Senate's control to the Democrats.
An able practitioner of the politics of pious pomposity, Senator Jim Jeffords was "troubled" by the GOP's direction and naturally felt conscience bound to bolt, after of course his reelection last year with Republican help.
His move reminds me of that memorable scene in Casablanca when the Vichy French police official played by Claude Raines was piously stunned by gambling in Rick's Cafe. The Inspector admonished Bogart, "I am shocked by gambling on these premises!!" only then to be sheepishly presented with "Your winnings Monsieur" Such was the relation of Jumping Jim with the Republican right — I'm insulted but take your money and support in the election.
A longtime "Lindsey liberal" without the class, I always remember Jeffords as an airbrushed politico who in recent years was the Clinton Administration's favorite Republican. His conscience allowed him to support Clinton legislatively and not to vote against "Bubba" on Impeachment in 1999.
Last year Jeffords gladly accepted GOP backing in a race to for yet another six year stint in Washington. He knew he was running in the party of Ronald Reagan and George Bush not Nelson Rockefeller. Still he served as Honorary Chair of W's Presidential campaign in the Green Mountain State.
Despite being a overshadowed by Southern Sunbelt Republicans, Jeffords allowed both pique and vanity to being what the Rutland Herald in a laudatory editorial exclaimed "A Vermonter First." Good rationalization, but Vermont proudly became the 14th state of the Union in 1791.
Last year in a fund-raiser sent to out of state Vermonters and second homeowners, Jim Jeffords came across as a conservative eagerly bashing the left wing liberals who want to dominate Vermont, etc. His rhetoric gave me pause thinking that either Jeffords had a Damascene conversion or was being coached by equally phony operatives who wanted my "moola." I declined to help this newly minted "conservative."
I recalled his 1980's opposition to the Reagan tax cuts and his unbridled hostility towards the Administration's Central American policy as well as his 1990's moves to cut missile defense and not to impeach Bill Clinton.
John McClaughry, President of the Ethan Allen Institute recalls that Jeffords has been backstabbing Republicans for years, "Worse as Mr. Jeffords often acted as if it were compulsory to humiliate his own party's leadership."
Writing in the Wall St. Journal, McClaughry adds "The pattern of betrayal has now reached its apogee. With the Senate tied 50-50, Jeffords at last found himself in a position to do maximum damage to the party whose leadership he has increasingly despised."
Vermont of late has sadly produced a mediocre gaggle of politicians who revel in being bizarre — the sole Congressman is Socialist Bernie Sanders, there's liberal Democrat U.S. Senator Pat Leahy (a decent fellow), "compassionate with your tax money" Governor Howard Dean, and the pious but not princely Senator Jim Jeffords. To place his actions in the vein of Vermont individualism as he has tried, is a slick mockery of the state's proud traditions.
Jeffords cannot in good conscience back the "partisan" efforts of the Bush Administration but had little problem in rationalizing his support for the scandal ridden Clinton era and its legislative agenda. While generic left-wing "moderates" are naturally impressed by Jeffords jump, he has betrayed many supporters who now say "Well rid of him." Many people however view his defection as something wholesome as if George W. Bush, despite his failings, was some kind of Texan tyrant targeting Vermont.
Jim Jeffords is not an evil man nor a bad one, but a classically weak politician who evokes the politics of perpetual compromise and the political formation of milktoast. He's a caricature of character, a charade of conscience, and a chimera of class.
I'm certain he could easily get re-elected.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
