Switch Hunt
Senate Democrats Court Vermont Republican

W A S H I N G T O N, May 18 — Maverick Vermont Sen. James Jeffords appears to be seriously toying with switching parties, a move that would give Democrats control of the Senate.



Until today, the Republican has always denied that he might join Democrats in the Senate, which is evenly split 50-50 between the two parties. But now his office says only that "he is the most conservative member of the Vermont delegation, regardless of his party label."
(The other two Vermont congressmen — Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Bernard Sanders — are unabashed liberals.)

Sources close to Jeffords say Democrats have been courting him aggressively and "talks have intensified in the last two weeks."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's spokeswoman would say only, "We'd love to have him."

Democratic sources speculate that Daschle may have to offer to let Jeffords retain his chairmanship of the Education Committee if the Senate becomes Democratic because of his switch.

Were the death or resignation of a senator to give Democrats control of the Senate without Jeffords' switch, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would be next in line to chair the Education Committee.
www.abcnews.com (http://www.abcnews.com)

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Manu Narayan

Looks like Jeffords is going to do it tomorrow. He has a news conference scheduled back in Vermont. We'll see. He's not holding a press conference back in Vermont just for kicks...

Another Repub could be gone soon as well...

Who knows how much longer Strom Thurmond will be around. He's 98. South Carolina has a Dem Gov, and will undoubtedly appoint a Dem to replace Strom.

Yeah, Strom is tryin to hold on till 02.
Jeffords...I always thought he was a Dem, he sure acts like it.
The saving grace is that Zell Miller, a conservative Dem put the Democrats on notice about being so partisan...if they continue to play these partisan games and with a majority.

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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

Originally posted by Manu:
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would be next in line to chair the Education Committee.


I CAN'T BELIEVE "THE SWIMMER" IS STILL EMPLOYED AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE!

BTW, He may go Independant or Democrat.
If he goes independant.
I say...
All the Republicans in the Senate should then switch their party affiliation to Independant also..then, they would have the majority again. http://discussanything.com/Ubb/smile.gif

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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

He just finished his announcement, good speech. Seemed like he just lobbed a big hand grenade into the GOP's plans, we'll see. Should be pretty interesting.

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-Curt

"Can you hear the violins playing your song?"

Wow, so it happened? This should pose interesting. But then again, lots of party line crossing going on, except on KEY issues...



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Manu Narayan

YES!!! There IS a God!! Take that Beotches! http://discussanything.com/Ubb/biggrin.gif


I think that the Dems should share the power with the Reps AFTER Bushjr agrees to host a special in which he offer FULL discloser of ALL of his past drug use, womanizing, racial slurs, wrong doings AS WELL as his father's criminal activity during his murderous error of terror!

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Winner of the "peoples Choice award" was supream advocate!

Except on key issues?
THe tax cut plan went overwhelmingly!

Now, since so many like to talk about illegitimate may I suggest that the Democrats majority in the Senate is illegitimate. They werent elected to be the majority.....They have NO mandate....yadda yadda yadda, sound familiar Ian?
Thats fine..let the Democrats be the obstructionist party and watch them get their clocks cleaned in 02.

74mav Fordman is Imouer...Its up to Manu to tell us if Freedom is Imouer..2 Separate people have suggested that.

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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

From MSNBC.com (edited by me)

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BURLINGTON, Vt., May 24 — In a move that reshapes the nation’s political landscape, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont announced Thursday he was leaving the Republican Party, handing Senate control to the Democrats for the first time since 1994. Citing policy differences with President Bush and “the changing nature of the national party,” Jeffords said he would become an independent.

PRESIDENT BUSH, speaking during a visit to Cleveland, said that while he respected Jeffords, “respectfully, I couldn’t disagree more” with Jeffords’ criticism of the Republican agenda in Congress.
“I was elected to get things done on behalf of the American people and to work with both Republicans and Democrats and we’re doing just that,” Bush said.

In his announcement, Jeffords said he would align himself with Democrats since he differed with the president on many policies. “Looking ahead, I can see more and more instances where I’ll disagree with the president on very fundamental issues — the issues of choice, the direction of the judiciary, tax and spending decisions, missile defense, energy and the environment, and a host of other issues, large and small,” Jeffords said.
“Given the changing nature of the national party,” he added, “it has become a struggle for the party’s leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them.”

Jeffords angered the White House this spring when he refused to support Bush’s budget and its proposed $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut. Instead, he sided with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who forced changes on the Senate floor. The result was the first high-profile defeat for the new administration.
Shortly after that, Jeffords was not invited to the White House for a National Teacher of the Year ceremony honoring a Vermont high school educator, a move viewed as political payback.
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So he's going Independent, but he'll be a Dem for all intents & purposes.

The thing that struck me was while watching this on CNN this AM, he wil be the ONLY independent in the Senate. We could probably use several more, yes?

They did bring up that Teacher of The Year snub on TV, saying it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for him.


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-Curt

"Can you hear the violins playing your song?"

Originally posted by Fordman50:
YES!!! There IS a God!! Take that Beotches! http://discussanything.com/Ubb/biggrin.gif


I think that the Dems should share the power with the Reps AFTER Bushjr agrees to host a special in which he offer FULL discloser of ALL of his past drug use, womanizing, racial slurs, wrong doings AS WELL as his father's criminal activity during his murderous error of terror!



Hmmm, he sound like Ian also. Can there be that many??? http://discussanything.com/Ubb/smile.gif http://discussanything.com/Ubb/smile.gif http://discussanything.com/Ubb/smile.gif



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Uh, what country is this??

Well, he's been voting with the Democrats for years now, long before Bush got into office. He supported HillaryCare, for chrissakes. Wouldn't suprise me to see him run as a democrat next time around.

Yes, Tom "Puff" Daschle. What a guy. He's made of the stuff and principles TRUE leaders are made of.
What a flaming hipocrit.

My friends, this next story is one you won't hear mentioned anywhere in the mainstream press - so spread the word. After Jim Jeffords made his self-serving flip out of the GOP, I declared that Tom Daschle was an illegitimate majority leader. The voters of Vermont elected Jeffords as a Republican only a few, short months ago. Jeffords won using Republican volunteers and Republican funds. They didn't elect him so he could surrender power to Tom Daschle.

Contrast this switch with the honorable move made by Phil Gramm in Texas. When Gramm decided he wanted to flip parties (from Democrat to Republican), he resigned, and stood before the voters with his new party affiliation. He didn't just say, "I'm leaving the Democrats and voila! I am a Republican." He went back to Texas and gave voters a chance to send him back to Washington as a Republican. That's class, dignity and respect.

But the key party switching example comes from Colorado and Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Guess what happened when this Democratic Senator jumped ship to the GOP? Why, the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle was outraged! A story from March 3rd, 1995 reads, "Tom Daschle said Friday that to be fair to Colorado and its voters, freshly switched Republican senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell should resign and run in a special election this year. But Campbell said he'll not do that, arguing that Coloradans voted for him, not his party.

"'His term is up in 1998. Perhaps he should resign and run as a Republican and let the voters make up their minds whether they want him back in that capacity,' Daschle said moments after Campbell had called to say he was switching parties."


So here we've got Daschle demanding that Ben Nighthorse Campbell resign from the Senate and run as a Republican. But he didn't take that position regarding Jeffords, did he? No, he most certainly did not. He was, in fact, all but skipping around Capitol Hill, and was described as "giddy" by observers. What are we to conclude here?

Obviously, Tom Daschle is on a power-mad quest. He is a man of negotiable principles, a man who will do and say anything to acquire and keep power. Weeks ago I illustrated how Daschle was a hypocrite on the arsenic issue. He voted to extend the deadline for new arsenic standards, and yet trashed Bush for doing the same thing.

Again, Daschle demanded that Senator Campbell resign, but when it comes to Jeffords, Daschle in essence bribes the guy to leave the GOP by offering him a permanent chairmanship of a Senate committee. No talk about Jeffords resigning. No talk about Jeffords running for office as an Independent in Vermont.

My friends, what we have here is Tom "Puff" Daschle saying, "I'm a hypocrite and proud of it." Now, why isn't there one, fair, honest question asked of the senator on this? Well, I guess we shouldn't count on any journalists confronting Daschle. That way, we won't be unhappy and disappointed when they once again prove their bias by ignoring a blatant Democratic inconsistency.



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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

LOL @ Bill, Freedom is a childhood friend of mine. We have grown up together in the same hood and have shared a lot of the same experiences but I do not always agree with him. BTW he is a little darker than me in case you havent noticed. I am a cracker and he is a little of this and that. He is a good guy but would not be the kind of man would would want to piss off in a dark alley http://discussanything.com/Ubb/wink.gif

BTW, I have lived in VT and can tell you that it has got to be one of the most liberal places on the planet! They have a rep by the name of Burnie Sanders that is a registered Socialist! I have VT and never understood why that would have had a Republican senator anyway. I never met a Rep there ever! It made no sense at all. Its a huge rich hippie artist resort state.

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Winner of the "peoples Choice award" as supreme advocate for the people!