What Jeffords got, a year after switch

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | May 24, 2002 edition | By Gail Russell Chaddock

[vannrox]

Yea... If it wasn't for Clinton Wyussing down our Civil Rights, this guy would of been Tarred and Feathered.

[beckett]

He actually brags about being a turncoat. That's what I find most sickening. And it's a measure of our general fall from standards of character as a society that such treachery --- an undemocratic coup d'etat in the upper house of Congress --- didn't cause much more of an uproar among the body politic.

[Billthedrill]

What Jeffords got:

The $1.3 trillion tax cut that he said would starve all other social priorities? It still passed, with 12 Democrats voting in favor.

Full federal funding for special education? The new masters of the Senate don't look any more able to find an added $180 billion in the budget over the next 10 years than the GOP was.

What Democrats are offering is esteem...

Selling out is dishonorable. Selling out cheap is pathetic.

[truth_seeker]

Ronald Reagan changed from Democrat to Republican. George Wallace changed from Democrat to American Independent. Pat Buchanan changed from Republican to Reform Party.

What's the Big Deal? People change parties. Get used to it.

[Mr. Lucky]

You'll recall that Benedict Arnold lived out his years in England a bitter, disrespected, pathetic loser of a man.

[Miss Marple]

The difference, as you well know, is that is also changed control of the Senate, making it possible for Daschle to onstruct programs and changing the chairmanship of all the committees. It also meant we cannot get many of the judiciary nominations passed.

You can think it's no big deal if you want. I do not, especially because he took Republican campaign money to get elected.

[Miss Marple]

onstruct = obstruct

[Henchster]

"Many around the White House thought they had a mandate to change the federal courts, even though they lost the popular vote. Now, that's impossible," says Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont, who took over chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Jeffords switch. Mr. Leahy has used that power to slow or block most White House judicial nominees.

Hey you partisan hack doofus Leahy, check this out:

DemonRats just can't let go of their inability to properly doctor the ballots in 2000. I hope this happens in November:

[Pres Raygun]

Jeffords changed parties less than a year after he was elected as a Republican using Republican money. None of the example you gave did anything like what Jeffords did. Tell the truth.

[PhiKapMom]

But none of the ones you mentioned were a United States Senator that was just re-elected and took money from a lot of Republicans for his re-election campaign including my Senator Nickles' PAC which he hit up for $10,000 and has never paid back. If he had resigned and become a RAT or said he was going to join the RATS after being elected, then I wouldn't be so disgusted with the lowlife Jeffords.

Taking Republican money for your re-election and then turning the Senate over to the RATS is not a little matter.

[Henchster]

Here's the difference, and the way it should be done. Here's an excerpt from Phil Gramm's (A former Dem turned Repub, the RIGHT way,) Presidential candidacy speech:

"As a Democrat member of the House, I authored the Reagan program. That program cut government spending, cut taxes and ignited the longest peacetime expansion in American history, an expansion that created 20 million new jobs. That budget rebuilt defense and set in place the cornerstone of a policy of peace through strength that won the Cold War and tore down the Berlin Wall and liberated Eastern Europe and changed the world.

Now, America and the people of my district were happy about that leadership, but Tip O'Neill and the Democrat bosses in the House hated it. So they took me off the Budget Committee. I felt the people of my district were being disenfranchised. But I'd been elected as a Democrat, and I felt if I simply changed parties and stayed in the Congress, something I had every right to do, that there might be some people who would feel betrayed. So against the best political advice, including the urging of my dear friend Lee Atwater, I resigned from the Congress, came back home and ran again as a Republican. No Republican had ever gotten more than a third of the vote in my district. But on Lincoln's birthday, February the 12th, 1983, I defeated 10 Democrats and I went back to Washington to finish the job."

[madrastex]

Amen!

[Pres Raygun]

Thank you.

[Miss Marple]

Well, hi-ho, Mr. Been Here One Whole Week! What's the matter, couldn't stand to lurk until a more appropriate time!

Gramm went back and RAN as a Republican, as has been demonstrated above. Thurmond switched years ago and has RUN as a Republican ever since. Shelby and Campbell switched while in office, but their switches were made when the Republicans were the majority, and their switches did NOT change the leadership nor the committee chairmanships.

Go right ahead and stick up for Jeffords. You reveal yourself for what you are, and that certainly isn't a conservative or a Republican.

[timydnuc]

I'm going to do my Senate math and predictions:

Now....R=49...RAT=50....I=1

Best case after Nov.:

Minnesota +1 R=50, RAT=49, I=1

South Dakota, +1 R=51, RAT=48, I=1

Missouri, +1 R=52, RAT=47, I=1

Leaving R=52, RAT=47, I=1

Chaffey switches to I, making it R=51, RAT=47, I=2 (Even if he goes RAT it's still R=51, RAT=49, I=1)

McLame finally outs himself as a true socialist and switches to the RATS leaving R=50, RATS=49, I=2 (Or R=50, RATS=49, I=1, depending on what Caffee does, and he will do it!) If Jumpin' Jim decided to make it official, I'm a socialist and proud of it, that makes R=50, RAT=50, but we got thundering Dick Cheney!

It's a win/win scenerio! We get rid of Chaffee, and McLame, they ruin they political futures, and we get back the senate...bada bing, bada bang, bada boom!

My evaluation! Hit me with your best shot.

[Sub-Driver]

and bad press for being so ego-centric

[Miss Marple]

From your lips to God's ears!

[timydnuc]

Addendum and correction to math. McLame switches to RATS making it R=50, RATS=49, I=1. Sorry, but you guys could have figured it out all by yourself. I just didn't want to come of a stupid in math. I never could do story problems!

[VOA]

You'll recall that Benedict Arnold lived out his years in England a bitter, disrespected,
pathetic loser of a man.

Seeing how today's history teachers do such a poor job, I make sure to say this
when a Judas-figure comes up in conversation:
"S/He isn't just a Benedict Arnold....s/he's a real Jeffords!"

This way two great masters of perfidy get their due recognition