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Jeffords Betrayed More than Just His Party

TruthNews Commentary, May 24, 2001

As Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, so Senator James Jeffords has betrayed the Republican Party and turned over control of the Senate to the Democrats in exchange for a plum committee chairmanship. Jeffords on Thursday declared his intention to bolt the Republican Party and become an independent. He plans to vote with the Democrats, however, which will give the Democrats a 51-49 edge in the Senate.

With the Senate split 50-50 after the 2000 elections, when dead Missouri governor Mel Carnahan defeated Republican Senator James Ashworth, the Republican control of the Senate has been precarious, based on the tie-breaking vote of the Republican vice president, Dick Cheney. If any Republican seat changed parties, control of the senate would pass to the Democrats. Attention has most recently focused on 98 year-old Republican Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond´s health has been the subject of much political speculation because, with the Senate divided 50-50, his death could tip the chamber over to the Democrats by giving South Carolina’s Democratic governor a chance to appoint a successor. A Republican staffer, during a recent late night marathon session on the tax cut bill accused the Democrats “trying to exhaust senators into their graves in the hopes of gaining the majority," referring in particular to Thurmond. Now, however, with the help of the renegade Jeffords, the Democrats have found a new way to seize power and thwart the will of the voters.

Not since Thomas Jefferson’s running mate Aaron Burr attempted to seize the presidency in the 1800 election has America seen such a despicable act of political avarice. In spite of his treachery, Burr ended up as Jefferson’s vice president, but was later forced to flee the country to avoid being hung for treason on a different charge.

There have been other politicians who switched parties, but none with quite the political destructiveness as Jeffords. Republican Senators Strom Thurmond and Phil Gramm both started out as Democrats in the days when southern Democrats were conservative. As the Democratic Party grew more liberal, both left the party and joined the Republicans. Neither of these politicians, however, turned over control of the Congress to their new party when they switched. Gramm, who was a congressman at the time of his switch at least had the decency to resign his seat and stand for re-election in special election. None of the party switches has ever thrown control of a house of congress over to another party.

Jeffords supposedly got his feelings hurt because he wasn’t invited to a White House ceremony honoring a Vermont teacher of the year. This is the Benedict Arnold excuse – “General Washington hurt my feelings, so I think I’ll betray my country.” In the rough and tumble politics of the Senate, Jeffords, who apparently is a grown man, even though he’s acting like a child, has probably had to endure hurt feelings before and has gouged a few of his colleagues in the eye himself, as when he voted against the President’s tax cut bill. What becomes immediately clear is that Jeffords is not doing this for idealogical reasons but because the Democrats offered him the bribe of a plum committee chairmanship.

Jeffords should beware. Traitors often expect the enemy they help to treat them as their friends. But they usually end up with no friends, because their old friends despise them for their treachery, and their new friends don’t trust them. After all, if Jeffords could betray the Republicans in a fit of pique, he can also betray his new friends, the Democrats. Jeffords is likely to find himself replaced in the next election. The Democrats, who have ruthlessly tried everything from running a dead candidate for the Senate to trying to kill off Strom Thurmond in order to regain power, will likely try to replace the turncoat Jeffords with a reliable Democrat, so they won’t have to rely on the vagaries of a fence-sitter who changes political affiliation on a whim.

When George W. Bush became president on January 20, it marked the first time since 1955 that the Republicans controlled the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Thanks to Jeffords’ treachery, this happy situation lasted a grand total of 4 months and 4 days.

Judas later hung himself after realizing the enormity of his crime. Perhaps Jeffords should go and do likewise.