With three solid turncoats in the Senate delegation already (Jeffords, Chaffee, "Crazy" Arlen Spector) the administration has, from the beginning, run their Senate strategy as if they had a minority. The problem Jeffords has is that he's subject to party punishment for breaking discipline, and he's been taking it full-bore since that first back-stab of his a few weeks ago. Make no mistake, the vast, vast majority of Republicans nationwide can REALLY live without Jeffords, Chafee, and even McCain (who's chances of re-nomination in AZ are, IMO, as dead as last week's fish).
So will the Republicans recruit Miller, Bachaus, or a few others? Bush will leave that up to Lott. I would suggest to Lott-if I didn't think he was an idiot-that pulling in one and re-establishing a tie is worthless, but 2 or better might be a small win. Most of his problems seem to come from his own side of the aisle, anyway. But it's his problem, not Bush's. The agenda will move forward, regardless. And it might just be easier to beat them in 2002 than recruit them today... |
