Jeffords Warns GOP: Pressure Can Backfire
Vermont Sen. James M. Jeffords had some not-too-subtle words of advice yesterday for Republicans as they push reluctant GOP moderates to support President Bush's tax-cut package: Don't forget what happened the last time you tried this.
It was two years ago this month that Jeffords decided to bolt from the Republican Party and become an independent, tipping the balance of power in the Senate to the Democrats until the GOP regained a narrow majority last November.
Now, Jeffords said in delivering the Democrats' response to Bush's weekly radio address, Republicans who disagree with Bush on fiscal priorities -- an apparent reference to Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) and George V. Voinovich (Ohio) -- are being pressured to toe the party line. Bush recently chose Ohio as the backdrop for a sales pitch on his tax-cut bill, and the Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, has run ads showing Voinovich and Snowe flanked by the French flag, which was not meant as a compliment.
Once again, "those who are expressing their reservations are being vilified for taking stands of conscience," Jeffords said. "This happened in 2001 when I made my decision to leave the Republican Party, and it is sad for me to watch it happen again. When did standing on principle, speaking your conscience and representing your constituents become unacceptable in certain Republican circles?"
The administration has been gentler with Snowe and Voinovich than it was with Jeffords, and neither has shown signs of leaving the GOP. But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has also used Jeffords as an object lesson to shield Snowe and Voinovich from hardball tactics.
In a parting shot, Jeffords noted he supported Bush's first tax-cut bill in 2001, just before leaving the party. "That was a mistake, one I will not make again," he said. Bush calls it a jobs and growth package, but "the only thing guaranteed to grow is the federal budget deficit, something Republicans used to care about and I still do." |
