Article..JIM JEFFORDS: MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
etherzone.com
By: John Guthmiller
What more can be said about Sen. Jim Jeffords' decision to leave the GOP? As I'm sure he expected, he's been vilified as a traitor of the first order. It was inevitable that someone would compare him to Benedict Arnold (a comparison I think shortchanges Arnold, who at least contributed something to the Revolution before stabbing it in the back). I've missed the articles where Jeffords has been upgraded from Tory turncoat to Judas Iscariot, but I'm sure that metaphor has been drawn as well. If not, any aspiring authors have my permission to do so.
So Jeffords should probably not be trusted with the GOP's plans for its Manhattan project, or any similar top-secret portfolio. That shouldn't come as any great shock. His defection has been a long time coming, and, by my way of thinking, is almost anti-climactic.
Now the finger pointing starts. Now, over the crowing of Tom Daschle and the guffaws of Democratic Leftists, a humbled GOP is left with the taste of ashes and the nagging matter of blame. Some would lay it on Trent Lott, the Senate Majority (ulp!) "Leader," a man whose spine bends more than Gumby's. Others blame the Bush White House for failing to "court" Jeffords (and, by extension, the other "centrists" in the Party) with sufficient amour. As if principle and political philosophy should be determined by who buys the biggest bouquet or dinner at the fanciest restaurant. We didn't want a date; we just wanted a Republican.
Frankly, I think the blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of Vermont's voters. They're the pinheads who elected this chameleon for 12 years running. They're the ones who repeatedly sent a weasel to bring in the eggs, a fox to guard the henhouse, a pot to scrub the kettle. How surprised can you be if you lose a game of No Card Monte? Or if the "Rolecks" you bought on the street corner turns out to have plastic works?
For two terms, Jim Jeffords has failed to prove his bona fides as a Republican, to earn his journeyman's card as a conservative. He's waffled on everything from Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban to the Bush tax cut. But his crowning moment as a political quisling came when he raced Arlen Specter to the microphone after the impeachment vote to gloat over his "bipartisanship" and his "principled" exoneration of the First Felon. Trent Lott, Olympia Snowe, Lincoln Chaffee, Specter, and Jeffords comprise the points of a political pentagram, the sinister saps who visited the Clinton plague on us for another 18 dreary, malfeasant months. Then, after running for a third term as a Republican, Jeffords finds the flavor not to his liking, and toddles off to another ice cream shoppe.
This isn't the act of a man grown weary of his party's inconsistencies, or whose convictions have been sorely tested by repeated betrayals. This is the staged drama of a man who's been seduced by a demon he's toyed with, a Mephisto Waltz with the Dark side that culminated in complete moral bankruptcy, a soul in thrall. Yielding his affiliation at this point changes not just Jim Jeffords, but the entire complexion of the United States Senate. Jeffords knew this. And he knew that it would devastate the Republican leadership in the Upper House, give the judicial gate key back to the Democrats, and make a kingmaker of Tom Daschle. This was a calculated act of either betrayal or irresponsibility that makes Thermopylae look like schoolgirl tattling.
The only answer to this embarrassment lies with the voters. When voting for Republicans, make sure they're Republicans. Not waffling latecomers or shrinking violets, but Bob Barr, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan Proud To Be An American Republicans who would rather pierce their navels than vote with the Left.
That's not asking much. Don't drink lite beer. Don't eat diet cheesecake or drink diet soda. Don't denature your alcohol. If you're going to profess a value, live it. Embrace it. Cling to it like it's your salvation. To hell with this lukewarm, accommodating approach to our future. Stand up and be counted, and let the winds of fortune blow.
While we're at it, let's get rid of the other traitors-in-waiting, like Chaffee, who is so anxious to jump ship he's already got his waders on. And Trent Lott, whose Chamberlain-like appeasement of the Democrats encouraged these types of unholy trysts. While we're at it, fire Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. And send a stern warning to Arlen Specter that he needs to pick a face and stay with it. Voting to free Slick doesn't resonate with his posturing on the Pardongate scandal. The time to strike is when it will do some good, Arlen, not when you're going to be held accountable for your judgmental lapses.
And someone make John McCain shut up, okay? If he isn't whining about campaign finance, he's hacking away at the Party's timbers in a vain attempt to make Republicans into Democrats with better taste in clothes.
In the mind of Jim Jeffords, Republicans and Democrats are interchangeable. That is a sad indictment of our political marketplace these days. And it reflects mostly on the failure of the Right and the success of the Left. The party of lunacy - homosexual nuns, eco-nuts who sit in trees, and grown people who parade around in animal costumes - is not ashamed of itself. And the responsible folks are breaking their backs to be just like them.
I don't want a conservative who's also a liberal. I want a conservative who is conservative because he believes in conservative ideals, and thinks conservatism is the best route to success. That doesn't sound like Jim Jeffords to me. So in that vein, let me wish Sen. Jeffords a pox in his new position, and pray that he, like the original Man Without a Country, finds himself adrift on the high seas, with no port to call home, and no man to call friend. |
