Jim Jeffords

Jonathan Zasloff reminds us of the case of Jim Jeffords:

Jeffords threatened to leave the caucus, giving the Democrats control over the Senate, unless Bush acceeded to his demand for greater special education funding (which Bush had promised and remains the right thing to do).

Obviously, the Bush people were livid. It was Cheney who persuaded the President not to back down, and the result was Jeffords bolting to the Democrats. Like so much else about Cheney, his advice was bad. Had 9/11 not occurred, it could have kept Bush from unified control of Congress for the remainder of his term.

But the interesting position, as Gellman describes it, was taken by Karl Rove, who said something to the effect of: “give him what he wants now, and then we will screw him at a more opportune time.” What Rove meant by that, or what he was thinking, is not mentioned, mainly because it became moot.

But it might be worth thinking about ahead of time if, as I fear, Lieberman stays off the reservation.

Another aspect of the Jeffords story that may be relevant is that when Jeffords switched parties he didn’t do what you might have expected a moderate Republican to do and become a moderate Democrat. Instead he became a liberal Democrat, wracking up Voteview scores in the 108th and 109th Senates that put him in the leftmost third of the Democratic caucus. Which is perhaps what you would expect from a Democrat from Vermont, but also represented a very dramatic shift in Jeffords’ voting record for which he never offered a real public explanation.