Defection Would Be Setback for Bush
W A S H I N G T O N, May 23 -- If Vermont Sen. James Jeffords does bolt from the Republican Party, as many expect, it will come as a major blow to President Bush.
Such a defection would give Democrats control of the now evenly divided Senate and would seriously hamstring the president's agenda on Capitol Hill. If it comes to pass, Bush will be hard pressed to find anyone outside the White House to blame.
Jeffords, 67, has always been among the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, often voting with Democrats on key issues. But since taking office in January, Bush and his advisers have virtually driven the maverick Vermont senator away from the party that has been his home through two full terms in the Senate and seven in the House.
Teachers, Farmers and Pride
Jeffords chairs the committee that oversees education — his pet issue. So when the White House left him off the invitation list last month for a Rose Garden ceremony honoring a teacher from his home state, the senator was displeased. When he called the White House, asked to be invited and was rebuffed, sources say he became furious.
Many of Jeffords' colleagues viewed the snubbing as payback. A week earlier, the senator had cast the deciding vote that effectively trimmed Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut proposal by $400 billion. Jeffords had pressed Bush to include an increase in funding for special education for disabled children, but he refused.
"The White House blundered … in slapping Jeffords and pushing too far — doing things that he viewed as an insult," said Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
But aides to Bush say the non-invitation was not intended as a slight. They maintain the administration decided no members of Congress would be invited to the ceremony, in order to keep the focus on teachers.
"Nobody played hardball," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters today. "It is not at all unusual for people to be honored at the White House without inviting members of Congress."
