Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Mutt and Jeffords

Friday, May 25, 2001

From (Yea!) Alexandria, Virginia

One week. One WEEK, I'm out of the country, and look what happens. I told you when I left, I wanted no bad reports. What do I get? I get Jim Jeffords. What. You couldn't just hold one of those parties at the house for all your friends that cause the neighbors to call the cops like everyone else's kids?

Well, thank�you�very�much. You've� made� me� SO� proud.

When Phil Gramm left the Democratic party in the 1980's as a Congressman, he resigned from the Congress, created a vacancy, ran for the seat he had just vacated as a Republican, and won again.

Jim Jeffords did the opposite. He ran for the Senate as a Republican this past November and then switched parties after he had:
- Safely attained a committee chairmanship,
- Taken just under a MILLION DOLLARS in business PAC money,
- Accepted nearly $50,000 in PACs associated with Republican organizations and the PACs of members of the REPUBLICAN leadership in the House and Senate
- Taken cash from the National Republican Senatorial Committee even though he won with 65 percent of the vote - cash which was therefore not available to people like Bob Franks who was woefully under-funded in close race against Jon Corzine in New Jersey.

Jim Jeffords should return the $17,500 he accepted from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He took the money fraudulently by running as a Republican.

Either he was hoping for - too strong. Say planning on - a Gore would win, or he was looking for a Bush win in a close Senate in which he could wield lots of power.

Jeffords wanted to be THE power broker in the Senate with the Bush administration but found that the Bush administration didn't care to be intimidated.

Jeffords started the pushing by being the first Republican to come out against the Bush tax plan. The White House pushed back by not inviting him to a ceremony honoring a Vermont teacher.

Jeffords went to Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, in effect, whimpering, "They're picking on me."

Daschle put his arm around him, gave him a hanky to dry his eyes, and said, "There, there, Jimmy. Come on over to our side. We like dissent. We cherish independence."

Right. Just ask Max Baucus who was publicly spanked by Daschle just about a week ago because he wouldn't use his power as the Senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee to hold up the tax bill.

As so often happens, what is bad news for the policy wonks is good news for the political hacks. A Senate controlled by Daschle, Kennedy, and Rodham-Clinton is fodder for the Republican campaign apparatus.

George Orwell, in his novel "1984" made the point that to fully control your people, they must have an enemy; an enemy they see as the embodiment of everything that is wrong, and the embodiment of everything standing in the way of making things better.

Of the three superpowers in the novel: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia; two were always allied against the third. There was always an enemy.

The House Republicans - especially Tom Davis who runs the House Republican campaign committee - are doing the Walter Houston Dance of Joy.

Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Tom DeLay can point to Democrats controlling the Senate as the obstructionists, as the blatant partisans, as � the enemy.

I said in interviews yesterday that the sound of paper being crumpled and tossed into wastepaper baskets was heard all over Washington as Republican direct-mail copywriters took dead aim at the "Liberal Democrats, who are licking their chops as take control over committees which will oversee EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE." More or less.

The only vote the Democrats have gained was on the vote for Majority Leader. But nothing else has changed. Now, if a single Democrat defects on an issue, the 51-49 majority goes back to 50-50 and the tie breaker remains with Vice President Cheney.

Mutt Daschle has to do the cajoling, the begging and the threatening.

President Bush has indicated he is strong enough to take a short-term loss in order to make a long-term point: His Administration will not be held hostage by a single Senator.

Maybe the White House staff should get their hands on the first battle flag used by commanders in the Continental Navy, and stick it next to the President's desk.

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