May 22, 2002 4 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – James Jeffords of Vermont broke the Senate Republicans’ china a year ago, smashed it in an act of political moderation, he says, that has Democrats celebrating and the GOP grieving still. Celebrating as in using majority power to check President Bush’s agenda on taxes, energy and other issues while working to advance the Democrats’ own plans.

Grieving as in watching White House-backed bills clear the Republican-controlled House, then pile up at the Senate’s doorstep. As in no longer being able to hasten the confirmation of judicial nominees.

A “coup of one,” Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott branded it after the soft-spoken Jeffords bolted his party, broke a 50-50 Senate tie and became an independent aligned with the Democrats. “The decision of one man has, however else you describe it, trumped the will of the American people,” the Mississippi lawmaker said.

“Any time you have 51 votes, you’ve got a majority, a clean, clear majority,” countered Sen. Tom Daschle, the South Dakota Democrat who became majority leader when Jeffords’ switched.

“I’ll be setting 51 place settings in my caucus every week from here on out.”

On a personal level, some of last summer’s passions have cooled.

At least, says Jeffords, he and Lott are on speaking terms. “I obviously am well aware how things get said outside of my presence and I know he’s quite upset at what I did.”

“Senator Jeffords doesn’t get talked about any more,” says Sen. Larry Craig, the Idaho Republican who once harmonized alongside the Vermont lawmaker in the “Singing Senators,” a GOP quarter. “He’s a non-issue. Usually, non-issues become nonentities.”

Or not.

Jeffords makes campaign appearances for Democrats across the country, although he says he won’t stump for anyone challenging a GOP incumbent.

And the man who made so many Democrats chairmen is himself the head of the committee with jurisdiction over environmental legislation, a gift from a grateful caucus.

In an interview, Jeffords said he acted to curb the GOP’s conservative grip on power. With the White House, a House majority and the levers of power in the Senate, he said, “it resulted in Republicans acting as if they had the absolute power to do what they wanted. … And I felt strongly that you had to have some moderation.”

In particular, he added, Republicans could command a majority of all House-Senate negotiating committees that write compromise bills. “They decided they were going to, I would say, abuse their power,” he said, in particular citing a decision to cut back large Senate-passed increases for education money for the disadvantaged.

“They can’t do that any more.”

Nor can they decide what legislation to bring to the Senate floor – a prerogative that now resides with the Democrats.

In an interview, Daschle claimed three categories of Democratic accomplishments in the past year.

They include the bipartisanship that flourished in the weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; a role as “America’s brakes on what we consider to be bad public policy, and a Democratic agenda of campaign finance legislation, a patients’ bill of rights and other legislation.

“Those instances where we were America’s brakes, we are in a position to play an important role and we accept that role,” he said. He cited stopping Bush’s proposal for oil drilling in the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and blocking the elevation of Judge Charles Pickering to the federal appeals court.

Democrats also stopped Bush’s economic stimulus legislation at year’s end, alleging it would cut taxes for the rich while shortchanging health care for the jobless.

To the Republicans, these are not praiseworthy activities.

“They are obstructionists. They are doing everything they can to slow-walk or delay the president’s agenda,” says Lott.

“The list of what has not been done is long, significant and extremely troublesome.”

House Republicans maintain a list of stalled measures, dubbed the “Daschle 50,” and it runs from permanent extensions of the administration’s tax cuts to a series of lesser measures.

On other issues, Democrats have scored victories, as Jeffords anticipated.

Daschle used his power to win final approval of a campaign finance measure that GOP leaders had long blocked, and farm legislation contained more spending than the White House originally wanted.

At the insistence of Democrats, trade legislation expected to pass the Senate this week contains new health benefits for workers who lose their jobs to unfair import competition.

Crafting a broader Democratic agenda has been slow work, in part the result of internal divisions.

While Daschle attacks Bush’s tax cuts, a dozen members of his caucus voted for them, and he has declined to lead an election-year effort to repeal or modify portions of them.

Partially as a result, Democrats have refused to bring a budget plan to the floor.

Says Lott: “That’s a total abdication of leadership.”