Seattle News Bites: May 24, 2001

Like our last edition, we are going to provide you with a quick overview of major stories missed by our local news, plus some commentary on the day's top story: Senator Jeffords' defection!

Vermont Senator James Jeffords' officially switched from Republican to Independent, which gives Democrats a majority in the Senate with 50. What does this mean to President Bush? He'll have a tough time getting his agenda through.
Israel shot down a small plane outside of Tel Aviv coming from Beruit. The Israeli military has been on alert celebrating the anniversary of pulling out of Lebanon.
An American Airline jet's landing gear broke-off during an emergency landing yesterday at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.
14 people died yesterday attempting to cross the Arizona desert in 115 degree temperatures in order to make it to the US from Mexico. The smugglers who were transporting them had told them to get out and run across the desert.

Well, it's now official, Vermont Senator James Jeffords has changed party affiliations from Republican to Independent. Why did he do it? and what does it mean?

Why did he do it? Of course, he won't admit this in public, but the real reason was because he was "snubbed" by President Bush and decided to get even!

The snub: Jeffords was not invited to attend the honoring of the Teacher of the Year, who just happens to be from his home state of Vermont.

What better way to get even? Change parties! and handover control of the Senate to Democrats!

Won't this hurt him politically? Not really! Partly because he was elected back in November with almost 66% of the vote, but more importantly, because he won't be up for re-election until 2006!

What impact will this have? It will have a huge impact! It means that: Republican's will loose their chair of committees and be replaced by Democrats, VP Cheney won't have the tie-breaking vote anymore, Bush appointments will be harder to confirm, and President Bush will have an extremely tough time getting his agenda passed, and will have to deal more ("compromise") with Democrats.

Why didn't he resign instead? Well, that's of course what the head of the Vermont Republican Party would prefer, but if he had done that, another Republican would have taken his place.

By staying in office, and merely switching parties, he keeps his position, and has dealt President Bush and the entire Republican party a major blow!

What's our opinion? Poetic justice!! This relative nobody has just changed the entire balance of power and has taught Bush a major lesson--don't "piss-off" the little guy!