Now, this is a principled man

Switched parties purely for the political limelight and to piss off conservatives who were rubbing him the wrong way.

Everybody loves a hypocritical turncoat! Yeah sure! Good bye!

Bennedict Arnold

Elected as a Republican, then turned five months into office. He should have had the honor to resign, then run as an independent. Good riddance, Jim.

This is another guy I hated that proved right in the end. My hat is off to him.

When a political party bullies and harrasses one of their own, trying to coerce that person into groupthink, that person might just say, I don't need this, and I don't need you. This is precisely the message sent to the Republican party by Jeffords when he changed his affiliation from GOP to independent.

Jim Jeffords is a man of conscience. Education is a major issue for him. He became an independent because he was disenchanted with the direction of official education policy.

He doesn't deserve our respect. He's acting like a true politician by playing to the side that will benefit him the most.

It's great to see a Republican who votes the way they want to, instead of bowing down to a dictator in Missippi or Oklahoma (not saying those states themselves are bad, but you know who I'm aluding to.) Why are some people here giving him one star? They seem to think Vermont citizens are so stupid that they vote for the party, not the person. That is idiotic.

More liberal than Hillary Clinton. Im glad he left he party!

It is no wonder he was kicked out of the party.

A man of great conviction!

A slimy turncoat who thinks the world revolves around him. He went to the Jackass party & then when they lost control of the Senate he wanted to go back over to the GOP. No way loser!

As a Moderate Republican, I understand Senator Jeffords sentiments. My critique of the party leadership and direction is somewhat different, but still, I believe that he shouldn't have jumped ship. He did not realize that he could weld more influence in Washington as a deal making liberal Republican than just another Democrat. By being the lynchpin in major votes; he could have given the moderate wing of the GOP more power. Being a moderate and Republican seems to an anachronism in the current political climate that exists. Historically, the Republican party has been the party of conserving our resources and looking forward to the future at the same time. Bush spoke like a moderate in 2000, but his administration has only catered to the hard right wing of the party. Moderate Republicans espouse values that neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans have, namely a realist foreign policy that is strong buy understand of the nature of American power in the world, the importance of a balance budget, a need for smaller government that does not intrude on the personal rights of the individual, and environmental conservation. Being a moderate Republican means that you oppose any kind of concentration of power in the hands of either big business or big government. President Teddy Roosevelt governed with these ideas in mind, and American was all the stronger for it. George W. Bush's Republican party does not represent these ideals. Bush plays hardball by using the politics of fear to get his weak and insipid point across. The so-called Southern Strategy is not enough to create majorities. The entire country is not ultra-conservative. Moderate Republicans are still an important part of the party; in fact, the majority of GOP voters are moderates. The grass-roots for the past 30 years or so have been controlled by a small faction of cultural conservatives who, when in control, have a decidedly naive and reductionist view of the world. The Republicans needs to adopt more of a big tent attitude. I understand the political calculations behind the Southern Strategy. The problem is that the party is appealing to a very narrow segment of the electorate by playing on culture warrior wedge issues that pay little heed to sound and pragmatic policy. Short term, there is a political gain. The Republican majority in Congress was built in the South, but the parties appeal everywhere else is waning. From the Midwest to the Northeast, and even the Western states, the parties influence has been waning. For all the chestbeating of the some in support of a supermajority in Congress, there are serious problems that will hinder the party under this leadership from taking on such power. I'm by no means dismissing Southerns, most of them vote like the rest of the country today. My concern is that a small minority of Neo-Conservatives have taken over the government and the Republican Party without so much as a vote cast for such an extreme ideology.

Scoundrel.

Couldn't support the Republican party when he was there and now can't support the Democratic party with anything constructive

P.O.S. sold out "principles" for a lame committee chair.

A sad man.

Here's a guy with political guts and intelligence. I find it hysterical that the rightwing droolers place a high premium on "Men of Principle," yet condemned this guy resoundingly when he had the audacity to exercise principle that was contrary to the knee-jerk Official Party Line. Finally, a Republican who placed the needs of the commonweal above the tainted and ill-advised ideology of his mentally retarded political party and did the right thing by bolting!!! Very refreshing and reassuring that there's at least one former Republican in that self-important yet impotent august body of the Senate who thinks pragmatically and is evidently more concerned with the problems of this country than protecting the political turf of that conspiracy against the people known as the GOP.

Before he "came out of the closet" and officially switched parties, Jeffords was just another New England Democrat posing as a Republican. The "lefty" media lauded his "courageous" move, but in the past whenever a Democratic legislator switched to the Republican Party, he was excoriated by the liberal media.

One of our great Senators.. He doesn't have to worry here in Vermont...anyone who has the courage to do what he did deserves our vote...if only there were more like him...I must say he made the conservatives mad, but so what.

A liar and a cheat. He typifies what the Democrat party is all about these days: do anything to win. I guess his backroom deal with Daschle was enough to betray the people who voted him in office and paid for his campaign.

Changing parties as a matter of principle is one thing. Doing it out of personal pique and having a hissy-fit with devasting consequences is a whole 'nother ball game. A bona-fide weasel. Being from NH, I can understand someone from VT going whacko. They're smoking a lot of that Maui Wowee and Acapulco Gold over there. I don't think that history will treat this man very kindly.

The absolute dumbest self important horse's ass exchanging oxygen today.

Does Jeffords get the hint on the direction of the country mow that AMERICANS voted Republican. Minnesota, a liberal state, even went GOP. Democrats, like Jefferods, Pelosi and Kennedy are LIMOUSINE LIBERALS who need a dose of reality

A man who betrayed his party and constituents for personal gain. A modern day Benadict Arnold.

My,my,my, How have the tables been turned!! Because Jumpin Jim had his ego hurt by the GOP, and took jumped ship so that he would be guarenteed a committe chairmanship with the Dumbocrats. Well, now that the GOP retook the Senate, he has been putting out feelers begging them to take him back so that he can keep his chairmanship. So much for standing up for your priciples!!

Hey Jimmy, welcome to the revised and improved U.S. Senate. You will now be the senate committee chairman of jack.

Had the courage and foresight to leave the backwards-arse republicans behind. Nice job Jim!!

Loser. Had his 15 minutes of fame. Will never surface again. I heard he s__t his pants after the 2002 elections!

Ms. James Jeffords should be sharing a cell with John Walker Lindh, because he’s a traitor and a mangina lover. I hope he dies of gonorrhea and rots in hell.

Nothing but another insider Quisling (i.e.for you Democrats, that means a turncoat)!

The worst of all political whores. Worse traitor than Benedict Arnold. Jeffords helped the Dems steal the Senate just months after running and getting elected as a Republican supporting Bush and the GOP platform. That is true vote fraud. Jeffords is reviled and will be toast when the GOP retakes the Senate in November 2002.

he should've joined the DNC in the first place instead of switching... the GOP is hardly right wing.

The only good republican politician besides mccain. NOt right wing and bigoted like most Republicans

A portrait in selfishness and dishonor.

A man of integrity and honor who votes with his conscience instead of his party affiliation. For those who criticized his decision to leave the GOP and think he should have resigned, I say you're all hypocrites. How come you weren't whining when Ben Nighthorse Campbell or Richard Shelby left the Democratic party to join the Republicans? Jeffords recognized what many with common sense have known for some time now...that the Republican party has changed for the worse since the election of Ronald Reagan.

The little boy who took his ball and went home because he couldn't have his way. Real political courage would have been to switch parties BEFORE he received Republican funding in his last election, not to switch (for practical purposes) into a puppet of the Daschele Dictatorship.

I'm so proud of our Jim Jeffords. Proud that he finally came to his senses and switched parties. He's a loyal Democrat now, and I think we should all give him a sincere pat on the back. Only reason he gets a four and not a five from me was that I don't know much about his political career as a Republican. And I know some of you will call him a traitor or a hypocrite or something, but he is one politician that I feel I can trust. To quote a song: Be gone with you, you shod and shady senators! Move the heck over and let this good one in!

Glad you became an independent and not a democrat.

God Bless James Jeffords he saved us, our environment, economy, future etc., from the Bush's and Republicans dictating all there horrible laws against the "majoritY" of the populations will!

If more politicians thought like James Jeffords, this would be a near perfect country. I praise him for his courage, and his determination to create change that is fair. If he ran for the Presidency, I would vote for him.

Leaving the right and joining the left was wrong!

As a guy who likes his Republicans to act like Republicans, I say good riddance to Jim Jeffords. He's a moderate-to-liberal Democrat on the issues, so why bother kidding ourselves? But what irks me is how he's now celebrated as a man of great principle! Hmmm... let's see. The Republican Party under Reagan, and then during Newt's Speakership, was AOK to Jim Jeffords. Both men wanted to eliminate the Department of Education (good idea). Now Bush comes along and works with Ted Kennedy on some education reform that is such an incredible compromise (no school choice at all) that every conservative I know is aghast at this missed opportunity. But for Jeffords it's the straw that broke the camel's back. Or is it?? Could it be that Jefford's action of principle was actually him accepting Daschle's offer of a committee chairmanship -- something that he'd be sure to lose when Strom Thurmond finally dies (which would have given the Dems senate control anyway). Jefford's jump was a calculated move by a not-too-bright political power-seeker. The only thing that I've enjoyed about it is seeing how McCain get mad that someone else stole his shtick and did it better.

Jeffords has not got the right stuff. He thinks he does, but since when is he in the senate to represent himself? He is there to UPHOLD our constitution, not bigger and more government! Get a clue jimmy

Kudos to a man who acted on his beliefs regardless of his party's ideology. I would have given him the same rating if he had been a Democrat who found his party too liberal. Whether you agree with his politics is missing the point. The bottom line is he voted his conscience, for that is how Jeffords seems to live his life, and how can you not respect that? Some people argue that Jeffords did what he did to further his opportunities for becoming governor of Vermont. Since I don't live in Vermont, I can't comment relating to that suggestion. Jeffords may have ticked his fellow Republican Vermonters off, and he will have to live with that. But the sun will still rise in the east, and the winter will still follow the fall. Life will go on, and Jeffords will live his to the fullest.

He knows when to call a pot a pot.

A real grandstander.

Before Jeffords' courageous switch, I was becoming concerned with the far right agenda of the current Republican leadership. I told my family that Mr. Bush would swerve decidedly to the right upon his being sworn into office, but I could not have predicted that he would push forward with the agenda of the farthest, farthest ULTRA right--that he would have moved so quickly to undermine so many valid rules and protections put forth by the Clinton administration. In less than six months, he has virtually cast aside all efforts at conservation of energy, he has repealed a December 14 order issued by the Clinton administration to bring the energy price gouging that is plaguing California under control, he has pushed a tax cut that even he admits favors mostly the rich, he has repealed arsenic standards for drinking water that were 25 (!) years in the making, he has repealed (with the help of Congress) OSHA rules designed to prevent repetitive strain injury (the product of ten years of research), he has trashed the Kyoto Protocol, cut funding to international medical clinics (because they offer abortion procedures with their own money), he has reversed a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, he seeks unhindered to drill holes in the Alaskan tundra, he seeks unabated to build a missile defense system that will do a better job at causing war than preventing it, and he intends to pour federal funds directly into churches so they can "help" the poor and the drug abusers. So as you can imagine, I was becoming concerned. But a man named James Jeffords decided that it was not to be. By switching parties (and riling the Rove/Cheney/Lott/Bush propaganda machine), he has thrown control of the Senate to the Democrats. In his public statement regarding his switch, he warned that the Republican party was becoming far too extreme to appeal to the moderates, and methinks that this notion will hit home when the midterm elections come up. Indeed, if many moderates truly understood the farthest right's agenda, they'd never vote Republican. Jeffords is a good man--he listened to his conscience above party leadership (something that is very rare in the Republican party.) So here's to Jim! :-) Thanks for reading, and God bless! :-)