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The Shift of Power: The Jim Jeffords Story

Aired May 23, 2002 - 20:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

U.S. SENATOR JIM JEFFORDS (I) VERMONT: I will leave the Republican Party and become an independent.

ANNOUNCER: The start of a remarkable one-man revolution; Senator Jim Jeffords' defection from the Republican Party one year ago. A Republican for nearly half a century, Jeffords never hesitated to sing his own tune, much to the dismay of the GOP rank and file.

U.S. SENATOR TOM DASCHLE: I can't think of a time when the shifting power and balance of power changed so dramatically.

ANNOUNCER: The Jeffords effect, from the halls of Congress to the White House and across the country. Friends and foes alike agree the unprecedented move continues to have a huge impact. LIVE FROM CAPITOL HILL, the shift of power, the Jim Jeffords Story.

Now here's CNN's Jonathan Karl.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: Perhaps the most unbelievable part of the Jeffords story was the lead character. In a place dominated by Olympic-sized egos, he was always one of the quiet ones, a guy without much sizzle, the kind of guy most of us in the news media usually ignored.

But on that one fateful day a year ago, Jeffords rocked the political world and made a move that historians will still be talking about a hundred years from now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

J. JEFFORDS: I will leave the Republican Party and become an independent.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Good evening everyone. It's a very big news story that affects everybody in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: A Republic senator left his party and formally aligned himself with the Democrats.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today's decision by Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont to leave the Republicans to become an independent has shattered the GOP's working majority.

KARL (voice over): The story of how an obscure senator turned Washington upside down is a story of back room intrigue and charges of personal and political betrayal, a story of a decision that divided a country and divided a family.

LIZ JEFFORDS, SENATOR JEFFORD'S WIFE: Well, don't be stupid. I think that's what I said. You know, why now? Why are you doing this now?

U.S. SENATOR OLYMPIA SNOWE (R), MAINE: I said, don't tell me this is true. I said, don't tell me that.

U.S. SENATOR JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: I'll go to my grave concerned as to whether or not, did I, did others do everything we could to help this man who was our friend to work through this decision.

KARL: So you have your wife saying it's a bad idea, your son saying it's a bad idea, your staff apprehensive, and yet you're going forward.

J. JEFFORDS: Well, I had one, my daughter. Daughters are a little bit closer in that sense, so she said whatever, whatever you want to do, just go out and save the world.

KARL: A year later, the true story of the behind-the-scenes drama can finally be pieced together. Nobody was physically closer to Jeffords in the tumultuous days before the decision than his staffer Ken Connally seen here leading a dazed Jeffords through the political paparazzi less than 24 hours before his announcement.

KEN CONNALLY, JEFFORD'S AIDE: I thought I'd never live through a moment in history when I was that close to the action, that I needed to somehow record it and kept notes and I have a videotape of it.

KARL: Holed up in a small hideaway in the capitol, Connally's camera captured a few minutes of history, including what every news organization wanted and none got, the emotional reflections of Jeffords before his switch.

J. JEFFORDS: One of the most emotional days I've had in a long time.

KARL: Connally was also in the room the day it all started, when Jeffords first spoke with a prominent Democrat about leaving the Republican Party.

U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER DODD (D) CONNECTICUT: I just raised it as two people talking. I finally said in frustration, I said what the hell are you doing with a party that's walking away from these issues that you and I care about?

CONNALLY: Senator Jeffords said, well, I couldn't be a Democrat, but I could be an independent, and he kind of saw Senator Dodd get out of his seat and say, you're always welcome and he sat back and then they both laughed and dismissed it.

KARL: He may have laughed but Senator Dodd didn't dismiss it at all.

DASCHLE: Senator Dodd called me very excitedly to say, I think this is something we could do. I just had a conversation with Jim and it looks very promising and you need to follow up. We did.

KARL: Daschle did act in a series of high stakes negotiations that not even Jeffords' closest friends and advisers knew about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: As Jeffords' friends and his family found out what he was thinking about doing, there would be tears, charges of betrayal, anguish. The Republicans even enlisted Jeffords' own son in the effort to get him to change his mind. We'll have more, never before reported details on that part of the story and Jeffords' 11th hour second thoughts when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Jim Jeffords going to switch to a Democrat?

U.S. SENATOR TRENT LOTT (R) MISSISSIPPI: He hasn't indicated that to me and I don't believe he will. After all, I mean what would we do in the future about this Singing Senators. We need Jim to be a part of that harmony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: This is one nobody saw coming. Jeffords' decision would rock Washington, but it was such a closely guarded secret, not even his closest friends and family knew what he was thinking about doing, that is a closely guarded secret until CNN got a tip, a tip that actually came before Jeffords had even told his own staff what was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice over): The music may be an acquired taste, but as the tenor in the Singing Senators, Jim Jeffords harmonized with three of the most conservative fellow Republicans in Congress, a group that included John Ashcroft before he was Attorney General and the top Republican in the Senate, Trent Lott.

But Jeffords would be increasingly out of tune with his band mates after George W. Bush was sworn in as President.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear.

KARL: With a Senate perfectly divided between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, Jeffords found himself under intense pressure to support President Bush's most important domestic issue, his tax cut. Simply put, with Jeffords' vote, the President gets his tax cut. Without it, he doesn't.

L. JEFFORDS: He was getting up at night. He had stomach problems. He wasn't eating properly, so I knew something big was going on.

SUSAN ROSS, JEFFORDS' CHIEF OF STAFF: I knew it was different this time because I had never seen Jim so miserable.

KARL: April 4, 2001 in a moment of high political drama, moderate Democrats, led by Senator John Breaux were about to hold a press conference on their plan to scale back the president's tax cut but they were one vote short.

Two floors down, Jeffords was holed up in this hideaway room in the Capitol, negotiating with the White House. As the price for supporting the tax cut, Jeffords wanted a promise of more money for education.

J. JEFFORDS: I knew they knew what I knew and that was that the Breaux press conference was going to be there on cutting back on the tax cut and that Breaux was hoping I would show up there.

DANA BASH, CAPITOL HILL PRODUCER: So myself and a couple other reporters were standing down this long hallway in the Capitol, waiting, waiting, waiting, trying to figure out what was happening inside this negotiation.

KARL: But the talks were going nowhere.

J. JEFFORDS: This is ridiculous. We're not making any progress. That's when I got up and walked out.

KARL: They walked out and went straight up to Breaux' press conference.

BASH: So we all ran down the hallway as fast as we could, ran upstairs to the press conference. We got in the door seconds before Senator Jeffords.

J. JEFFORDS: So I finished my negotiations and unfortunately have not had an acceptable response.

J. JEFFORDS: And all of a sudden, this big gasp came out from all the reporters there knowing that I was going to be there and that I was the vote that was going to sink it at that point.

KARL: Sink the president's tax cut?

J. JEFFORDS: Right, and so it was a monumental moment to say the least. So I'm pleased to be here with you, a good group. I feel very comfortable here, first time in a while, and...

KARL: Republicans had no idea, but for Jeffords it was the beginning of the end of his days as a Republican. First came a series of snubs. April 23rd, President Bush honored the teacher of the year, Michelle Foreman. Jeffords is the Chairman of the Education Committee and, like the teacher, he's from Vermont, yet.

SNOWE: Senator Jeffords was not invited to it, which you just, you know, it's just remarkable in the wrong sense that happened.

J. JEFFORDS: The irony was, there I was down at the Republican headquarters making phone calls to raise money for Republicans to be re-elected and there they are down at the White House with our Vermonter being the teacher of the year and I don't even get invited.

KARL: Little did Republicans know that as they talked tough about Jeffords, Democrats were talking sweet.

DASCHLE: I don't know that we ever used the words, whatever you need. We thought that his concerns, his interests were reasonable.

KARL: Tuesday, May 15th in a clandestine meeting, Jeffords talks with the Senate's two top Democrats about switching parties.

KARL (on camera): How did you keep that a secret? I mean that's high drama. The stakes couldn't be any higher. You're sitting there meeting with the two top Democrats in the Senate about possibly switching parties.

J. JEFFORDS: Well, my hideaway is in the bowels of the Capitol, so you don't run into anybody except the police.

DASCHLE: We felt it was that important that we not share it with others, because if it got out, we were concerned that it could all unravel very quickly.

J. JEFFORDS: They asked me what I wanted and I told them really all I really want is, number one to make sure my staff gets taken care, and two, take care of my cows.

KARL (voice over): By his cows, he means Vermont's dairy cows and the milk money they produce for Vermont farmers. Republicans had singled the so-called northeast dairy compact, which guaranteed higher prices for milk would be killed as punishment for Jeffords' vote on the tax cut.

The Democrats promised to take care of his cows, but they also offered him something else, the chairman of the powerful Environment and Public Works Committee, but the secret negotiations would not be secret for long thanks to CNN.

Friday, May 18th: When Democrats are reaching out very aggressively to Jeffords to try to get him to switch parties, one thing under consideration in these talks between Jeffords and the Democrats would be potentially for Jeffords to become an independent, but to vote for Tom Daschle and the Democratic leadership.

And what was your reaction when you saw that we went on CNN that Friday before and reported that these discussions were going on? DASCHLE: Well, you were the one who did it and it was one of the rare times when I would have rather not seen you on television, because I was worried that the White House would pick up on it and spend the weekend wooing Jim back, that they would use whatever device, bringing him up to Camp David, if necessary, do whatever it took to bring him back.

KARL: But there was no weekend at Camp David. By late Monday night, Jeffords still hasn't heard from the White House, but he's approached by one of his closest friends on the Senate floor.

SNOWE: And I said, don't tell me this is true. I said, don't tell me that. He said, I'm thinking about it seriously. I said, you got to be kidding me.

J. JEFFORDS: So she was very unhappy, shall we say, just couldn't believe. She thought we were working so well together as moderates that why, why do it.

KARL: Senator Snowe immediately called White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, but didn't get through until the next day, Tuesday, May 22nd about 9: 00 a.m.

SNOWE: A message was left in his office saying that there were certain times in the day that I could reach him, and I said, oh no, call back and tell his office that even if he's meeting with the President, he has to leave the meeting. This is an emergency and so he did.

KARL: Within a couple of hours, Jeffords was meeting secretly with Vice President Cheney in Cheney's Capitol Hill office, then secretly shuttling down to the White House.

And then at 3:30 this afternoon, Jeffords went down to the White House to have a face-to-face meeting with President Bush.

Jeffords' meetings with the President and the Vice President would prove fruitless, but on Wednesday, May 23rd, he would have one last excruciating meeting with his closest Republican friends, a meeting that caused him to delay his announcement by a day, and almost to change his mind.

CONNALLY: They were sitting bunched around him and his back was to the door and they were on couches and chairs in the Vice President's office, kind of towering over him.

SNOWE: So it was very difficult you know, just to watch what was unfolding in that room, knowing that it was a momentous occasion in the sense that their destinies had changed and was going to be changing as a result of his singular decision.

KARL: And there were actual tears in that room?

SNOWE: Yes. Yes, there were.

KARL: Ken Connally captured Jeffords' thoughts on his video camera immediately following that meeting.

J. JEFFORDS: Many were in tears as I'm close to tears, including some of the men, at what was going to happen in their own lives in the sense of being chairman of committees.

KARL: But a phone call interrupts. It's Jeffords' son Leonard with a message from Trent Lott.

(on camera): When you called up, what did you say to him?

LOTT: I just said, Leonard would you make one last pitch, you know to talk to your dad, try to talk him out of it? Some people said, you know, I just ignored him or shoved him or didn't do enough. There's a perfect example. I used every lever I had to try to get him to rethink it.

KARL (voice-over): But Jeffords is soon on his way to Vermont to make his announcement.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (on camera): Back in 1981, Jeffords was the one and only Republican in the House that voted against Ronald Reagan's tax cut. So he had certainly been at odds with his party before. But even as Jeffords headed to Vermont with his speech in hand, he still harbored second thoughts; the drama surrounding the final hours before Jeffords' decision and the impact after it when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: A distinguished United States Senator chose to leave the Republican Party and become an independent. I respect Senator Jeffords, but I respectfully, but respectfully I couldn't disagree more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL: News organizations were so eager to get an interview with Jeffords in those final hours before his fateful switch, that some actually sent flowers and not just to Jeffords or to his wife. One prominent network news personality actually tried to butter up Jeffords' press secretary by sending flowers to his wife.

But far more remarkable than the transformation in Jim Jeffords was the impact that his decision had on the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (voice over): May 23rd, 7:00 p.m., Reagan National Airport. It's off to Vermont for the big decision, a full blown media frenzy in tow.

L. JEFFORDS: We get to the gate and there's all these people, and I'm thinking boy they're really ticked off. Here we got to take a flight and all you people are crowding, pushing, shoving them, and they started clapping for Jim and I was totally taken back by that. Then Susan said something like yes, well they're going to Boston, what do you expect, you know.

KARL: Apprehensive about what the reaction will be in Vermont, and struck by the harsh reaction of his Republican friends, Jeffords still holds out the possibility of changing his mind, of staying a Republican.

ROSS: I still believe there was a chance getting on that very small plane with an awful lot of press, that maybe he won't.

KARL: May 24th, D-Day, the day Jeffords would single-handedly change the balance of power in Washington.

J. JEFFORDS: When we first came and the first thing I see is this huge crowd and all these TV things that shoot up in the air there.

KARL: Yes, the big satellite trucks are out there waiting for you.

J. JEFFORDS: (INAUDIBLE).

KARL: The vans.

J. JEFFORDS: All the places in the world all there and then I look out the window and the first person I see is Benedict Arnold, and I knew we hadn't done anything to get the crowd out, so I said, oh my God the conservatives are here, and then got that first applause and just the roar. That relieved me of so many tensions I had.

J. JEFFORDS: I have changed my party label, but I have not changed my beliefs.

KARL: The decision was monumental and historic in so many ways. Jeffords' Senate seat had been in Republican hands since Solomon Foot held it in the 1850s,the longest continually held Republican seat in the nation would be in Republican hands no more.

Have you had a chance to set foot back in the Republican Party headquarters since you switched?

J. JEFFORDS: No, I haven't.

KARL: I wouldn't imagine it's number one on your invitation list.

J. JEFFORDS: No, it's not. I don't want to antagonize anyone unnecessarily, and I still a good many of them and still talk to them. They're angry. I can understand that.

KARL: The anger can still be felt in the Vermont State House, where Jeffords had once climbed the Republican ranks.

GEORGE SCHIAVONE, VERMONT STATE HOUSE: We were very disappointed in that. A lot of us felt let down. I mean I've contributed to his campaigns and a lot of us did, and it was just unfortunate, but I think it was there was some opportunism in there and he was upset with the president on a few things, and this was what Senator Lott said, a one-man coup.

KARL: In Washington, the impact was even greater, turning Tom Daschle into the nation's most powerful Democrat, giving him the power to stop the parts of President Bush's agenda he disagrees with.

DASCHLE: I can't think of a time when the shift in power and the balance of power changed so dramatically on the basis of one man's decision. I think historians will talk about this for hundreds of years.

KARL: How much do you think you personally owe Jim Jeffords?

DASCHLE: I owe him a good deal. I joke that I mow his lawn every week just because I feel I owe him at least that, but I owe him a lot more than a lawn mowing. I really believe that he not only made history, he not only made a difference in his own personal career, but he made a huge difference in the direction this country took.

KARL: For Republicans, clearly the wrong direction, as they commemorate the one-year anniversary of the switch with bloodhounds to symbolize the president's agenda, an agenda they say is lost in a democratically-controlled Senate.

LOTT: We do feel that the Daschle Democrats have been obstructionist on the President's agenda, and of course, there is the case of the nominations, particularly judicial nominations. If the majority had not changed hands, there'd be at least 50 more men, women, and minorities now sitting on the federal judicial benches across this country.

KARL: Daschle shrugs off complaints that, unlike any other in history, his party took over the Senate because of the actions of a single man, not because of an election.

J. JEFFORDS: Well, I would say the same thing of the way the White House was acquired by this President. He won by one vote and that was a vote in the U. S. Supreme Court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARL (on camera): Whether it was an act of conscience or a one- man coup, today the Democrats control the Senate for one reason and one reason only and that's because an obscure Senator named Jim Jeffords made a decision. And that's it for LIVE FROM CAPITOL HILL. I'm Jonathan Karl.

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