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American Morning

Senator Jeffords Leaving Republican Party

Aired May 24, 2001 - 10:05   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Back now to the political upheaval in Washington. And its epicenter today turns out to be Burlington, Vermont.

Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is there now. And that is where Senator James Jeffords announced just within the last hour he is leaving the Republican Party -- Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leaving the Republican Party, says Senator James Jeffords, right after the tax bill goes to the White House. He says he made a commitment to President Bush that he would not interfere in the tax bill, which needs to go to a conference committee now and get the differences worked out. There have to be votes in both Houses, then it goes to the White House. And then James Jeffords will become an independent and more importantly he will caucus with Democrats, which means that he is throwing the power of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats. They will be in charge of the committees. They will be in charge of the agenda on the Senate floor.

Senator Jeffords described himself as a man who has had a weight lifted off his shoulders, but it now, he says, hangs on his heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES JEFFORDS, VERMONT: I have changed my party label but I have not changed my beliefs. Indeed, my decision is about affirming the principles that have shaped my career. I hope that the people of Vermont will understand it. I hope in time that my colleagues will, as well. I am confident that it is the right decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Jeffords, a lifelong Republican from Vermont, says he recognizes that this decision will cause upheaval by his staff, that it causes upheaval for many of his long time Republican colleagues who dreamed of being committee chairmen and now will have that taken away from them because of Senator Jeffords decision. \

So why make this decision that has caused so much discomfort to others? Basically, Jeffords says that he has become increasingly uncomfortable being the person that is always voting against his president. He said he looked down the pike, that he saw energy issues coming up, education issues coming up, any number of things in which he was going to disagree with President Bush, a member of his own party. He said he has found it increasingly a struggle to deal with the Republicans and they with him and that he will feel better and feel that he can better serve Vermont as an independent -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Candy, so Senator Jeffords says he is following his heart, but what kind of daily reality does he face as he returns to the Senate?

CROWLEY: Well, I suspect some people are not going to be very happy with him for a while. But look, you know, practically speaking, Senator Jeffords certainly has changed the Democrats' ability to get their agenda out. They're now in charge of what goes on on the Senate floor, what gets out of committee. That's major.

But in terms of sheer votes, Senator Jeffords has always voted the way he's going to vote and will after this. The Senate is still very close, 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent. And so what we have seen over the past 100 plus days is that Republicans, when they have something, will look to the Democratic side to pluck people out of the Democratic side to get their bills passed and vice versa.

Senator Jeffords even mentioned that while Tom Daschle, now the Democratic minority leader, is quite happy about his decision, he said he may rue that some day because Jeffords has, in fact, voted on the Republican side. So on the practical matter of life in the Senate, he's still going to vote the way he did. There's going to be some people that will greet him when he returns to Washington this evening as a returning hero. I suspect most of those will be Democrats. And others are not very happy and those will be Republicans.

This, too, shall pass. He gets back to Senate business and puts the Democrats in charge.

KAGAN: The Democrats in charge, his lunch partners might change in the days ahead. Candy Crowley in Burlington, Vermont, thank you so much.

We've been talking about a number of changes that will happen at the U.S. Senate. This includes the Judiciary Committee, which will have a new head. Looking at the change at the Judiciary, we have our Charles Bierbauer, who covers the courts so well for us -- Charles, good morning.

CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, this is a very good committee to look at because it's one that's going to be critical in terms of appointments to the courts and possibly even the Supreme Court. About a month ago when Ted Olson, the nominee to be the solicitor general, appeared before the Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch, the Republican from Utah who chairs the committee now, forgot to have the testimony, the witnesses sworn in. Getting a little flustered, he said oh, I've forgotten the procedure. To which Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democrat from Vermont who's likely to take over that committee, said it's good you have someone around here who knows the procedures. So sometimes there are some pretty sharp rivalries in these committees. When the Democrats take over, as they will, they will also be working to have majorities in those committees and here's the kind of circumstance that that suggests. The Olson nomination to be the nation's legal advocate, the solicitor general, the man who brings cases before the Supreme Court, came out of that committee at a 9-9 tie, nine Republicans, nine Democrats. Under the old rules, or at least the ones existing now, that would get that nomination to a floor vote. Under the rules we as would go back to them, the rules that have existed for all time up until we had this anomalous situation of 50-50, a vote against a nominee in committee would preclude bringing that to the floor. So the Ted Olson nomination would not go forward.

You can imagine what this means for other judicial nominees of all those many vacancies on the courts. It means that President Bush is probably going to have to find people who are more towards the middle rather than towards either side or towards the conservative side, in his case, to get those nominees through and gracious, what would it mean if we have a Supreme Court nominee? He's got to find someone, at least someone acceptable to the Democrats. That's the impact of this kind of change on just one committee -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Charles Bierbauer in Washington, Charles, thank you.

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