Trash/ campaign to unseat Jeffords

In its campaign to unseat Sen. James Jeffords next year, the state Republican Party is gambling it can practice the scurrilous politics of the national party without turning off too many Vermont Republicans. The party may succeed in raising big bucks from outside the state, but most Vermont Republicans are likely to be repelled by its tactics. Vermont Republicans have two faces. One is the party's chairman, Jim Barnett, who employs the scorched-earth rhetoric favored by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The other is Gov. James Douglas, the mild-mannered moderate who calls Jeffords a friend.

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Barnett decries Jeffords' decision to quit the Republican Party in 2001, saying Jeffords had single-handedly turned over control of the Senate to Tom Daschle and the Democrats. Then Barnett says this: "As a 'thank you,' the Hollywood Left and liberals from all over the country have poured thirty pieces of silver, I mean $4.5 million, into Turncoat Jeffords' campaign war chest."

Thirty pieces of silver? The phrase speaks of the most famous betrayal in history, one that is especially present in people's minds during Holy Week. The phrase is dropped into the sentence as if it were a slip of the tongue, a mistake, a joke. Jeffords has been called Benedict Arnold. He is used to that. But at a time when the Republican leadership is fomenting religious hysteria by exploiting the tragedy of Terri Schiavo's life and death, it is taking the matter to another level to equate Jeffords, even in so jocular a fashion, with Judas. In some quarters "Hollywood Left" is also a code word for Jews. Barnett is playing with the most vicious form of innuendo.

Barnett goes on to say: "My fellow Vermont Republicans and I are still outraged by Jim Jeffords' treachery." One prominent Republican, Sen. Diane Snelling, called Barnett's letter "trash." Politics is politics, and the parties will do what they need to do to raise money. Jeffords' staff is seeking to make hay of Barnett's letter. But it is worth remembering that Republicans survive politically in Vermont, not by practicing the politics of innuendo and attack. They survive through the ordinary decency and the moderate, reasonable politics practiced by Douglas. Barnett may win points with Tom DeLay and his ilk by sinking into the gutter. He may turn on the spigots of big-money Republicans. But he is not going to defeat Jim Jeffords. He probably knows he can't. But just as the Republicans will use Terri Schiavo as a catalyst for raising money, so they will use Jeffords' defection. It's all about the silver.

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http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050325/NEWS/503250328/1038/OPINION01

That is a pretty good combination right there.

It was in DC just before he became chair. It was unannounced, but a lot of media were there. It infuriated the GOP.

When he dumped the (R), I felt he needed to be rewarded. ]