It’s not her mea culpa about health care reform they’re interested in, it’s the inside story of her marriage that attracts the media and should boost sales of her memoir. For Bill Clinton’s side of the story, we’ll have to wait until the fall of 2004, right before the presidential election–timing that doesn’t thrill the Democrats vying for their share of the spotlight. When it comes to candlepower and charisma, there’s no competing with the Clintons. Their timeline extends to 2008 with a probable Hillary run; the Democrats have the 2004 race to worry about.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are looking for a message and a messenger to challenge George W. Bush. They ought to listen to Jim Jeffords. He makes the case better than they do. The Vermont senator left the Republican Party and became an Independent two years ago. Jeffords’s move–which tipped the Senate’s delicate balance of power–instilled a false sense of optimism among Democrats, who for a heady 17 months controlled the Senate and stalled much of President Bush’s right-wing agenda. Republicans called Jeffords a traitor, spurning him in cruelly personal ways and behaving like a bunch of high-school students settling a score. When the GOP won enough seats last year to reclaim the majority, Republican leaders reveled in calling Jeffords irrelevant–“the ultimate putdown,” says Jeffords’s spokesman.
It’s true that Jeffords’s lone vote doesn’t count much in passing (or stopping) legislation, but outside the Congress, he’s become a fundraising and galvanizing force for the Democrats–which they need, since the Clintons can’t do it all. In a speech at the National Press Club Thursday to mark his second anniversary as a renegade, the soft-spoken, professorial Jeffords said he had no regrets, that events have only heightened his concern about the right-wing tilt of his former party. He issued a stinging indictment of the Bush administration on everything from the inflated claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to tax cuts for the rich and an environmental policy labeled “Clear Skies” that accelerates global warming. “What makes the actions of the Bush administration so troublesome is the lack of honesty,” he concluded. “It amounts, in the end, to a pattern of deception and distortion.”
Any number of loyal Democrats could have delivered this same speech. What gives it more weight is that it comes from the other side, from a former Republican loyalist. These are the particulars:
Bush made false claims about the threat Iraq posed, says Jeffords. The senator backs calls for a congressional investigation to determine whether Bush manipulated intelligence information to build support for the war. Bush assured Congress he had a plan in place to rebuild Iraq, but the growing unrest with the U.S. presence and the ongoing lawlessness make it apparent there was no plan, Jeffords argues. U.S. soldiers continue to be killed in Iraq, and a Pew Research Center survey shows a dramatic rise in distrust and skepticism toward America among people in 20 nations.
Bush talks about compassion and job growth, but that’s all it is, talk, says Jeffords. “In reality he adopts hard right proposals that favor those who need help least and neglect those who need help the most.” The federal government will pay for Bush’s tax cuts with borrowed funds, driving up the deficit at a time when big bills are coming due with the impending retirement of the baby-boom generation. The tax cuts will widen the gap between rich and poor, providing a $90,000 tax cut for millionaires while millions of parents with incomes between $10,500 and $26,625 will see no benefit from the increased child credit. (The Senate did vote yesterday to extend the credit to these lower income families, but the bill still has to be approved by the House.) “This is compassion?” Jeffords asks. “Again, he says one thing and does another.”
Bush’s mantra is “No Child Left Behind,” but his fiscal policies strip government spending for domestic needs and under-fund education to the point where states and localities are laying off teachers, cutting school days and eliminating early childhood programs. “While pretending to have compassion for our children, the approach of No Child Left Behind is heartless,” says Jeffords, who concludes it is “all part of a quiet plan to starve our public schools so this country can move to vouchers and private school choice.” Meanwhile, the Department of Education is planning to spend $500,000 on a public relations campaign to quiet critics, a level of marketing cynicism that Jeffords says he has not seen in his 30 years in Congress.
On the environment, the Bush administration is “long on public relations and short on substance,” says Jeffords, who accuses Bush of undoing one of the signature achievements of his father, the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990. Jeffords says Bush’s “Clear Skies” plan is mislabeled since it weakens or eliminates current regulations. As many as 60,000 premature deaths each year are linked to air pollution, according to an American Cancer Society study and researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.
If there’s a winning political theme in these issues, it’s that Bush doesn’t understand the concerns of average Americans, the very weakness that defeated his father. Bush’s high poll ratings mask his vulnerability just as the first Bush’s high approval after the first gulf war made him seem invulnerable. Bill Clinton found a winning message–“It’s the economy, stupid”–and Bush was history.
The first Bush under-reached; this Bush “hasn’t just over-reached, he has set a new standard for extreme partisan politics,” says Jeffords. The quiet man from Vermont may be irrelevant to the GOP’s vote count on Capitol Hill, but his message comes across loud and clear.
