Jumpin' Jim Jeffords to Retire

David Sirota beat me on news in my home state: in fact, I still haven't seen it elsewhere since his post. I'm also unhappy to hear that Jeffords will retire.

David, however, sees a silver lining that did not occur to me when I first began mourning the headline. Specifically:

With the announcement this morning that U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT) is retiring, a hugely-important open seat Senate race will now take place in Vermont in 2006. Though I worked for Vermont Rep. Bernie Sanders a few years ago, and though he's indicated in the past he would be interested in running for the seat, he has yet to announce. That said, he is clearly the best positioned to keep this seat in the hands of the Democrats - and that means people should go to www.bernie.org and urge him to run:

POLL: SANDERS THE MOST POPULAR POLITICIAN IN VERMONT: On May 5, 2004, WCAX Vermont reported "58-percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of Sanders, making him the most popular politician in the state." [Source: WCAX TV, 5/5/04]

IN 2004, SANDERS RECEIVED MORE THAN 200,000 VOTES: In the 2004 election, Sanders trounced his Republican opponent with 68 percent of the vote – or 201,000 votes. That was the most of any politician running in Vermont, including Gov. Jim Douglas. [Source: CBS News election results]

There's a lot more. I encourage you to read it just for your own information. Vermont, tiny as it is, does make a difference in the national arena, and I actually think that we're fairly well represented here, Jeffords (yes, even when he was GOP) included. (I know: how often do you get to say that you feel you've got reasonably decent politicians? In Vermont, we have been blessed with that although it's not divine intervention but careful voting.)

But as much as I think Sanders would be a first-rate Senator and would probably prefer his method of voting to Jeffords, there is a) still a loss involved with Jeffords' retirement b) Vermont has a single US House Rep held for some time by Bernie Sanders who is neither Dem nor Rep c) I think b has helped us just as Jeffords going from GOP to Independent helped us and d) I don't want to see the House Rep's seat fall to the usual suspects in the Dems or Reps (Vermont, if my research is correct, is more I than D or R).

Personally, I'm going to need to absorb this news. I'm definitely not thrilled (although I can understand the reluctance considering the level of nastiness tossed at Jim since his May 2001 switch and already announced by the Vermont GOP as it sought outside money - like Tom DeLay money - to hurt Jim). Each state should largely be free of another state's pressure and politics and for the GOP to go outside Vermont looking for big money donations made me sick. And yes, I would have had the same reaction if Dems went outside the state to seek money.

[Ed. note: BTW, if you're not a regular Sirota reader, you may want to reconsider. David often presents a very reasonable, intelligent analysis of politics. Since I keep my blogging separate from my journalism (I haven't written about politics as a journalist for some time), what you get from someone like me is more "shot from the hip" analysis and links so you can get informed and decide for yourself. David and people like Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo offer a big step above that. If you don't have time to read his blog regularly, consider his E-mail alert.]