Blaming Conservatives For A Liberal Coup

Blaming Conservatives For A Liberal Coup

Previewing todays defection by Vermonts Jim Jeffords, ABCs Linda Douglass told viewers on last nights evening news that conservatives were to blame for making the liberal Senator feel uncomfortable. "Jeffords frustration with his increasingly conservative party has been building for a long time," Douglass blurted on Wednesdays World News Tonight.

Douglass liberal spin was echoed a couple of hours later by Newsweeks Jonathan Alter on MSNBCs The News with Brian Williams: "I was thinking of Ronald Reagan, of all people, when I heard the news. He, when asked why he changed parties, he said, I didnt leave the Democratic Party back in the 50s, The Democratic Party left me. And I think thats the way Jim Jeffords feels about the Republicans, that there was a place in the past for moderate Republicans from the Northeast, and he has been that all along."

Reagan, however, didnt steal the keys to the Senate off LBJs desk and flip them to then-Republican leader Everett Dirksen on the way out the door, but thats basically what Jeffords did. Jeffords wasnt just trying to scrub the (R) from his newspaper designation; his real move was to install Tom Daschle as Majority Leader and put liberal Democrats like Ted Kennedy in charge of key Senate committees.

But to the networks, Jeffords Senate coup is not whats controversial; its simply proof that conservatism is a turn-off. "The Senate leadership is very conservative, very southern," former Clinton spinner George Stephanopoulos admonished on Thursdays Good Morning America. "Thats not the Republican Party that Jim Jeffords, a northeasterner from Vermont, is part of."

Stephanopoulos also criticized the Bush White House for putting pettiness before policy: "The White House didnt, they insulted Jeffords over the last few weeks. They didnt give him the special education money hes been fighting for for years. We heard yesterday that they didnt invite him to a Teacher of the Year ceremony that honored a teacher from Vermont." But Stephanopoulos did not express concern that Jeffords decision to disrupt the U.S. Senate over such slights was, perhaps, immature.

"Who gets the blame?" NBCs Matt Lauer asked Meet the Press host Tim Russert on this mornings Today. "I think the White House and I think the Republican leadership in the Senate," shot back Russert, absolving Jeffords. "It starts at the very top."

Despite Jeffords record as the most liberal Republican in the Senate (see box), journal-ists insisted he is merely a "moderate" or a "maverick" conservatives are the ones who are out of step. "He is a maverick, an independent," insisted ABCs Douglass on Wednesdays Nightline. "This was really about having his own moderate views heard."

"Some conservative Republicans treat Jeffords as a pariah because he and other moderates buck the party," NBCs Lisa Myers similarly declared on Wednesdays Today. "What are you telling me, that there is no such thing as a moderate wing of the Republican Party?" CBSs Bryant Gumbel wondered to Indianas Democratic Senator Evan Bayh on Thursdays Early Show.

To be sure, President Bush and Senate Republicans have not gone out of their way to praise Jeffords for watering down the tax cut, but the party that Jeffords can no longer stand is not more conservative today than it was when he sought its nomination last September. But Jeffords decision to put liberal Democrats in charge of the Senate has given the media another excuse to bash conservatives. - Rich Noyes