Jumpin' Jim Jeffords jabs George junior:

Get Donkey! brings to our attention a June 5 speech by Jim Jeffords of Vermont: (excerpts, emphasis added)

• The events of the past two years have only heightened my concern over the President's veer to the right, and the poisoning of our democratic process of government.
  
  
• The promises of candidate Bush, who pledged to bring a new tone to Washington and packaged himself as a compassionate conservative, are unmet. On issue after issue the Bush Administration is not what it claims to be.
  
  
• Pundits asked after last November's election: will the President over-reach with his Republican majorities in the House and Senate? Well, President Bush hasn't just over-reached, he has set a new standard for extreme partisan politics that on many occasions has been supported by the Republican-controlled Congress. In place of thoughtful policy we now have superficial and cynical sound-bites. Instead of confronting pressing national problems, our President lands airplanes while Rome burns.
  
  
• While our troops search for W-M-D's in Iraq--we have found our own W-M-D's right here in Washington - at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They are President Bush's weapons of mass distortion, or better distraction. The Bush Administration says one thing and does another to take the focus off the present realities.
  
  
• As he prepared to invade Iraq and win the support of other nations, the President promised the world that the US had a plan in place to rebuild that nation. But it quickly became apparent that there was no plan.
  
  
• His polls and famous advisors tell him to talk about compassion and job growth, and how he is helping Main Street. But that is all it is, talk. In reality he adopts hard right proposals that favor those who need help least and neglect those who need help the most.
  
  
• The Bush tax cut will threaten the country's long-term well-being by starving the federal government of revenue for essential services, such as homeland security, transportation infrastructure, education and health care. Our States are bearing the brunt of our dismal economic conditions, and these cuts will brutalize them.
  
  
• While pretending to have compassion for our schoolchildren, the approach of No Child Left Behind is heartless.
  
  
• The Bush Administration continues to protect special interests and ignore public support for strong environmental protections and conservation measures.
  
  
• What makes the actions of the Bush Administration so troublesome is the lack of honesty. It amounts, in the end, to a pattern of deception and distortion; ultimately that does not respect the wisdom of the American people.

Phew!

For what it's worth, here you have a moderate former Republican saying that Bush is a liar, a policy disaster, extremely partisan, and not a bit compassionate. No wonder the right-wing radio loves him. But what about the rest of the country?

posted by Quiddity at 6/17/2003 10:51:00 PM