Re: Jeffords flip

[Richard Chonak <rac@gabriel.cambridge.ma.us>]

Joe P wrote:

> From: "David Tomm" <Nostatic@earthlink.net>
> 
> > To this point I've heard no one talk about why Jeffords made the decision
> > he did and what involvement the Republican Party leadership may have had
> > in his decision to leave the party.
> 
> All of the responses are typical and predicatable.
> [...]
> Whats there to discuss?


I'm not Garrett (NDIPHOTV) but:

The Senator's reasons for changing his party affiliation probably don't
have much to do with radio, so they're probably, ahem, off-topic here.

I would like, though, to compare the *coverage* of Jeffords' switch to
that of Sen. Bob Smith who left the GOP for a while in 2000; unlike the
Vermont senator, he didn't seem to be getting gauzy profiles about his
"courage" and "conscience", and about those "independent-minded" New
Hampshireites.   Sen. Jeffords is awash in such praises.

In the case of some reporters, calling a politician "independent-minded"
is merely a sweet flattery applied to those who agree with the speaker.

--RC