Who will be the 2017 Jim Jeffords

[malaise]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/08/18/how-jim-jeffords-single-handedly-bent-the-arc-of-politics/?utm_term=.5a4022807f88
<snip>
In the late afternoon of May 22, 2001 an apocalyptic-looking set of thunderstorms rolled across the National Mall, with bolts of lightning striking just outside the Capitol dome. Inside the Senate chamber, an even bigger storm was brewing -- James Jeffords, the venerable patrician Senator from Vermont, had informed Democratic and Republican party leaders that he was likely crossing the aisle.

Two days later Jeffords, who died Monday at age 80, would leave the Republican Party that he served in on Capitol Hill for the previous 26 years, first in the House and then the Senate, and would caucus with Democrats. The move ended an historic five-month run in which the Senate sat deadlocked at 50-50 margin, with Vice President Dick Cheney giving Republicans titular control as the tie-breaking vote. Jeffords was handing Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) the title of majority leader and putting the breaks on the domestic agenda of the Bush White House.

"Lord," Don Nickles (R-Okla.), then the Senate majority whip, shouted as he walked off the floor that Tuesday afternoon, looking out at the crackling skies as if to find a metaphor for the storm inside the Capitol. The next night, in an unplanned coincidence, the entire Senate gathered for a bipartisan huddle for one of the now-extinct "Leader's Lecture" series. (The event was one of Gerald Ford's last big speeches in the Capitol.)

"A few mistake the clash of ideas for a holy war," the former president, vice president and House minority leader told senators, in words that Jeffords would echo the next morning although he wasn't on hand for the Ford speech -- instead en route to Burlington to publicly drop his bombshell.

It was one of those rare singular moments when one lawmaker, with one vote, truly bent the arc of politics in a different direction. It also served to highlight the feud between the still-dominant conservative wing and the increasingly marginalized moderate faction of the Republican Party. "Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me and for me to deal with them," Jeffords said in Burlington.

[rufus dog]

1. Collins will flip

they need more to shut down the Orange Shitstain

[salin]

4. Ya, but her gubenatorial aspirations would likely keep her

in the party.

[Bleacher Creature]

2. I don't think there is another Jeffords.

He was a genuinely good guy, and his moderate (if not liberal) policies seemed to reflect his actual beliefs.

Today's "moderates" all seem like frauds. I truly believe that Collins only votes with us because she has to. Murkowski may be a different story, as she already lost a primary to one of the crazies, but ultimately survived.

[OnDoutside]

3. But Collins isn't up for re-election until 2022, if she doesn't run for Governor ?