The Meaning of Switcher Jim

IT’S the South Carolina primary and the John Ashcroft nomination rolled into one—with a dash of arsenic thrown in. It’s an occasion for all the independent minds—namely, the media, Democrats, and GOP moderates—to make every argument possible for one grand proposition: that the Bush operation, and the Republican party generally, are just too right-wing. It’s an occasion for Rick Berke of the New York Times to talk to all these independent minds and tile a report: Dateline Wash ington—Everyone agrees, the Bush Republicans are just too right-wing. It’s an event that will live on for months, if not years, as support for every hostile cliché about the GOP—it’s the apotheosis of Jim Jeffords, patron saint of bipartisan toleration.

It used to be that it took a Willie Horton ad or an attack on Murphy Brown to get a Republican labeled as “intolerant” or “divisive.” Now, it’s just a matter of leaning on senators to try to pass a tax cut. It used to be that Republican “moderates” supposedly recoiled from conservative orthodoxy on abortion, but were fiscal conservatives. Now, it’s fiscal conservatism itself that is driving them out of the party. The Jeffords jump, in short, provided an opportunity for media liberals and GOP moderates to nudge conservatism a bit further into disrespectability, and to try to knock Bush off his governing agenda. So, in the days after the switch, Bush’s critics unloaded, selectively deploying the swear words of the Establishment, and a collection of arguments that are unfair, or contradictory, or both.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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IT’S the South Carolina primary and the John Ashcroft nomination rolled into one—with a dash of arsenic thrown in. It’s an occasion for all the independent minds—namely, the media, Democrats, and GOP moderates—to make every argument possible for one grand proposition: that the Bush operation, and the Republican party generally, are just too right-wing. It’s an occasion for Rick Berke of the New York Times to talk to all these independent minds and tile a report: Dateline Wash ington—Everyone agrees, the Bush Republicans are just too right-wing. It’s an event that will live on for months, if not years, as support for every hostile cliché about the GOP—it’s the apotheosis of Jim Jeffords, patron saint of bipartisan toleration.

It used to be that it took a Willie Horton ad or an attack on Murphy Brown to get a Republican labeled as “intolerant” or “divisive.” Now, it’s just a matter of leaning on senators to try to pass a tax cut. It used to be that Republican “moderates” supposedly recoiled from conservative orthodoxy on abortion, but were fiscal conservatives. Now, it’s fiscal conservatism itself that is driving them out of the party. The Jeffords jump, in short, provided an opportunity for media liberals and GOP moderates to nudge conservatism a bit further into disrespectability, and to try to knock Bush off his governing agenda. So, in the days after the switch, Bush’s critics unloaded, selectively deploying the swear words of the Establishment, and a collection of arguments that are unfair, or contradictory, or both.