Max, you think that it took balls for Jim Jeffords to become "independant"?
Examine his voting record. He was about as "Republican" as I am an atheist.
Edit: This comes from the ADA, which monitors the votes of Congress and how they match up with the platform of the Democratic Party
http://www.adaction.org/SenateVR2002.htm
http://www.adaction.org/Senate2001fullVR.pdf
http://adaction.org/senatevr2000.html
http://www.adaction.org/1999vt.html
http://adaction.org/1998SenateOregon.html
Jeffords lowest ADA voting total in the years posted above was in 2001. The number was 35%. If you examine the key issues that were used as the guidelines for the ADA ranking, you would see that Jeffords voted on the Republican side on non-important issues but he voted almost lock-step with Democrats when it pertained to their key issues.
I guess if Lincoln Chaffe became an "Independent", you would be shocked too.
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