Why’d he do it? “Sen. Jim Jeffords has had problems with his party for a long time, but President Bush appears to have pushed him over the edge.” The April 23rd snub by wrathful Li’l George was the last straw. Also: Will Trent Lott pay for losing the Senate?

“Angry GOP moderates say the White House and party right-wingers drove Jim Jeffords out of his own party… Over the last generation, zealous conservatives have systematically purged their

party of dissidents — representatives of a moderate strain of reform Republicanism running from Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Rockefeller.” [If playing the margin is where the action is in the Senate, will we see Democratic defectors too?] Salon