Former Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords passed away Monday at the age of 80. President Obama eulogized Jeffords, whose departure from the GOP briefly handed control of the Senate to the Democrats. "Whatever the issue - whether it was protecting the environment, supporting Americans with disabilities, or whether to authorize the war in Iraq - Jim voted his principles," the President recalled, "Even if it sometimes meant taking a lonely or unpopular stance." Or a stance for which President George W. Bush effectively banished him from the Republican Party.
In November 2000, the 26 year Congressional veteran was reelected with 65 percent of the vote in the Democratic stronghold of Vermont. But in early 2001, Jeffords signaled his opposition to President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, which as predicted produced (and is still producing) red ink as far as the eye can see. And for that, the payback from the Bush White House was swift and severe. As I noted back in 2004:

An early indication of the vindictiveness of this administration came with the saga of Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords' defection from the GOP in 2001. This is a tale of double-retribution. First, Jeffords refused to back the Bush tax cut plan in 2001. As The New Republic reported in June 2001, the White House responded by gutting special education programs supported by Jeffords and by threatening the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact critical to the Vermont milk industry. To add insult to injury, the Bush team took the unprecedented step of not inviting Jeffords to a White House event honoring a teacher from Vermont. They even denied Jeffords' office White House tour passes for his constituents. His departure from the GOP seemed understandable then and now; his one-time colleagues of course are making his tenure as an independent a lonely one.

Lonely, indeed. Along with John Ashcroft (R-MO), Larry Craig (R-ID) and Trent Lott (R-MS), Jim Jeffords for years had been one of the "Singing Senators." But after President Bush essentially forced Jeffords to leave the GOP, his colleagues gave him the heave ho as well.
Of course, it wasn't just Jim Jeffords who became a victim of President Bush's politics of payback. General Erik Shinseki, counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Medicare Actuary Richard Foster, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and Ambassador Joe Wilson are just some of the public servants who paid the price for crossing Dubya. As Ryan Lizza summed up the sad affair in 2001, "Although the conservative press has lambasted Jeffords, most Republican pols have blamed the Bush administration instead." Apparently, Jim Jeffords looked into George W. Bush's soul, and knew he was not a man with whom he could work.