For Want of A Nail...
August 17, 2002
By Smokey Sojac

Just think, if Senator James Jeffords of Vermont hadn't followed his conscience and left the Republican party:

- The Senate would not be under Democratic control;

- Price caps would not have been instituted in California by the FERC;

- The state would still be undergoing rolling blackouts costing it billions;

- Energy companies that had donated to the GOP would still be price-gouging and making phony paper trades;

- Those energy companies would now be sharing $35 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies as part of Dick Cheney�s bogus "energy policy";

- Those subsidies would have kept the Enron swindle from coming to light yet;

- Enron and companies like it would still be moving billions off-shore in secret partnerships;

- Ken Lay would still be meeting behind closed doors at the White House, dictating policy and appointing regulators;

- Arthur Andersen's phony accounting practices would still be shrouded in secrecy;

- Executives and companies that had given the GOP big bucks would still be reporting profits that didn't exist;

- Global Crossing would still have the crooked contract it got from the Bush White House in July, 2001;

- The investing public would continue to be swindled;

- Those swindlers would now have Social Security money to play with;

- The GOP Congress would be reducing the amount of damages due asbestos victims as part of "tort reform," getting Dick Cheney off the hook for his Dresser swindle;

- And we would still be hearing from the GOP lie machine that the problem with the country was too much regulation of business.