Push Jeffords far enough and ina nanosecond, he can offer to switch parties if the Minority Leader will let him keep his chairmanship.

It is easy to imagine the Democrats winning the House, and it"s plausible to imagine Democrats winning the Senate. But it is not easy to imagine them winning substantial majorities in either chamber.

Jeffords believes he will obtain a large net gain from his party switch, and he may well be right.

Democrats are delighted with what Mr. Jeffords hath wrought, however it conceivably robs them of their best issue for the 2002 congressional elections.

With Democrats likely to gain seats in the fall, are we likely to see more party switchers? Probably not.

Senate committee is moving ahead to bring back the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, an agreement that would require expensive reductions in greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide.

When campaign finance reform is debated in the Senate this week, the question of whether McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional will be key.

Is there a compromise on campaign finance reform that could achieve broader support and satisfy the bottom line of reformers to improve the broken system?