Keeping the options open...

Regarding this earlier post- does it have to be a democrat or is Independent Jumping Jim Jeffords a possible choice?

UPDATE: After reading yesterday's Byron York piece, I have no qualms about selecting Jeffords:

[Howard] Dean had barely begun to speak when he introduced a guest for the evening, his fellow Vermonter, Sen. Jim Jeffords. When Jeffords walked onstage, the crowd began yelling, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" apparently in gratitude for Jeffords's 2001 defection from the Republican party that gave Democrats control of the Senate for 18 months.

"I made a switch a while back," Jeffords said, to more cheers. He switched, he said, in part because he was hoping that a Democrat like Howard Dean would win the White House in 2004. "Well, that didn't happen," Jeffords added. "But you know what? It's going to happen next time!"

Was there ever a time when Jeffords thought his "Independent" affiliation was at all convincing?