Speaking to reporters late yesterday, Jeffords spoke enigmatically: "I can't wait to get home to see my wife and son and daughter-in-law, who haven't heard it yet." He did not elaborate.
His spokesman, Erik Smulson, said that as of yesterday evening, "nothing has changed." But a Vermont political worker with connections to Jeffords said on condition of anonymity that a party switch was "a real possibility."
White House aides, citing the sensitivity of the issue, declined to comment.
With the Senate split evenly between the two parties, leaders on both sides - chief among them both Bush and Vice President Cheney - aggressively wooed Jeffords yesterday.
Jeffords met Bush privately in the Oval Office for 25 minutes, huddled with Cheney at the Capitol, and also met with Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi.
Lott said Jeffords had not told of him of any intention to defect. He said he had talked to Jeffords "several times" yesterday.
Jeffords, 67, who served in the House from 1975 through 1988 and has been in the Senate since 1989, "has usually voted more often with Democrats than any other Republican senator," according to the Almanac of American Politics.
If he does switch parties, it would force a political realignment across Washington. Democrats would regain control of the Senate after being in the minority since 1995. Bush, who entered the presidency as the first Republican to govern with a GOP majority since Dwight Eisenhower, would suffer a tremendous reversal.
Republicans have held on to majority status in the evenly split Senate because Cheney can cast tie-breaking votes. That slender majority allows Republicans to control the process, though Democrats have great influence under a power-sharing agreement reached earlier this year.
