Does this guy have any principles?
On a related note, the Compact was put through by the GOP as a favor to Jeffords who then defected from the GOP. The GOP tried to kill it in 2001/2002 but failed when Northeast RINOs wouldn't go for it.

In my view, this is actually not entirely unreasonably of him. But it sure would be nice if Senators of the United States acted as, you know, Senators of the United States.

Or at least representatives of their state governments...

What swing states (and how many electoral votes) are involved in this statement? Just asking...

Gee, isn't Kerry worried about driving Jim Jeffords back to the Republican Party?

From the WSJ June 20, 2001:

Senator Jeffords’s pet project, the Northeast Dairy Compact, was created in 1996 to "stabalize" the dairy industry by dictating a minimum price farmers are paid for their milk. Its negative effects on consumers led the full senate to refuse to reauthorize it in 1999. It was saved only when Mr. Jeffords convinced the Majority Leader Trent Lott that his re-election hung on preserving the compact. It was slipped into the final budget with the stipulation that it would expire in September of this year...

Government manipulation of milk prices began in 1937, when New Dealers set out to create a dairy industry in every state by establishing minimum prices. But since then technology has brought us refrigerated railroad cars and interstate highways that make it possible for cheaper Midwestern milk to be transported everywhere. Nonetheless, federal dairy subsidies are still determined by an arcane formula under which the subsidy increases in relation to how far the producer is from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Why Eau Claire? It was the hub of the dairy industry – in 1937.

http://www.fmpc.uconn.edu/compact/wsj.ht

The political calculus is obvious. Kerry thinks that the New England states will vote for him no matter what, so he can take them for granted, and can pitch his campaign to the gaining of votes elsewhere.

Steve - Yes, but why present himself as captive to special interests? Why not say, "I was wrong"?

Indeed, following in the footsteps of Michael Dukakis's excellent 1988 strategy.

(Though Dukakis, to be fair, did take Rhode Island.)

It isn't that risky for Kerry. There are how many dairy farmers in the northeast and there are how many dairy consumers? (Taking into account, of course, that cows can't vote. At least not until PETA gets its way). ;)