WP: Tight Race in S.D. Constrains Daschle (ditto, other Dems)

[DeepModem Mom]

Tight Race in S.D. Constrains Daschle

By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 26, 2004; Page A05


....Concerned about (Tom) Daschle and other Democrats in close races in conservative-leaning states, Senate Democrats have indicated they are unlikely to employ the kind of confrontational tactics -- especially on issues such as homeland security and taxes -- that contributed to election losses two years ago....

***

Daschle and other Democrats averted a potentially bruising pre-election fight over taxes by agreeing to a five-year extension of three tax cuts aimed at the middle class, even though many Democrats winced at some of the provisions, including more business tax breaks and omission of expanded tax refunds for poor families....

***

A potentially more dangerous issue for Democrats arises with legislation to revamp intelligence and anti-terrorism operations, propelled by recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission.

The Senate, which will consider its version of the legislation next week, has gone out of its way to produce a bipartisan bill. But the House bill is being drafted only by Republicans, who have included controversial provisions expanding the powers of law enforcement agencies and making it easier to deport immigrants who have run afoul of the law. On this and other points, the bills are different enough to ensure difficult House-Senate negotiations on a final version....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50537-2004Sep25.html

[Flubadubya]

1. Roll over Dasch-thoven...

Roll over Dasch-thoven,
Roll over Dasch-thoven,
And dig these ram-rodded bills! :spank:

[2Design]

2. dascle is so repub lite ......I would think they would vote for him as

a moderate republican vs a ideology person

[Owlet]

3. What;s so difficult?

"But the House bill is being drafted only by Republicans, who have included controversial provisions expanding the powers of law enforcement agencies and making it easier to deport immigrants who have run afoul of the law. On this and other points, the bills are different enough to ensure difficult House-Senate negotiations on a final version...."

Just roll over, give 'em what they want and hope they'll be nicer the next time. Sheesh. The basic problem is that the Republicans saw their role as a minority party (1960-94 more or less) as one of opposition. The Dems see their role as avoiding confrontation. Isn't that a definition of appeasement?

With any luck Daschle will lose this race and the Democrats will be forced by events to pick another Leader. The problem there is that the bench is pretty thin. There was a thread awhile back on just this issue and posters basically came up empty. Pretty discouraging.

[hedda_foil]

11. The house bill incorporates most of Patriot II.

And no doubt it will be incorporated into the Conference version of the bill, whatever the Senate passes. The deep shit we are in has reached flood stage and is about to cover the country from coast to coast.

[jamesinca]

4. Daschle may not be my favorite but,

We need the letter (D) in the Senate to gain some control of the different committees and joint resolutions. We do not have the luxury of a Senate seat being lost to election or retirement. Regardless of ones opinion of Daschle we need his (D) in the Senate. Even the (D) after Zell Millers name helped in the committee hunt. Millers votes did not help any, but he at least gave us the letter (d). We need to pick up the IL seat that Obama seems to have clinched we need the seat of Night Horse Campbell out of CO. We need to hold onto the seat of Graham in FL, we need to hold onto the (D) of Gephardt. We get a 70-30 split in the Senate or take the House or have the Presidency and then we will have the luxury of a lost seat, until then we need every single letter (D) out there.

On edit: We need Howard Dean in there, he is our Tom DeLay with a conscience. I do believe that Dean would truly "hammer" and keep people in line.

[DemFromMem]

5. New poll shows Daschle up by 5%

Saw on the Capitol Gang yesterday the editor of the big paper in the state. Daschle is up 50 to 45 with virtually no undecideds left. There were several questions on the Bush-Daschle voters (!). Apparently, 20% of Republicans will vote for Daschle largely because they believe that his leadership role helps to deliver the goods to South Dakota.

[leesa]

6. The REASON Dems lost in 2002 (besides voter fraud) was BECAUSE

they didn't use confrontational tactics. Daschle works for the GOP, no doubt in my mind. He needs to be gotten rid of.

[AndyTiedye]

7. The Reason Dems Lost in 2002 (Besides Voter Fraud) Was...

MURDER.

The Rethugs' margin for control in the Senate is
2 very suspicious airplane crashes, and at least one stolen election!

Daschle himself became a lot more cooperative after getting anthrax
in the mail (another act of terrorism that the regime has been oddly
reluctant to investigate properly).

Without that we'd be treated to Senator Paul Wellstone ripping Boosh
a new one every week, and Senator Mel Carnahan and Senator Max Cleland
doing what they do best. We would still control the Senate, and things
would be very different today.
:grr::grr::grr:

[mitchtv]

8. New Rule:

No leadership posts to senators from red states

[StevieM]

12. The so-called Wellstone funeral/political rally was also harmful

eom

[dflprincess]

13. It wasn't the funeral

Paul and Sheila's funeral was private and was held on Monday. I believe you are referring to the public memorial on Tuesday.

[bigpathpaul]

9. The Face of Fear: John Thune - Desperate attacks on Daschle

While I've been trying hard to take a positive pro-Kerry approach in my ads and flyers, I felt that the recent attacks by the Republicans essentially tying a Kerry victory to Al Queda attacks and the outrageous claim that Kerry's stance on Iraq "emboldens the enemy" cannot go unanswered. MSNBC and the New York Times have both highlighted these attacks in featured articles.

Here is my message (see http://bigpath.net/politics/Politics_of_Fear/PoliticsFearStart.html):

As the race for the White House and Congress tightens, the Republicans have reached a new low, subverting political debate and chipping away at every American’s right to free speech, fearful that they may indeed lose their tight grip on power.

Not only are the Republicans' statements false, they are a perversion of political discourse. Americans have fought and died defending the right of every citizen to speak freely. And that is the ultimate hypocrisy of the Republican comments concerning Iraq and the war on terror.

John Kerry and John Edwards offer courage, compassion and credibility. And they need a Democratic Congress to help them restore decency and honesty to our government.

We cannot afford four more years deception, censorship and fear. On November 2, the Choice is Clear.



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[Democat]

10. The premise of this article is bullshit! Dems didn't confront Bush in 2002

The Washington post, or whoever they source in this article, is full of shit.

The reason Democrats lost so badly in 2002 was because Daschle was such a wimp back then and he decided to kiss Bush's ass instead of fight him.

Look at how much better Kerry is doing since he started fighting Bush instead of being "nice".

Daschle is pathetic as Senate Dem leader. He needs to leave that position whether he wins or loses this election.