Have YOU ever seen THIS Tom Daschle?

[UdoKier]

"He fights the Republicans like hell in Washington, but comes back here with another story," he added.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040927/pl_nm/campaign_southdakota_dc&cid=615&ncid=2043

Huh?

Isn't this the same Tom Daschle who practically prefaces every speech with remarks about how George Bush is the finest leader our country has ever had?

Is all media but Fox News and Newsmax banned in S. Dakota? Because I've NEVER heard of this Tom Daschle...

[Placebo]

1. Tom Daschle is a pussy...

this is true, but eh, what are ya gonna do, it's still going to look badly if our leader in the senate is defeated, if he wins, he better not return to be minority leader AGAIN

[K-W]

2. Tom Daschle fights in back rooms

for legislative compromises and the republicans hate him for it. In public he aims to look bipartisan and often that means saying nice things about aweful people.

[UdoKier]

4. If you say so, but where does this image as some ultra-partisan come from?

He's one of the most moderate, if not most conservative dems in the Senate.

I just don't get it. This kind of stuff makes me really doubt DINO types who insist we should keep sliding to the right. Daschle does it constantly and look what it gets him.

Obstructionist? My ass.

[Cocoa]

7. Daschle gets death threats from right-wingers

Limbaugh spews a lot of hate at him.

[K-W]

10. which says to me, that he must be doing something right. EOM

[K-W]

9. Partisan and ideologically left are not the same thing at all.

Daschle is an obstructionist, that is exactly what he is, and that is why the republicans hate him.

The republicans control both houses of congress and the presidency. They have almost total control over the government. Tom Daschle acts as a speed bump. He puts obstacles in thier way and forces them to tone down bills, drop provisions, and compromise on some issues because the democrats have enough people in the senate to make things difficult for the repubs.

Whether Daschle would be willing, if he had more power, to use it to champion strong liberal issues, is basically irrelevent to his position right now. His job, and he does it well by all accounts, is to effect legislation in the senate. If you dont look carefully it is easy to miss this, because the output of the government is so conservative, but with republicans in power that cant be avoided.

Is daschle too conservative to have a position of note in the party, perhaps. Is daschle too reliant on flawed public opinion models for his politics, yes. Is daschle too focused on the nuts and bolts of legislation so that he ignores the bigger picture, possibly.

He is a partisan in that he fights for the democrats and against the republicans. The republicans are very aware of this, if he was truely the lap dog that he is portrayed as here, would they even run anyone against him?

I know it is horribly frustrating to us to he has settled for being a speed bump in a republican government, but the fact of the matter is, if he deosnt, who will? We need people fighting the republicans in the national scene. But we also need people who know how to do the nuts and bolts stuff in the senate.

[Cocoa]

3. Ted Kennedy has

let's remember who the enemy is...

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/12/con03390.html

<snip>

In November, when Republicans staged their 39-hour temper tantrum over four failed judicial nominees, Daschle organized a successful counter-offensive. While Republicans whined about four people who already have good jobs, Democrats re-directed the debate to the issues that really matter: the 9 million Americans who are out of work and the 41 million Americans without health insurance, the booming out-of-control budget deficits, and the disastrous economic, foreign and environmental policies of the Bush White House and its allies.

This year, with Tom Daschle at the helm, Democrats secured not one, but two extensions of federal emergency unemployment benefits for laid-off workers. We cut in half the Bush tax cut for wealthy investors. We rejected the Administration's planned deep cuts in veterans health care. We protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.

Daschle has already introduced bills to repeal the worst aspects of the Republican prescription drug bill. When Congress returns in late January, Republicans will try to muscle through an obscene omnibus appropriations bill that they wrote in a backroom to reward their supporters. Among other outrages, it would end overtime pay for 8 million American workers and gut reasonable restrictions on media ownership agreed to, over White House objections, by both the House and the Senate.

I share the outrage "Midwestern BuzzFlash reader" feels about the dangerous agenda the far right is trying to impose on America and its willingness to do anything to win. But Tom Daschle is not the problem, and forming a circular firing squad is not the solution.

more...

[UdoKier]

5. It's not about attacking Daschle specifically.

It's about the fact that even center-right dems like him are being defined as "left-wing obstructionists". If they're going to get painted that way ANYWAY, why not fight back more and actually attract the DEMOCRAT base to vote for them?

[emulatorloo]

8. 1. South Dakota is a conservative state; 2. You should read Daschle's book

1. If south dakota, a conservative state, is going to elect a Dem it is going to be a conservative Dem.

Daschle does a lot behind the scenes and has gone on the attack several times. The attacks are unreported/under-reported by the media. But Daschle still gets death threats from the right wing. Remember the Anthrax attack on his office?

2. Read his book "Like No Other Time." It will give you a good understanding of Post-911 Washington and how GWB and his ilk SCREWED OVER AND MANIPULATED THE PATRIOTISM OF DEMOCRATS. I got it from my local library, I was no fan of Daschle, but it is a really interesting read.

[UdoKier]

11. Good for South Dakota - but why the hell is he Sen. Minority Leader?

I don't think he represents democrats around most of the country very well? What were they thinking?

I live in San Francisco, so I may be biased, but I'm relatively pleased with Pelosi, but Daschle's demeanor doesn't suit a minority (or majority) leader. The leader shouldn't be an ideologue, but he/she should be enough of a firebrand to rally support when needed.

Not to mention, his position as leader makes him that much morre vulnerable to GOP attacks that endanger his race in a state that is, as you pointed out, conservative. Shouldn't the leader be from a safe state?

[emulatorloo]

12. What does Senator Feinstein say?

Have you ever called her office and asked her about Daschle and why they elected him minority leader?. I would be curious to know what she says. . .

[K-W]

13. You dont seem to understand what the minority leader does.

It is a legilative position. His job isnt to lead democratic senators politically, it is to lead them legislatively. It is to act as a point man in the halls of congress.

Thus, his back room procedural prowess makes him perfectly suited for it.

Being a leader in legislative processes in the senate does not make him a default leaeder of the overall party. He has flirted with that role, but I blame that more on a leadership vacuum in the party than I do on Daschle himself.

Part of the reason his seat is in play is because as minority leader he has pissed off the republicans and so they fund his opponant like crazy. I imagine that when he was first made minority leader his district wasnt as difficult.

[UdoKier]

14. Again, why someone so politically vulnerable?

That's what I don't understand. Are there no senators from "safe" states with his "abilities"?

[K-W]

15. Well,

part of the reason he is so vulenerable is because he is one of the democrats the republicans focus on defeating, so he faces a very well funded and connected candidate. This would be true of any state. There is really no such thing as a safe state. Republicans win elections in every state in this country. And I can only assume that when thye made him minority leader he was well established with his constituancy. Things can change, the state of the nation and south dakota has changed, they cant predict the future, nor is it really that important. If he loses, they can just replace him. His being a moderate isnt that important, since his job is not to direct the ideology of the party, it is to do the nuts and bolts senate work.

[Paradise]

6. What does it take to WIN in SD?

"Daschle Faces Tough Test in Tight South Dakota Race"