Posted on 09/02/2004 8:58:18 AM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
Conservative pundits are reeling with amazement at Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-SD), who is running an ad in his home state portraying him in an embrace with President Bush. The actual incident took place on September 20, 2001, immediately after the President had addressed a joint session of Congress, following the attacks of 9-11.
Daschle’s sudden affinity for the President represents a switch on the order of John Kerry’s “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” and is thus completely consistent with election-year tap-dances by other Democrats. Outside of a few districts in New York and California, liberal Democrats are acutely aware that they cannot win by campaigning as liberal Democrats. They must create a more palatable facade for their constituents. In truth, such a strategy displays complete contempt for the voters, relying as it does on their gullibility to carry candidates past Election Day.
Consider, as a prime example, Daschle’s relationship with the people of South Dakota. Their deep respect for the Constitution, as well as the morality that they uphold individually, confirms this midwestern state to be undeniably conservative.
This past February, the South Dakota legislature passed a measure outlawing abortion, and not by a narrow margin. In the State House, it carried by 54 to 14, and initially passed in the Senate 18 to 15, though later defeated there. In this age of MTV, gay “marriage,” and all the other hallmarks of the counterculture, the South Dakota legislature’s actions indicated a widespread consensus of conservatism, reaching virtually every corner of the state.
Tom Daschle, now in the midst of his own re-election campaign, must appeal to a voting base that is vastly different from his own ultra-liberal ideology. In the past, he has been successful in accomplishing this through a series of political “sleights of hand.”
For example, while bowing to the wishes of environmental extremists elsewhere in the nation, who have done enormous damage to the forests by their refusal to allow selective cutting in order to curtail the danger of wildfires, Daschle nonetheless managed to exempt South Dakota from such outrageous regulations. In so doing, he ensured his own immunity from the inevitable backlash that would descend upon him in the wake of major forest fires within the boundaries of his state.
Likewise, by shamelessly displaying the picture of himself and Bush, he promotes the notion that he has been supportive of the President in his efforts to protect the country from further terrorist attacks. However, in neither case can he make these claims with any degree of honesty.
During Senate debate on partial-birth abortion, Daschle sounded positively pro-life. Yet he is among those who have worked diligently to prevent Bush’s pro-constitution judicial nominees from getting an up or down confirmation vote. Thus he ensures that courts will be stacked with activist judges who, in service to the morally bankrupt left, continue to overturn every basic statement of human rights such as South Dakota’s proposed abortion ban.
From the moment the 2000election results were confirmed, Daschle sought obsessively to thwart every effort of President Bush to do his job. And it was Daschle who, by stalling the confirmation of George Bush’s cabinet nominees, prevented the new administration from getting up to speed prior to 9-11.
It was Daschle who led the liberal opposition to drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. By now, that region could be producing oil and alleviating high gasoline prices and their resulting hardship to rural and agricultural communities of South Dakota as well as all of the United States.
On Election Day, South Dakota voters should consider the damage Tom Daschle has done to the entire nation in the name of partisan politics, and come to grips with the fact that liberal degradation of America will not remain forever beyond the boundaries of their state. Nor will they or their posterity reside indefinitely within their heartland haven. So although the next massive terror attack is not likely to occur in Rapid City or Sioux Falls, they are ultimately no less a target of the terrorists who seek to inflict harm on American soil.
If Tom Daschle can be made to pay the ultimate political price for his treachery by his removal from office, other liberal politicians are sure to take notice. No other state race holds such a potential to set America back on a course of restoring its moral and constitutional roots.
Christopher G. Adamo
Can I get an Amen?
Amen ... and let's get a taller box for Daschle to stand on. He's coming off as "short" in stature ... ;)
Bye bye, Tiny Tom. Clear out your desk now so John Thune will have an easy time setting his stuff up!
It was interesting to hear Zell Miller last night on Hardball reference Max Cleland, saying "You can‘t vote with Tom Daschle 85 percent of the time and be expected to be able to be reelected in Georgia."
How can this guy possibly sell his recent record to South Dakotans this go around?
I haven't heard any comments on the comment made by Zell blaming Daschle for the delay in passing Homeland Security. This would validate his anger and the one reason for it. He told Chris Matthews that this was the issue that broke the camels back. No one is picking up on it.
Not only would this have added an excellent point to his speech, it would have, at the same time, given a good shot against Daschle's re-election campaign.
Amen.
But - Democrats are saddened to witness the partisan rancor engendered by an actual recitation of facts.
I think it was telling that Daschle did not sign the letter that Cleland delivered to Crawford.
Be assured that W. is going to drop in on SDak a few times in the next two months....it's a given..and don't be surprised if ole Aell just happens to be along for the ride..and "chooses" to make a few impromptu remarks to the local SD media..
Amen!!!!!
President Bush will give every bit of political currency he can muster, to John Thunes election campaign. Zell Miller probaly has had the travel plans to SD in his suit jacket for two mos. The icing on the cake in this election, and the death knell of the strangle hold on our Judges, rest with the defeat of Tom Daschle. It is about time that this dispicable politition gets his comeuppance.
Is there a list of those who did sign the letter Humpty Dumpty used in his Crawford high drama?
It would be so great to see that little quintessential smug elitist liberal Daschle thrown out on his can for his obstructionism like Cleland was last time...it would give real hope for the future of this nation.
Of course, just like Cleland and "What About Bob" Kerry, he won't really go away..."He's never gone" to quote Dr. Leo Marvin from his vacation home on Lake Winnepisauki (sic). They're still professional agitators...except their big mouths and bad ethics are far less damaging without a Senate vote available to them!
That was a veteran's only letter I believe. You know, Democrat veterans, the ones that really only allowed to speak. Like Frank ("You've got blood on your hands NRA fax after Oklahoma City") Lautenberg. I don't think Dash-Hole served in the military.
There is a list somewhere. I believe only 9 signed it.
Amen..... and can I raise you with an Alleluha!
If Bush wins in November I'm gonna celebrate my @rs off but if Daschle loses they're gonna have to peel me off the ceiling too.
Oh, he can do it alright, but only if the national GOP abandons Thune, which I don't think they will.
Bush and Zell Miller need to make trips to SD, and not just to Sioux Falls. When a campaign just sticks its toe barely across the border into Sioux Falls, it doesn't have as much impact. At least three stops: Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and somewhere else in eastern S.D. Cheney needs to hit Rapid City, too -- exploit the Wild West connection. Johnson and Herseth got entirely too many West River votes in the last two major races -- that just shouldn't be happening.
A couple of personal appearances would do more than $20 million in ads. People started just turning them off during the last election between Thune and Johnson. Lots of people in SD were so sick of the campaign that they hoped both guys could lose.
One of the many reasons that challenging Thune's loss two years ago would have been a mistake is that so many people were just glad to have the election over and the ads gone. TV time is cheap in places like SD, so many people think its a good buy, but it begins to backfire after a point.
Big-name feet on the ground are what are needed... I just can't imagine anything that would do more for the Bush agenda in the next term than dealing Daschle a loss, so the investment would be worth it.
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