[Alberta's Child]

But October will see Daschle dashing across the state announcing one pork-barrel project after another. And how exactly is John Thune to combat this? $50,000 for a new firehouse in, say, Spearfish, and $20,000 for a theater in Watertown, or $100,000 for a retirement home in Aberdeen: They bring votes to the man who can provide them, and that's Tom Daschle.

This is the key point of the article. In fact, this is exactly how most rural states operate these days -- and also explains why so many "conservative" states in rural America are actually bastions of Marxism.

I drove through South Dakota earlier this week, and was not surprised to hear the tone of Daschle's radio ads in the state . . . if you didn't know any better you'd think he was a Republican. However, in this year of high energy prices Thune has begun to exploit the one issue that may eventually topple Daschle -- his support of the Federal gasoline tax hike in 1993.

[formercalifornian]

I wish I could do a parody of those ads, with the deep-voiced announcer declaring -- with thumping patriotic music in the background -- that Daschle is responsible for highways, water projects, Mount Rushmore, health care, the Missouri River and life itself. Somehow Thune needs to get the message out that it's not Daschle but hardworking taxpayers that provide services for South Dakotans, show indirectly that Daschle is arrogant for posing as the wealthy benefactor of the state.