Posted on 11/18/2004 6:32:12 PM PST by nypokerface
WASHINGTON - For Tom Foley, election night was a bitter replay of a moment he would rather forget.
Ten years after the former Democratic House speaker was turned out of office in a humiliating defeat, Foley watched as Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle was vanquished in a race with parallels to his own.
In each case, voters more conservative than the veteran lawmaker representing them punished a leader they perceived as more in touch with the capital than his home state.
If anyone understands Daschle's pain, it is Foley. His 1994 defeat made him the first sitting House speaker since 1862 to lose a bid for re-election. Daschle, D-S.D., was the first party leader in the Senate to lose re-election in more than 50 years.
"I think Tom Daschle did a fantastic job as leader, but he was in a state that went very heavily for President Bush, and that was a political risk that he took and did so, I think, bravely," Foley said in an Associated Press interview.
Foley, 75, represented a Spokane, Wash.-based district for 30 years before losing the seat to Republican George Nethercutt.
Foley said Daschle, who lost to former Rep. John Thune, suffered from many of the factors that ultimately felled him: Voters either did not appreciate or understand the value of service as party leader, a role that sometimes caused both men to act in ways contrary to their own political survival.
"I think sometimes there's a difficulty in understanding what a state receives from having a majority leader in the Senate or a speaker of the House — or that those things viewed as not as important as they once were," Foley said.
In Foley's case, the disconnect was so stark that he once was berated at a public meeting for having a poor voting record in the House. Traditionally, the speaker does not vote at all, Foley explained, adding that he occasionally voted on issues crucial to the district or the country.
I guess pork barreling doesn't go as far as it used to in the good old days, hey Tom? :)
What's this about a "majority leader" in the Senate? Did I miss something?
IIRC, the reason Thune lost the 2002 race (apart from the reservation vote fraud) was the crossover Republicans voting for Johnson because they assumed that the Senate would be Democrat-controlled after the election; hence, little Tommy would be the majority leader. As we all know, that didn't happen. Well, most of us know it. Brother Foley seems to be locked in a temporal stasis field since he left DC.
There's his error in judgment. As soon as he put his party before his constituents, he was doomed. Just like Daschle. The people of SD woke up and realized that Daschle was no longer putting them first.
Uh, what isn't mentioned is that Tom Foley sued his constituency.
All that dough from Loral, Boeing, etc benefitted the citizens of SD- well, at least two of them.
Sen's Dorgan and Conrad
Take note
South Dakota is my state and Dasshole no more represented this state than the man in the moon. He was a die hard Kennedy liberal who had the audacity on more than one occassion to say "I am a D.C. resident. His wife is a liberal lobbyist for a big firm in Washington. He own a 2 mil home in virginia and nothing in SD. Reminds me of George McGovern who was the same type.
Ah yes, that's right. This IS the 10 year anniversary of Tom Foley's defeat at the hands of Nethercutt...
Maybe we shoudl all send Tom Foley sympathy cards bwaaaaahahahahahahahahaha
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