Replies

This is the boilerplate response you will get, we (several of us) have already got ours back. They probably are not reading them but perhaps they are counting.
We are in South Dakota. First my letter to him:

Mr. Daschle,
You're statement about our President offends me and just about every other South Dakotan I know.
When I hear people like Mara Liasson say, "Daschle's statement was over the top", you know it was over the top.
Perhaps you forget that Mr. Clinton didn't even bother with the UN when going into Kosovo. I don't remember hearing anything from you on that matter. I was behind Clinton, although I admit I may have questioned his timing.

Please do your fellow South Dakotans a favor, and preface your outlandish statements with, "I do not speak for South Dakota when I say...".
I am personally tired of defending our state from ridicule because of your personal beef against our rightfully elected president.
BTW, it might be a good time to drop the Estrada thing.

Clay M
South Dakotan

And the gutless response:

Dear (Your name here):
Thank you for contacting me about my comments regarding President Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq. I appreciate your input on this matter.
First, let me say that, like all Americans, I strongly support our troops. I will work with the President and my colleagues in Congress to make sure they have the resources and tools they need to accomplish their mission.
Second, Saddam Hussein is a threat to his own people, the region, and the world, and the United States cannot tolerate the possession and development of weapons of mass destruction by his regime. There has never been a debate about the need to confront Saddam and the threat he poses.
I have always made clear that he is a serious threat and have supported the use of force should it be necessary to disarm him.
In my view, this has been a debate about how best to confront that threat - at the least risk to our soldiers and the least burden to America's taxpayers. This situation - where Saddam poses a threat to us and our friends - demanded vigorous diplomacy and coalition-building at the highest levels of this Administration - the kind of effort we saw in 1990 by President Bush's father and his Administration. The results in 1990 were very clear - more than 16 countries contributed more than 200,000 ground troops, and our friends and allies covered 90% of the costs.
Unfortunately, we did not have that kind of effort here and did not get a similar result. Nevertheless, I am confident our troops will make us all proud, and I stand ready to do whatever is necessary to help them accomplish their mission swiftly and safely so they may return home soon.
Once again, I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope we you will stay in touch.
Sincerely,

Tom Daschle
United States Senate
TAD/twr
To read my statement in response to President Bush's March 17 address to the nation, please clink on this link:
http://daschle.senate.gov/front_031703.html

I got the same response back last night. It cracked me up.

I can just see him sitting at his desk in his little pink tie writing: "Dear (insert irate constituent's name here), Gosh, I loved hearing from you. I hope we can still be friends. Love, Tommy"

He's pathetic.

Great letter you wrote, and wimpy letter you got back. Daschole is a wimp! A stupid spineless weasel! That's him!

First, let me say that, like all Americans, I strongly support our troops.

Saying you support our troops while openly opposing their commander in chief and their mission is not support at all.

So I wonder what Tom thinks about the coalition of the United States and Saddams soon to surrender division commanddrs. I doubt if Tom would have ever thought of that. There's realy nothing to gain politically.

If you reply to Tom, I hope that you can rebuff his (or staff) reply regarding the burden to taxpayers a war may cost.
I'm in OK and did not recieve a response to my letter to his website, on simalar lines, though not as well written as yours. I kind of ranted but was civil.