Reading that was a good antidote to this column. It was pretty disheartening to read this on Wednesday. Made me reassess my previous assessment that liberalism is on the wane. But I guess guys like Daschle aren't really liberals; they're more like bagmen for their various constituencies.
President Daschle
Will Bush be anything more than commander in chief?
Wednesday, November 28, 2001 12:01 a.m.
One of the more amusing Washington themes of late has been the alleged revival of the Imperial Presidency, with George W. Bush said to be wielding vast, unprecedented powers. Too bad no one seems to have let Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in on this secret.
Because from where we sit Mr. Daschle is the politician wielding by far the most Beltway clout, and in spectacularly partisan fashion. The South Dakotan's political strategy is obvious if cynical: He's wrapping his arms tight around a popular President on the war and foreign policy, but on the domestic front he's conducting his own guerrilla war against Mr. Bush, blocking the President's agenda at every turn. And so far he's getting away with it.
Mr. Bush has asked Congress to pass three main items before it adjourns for the year: trade promotion authority, and energy and economic stimulus bills. Mr. Daschle has so far refused to negotiate on any of them, and on two he won't even allow votes. Instead he is moving ahead with a farm bill the White House opposes, and a railroad retirement bill that is vital to no one but the AFL-CIO.
Just yesterday Mr. Daschle announced that "I don't know that we'll have the opportunity" to call up an energy bill until next year. One might think that after September 11 U.S. energy production would be a war priority. In September alone the U.S. imported 1.2 million barrels of oil a day from Iraq, which we soon may be fighting, the highest rate since just before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
But Mr. Daschle is blocking a vote precisely because he knows Alaskan oil drilling has the votes to pass; earlier this autumn he pulled the bill from Senator Jeff Bingaman's Energy Committee when he saw it had the votes. So much for the new spirit of Beltway cooperation.
We're not so naive as to think that war will, or should, end partisan disagreement. But what's striking now is that Mr. Daschle is letting his liberal Old Bulls break even the agreements they've already made with the White House. Mr. Bush shook hands weeks ago on an Oval Office education deal with Teddy Kennedy, but now we hear that Mr. Kennedy wants even more spending before he'll sign on. Mr. Daschle is letting Ted have his way.
The same goes for the $686 billion annual spending limit that Democrats struck with Mr. Bush after September 11. That's a 7% increase from a year earlier (since padded by a $40 billion bipartisan addition), and Democrats made a public fanfare that Mr. Bush had endorsed this for fear some Republicans might use it against them in next year's elections. But now Mr. Daschle is using the issue against Mr. Bush, refusing to even discuss an economic stimulus bill unless West Virginia Democrat Bob Byrd gets his demand for another $15 billion in domestic spending.
Mr. Byrd, a former majority leader who thinks of Mr. Daschle as his junior partner, may even attach his wish list to the Defense spending bill. That would force Mr. Bush to either veto and forfeit much-needed money for defense, or sign it and swallow Mr. Byrd's megapork for Amtrak and Alaskan airport subsidies.
All of this adds to the suspicion that Mr. Daschle is only too happy to see no stimulus bill at all. He knows the party holding the White House usually gets most of the blame for a bad economy, so his Democrats can pad their Senate majority next year by blaming Republicans. This is the same strategy that former Democratic leader George Mitchell pursued in blocking a tax cut during the early 1990s and then blaming George H.W. Bush for the recession. Mr. Mitchell's consigliere at the time? Tom Daschle.
It is certainly true that Republicans have often helped Mr. Daschle's guerrilla campaign. Alaska's Ted Stevens is Bob Byrd's bosom spending buddy; he's pounded White House budget director Mitch Daniels for daring to speak the truth about his pork. And GOP leader Trent Lott contributed to the airline-security rout by letting his Members run for cover.
The issue now is whether Mr. Bush will continue to let himself get pushed around. Mr. Daschle is behaving badly because he's assumed the President won't challenge him for fear of losing bipartisan support on the war. But this makes no political sense: As long as Mr. Bush's war management is popular, Mr. Daschle isn't about to challenge him on foreign affairs.
The greater risk to Mr. Bush's popularity and success isn't from clashing with the Daschle Democrats over tax cuts or oil drilling. It's from giving the impression that on everything but the war, Tom Daschle might as well be President.
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