Republicans direct fire at Daschle
"Delivering a near-ultimate insult, a conservative group ran newspaper ads
in South Dakota featuring Daschle's picture next to that of reviled Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein. The ad accused Daschle, who won reelection in 1998 with 62 percent of
the vote, of supporting the dictator's regime by blocking efforts to drill for oil in the
Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Cheney, when shown the ad on the Sunday news
show, did not criticize it. "
Criticism on energy, fiscal bills previews next year's election
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 12/11/2001
The Boston Globe
WASHINGTON - He's so soft-spoken that lawmakers have to strain to hear
him on the Senate floor. He gave President Bush a warm and celebrated hug
after the president addressed Congress in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.
In his home state of South Dakota, he's known as a man of the people.
But on the eve of a congressional election year, Senator Thomas A. Daschle, the
Democratic majority leader, is the Republican Party's new bogeyman.
In partisan clashes over economics, energy, and other domestic policies, Daschle
finds himself the target of attackers who range from talk show hosts to the vice
president of the United States.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill blamed him for holding up the fiscal stimulus
package. ''Senator Daschle is delaying America's economic recovery and
threatening America's job security,'' O'Neill said last week.
Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated the theme on Sunday, saying on a news talk
show that ''Tom Daschle, unfortunately, has decided ... to be more of an
obstructionist.''
Delivering a near-ultimate insult, a conservative group ran newspaper ads in South
Dakota featuring Daschle's picture next to that of reviled Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein. The ad accused Daschle, who won reelection in 1998 with 62 percent of
the vote, of supporting the dictator's regime by blocking efforts to drill for oil in the
Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Cheney, when shown the ad on the Sunday news
show, did not criticize it.
House Republican leaders have been taking their own shots at Daschle, laying the
blame for the drawn-out congressional session on his shoulders.
Conservatives hope Daschle will feel pressured into giving in on the
Republican-approved House stimulus package, which relies heavily on corporate
tax breaks. Democrats say the Republicans are looking for a scapegoat, worried
that if the recession continues, the GOP will get the blame in the 2002 elections.
''It's a general [GOP] frustration, and a sense that Daschle is good and effective.
They feel they need to get him,'' said Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West
Virginia.
Daschle, said Rockefeller and other allies, really doesn't mind the negative
attention.
''It's the old jiujitsu thing. When someone comes at you, you bend backwards and
let the weight of his or her punch come at you, and it puts them off balance,''
Rockefeller said.
Republicans ''don't want to talk about the substance,'' said Anita Dunn, Daschle's
spokeswoman. ''They believe that their only way out is to try to demonize, in a very
partisan and personal way, Senator Daschle.''
The majority leader's critics contend that it isn't personal at all. With control over
the Senate schedule, Daschle, the Republicans argue, is holding up an energy bill,
an economic stimulus package, and - perhaps worst, for a Congress not
accustomed to holiday season legislating - lawmakers' vacations.
''He's got the keys to the Senate, and he's not starting the ignition. At some point,
the person responsible for scheduling business in the Senate should answer why the
business hasn't been done,'' said Trent Duffy, Republican National Committee
spokesman.
''This is nothing personal about Senator Daschle,'' said Richard Lessner, executive
director of American Renewal, the group that paid for the ads showing Daschle
alongside Saddam Hussein. ''It's his responsibility to make the trains run on time.''
As a symbol of menace, Daschle seems an unlikely candidate. Unlike such
politicians as former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, or liberal
Democratic senators Edward M. Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Daschle
isn't a polarizing figure.
In a chamber full of ranters and ravers and screamers and yellers, the 54-year-old
former Air Force pilot takes a low-key approach. If Bush has a charm offensive,
Daschle wins over lawmakers with his patience. Staff members and colleagues say
the majority leader - who rules, in fact, only a plurality of 50 Democrats with the
honorary presence of Independent James M. Jeffords of Vermont - keeps his
caucus together by listening to what everyone has to say. The task is particularly
complicated, analysts note, because Daschle is often mentioned, along with several
other senators in his party, as a potential presidential candidate in 2004.
''Daschle strikes me as one of those people who I think is particularly partisan, and
yet you really can't pin that label on him, because his demeanor is so pleasant,'' said
Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.
Daschle is not prone to raising his voice but he is, former aides say, strongly
disciplined and exacting. Memos are never to be delivered in draft form, but as
polished products. He awakens before dawn, listening to books on tape as he runs.
Daschle insists on the Senate's completing its work, and has horrified senators with
the possibility of meeting right up until New Year's Eve. Nor does he tolerate
delaying tactics by fellow Democrats, Rockefeller said - something Senator Russ
Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, learned when Daschle urged members to vote
not to debate amendments Feingold wanted added to the antiterrorism package. It
was clear they would not pass.
''He has the fist in the velvet glove,'' said Democratic strategist Peter Fenn.
Daschle's name recognition, along with his national approval rating, have risen
dramatically in the past few months. Former aide Doug Hattaway and Democratic
analysts said both are attributable to the anthrax scare in Daschle's mail and his
portrayal as a bipartisan leader in the war on terrorism.
''I think it's misplaced,'' Democratic strategist Mark Mellman said of the
Republicans' attacks. ''Tom Daschle is an extraordinarily appealing figure who right
now enjoys the sympathy of America, if only for being the focus of the anthrax
attack.''
''He is striving to take a page out of George Mitchell's book,'' said Republican
strategist Keith Appell, referring to the former, equally reticent majority leader from
Maine. ''Given the success that Mitchell had, I don't think you can rule out that
[Daschle] will be successful.''
This story ran on page A8 of the Boston Globe on 12/11/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. |
