Tom Daschle --Senator Scrooge-- pocketed his $5,000 annual raise this week and then sent the U.S. Senate home for the holidays, refusing to even allow a vote on an economic stimulus package that included $300 per person rebate checks for the lowest wage earners in the country and a tax cut for families with incomes greater that $42,000 a year. The package also included an extension of unemployment benefits. This compromise package had passed the House with some Democratic support, and at least three Democratic Senators had lined up behind it. Daschle refused to allow a vote. On the floor of the Senate Daschle said the package cost too much. On the O'Reily Factor, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said the package spent too little. In fact, Democrats tried everything to cover up the fact that as a Party they want the recession to linger and deepen. So Tom Daschle and the hard core lefty clique that is running the Senate with him stunned nearly all observers and sent coal to every American retailer on the weekend before Christmas.
The Washington Post carries a page A-1 story that speculates that "Democrats may pay a price for bucking a deal with the president. Sixty-seven percent of those polled say they approve of the way Bush is handling the economy, but 58% believe Congress has done too little on the economy." The Democratic Party has never before put its political interests ahead of the lowest wage earners and the unemployed. Already some members of the Democratic Party are feeling the heat and grumbling that Daschle's thinly disguised Presidential ambitions are hurting the Party. They are right. And here is why.
Friday morning's news leads with the Associated Press headline that the U.S. economy turned in its weakest performance in a decade in the third quarter, shrinking at an annual rate of 1.3%, an even bigger drop than the government previously estimated. The report goes on to note that some analysts believe the current quarter will be even weaker, with the economy shrinking at a rate of at least 1.5 percent. But Daschle actually had the nerve to go on the floor of the Senate yesterday and warn about deficit spending --as though he had been possessed by the ghost of Herbert Hoover. Indeed, the Daschle Recession could become the Daschle Depression and the GOP would surge as a result, but the cost to the country would be huge.
In short, yesterday's abandonment of bipartisan economic recovery legislation is the most nakedly partisan action not just in recent memory, but in America's long history of war-time legislation. There is simply no precedent for it. Daschle claimed a unique place in American history yesterday --the most irresponsible Majority Leader in the Senate's long run. He joins Excitable Pat Leahy and Slow Joe Biden as the face of the national Democratic Party, and it’s a long way from Mike Mansfield, Sam Nunn and Richard Russell.
Two other notes flow from this story.
First, as I pointed out, this is the A-1 story in the Washington Post. It is by any measure a giant story, although one that has quickly turned on the Democrats and is making Daschle look especially bad.
So what does the Left Angeles Times do with it? I kid you not, the story runs on page A-42, near the fold. That's right, the headline is "Senate Buries Economic Package" and the sub-header is "Majority Leader Tom Daschle uses the Democrats' power to block a vote, dooming the stimulus bill." So the headline writer knew the score, but the editor put it in the second section! The front page of this dismal rag carries a story on California's lottery running out of prizes but still selling tickets, and on architects' soul searching after 9/11, and even on the use of animal DNA as a forensic tool in criminal prosecutions, but the biggest legislative battle since the attack on America is on page 42!
If you have to ask why, then you are out of touch with the path the Times has traveled since the Chicago based Tribune Company bought it last year. In a phrase, the Los Angeles Times turned hard left. The Daschle betrayal of the working and middle classes is bad news for the Dems and everyone knows it, a miscalculation of epic proportions. So the Times buried the story. Every retailer in this reeling state needed this package, every unemployed service industry and airline-related worker did too, and so did millions of middle class families. The radio shows were dominated by the subject, and it led all the cable shows and network news broadcasts. But because it hurts the left and its leader, the Times buried it. Either it’s a bold bias or a staggering display of poor news judgment. Either way, the paper's collapse in 2001 is underscored by this hilarious effort to pitch in and help Daschle. Be sure to let the Chairman of the Tribune Company know. He is John Madigan, and his phone is 312-222-9100 x 3123. He can be e-mailed at master-webmaster@tribune.com
The other thing to do is redouble efforts to get the Senate out of the control of Daschle and his fringe. The Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-225-3121. Give Georgia's Zell Miller a call and ask him to switch parties. Try John Breaux of Louisiana as well. These are long shots, but worth the effort. You can e-mail Zell Miller here, and Breaux here.
And write a couple of Christmas checks to the strongest contenders to win Senate seats in 2002 that are currently held by Democrats. I will take special joy in sending a contribution to Congressman John Thune this week, as he is running against Tim Johnson in South Dakota. Johnson is the invisible Senator, Tom Daschle's best friend and seat-mate. Beating Johnson would be a blow to the political solar plexus of Daschle, so do your part. Make a check out to John Thune for Senate, and send it to Thune for Senate, P.O. Box 516, Sioux Falls, SD 57101.
There are five other races where a clear-cut GOP front-runner could beat a Democratic incumbent, but will need financial help:
The former Mayor of St. Paul, Norm Coleman, could beat Minnesota's Paul Wellstone, who has broken his pledge to run only twice for the Senate and who is the most radical member of the Senate. Send Coleman a contribution at www.colemanforsenate.com or via mail to 1410 Energy Park Drive #11, Energy Park Plaza, Saint Paul, MN 55108.
Congressman Greg Ganske is a Des Moines surgeon who is giving hard left Senator Tom Harkin a run, and Ganske needs contributions as well. Send them via the web to www.GanskeforSenate.org or via the mail to 1200 Grand Avenue, West DesMoines, IA 50265.
Jim Talent narrowly lost the Missouri Governor's race last year in the scandal- plagued fiasco of 2002. He is now running to reclaim the seat held by Jean Carnahan, appointed after those scandals led to John Ashcroft's defeat. Senator Carnahan got a sympathy appointment, but the sympathy drained away soon after when she voted against Ashcroft to be Attorney General. The Missouri electorate noticed that and judged her ungenerous and perhaps not too skilled, and Talent is considered an excellent candidate. Send him a check: 1031 Executive Parkway, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63141.
Congressmen Saxby Chambliss in Georgia and John Cooksey in Louisiana are running against Senators Max Cleland and Mary Landrieu respectively. Both Cleland and Landrieu are way to the left of their states, and so Chambliss and Cooksey are in the hunt. Contributions can be sent to Chambliss for Senate, 1200 C Riverside Drive, Macon, GA 31201 or visit www.Saxby.org and John Cooksey for Senate, P.O. Box 15020, Monroe, LA 71207 or via his website at www.CookseyforSenate.com.
The Democratic Party is in serious trouble. The President is widely believed to be exactly the right leader for this war, and a broad cross section of the country wants the Senate to follow his lead. Daschle and the fringe folks refuse, and they are cheered on by ideologically blindered fans in the stands of the elite media. If it was just about politics, there would still be urgency, but this is really about the security of the country. Daschle's Depression and Clintonian foreign policy is what we have to fear most, and its prevention requires more than grumbling. It takes contributions and participation in the campaigns of 2002.
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Please take a moment to donate to Asian Hope, an orphanage in Phnom Phen, reported on by Richard Botkin of WorldNetDaily. You can make a difference in the lives of 30 orphans in the middle of a devastated country by sending a gift today either via post to P.O. Box 8674, Brea, CA, or via the web at www.AsianHope.org. Thank you.
December 21 - Message of the Day
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