The Washington Post has a story in today's edition headlined "Democrats Forced To Work on Margins" which leads one to ask what kind of clout Tom Daschle has when he is "forced to work on the margins" of the Senate. Excerpt:
On several of the issues, Democrats were divided, and some concede their responses were limp and late. As a result, they had little impact on most of the major legislation that dominated Congress's agenda at year's end, although they blocked passage of the energy and spending bills, at least until Congress reconvenes Jan. 20.
(Emphasis added). So Tom Daschle has little impact on major legislation, and chooses not to use what impact he does have to get the energy bill passed (which would tremendously help South Dakota farmers), and uses his senatorial prerogative (available to the most junior senator) to block the spending bill, which gives money for nursing homes and infrastructure in South Dakota. That sure is some clout the man has.
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