Comparing Daschle to LBJ

Roll Call has published a piece by Jon Lauck, a history professor at South Dakota State University, headlined "Like Lyndon Johnson, Daschle Has Trouble Balancing Two Jobs." In the piece, Lauck discusses Daschle's campaign strategy to portray himself as the chief opponent of the president in Washington, while simultaneously portraying himself as a supporter of the president back home. Excerpt:

[D]aschle has made plans to repulse the inevitable criticism from his new opponent, 43-year-old ex-Rep.
John Thune (R). In one of the more bizarre rituals of last year, Daschle’s campaign operatives in South Dakota constantly bragged about how often Daschle supports President Bush. Their strategy, carried off with a straight face, has been to tout how much the titular head of the Democratic Party supports a Republican president in an “us versus them” age, when swing voters are disappearing, and when the parties are implementing “get out the base vote” plans.

One can understand the strategy. Bush won South Dakota by 22 points in 2000 and a Democrat has not won the presidential vote in the state for 40 years.

The liberal alternative to the Drudge Report, Buzzflash.com, recently picked up on Daschle’s strategy and, unsurprisingly, called for his resignation as Minority Leader. Stories in National Journal, The New Republic, The Nation and The American Prospect have echoed liberals’ growing exasperation with Daschle. Such attacks on Daschle are a portent of things to come.

Daschle, as the leader of the party, will be expected to keep constant pressure on President Bush. Being the full-time obstructionist, however, will be disastrous back in Bush country in South Dakota. If he doesn’t do
his duty, on the other hand, he virtually guarantees he won’t be re-elected as Democratic leader....

Instead of a classic campaign of clashing issues, Daschle wants the campaign in South Dakota to be about personality, image and “clout.” Daschle hopes the accumulation of personal contact over the years and his “ability to deliver” will carry him through....

The “clout” argument is also rapidly evaporating. Experts agree that with Senate retirements in the South the chances of Daschle becoming Majority Leader again are negligible. And his ability to “deliver” was seriously questioned after he failed to pass the energy bill, perhaps the single most important piece of legislation to South Dakota in 20 years because of the ethanol provisions.

Some speculate that as a constant enemy of the president, Daschle actually makes it more difficult to get things done for South Dakota. The ethanol bill is a perfect distillation of Daschle’s dilemma.

His Caucus and his liberal interest-group supporters hated the overall bill, so he could not actively work for passage. Daschle therefore sat on the sidelines while the ethanol supporters in South Dakota watched in stunned horror.

Daschle had to vote for the bill, however, since he had been running ads all summer about how he could “deliver” on ethanol. In one clumsy transaction, Daschle alienated his liberal supporters by voting for the bill and betrayed the ethanol supporters in his state by failing to even try to use his “clout” to pass the bill.