BOMBSHELL

The political fallout from Senator Daschle's dissonant comments regarding the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (in Washington, Daschle says Bush has a "credibility chasm" on WMD; in South Dakota, Daschle says he has no serious concerns about the lack of weapons of mass destruction) has begun. Now former Daschle staffer Amy Sullivan is blogging under a post headlined "CAN DASCHLE STILL LEAD THE DEMOCRATS?" that Daschle "may need to decide whether he can defend his seat and work to defeat Bush at the same time."

Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias also questions Tom Daschle's viability as Democratic Leader.

Elsewhere on her blog, Sullivan has a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of Tom Daschle having it both ways on the partial birth abortion ban:

We had worked for almost a year to craft a piece of abortion legislation that would thread the needle of reducing abortions while providing protections for women's health and provide an alternative to the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban" clogging up the abortion debate. One week after our bill's ignoble failure in a Senate floor vote, although Daschle had previously voted to oppose the so-called PBA bill, he felt he had to change his position and cast a vote in favor of the ban. Exhausted from months of doing nothing but thinking about abortion during waking and sleeping hours, we staffers sat at the back of the Senate chamber as our boss voted to support a sham of a bill.

(Emphasis added.) But hey, Tom's still a great guy in Sullivan's view, even if he did cut her off at the knees.

More fascinating yet is the fact that Sullivan seems to be approached quite frequently by the press, wondering what Daschle's motivations are in having it both ways on a series of controversial issues. And that she's been emphatically told by the Daschle camp to quit talking about him.