The Senate is in recess this week. That means Senator Tom Daschle will be making campaign appearances around the state, pretending to be a Zell Miller Democrat rather than the John Kerry Democrat he truly is. And that means constituents have the opportunity to ask Daschle about certain issues he won't take a position on, or that he takes a number of positions on, depending on whether he's in Washington or South Dakota. Hopefully, members of the press will be present to record the conversation.
The last time the Senate was in recess, the Rapid City Journal reported that Daschle told a Chamber of Commerce gathering in Pierre the Bush administration's inability to find weapons of mass destruction was of little concern to him. These statements contradicted statements Daschle had made 10 days earlier in Washington, according to Time magazine, that President Bush had a "credibility chasm" on WMD.
So if you happen to be at a Daschle event this week (He's holding a free dinner at Central High School in Rapid City this Wednesday at 5:30PM, for example), there are a couple of issues to ask him about:
1) The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (Laci and Connor's Law). As an excellent guest editorial reported in yesterday's Argus Leader, Tom Daschle has yet to take a final position on a bill that would make it a federal crime to kill or injure an unborn child. South Dakota law already makes it a crime to kill or injure an unborn child. Given the Daschle campaign's penchant for accusing John Thune of lacking leadership because of his indecision on whether to run for the Senate, it's unseemly for Daschle to be dithering on an important issue like this. If you get an opportunity to ask Daschle about this, demand a commitment one way or the other. If Senator Dianne Feinstein of California can demand a commitment from Tom Daschle, a constituent certainly can too.
2) Ethanol. Be sure to ask Tom Daschle why he was out signing copies of his book when he should have been rounding up votes for the energy bill. As Senator Chuck Grassley stated, that was the one shot the ethanol bill had at becoming law. And Daschle blew it. If he says the revised ethanol bill is coming up again for a vote in the Senate, point out that it won't pass in the House, and won't become the law of the land. The ethanol bill had one shot at becoming the law, and Daschle didn't exercise his vaunted clout to muscle the thing through, when South Dakota farmers needed him most. And don't forget that Daschle's trial lawyer contributors wanted the ethanol bill dead because it gave liability protection to MTBE manufacturers. That might have been the reason Daschle voted for the bill, but didn't hang around to exercise his purported clout to get the extra votes necessary to pass the bill.
3) Gun control. Tom Daschle recently voted for stricter regulation of gun shows (to close the "gun show loophole"). But the entire state legislature almost unanimously supported a resolution "[r]ecognizing the substantial public contribution of gun shows and discouraging inappropriate attempts to regulate or restrict them." Why is Tom Daschle voting out of step with the near unanimity of the state legislature?
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