FLASHBACK

It was a year ago today that Senator Tom Daschle, making a speech to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees shortly after meeting with President Bush, said that he was "saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war." As one can observe from the posts on my blog a year ago (scroll down), the country responded with outrage. Michael Barone supplied an interesting analysis of Daschle's comments.

In the days before the Iraq war, Steven Den Beste observed:

After we fight and win, a lot is going to come out about just how dreadful and brutal Saddam's government truly is. Relieved of fear of Saddam's secret police, we're going to see a flood of reports coming out of Iraq containing interviews with individual Iraqis who will describe personal horror stories. We're going to see shambling hulks of men maimed and broken by torture; crying women describing how they had to watch their own children be tortured to death. We're going to see photographs of terrible scars and disfigurements. We're going to hear about people being "disappeared". We're going to hear about mass graves, and public executions, and a lot else.

And Daschle and the rest of the Democrats who are now trying to take a stand against war are going to have to explain why it was that they opposed ending all that.

Den Beste's observations are remarkably prescient, particularly in light of a report last month in the Rapid City Journal headlined "Daschle satisfied with war progress." Excerpt:

Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., on Thursday praised the Bush administration's war and nation-building work in Iraq and said he has no serious concerns about the lack of weapons of mass destruction.

Daschle told state chamber of commerce representatives meeting in the South Dakota capital that he is satisfied with the way things are going in Iraq.

"I give the effort overall real credit," Daschle said. "It is a good thing Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. It is a good thing we are democratizing the country."

He said he is not upset about the debate over pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, an issue that has dogged President Bush as Democratic presidential contenders have slogged through the primary season.

Today, Tom Daschle is hoping that his constituents have forgotten the furor over his comments a year ago. We haven't.

UPDATE: DVT has a more cryptic explanation of the 2003 Tom Daschle compared to the 2004 Tom Daschle.