Daschle's dissonant statements on Iraq

See Tom Daschle's statement on the Senate floor last Thursday, when he said the following, according to a column in USA Today:

"Americans stand together today and always to finish the work we started and bring peace and democracy to the citizens of Iraq."

Then, the very next day, in a conference call to reporters back home in South Dakota, Daschle said the 180 degree opposite, in the context of OPEC's cut in production levels:

''If that's the thanks we get for doing what we have done in the Persian Gulf these last several years, then I think we ought to re-evaluate whether or not our presence there is something that's in our national interest[.]''

(Emphasis added.) So is it in our national interest to have a presence in Iraq, or not? With Daschle, the answer to that question depends on how many points he can score politically in a given situation.