South Dakota Politics

Hugh Hewitt plugs entire Dakota Alliance

The intrepid Hugh Hewitt once again links to the Dakota Alliance and adds some analysis of the situation on the ground in South Dakota.

Sioux Falls radio talk show host Greg Belfrage, also no slouch in the intrepid department, occasionally finds time to blog in his busy schedule.

Herseth still hasn't rebuked Kos

Ryne McClaren has a list of all the Democrats who have publicly withdrawn their association with the liberal blog Daily Kos due to Kos' unsavory comments about the barbaric murder of Americans in Fallujah. The list includes John Kerry. This list does NOT include Stephanie Herseth. Her silence is a scandal.

A Democratic congressional candidate in Ohio has also pulled her ad from Daily Kos.

So John Kerry delinks from Daily Kos, but Stephanie Herseth, a self-described conservative Democrat, still has a link to Daily Kos on her website. A Herseth clone in Ohio has publicly pulled her ad on Daily Kos, but Herseth cynically hunkers down, hoping the media in South Dakota won't sniff around this story, and that it goes away. Sadly, that's most likely what will happen.

Powerline has more HERE and HERE. Also, see Hugh Hewitt's observations. And Professor Volokh's.

Hugh Hewitt links to SDP

Hugh Hewitt has declared John Thune week on his show, and has linked to SDP on his blog, as well as to DVT. Thanks, Hugh. Of course, we can't forget another member of the Dakota Alliance, Sibby Online.

And for you Watertown readers, be sure to listen to Hugh's show on AM 1480 KSDR.

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.

Powerline: Daschle is finished

John Hinderaker, formerly of Watertown, SD, has some fresh analysis on the Daschle-Thune race that's worth a read: "Daschle In Trouble." Instapundit also has some thoughts on the "Daschle in trouble" meme.

UPDATE: Powerline also has a post linking to DVT's latest tour de force regarding Daschle's campaign stop in Madison on Saturday.

New York Post editorial

A New York Post editorial published yesterday points out Tom Daschle's thoughts regarding recess appointments five years ago and compares them to his thoughts on the subject today. The piece is headlined "Daschle's Duplicity." Excerpt:

Indeed, says Daschle, "I don't blame the president for being frustrated and having lost patience. . . . The president acted, and I'm glad he did."

At least that's what he was saying five years ago - when Democrat Bill Clinton was the one making recess appointments, allowing him to bypass Senate confirmation of his federal judicial selections.

How time flies.

Now it's George W. Bush - stymied by Senate Democrats' refusal to allow many of his nominees even to come up for a vote - using the recess-appointment tool, and Daschle is singing a different tune.

In fact, Daschle said last weekend that he and his Democratic colleagues have decided to block each and every one of the president's judicial nominees unless Bush promises not to make any more recess appointments.

DVT, as always, has more.

WaPo on Giago

The Washington Post has a blurb today on Tim Giago's independent bid for the U.S. Senate headlined "Daschle Gets His Own Nader." Incredibly, the WaPo reporter misses the fact that Tom Daschle personally called Tim Giago to urge him to get out of the race, a fact which is at odds with Steve Hildebrand's quote in the blurb:

Steve Hildebrand, Daschle's campaign manager, rejected suggestions that Giago's effort would necessarily hurt the senator's bid. "Native Americans know that Senator Daschle has been there for them," he said. "They're not just going to throw their vote away on someone who stands little chance of winning."

So why did Tom Daschle personally call Tim Giago and ask him whether he wanted John Thune to be the next senator from South Dakota? Clearly, the Daschle camp is highly concerned that Native Americans are going to vote for Giago. When Daschle does his get-out-the-vote effort on the reservations, he has to worry about whether he's getting votes out for Tim Giago.

Daschle has it both ways on tort reform

Senator Tom Daschle has a troubling, baffling and disappointing habit of saying one thing in South Dakota and its 180 degree opposite in places like San Francisco and Washington, DC. DVT points out a quote Tom Daschle made in Renner, SD yesterday during a campaign event, as reported in the Argus Leader:

Ron Hefty of Hefty Seed Co. in Baltic said he favors tort reform. He also said one factor leading to high health care costs is that doctors are greedy. Daschle said a big issue is that doctors have to pay "way too much" for insurance.

So when Daschle is face to face with a small business owner in South Dakota who favors tort reform, Daschle doesn't take the opportunity to explain the fact that he not only opposes tort reform, he LEADS the opposition to tort reform. Trial lawyers, who fight tort reform tooth and nail, are Tom Daschle's biggest contributors. To paraphrase a comment made by a Chamber of Commerce official a few years ago (which can be found by clicking HERE and scrolling down to the headline "Trial lawyers give $500,000 as legislation heads to Senate floor") Tom Daschle knows that while the trial lawyers have lots of money, the small business community in South Dakota has a lot of votes. So, instead of explaining his opposition to tort reform, Daschle tries to sound like a Republican on the issue, telling Mr. Hefty of Baltic what he wants to hear.

But what Daschle says is different from what he does. Six weeks ago, Tom Daschle led a successful filibuster of a bill that would have reduced the excessive burden the liability system places on the delivery of obstetrical and gynecological services. Last summer, he spoke at the opening plenary of the Association of Trial Lawyers of American convention held in San Francisco, in the wake of successfully filibustering another tort reform measure in the Senate.

Once again, Tom Daschle is trying to have it both ways, this time on tort reform.

Herseth and Daily Kos

The blogosphere is abuzz about the outrageous post made by the operator of the Daily Kos blog regarding American citizens brutally killed, dismembered, and incinerated in Fallujah, Iraq this week ("Screw them" Kos wrote). OpinionJournal has the details. Also, read Instapundit.

Stephanie Herseth advertises on Daily Kos and has a link to Daily Kos from her website. She has reportedly reaped thousands of dollars in campaign donations as a result.

Congressman Martin Frost of Texas has already publicly repudiated Daily Kos. Stephanie Herseth should too, as the state GOP has already urged. A South Dakota political candidate has no business associating herself with someone who gloats over the barbaric murder of Americans fighting and dying to build a free and democratic Iraq.

Word on the street

It's panic mode at Daschle headquarters after their atrocious showing in the latest poll and the news that Tim Giago is running as an independent. The latest word on the street is that Tom Daschle is flying in from DC today for campaign events tonight in Sioux Falls and tomorrow in Madison. The Daschle campaign also purchased 20 new computers yesterday, indicating they're bringing in more East Coast talent in order to redouble their efforts.

A question to pose to Herseth

Earlier this week, Stephanie Herseth was quoted as making the following howler to the local press:

"EMILY's List is not a pro-abortion organization."

One blogger has a suggestion:

Someone ought to ask Stephanie Herseth to name some pro-life women that EMILY's List has supported[.]

Daschle phone call to Giago confirmed

Jeff Gannon, resident DC expert on South Dakota politics, has a new piece out today regarding Tim Giago, the Native American journalist who is running as an independent in the US Senate race, headlined "Daschle Asks Native American Not to Run Against Him." Excerpt:

[Tim] Giago, the publisher of the Lakota Journal, told Talon News that Daschle phoned him following his announcement and asked, "Do you want to be the Ralph Nader of this race?"

This is big news. But I guarantee you'll never read about it in the Argus Leader, whose editors organize the news as a political strategem for Tom Daschle, while holding out their newspaper as an impartial document of the day's most important words and events.

National Review piece on SD political history

Professor Lauck, a historian at South Dakota State University, who operates the DVT blog, has a fascinating piece in National Review today headlined "Daschle’s Dakota Past." Excerpt:

Running as a conservative Democrat, Daschle was also able to neutralize the impact of social issues. On November 1 [1986], in response to criticism of his abortion record, Daschle sent a letter to voters stating that "I am unalterably opposed to abortion on demand" and casting the issue as "a battle over human life." Daschle enclosed a letter to him from a minister, who vouched for Daschle's pro-life credentials: "I remember some of the very personal, deeply soul-searching conversations we've had on this subject. You used expletives like 'repulsive' and 'gross' in underscoring your abhorrence of abortion. You even said it is a form of murder, and I believe you are right. The bottom line is you are as opposed to abortion as I am."

Now, Bishop Carlson of the Sioux Falls, SD diocese has told Tom Daschle he can no longer call himself a Catholic because of his record on abortion. This is spun by Tom Daschle's Democratic colleagues in the Senate as an attack on Daschle's religion, as seen by Senator Harry Reid's comments on the Senate floor a week ago:

By virtue of the fact that 48 other Democrats, in a period of over 10 years, have selected the Senator from South Dakota as our leader, as a result of that the Senator does things for the caucus. I am sure the caucus is not 100-percent headed in the right direction, but we do our best to try to, and when there is ever anything that is done that is not in keeping with what this White House wants, the leader is attacked, his family is attacked, his religion is attacked, his ethics are attacked.

(Emphasis added.) It seems to me that if Senator Daschle is going to exploit religious figures to get elected, religious figures have grounds to criticize Senator Daschle when he double-crosses them.

Daschle can't break 50%

DVT is reporting that the Rapid City Journal/KOTA/KSFY has conducted a new poll of the Daschle v. Thune race showing a 48%-43% Daschle lead. Daschle has blown $6 million and can't break 50% in the polls, while his opponent has yet to run one television ad.

UPDATE: Professor Volokh takes a phlegmatic view of this development.

ANOTHER UPDATE: For more on political polling in South Dakota, see this.

Ed Schultz Watch

Al Franken's new radio show "The O'Franken Factor" debuted yesterday on the new Air America Network, which can't be a welcome development for Ed Schultz, the North Dakota radio personality touted as the liberal version of Rush Limbaugh. This XM Satellite Radio press release indicates the corporate realization that all the media suck-up now going to Al Franken and his band of lefties means Schultz is old hat.

For a less saccharine view of Franken's debut on the new Air America Network, read this new piece from the New Republic.