Daschle plays up his victim status with tear-stained e-mails

Rapid City Journal political reporter Denise Ross has a piece in today's edition headlined "Campaign ads go on the attack." Excerpt:

The chamber's $300,000 investment over two weeks outpaced the ad spending of either campaign, according to Daschle's campaign. Daschle's campaign workers pointed out a corresponding drop in Thune's own planned TV spending during the two weeks the chamber ads will run.

Daschle said his Republican challenger should intervene.

"If John does detest negative ads as much as he says, then now is the time to stand up for the people of South Dakota and tell his friends that South Dakota deserves better," Daschle said in a news release.

Then, Daschle's campaign sent out an e-mail, the ink smeared by tears over the deplorable ads, with a link for supporters to give money to Daschle's campaign so something can be done about this.

Then the Daschle campaign put up its own ad, with a string of Republicans decrying negative ads and one calling directly on Thune to "stop running negative ads." Then Thune's campaign manager called Daschle a liar.

"John Thune has not aired a negative ad. They are lying and run their own negative ad when they accuse him of doing so," Dick Wadhams said.

(Emphasis added.) I don't quite understand why Daschle is so troubleddisappointedalarmed by these Chamber of Commerce ads. The ad says that Daschle "killed medical malpractice lawsuit reform" and "sided with the wealthy trial lawyers." Well, that's indisputable. Daschle is happy to take trial lawyer money (they're his biggest donors) and receive awards in New York City for blocking tort reform. If Daschle is proud to be a strong voice for trial lawyers in New York, why is he bemoaning the fact that the Chamber of Commerce is letting South Dakotans know he's a strong voice for trial lawyers?