Argus Leader profiles Mrs. Daschle

The Argus Leader has published a profile of Linda Daschle, the corporate lobbyist spouse of Senator Daschle, headlined "As lobbyist, Linda Daschle navigates ethical minefield." The scrutiny of Linda Daschle is far more circumspect and far less hard-hitting than the Argus Leader's scrutiny of Harriet Pressler, the wife of Senator Larry Pressler, in 1990.

Still, it is to be commended that the AL published a wide-ranging profile of Linda Daschle that at least mentions some of the more brow-raising events in the interwoven careers of the senator and his spouse four weeks before the election. As one CNBC reporter noted, South Dakotans "will have to decide if they have a problem" with the fact that "her work as a lobbyist means big companies with business on Capitol Hill can legally put money into Tom Daschle's bank account."

The AL story reports the telling detail that Linda Daschle "drives herself to work in a blue Jaguar" and then proceeds briefly through some of the more controversial episodes in the long careers of Senator Daschle and his wife in Washington, DC. Here's the brief treatment of the story about the "Daschle Squeeze":

After a 1994 plane crash in North Dakota killed four men, the government investigated whether Sen. Daschle had acted improperly on behalf of the plane's owner, a personal friend, to limit safety inspections. Linda Daschle, then second in command at the Federal Aviation Administration, was investigated after officials said documents related to the crash had been destroyed.

Both Daschles were cleared of any wrong. The Senate Ethics Committee exonerated Sen. Daschle. The Transportation Department found that Linda Daschle had not violated her pledge to avoid involvement in aviation matters connected to her husband or South Dakota, The New York Times reported.

This story was even covered by "60 Minutes," which is where the phrase "the Daschle Squeeze" comes from.

Then the AL story offers exactly two sentences about the fact that in 1999, Linda Daschle was hired by the pharmaceutical Schering-Plough to protect their patent for Claritin:

In 1999, Linda Daschle lobbied for pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough in its effort to get Congress to protect the company's exclusive rights to the prescription drug Claritin....

Linda Daschle said when her work for Schering-Plough was questioned: "We have tried to separate as best as we possibly can our activities."

There's no explanation of why someone whose lobbyist expertise is supposedly restricted only to commerical aviation somehow became an expert on the pharmaceutical industry. Somehow, I would think that's worth investigating. Here's the AP story on the matter.

Then there's the issue of Boeing, one of Linda Daschle's clients, leasing 100 air tankers to the Air Force. The AL reports:

In 2003, the [New York] Times mistakenly reported that Linda Daschle had lobbied on a controversial $20 billion plan to lease 100 air tankers from Boeing Corp. The Times ran a correction, saying Daschle lobbies for Boeing but only on commercial, not military, issues. Critics checked the fine print and found that she was listed as a lobbyist for that bill. But further checking shows she did not work on defense issues, only Transportation Department matters pertaining to airlines, such as hiring sky marshals and modifying cockpit doors in the wake of 9-11.

I'm not sure why Boeing, a company that only builds airplanes, would care about "matters pertaining to airlines" or the "hiring of sky marshals." That seems awfully altruistic for a big corporation. For further review, here's the post I wrote on the "small print" referred to in today's AL story.

The Washington Monthly has a hard-hitting piece on Mrs. Daschle headlined "Tom Daschle's Hillary problem."

LA Weekly has a hard-hitting piece on Mrs. Daschle headlined "I'm Linda, Fly Me."

Slate has a hard-hitting piece headlined "Why Dems Should Be Glad Daschle Won't Run; He's got a big problem. Her name is Linda."

DVT and Sibby have a lot more.