NYT reports on the Daschle residency kerfuffle

The New York Times has just published a report by Sheryl Gay Stolberg headlined "For Daschle, a Fire Over His Home Keeps Burning":

Republican opponents of Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, who is in a tough re-election race in his home state of South Dakota, have spent months jabbing at him for the $2 million house he owns on Foxhall Road, in one of Washington's toniest neighborhoods. Last week, though, they really began turning up the heat.

Mr. Daschle's opponent, former Representative John Thune, rapped Mr. Daschle for taking a $288 "homestead deduction" tax break in the District of Columbia by signing paperwork stating that his Washington home was his principal residence. Mr. Daschle, who owns the house in Aberdeen, S.D., in which his mother lives, rejected the charge, saying the tax paperwork had since been changed to reflect the signature of his wife, Linda, a lobbyist [more accurately, changed after a pesky reporter started asking questions about it-ed].

Then Mr. Thune began airing a television ad, entitled "In His Own Words," that features a brief clip of Mr. Daschle declaring, "I'm a D.C. resident." It turns out that Mr. Daschle was quoted talking to reporters during one of his regular Capitol press conferences, on June 6, 2001. That was just after Senator Jim Jeffords had left the Republican Party to become an independent and caucus with the Democrats, a move that put Democrats in control of the Senate and made Mr. Daschle majority leader until the 2002 midterm elections.

Mr. Daschle, undoubtedly in good spirits at the time, was asked what the new Democrat-run Senate would mean for residents of the District of Columbia. His questioner, according to the Daschle campaign, was Mark Plotkin, a local news commentator whose interests tend to such matters as whether Washingtonians will ever get representation in Congress, and whether the city will ever have home rule.

"What would the residents - how should they feel about that?" Mr. Plotkin asked, according to a transcript.

"Well," Mr. Daschle replied, "I would hope they'd feel good. I'm a D.C. resident."

The transcript suggests the remark was made in jest: The senator's reply is followed by a one-word notation: "(LAUGHTER)"