Heritage Foundation scholar Michael Frank was quoted in a piece about newly minted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid today regarding how the Democrats will interpret Daschle's defeat. Relevant graf:
"The test there," he said, "is what lessons did the Democratic Caucus as a whole take from Daschle's defeat. If they can rationalize to themselves that his loss has nothing to do with blocking and obstructing judges then they will behave the same way."
But if Daschle's defeat is viewed as a "political referendum on the obstructionist strategy, then [Reid] may be a little more cautious about picking his fights," Franc said. He said it is too early to tell how Daschle's loss is being interpreted by Democrats.
Karl Struble, Daschle's media consultant, claims that Daschle's defeat is something of an aberration. Here's what Struble was quoted as saying in Roll Call recently (Via DVT):
“You can overanalyze South Dakota, because in this case you had somebody who was a national leader,” said Democratic media consultant Karl Struble, who handled the television strategy for Daschle. For someone like Daschle, it is “easier to ascribe the national party agenda” to them.
It seems Struble is saying that it's harder for red-state Dems to lie about their positions when those red-state Dems are national leaders, who for some strange reason are easily ascribed with the national party agenda. (Gee, maybe the national party agenda was easily ascribed to Daschle as a consequence of him wholeheartedly embracing that agenda.) Ultimately, it seems the Dems are interpreting Daschle's loss as an aberration. Hopefully, they'll keep kidding themselves like this.
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