Last Friday, Tom Daschle talked to reporters for the first time since the election. The stories in The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, and Argus Leader were previously linked to on this site. Daschle declined to talk about the campaign and why he lost, but here's a list of 26 factors which played a role for you to chew on if you're interested. In terms of Daschle's place in history, he is right about his role as a "defensive lineman," i.e. someone playing defense against the forces of Reaganism which came to power about the time he was elected to Congress. While he was a Kennedy-Johnson/Great Society/anti-war enthusiast in the 1960s, by the time he came to Congress the mid-century liberal consensus was crumbling and Daschle had to adjust and run as a conservative/moderate Democrat in the late 1970s. When he came to be leader of the Democrats, who were stridently opposing the Bush administration, he wasn't a Mike Mansfield-type Senate leader guiding through major pieces of legislation for the Democrats--he was trying to stop the Republicans from passing bills. From the USA Today story:
The criticism reminded Daschle that for most of his time as his party's leader, he has been opposing the other side's ideas rather than advancing his own. "I always wanted to be an offensive quarterback," he said. "But I've been a defensive lineman most of my career." And, he agreed, defensive linemen get hit on every play.
Daschle was blocking lots of things that various people and groups wanted passed, which is why there was so much anger in DC and criticism of him.
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