Johnson

Note a few items in this column by Denise Ross of the Rapid City Journal:

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is not so worried about his party's stinging losses in the 2004 election as he is about the political climate in his home state. One of his priorities is to calm the political waters in a state hit by tidal waves of national attention and the political debris that comes with it.

Um, ok.  But just for laughs, review the national blow-up that calming-the-waters Johnson caused by calling the Republican Party the "Taliban" (which even the Argus condemned).  Also from the column:

The team's first order of business will likely be the energy bill. The bill, which got derailed a year ago in a partisan fight largely over liability for MTBE manufacturers, will likely be back with slight modifications and with a compromise on MTBE, Johnson said. MTBE is methyl tertiary-butyl ether, the fuel additive that serves the same function as ethanol but turned out to be a pollutant.

Before what happened to the energy bill, i.e. a Democratic filibuster which Daschle allowed to happen without saying a peep, slides down the memory hole, read this.  Perhaps this column could use a little more, um, context.