Here's an excerpt from a story in tomorrow's New York Times:
Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesSenator Tom Daschle, in his office on Friday, talked of how his political plans did not unfold as dreamed.
Daschle Reflects on Past and Looks Ahead
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and CARL HULSE
Published: December 12, 2004
ASHINGTON, Dec. 11 - Like so many politicians who came of age in the 1960's, Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota was inspired by the activism of the era. But his 26-year career in Congress - ending with a tumultuous decade as Senate Democratic leader that included a presidential impeachment, terrorist attacks and poisonous anthrax directed at Mr. Daschle personally - did not unfold exactly as he had hoped.
"My dream in coming to the Senate was to be an offensive quarterback," Senator Daschle said Friday morning, in his first interview since losing a bitter re-election campaign in his home state last month, "and for the most part, I've been a defensive lineman. It's been stopping bad things from happening."
That defensive role prompted Republicans to tag Mr. Daschle with the label "obstructionist," which helped cost him his job, landing him a place in history as the first sitting Senate leader to be defeated for re-election in more than half a century.
At the end of this week, he will move out of his elegant chandeliered suite on the second floor of the Capitol, leaving behind the trappings of power - his fabulous view of the Washington monument, his phalanx of aides, the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington on his office wall - for a new, and as yet undefined life in the private sector.
The Argus Leader's front page today also had a blurb about a story they are going to run tomorrow about Daschle speaking out.
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