South Dakota Politics

Ed Schultz and Democratic money

It's been awhile since I've written an "Ed Schultz Watch" post, my effort to chronicle the Democratic attempt to create the liberal version of Rush Limbaugh.  Ed Schultz, of course, is the Fargo, North Dakota-based radio talk-show host frequently touted as the liberal Rush Limbaugh.  This week came the news that Schultz has left his local talk show at KFGO in Fargo in order to focus on his national show:

Ed Schultz will stop hosting his weekday morning talk show on KFGO-AM Radio here Monday to focus on a national show he began almost a year ago, the station announced.

The Fargo station will begin airing the national show, "The Ed Schultz Show," during the afternoons. Schultz will replace "The Jack and Sandy Show," which has been discontinued, the station said.

Interestingly, the Ed Schultz Show is financed purely by money from Democratic donors.  Democracy Radio, the umbrella organization that syndicates the Ed Schultz Show, is led by Democratic media consultant Tom Athans, who is married to Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.  Last November, several Democratic senators, including Senator Daschle, "feted" Ed Schultz at a fundraiser held in Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's home in Washington, D.C., according to the New Republic.  Roll Call, the Capitol Hill publication, reported the following on October 27, 2003:

With the help of Democratic lawmakers, a progressive radio outfit plans to launch a national talk show in January, the first step by a liberal organization to gain a presence in a medium dominated by conservatives in recent years.

Partnering with Jones Radio Network, Democracy Radio has signed Ed Schultz, a North Dakota-based radio personality with a liberal bent, to deliver a progressive message....

Democratic leaders and staff have been intricately involved in the project, and Members are being enlisted to help raise money to pay for it. Several Democratic Senators are expected to attend an upcoming event at Sen. Mary Landrieu's (La.) Capitol Hill home to raise money for the venture, which is expected to cost about $1.5 million over the next two years.

(Emphasis added.)  Senator Daschle was heavily involved in this project.  Here's what CBS Marketwatch reported on Daschle's involvement in the Ed Shultz Show:

As the U.S. heads into a presidential election in 2004, Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota has high hopes for Ed Schultz.

No, Schultz isn't a candidate for the White House -- or any other office, for that matter. Schultz is a radio talk-show host in Fargo, N.D., who loves to vent on the air about politics. Daschle and other Democrats are counting on Schultz to help them counter the conservative wave on the radio and communicate their liberal message to the American people....

Daschle, speaking on a panel at Newsweek headquarters on Nov. 17, noted that Democrats lack a presence on talk-radio stations. "We've got to have that," Daschle said.

When Newsweek's Jonathan Alter said Schultz sounded newsworthy, Daschle declared: "IT IS A STORY!"

During the Daschle v. Thune campaign here in South Dakota, the Argus Leader reported an exchange between Ed Schultz and John McCain regarding John Thune's comment that Senator Daschle's attack on the administration on the eve of the Iraq war "emboldened the enemy."  You can read my post responding to that Argus Leader story HERE. 

So Senator Daschle was actively creating an "infrastructure of attack" in the form of the Ed Schultz Show, and attempted to use it in his campaign, in cooperation with the Argus Leader.  Frankly, I'm surprised that the Ed Schultz Show seems to be succeeding.  Many observers expected his show to fizzle after the election.

Kos

Daily Kos is counseling the Democrats to abandon the South, which is simply too red, and focus on the Mountain West.  Even Salt Lake City, some say, is increasingly a "bastion for the left."  Who knew?  Excerpt:

Key to the region -- a lack of obsession over mores that we see in the South. While culturally conservative, many of these states are fiercely libertarian, and resent efforts to place morality over economics.

As the Democratic Party continues to purge itself successfully of the gun albatross (the NRA won, let's move on), we can use environmental/conservation issues to wedge the sportsman vote.

The abandonment of the gun issue seems like news, doesn't it?  He doesn't mention the plains or the Dakotas.

Daschle's "Group of Ten"

From today's New York Post:

BEFORE a single Supreme Court justice has begun muttering about a nice retirement condo in Florida, a preemptive war is underway in the U.S. Senate. Democrats have been abusing their advise-and-consent role by stonewalling President Bush's judicial nominees. Republicans are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore.

But why not? If the last election proves anything, it's that Senate Democrats only discredit themselves by relying on parliamentary tricks to win.

At the center of this fight is the filibuster, which lets a minority prevent action on a bill or nomination by forcing the majority to get 60 votes to do anything.

By tradition, the filibuster has played a balancing role, making it hard for a Senate majority to run roughshod over an impassioned (typically, regional) minority. But Democrats have cheapened the practice, using it to block judges and win cheers from Hollywood liberals and "progressive" interest groups. Ten times in the last four years, they've denied a vote to appeals-court nominees despite, in some cases, clear bipartisan support to confirm them.

But the action wasn't without cost. The "Group of Ten" banished nominees gained a sort of political martyrdom, while the chief saboteur — then-Minority Leader Tom Daschle — lost his seat.

Meeting

Thune and Governor Rounds met with the South Dakota Indian tribe leaders yesterday and there were several reports--here's the Argus Leader report.

Paging Alan Alda

From Daschle's MSNBC interview yesterday:

Gangel: In the end, your colleagues came up, hugged [and] shook hands. Were there any words of advice or condolence that day that stuck with you?

Daschle: I think what mattered the most was to hear a colleague of yours say, “I love you.” You know, it's not something you hear from a colleague all that often. But it melts you.

MOTY

Is it catching on perhaps?

TIME'S PERSON OF THE YEAR seems to be getting more attention than it probably deserves, with a lot of people in the blogosphere favoring, well, bloggers.

I'd love to see that, of course, but I don't think it's terribly likely. But hey, I could be wrong, and I guess I hope I am.

Jim Geraghty has a post on the subject, and there's more at Micropersuasion and the Hypergene Mediablog, where these two faux-cover images came from.

If we see either one of them become a reality, I'll be surprised. But pleased!

UPDATE: Halfway there, anyway, according to Betsy Newmark, who says she's got the inside dope.

posted at 11:00 PM by Glenn Reynolds

Daschle misses another opportunity to decry "startling meanness" in politics

Last May, Senator Daschle gave a speech at Kansas State University decrying the "startling meanness" in politics.  Shortly after Daschle gave this speech, he failed to take the opportunity to scold his colleague Tim Johnson's "startling meanness" when Johnson likened Republicans to the Taliban at a rally in Sioux Falls.  Instead, Daschle laughed and clapped at Johnson's comment.

It appears from the facts as we know them that Daschle has missed yet another opportunity to decry the "startling meanness" in politics, according to today's edition of the Washington Post:

Even certified Hollywood liberals were reeling after Chevy Chase's potty-mouthed Bush-bashing Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, where the actor hosted an awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way....

After actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb [expletive]." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, "I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad."

Chase also said: "This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck...  and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like Kerry."

[...]

Sen. Tom Daschle, the former minority leader, looked taken aback when he went on directly after Chase. His opening line: "I've had to follow a lot of speakers, but -- "

But no denunciation of Chevy Chase's "startling meanness."  So here's Daschle hanging out with the Hollywood, Bush-bashing elite, participating in an awards ceremony for People for the American Way, and people are still wondering why South Dakotans voted Daschle out of office?

Buffalo

The Washington Post has an interesting story for tomorrow's edition headlined "Returning to a Home on the Range."

Daschle's birthday bash at the Four Seasons

I missed this "squib" from the WaPo's Richard Leiby a few weeks ago about Senator Daschle's birthday bash at the Four Seasons in New York:

He doesn't turn 57 until Thursday, but Tom Daschle, who could use some bucking up after his election loss, got to celebrate his birthday a week early when friends and family threw him a surprise party in New York. Among those toasting the defeated Senate minority leader at the Four Seasons restaurant Thursday night were his Senate pals John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Jon Corzine, Chuck Schumer and Byron Dorgan. Two businessmen and loyal Dem fundraisers hosted the event: Orin Kramer and Leo Hindery, who is hoping to replace Terry McAuliffe as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In lieu of a birthday cake, we're told, the 40 revelers enjoyed a mini-mountain of pink cotton candy served on a platter.

It's interesting to note that Daschle is once again cozying up to the likes of Kerry and Clinton after spending the campaign season distancing himself from these two.  There's also the following report given to the WaPo from a man on the scene at the Four Seasons:

New York, N.Y.: I thought you may enjoy this fun little tidbit.

Last Thursday several people from my office went to the Four Season's Restaurant Bar for drinks after work. Little did we know that the Democrats were having a party in honor of Tom Daschle that evening. Saw Daschle make his way to the party and most likely several other Dems (they looked like politicians, as opposed to business people) but I couldn't pick them out.

The "highlight" of the evening is when John Kerry showed up. Most in my office are hardcore Democrats, so they applauded as he came up the stairs (it's an open stairway) with his two secret service agents. He stopped shook hands and briefly chatted with the people from my office. One woman commented to him that he had done such a good job during the election. He responded by saying (something to the effect of) "Obviously, not good enough."

After he left another woman in my office commented that he had nice hair. About 20 minutes later, Kerry left the party stopped and said goodbye and made his way down the stairs, when the woman who commented on his hair said rather loudly, "I love your hair!" Kerry stopped, took a step back up the stairs looked up raised both arms in the air and said "Thank you" and went on his way.

He seemed very nice and made the night for several people in my office (plus we spotted Spike Lee).

Daschle on NBC this morning

NBC's "Today" show this morning featured a segment on Daschle's departure from the Senate: "Daschle: 'I feel good walking out of these doors.'" Excerpt from the transcript of the show:

Gangel: Do you blame [President Bush] for your loss?

Daschle: No, not at all.

But what does trouble Daschle? Charges the Democratic Party is "out of touch."

Daschle: I think it's unfair, Jamie. One, I think that they did a better job of organizing.  We were very, very good, but so were they. Two, I think it was a very nasty, vindictive (sic), negative campaign that worked in their case. I think that's unfortunate. I [also] think that there's a concern about security in this country and the people, all things considered, generally feel a little bit more comfortable with the incumbent than they do with the opposition.

They really pound on that "negative campaign" talking point, don't they?  You'd almost think the Dems were pure as the driven snow when it comes to negative campaigns.

McGovern, Daschle, and the Foreign Policy Debate

In case you haven't noticed, Peter Beinart is getting lots of attention for his recent cover story story in The New Republic arguing that liberals need to be more aggressive on the war on terror and less sympathetic to the anti-war left.  As precedent, he cites liberals’ embrace of anti-communism and the purge of communists and those willing to accommodate communists from the Democratic Party and leftist organizations in the 1940s.  Beinart specifically notes the purge of Henry Wallace and his followers and criticism of Wallace's pro-Soviet 1948 Presidential run (South Dakotan George McGovern attended the 1948 Wallace convention) and calls for a similar distancing of the contemporary Democratic Party from the “Wallacite grassroots that views America’s new struggle as a distraction, if not a mirage.”  Beinart cites MoveOn's statements and also quotes Michael Moore, who believes “There is no terrorist threat” and questions “Why has our government gone to such absurd lengths to convince us our lives are in danger?”  Beinart explains that “when Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Tom Daschle flocked to the Washington premiere of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ and when Moore sat in Jimmy Carter’s box at the Democratic convention, many wondered whether the Democratic Party was anti-totalitarian.”  And the criticism of Daschle during the Senate race, it should be noted, was focused less on his alleged hug of Moore than the symbolic embrace of Moore's leftism and the credibility it was given.  In his farewell address to the Senate, David Frum notes that Daschle did not discuss the major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and calls the omission “his party’s problem: For all the Dems insist that they have overcome their dovish and isolationist history, it remains the case that the defense of the nation remains a subject about which they prefer not to speak.”[2]  Liberals like Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly wonder if the “danger” of Islamic totalitarianim that worried Beinart is “truly overwhelming” and believe “anyone who was even a bit skeptical in 2002 now views the war as trivial at best, and comical or Machiavellian at worst.”[3]  Making Beinart's point about the influence of the anti-war left over the Democratic Party, the head of MoveOn’s political action committee wrote an e-mail after the election criticizing Terry McAuliffe and the Democratic Party’s “professional election losers” and claimed the party’s mantle: “We bought it, we own it, we’re going to take it back.”[4]  Beinart also noted in his article that Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who codified the liberal “fighting faith” of the 1940s with his book The Vital Center, has now abandoned his early crusade.  What Beinart did not address is Vietnam, when liberalism splintered and then became associated with the anti-war movement.  And it was that experience that shaped John Kerry and George McGovern and Tom Daschle.  In the early 1970s, the Americans for Democratic Action, which had spearheaded the liberals' efforts to purge the communists in the 1940s, enthusiastically supported George McGovern’s “Come Home, America” sentiment.  In 1977, McGovern became the president of the ADA.  President Carter, whose first major address on foreign policy condemned the nation’s “inordinate fear of communism,” welcomed Michael Moore into his box at the Democratic convention in 2004.  The 2004 ADA said of Beinart’s argument that “while we acknowledge his accurate depiction of ADA’s history, we also must point out his inaccurate contextual use of that history in this piece.”[5]  So they want nothing to do with Beinart's plan.  The editor of the Washington Monthly said after the election that “today’s Democratic political operatives, most of whom came up in the late 1960s to early 1970s and were essentially anti-war, have never been comfortable with national security.”[6]  Hence the problem for the national Democrats, explained in part by two South Dakota Senators, McGovern and Daschle.

---

[1] New Republic, December 13, 2004. 

[2] National Review Online, November 22, 2004. 

[3] December 2, 2004. 

[4] Associated Press, December 9, 2004. 

[5] William Voegeli, Claremont Institute, December 8, 2004. 

[6] Washington Monthly (December 2004). 

Blogs

The Washington Times' "Inside Politics" feature notes this:

    Blogger power
    "Bloggers received a lot of attention for helping to expose the fake documents backing up Dan Rather's '60 Minutes' story on President Bush and the Texas Air National Guard. But that's only one of the interesting ways in which the Internet is empowering people and shaping political coverage," John Fund writes at www.opinionjournal.com.
    "Indeed, the real power of bloggers in politics is how they interact with their mainstream media counterparts. Online journalism gives critics of the media a way to talk back, a platform from which to point out bias, hypocrisy and factual errors. And if the criticisms are on target, old-media institutions can't help but take note. That's exactly what just happened in South Dakota's epic Senate race between Minority Leader Tom Daschle and his GOP challenger, John Thune," Mr. Fund said.
    "South Dakota Republicans decided that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, which dominates the state's media since it's the only paper with a statewide circulation, was hopelessly biased in favor of Mr. Daschle. 'The ability to use the Internet to circumvent concentrated media power became a 21st-century updating of 19th-century Dakota populism,' says John Lauck, a history professor at the University of South Dakota who was allied with Mr. Thune.
    "Mr. Lauck and several of his friends collaborated on blogs that constantly reminded voters of contradictions between Mr. Daschle's voting record and his statements in South Dakota, as well as the Argus Leader's refusal to acknowledge them."

A reader noted that I forgot the link to the Fund story entitled "How Daschle Got Blogged"--here it is. 

Rumor

Tom Delay's press person is quitting, according to the Houston Chronicle, and notes this about the Daschle camp:

"Tom DeLay has been the subject of more urban myths than Karl Rove, Elvis, and Mikey from Life cereal combined," Roy fumed. "The patently false rumor du jour is that the leader somehow 'sent the word' to K Street not to hire defeated Sen. Tom Daschle's staff. My request to any journalist who wishes to print such completely untrue gossip is to consider the source and then ask anonymous accusers trafficking in this rumor exactly who on our staff has sent out such a message. We wish all former Daschle staffers full employment."

Whether Daschle's staff had the same wish for Roy will, sadly, likely never be answered.

"the granddaddy of them all"

Here's an excerpt from a KELO-Land Television news story tonight:

Daschle said, "If you like politics and competing this was the granddaddy of them all as far as as my public life is concerned."

Daschle says the race was the most negative and most expensive he's ever experienced. He says by election night, he was anxious, knowing the results would be close.

Daschle said, "You try to think about getting through it and hoping for the best and looking for positive signs, some indication that this is going to be successful."

Daschle realized he'd be making this concession speech at 3:30am, when it was obvious the numbers weren't in his favor. Looking back, he wishes the campaign had spent more time on health care.

Daschle said, "I think the untold story is there is a lot of pain and anxiety a lot of concern about how to address health care in the future."

But he won't get into any other issues that could have changed the election's outcome.

Daschle said, "I don't want to go there. I just don't think it has any value or merit."

OOPS:  I see Jason linked to this story below.

Now this is funny

One of the Democratic electors in Minnesota, our neighbor to the east, seems to have gotten confused about who their presidential candidate was, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Defeated Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry likely is going to get one less electoral vote nationally than he should have -- 251 instead of 252 -- because of an apparent mistake Monday by one of Minnesota's 10 DFL electors.

One of the 10 handwritten ballots cast for president carried the name of vice presidential candidate John Edwards (actually spelled "Ewards" on the ballot) rather than Kerry....

There was stunned silence after the announcement that Edwards had gotten a vote for president, but none of the 10 electors volunteered that they voted for Edwards as a protest, nor did anyone step forward to admit an error.

(Via Tim Blair.)

KELO TV interviews Daschle tonight

KELO TV tonight broadcast the first television interview of Senator Daschle since his defeat: "Daschle: One on One." 

Daschle said, "I think it was the best of times and the worst of times. They abhorred all the negative campaigning especially against Linda but we could also do something we enjoy and all be together."

Here we go again.  Daschle relishes playing up his victim status, though, as one commentator indicated, he knows how to throw an elbow.  The Daschle campaign began the debate over lobbying by falsely implying that John Thune had lobbied for pharmaceutical companies.  The Thune camp responded by noting that "only one candidate has personally profited from big drug companies. That candidate is Tom Daschle.”  (Linda Daschle, purportedly an aviation expert, had been hired in 1999 by Schering-Plough to seek a patent extension on the drug Claritin.*)

And, of course, only Senator Daschle ran television ads explicitly questioning John Thune's character.   

You can view the three-minute story leading off the broadcast by clicking HERE.

* "Tom Daschle's Hillary Problem," Washington Monthly, January/February 2002.

Insty for Time's MOTY

Glenn has my vote for Man of the Year too.  See Will Collier's rationale.

Gallup

From a new Gallup poll:

A new Gallup poll shows that the public values “values” less than November exit polls suggested, but another survey from the same outfit released today shows a historic surge in Republican party affiliation.

In Gallup's latest poll this month, those identifying themselves as Republicans jumped to 37% of the public, with Democrats now clearly trailing with 32%.

Democrats have long held more party members than Republicans. During the Clinton years, the bulge was about 5% to 6%. As recently as late-October of this year the Democratic edge was 37% to 34%.

60% of the new voters who were registered in South Dakota this year were Republican. 

Daschle and History

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. 

Awards

The 2004 Weblog Awards are now final.  And it's official--DVT beat "Talking Points Memo"!  In the "Best Election Coverage" category, DVT received 2.5%, while TPM received 2.2% of the vote.  DVT was 9th in the voting out of 15 blogs.  "Real Clear Politics" edged out "Powerline" and "Kerry Spot" for the top spot which is fine thing--RCP is a must read every day.  Also, "Powerline" edged out "Little Green Footballs" for "Best Overall Blog."

Wadhams

From today's Wall Street Journal Political Diary:

The most well-known race in the country after the presidential contest this year was the showdown between Democrat Tom Daschle and Republican John Thune. Mr. Thune's dramatic ousting of the Democratic minority leader put him in the national spotlight and made Dick Wadhams, his campaign manager, a mini-version of Karl Rove -- i.e., a rock star in the political community.

Everyone was wondering what the celebrated Mr. Wadhams would do now. Last Friday, we got the answer when he signed up as chief of staff to Senator George Allen, chair of the Senate Republican campaign committee that helped pad the party's Senate majority by four seats in last month's election. Mr. Allen clearly can spot talent, and just as clearly is thinking about running for president in 2008.

Mr. Wadhams says he will focus on running the Senator's legislative office and that talk of a White House run is premature. But someone of his caliber doesn't sign up to merely handle late-night conference committee reports on farm legislation. The 49-year-old Colorado native is credited with helping candidates as varied as Montana Senator Conrad Burns, Colorado Senator Wayne Allard and Colorado Governor Bill Owens win come-from-behind victories. Mr. Thune can't say enough about his campaign manager. "We recruited the best pit bull out there," he says.

Senator Allen has other assets, including an impressive list of donors and a name familiar to the legion of political reporters in nearby Washington, DC. True, among the 100 Senators who've run for president since Jack Kennedy won in 1960, none have made it to the White House. But Mr. Allen points to the fact that he also served as governor of Virginia from 1994 to 1998, leaving only because of the state's peculiar limit of one term for its chief executive.

Daschle: "I've been a defensive lineman most of my career"

From today's edition of USA Today:

Daschle packs up after 26 years on Hill

By William M. Welch

WASHINGTON — His elegant, red-walled Capitol office is filled with boxes of memorabilia and photos and artwork in bubble wrap. At the end of this week, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., will close the doors for the last time and leave behind the view of the National Mall that he has enjoyed for a decade.

The first Senate party leader in a half-century to be turned out of office by his state's voters, Daschle plans to shut the door as well on a political career in which he once flirted with a run for president.

It has been a quarter-century climb that made him popular with fellow Democrats for quiet but steely leadership, and the bane of Republicans for slowing or blocking GOP bills and judicial nominations.

Daschle, who turned 57 last week, claims no interest in refighting his re-election campaign, which he narrowly lost to Republican John Thune.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS •Elected to the Senate with 52% of the vote over incumbent Republican Sen. Jim Abdnor. His victory helps Democrats win control of the Senate. •1988. Named by Majority Leader George Mitchell to co-chair the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. •1992. Re-elected with 65% of the vote. •1994: Mitchell retires as majority leader, and Democrats lose their majority. Daschle runs for minority leader, defeating Sen. Christopher Dodd, 24-23. •1998. Re-elected to a third term with 62% of the vote. •2001. With the Senate deadlocked 50-50, becomes majority leader for 17 days until Dick Cheney replaces Al Gore as vice president. Regains the majority leader's job in June when Sen. Jim Jeffords quits the GOP to become an independent. •2003. Becomes minority leader again after Republicans win Senate control. 2004. Loses re-election to Republican John Thune by fewer than 5,000 votes out of 391,000 cast.

"There are no regrets. I'm very much at peace with my 26 years and career here," Daschle said in an interview Friday. "It's so unproductive to worry about how the election could have been different."

Daschle also steered clear of criticizing President Bush, whose political operation helped Thune. Nor did he discuss Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who tossed aside Senate traditions by personally campaigning against the minority leader in his home state. And he avoided the Democratic Party's debate over new leadership in the wake of presidential nominee John Kerry's loss.

Daschle, whose party lost four Senate seats in the elections and will now have 44 to the GOP's 55, delivered a farewell speech last month urging more bipartisan cooperation. Yet when he delivered the speech on the Senate floor, most Republican desks were empty while Democrats filled theirs.

As Daschle considers his own next act, he has met with other politicians to learn how they handled the loss of power: George Mitchell, his predecessor as Senate Democratic leader; former president Bill Clinton; former Republican Senate leader Bob Dole, who lost the 1996 presidential election.

"Just about the universal advice is: Don't make any early decisions," Daschle said.

He said he has no interest in becoming a lobbyist, a frequent, lucrative path from Congress. He may teach and write, plans to enter business and wants to stay involved in issues he cares about most — international affairs, Native American concerns, global hunger, AIDS and rural economic development.

Daschle, who was elected Senate Democratic leader in December 1994, will be remembered for his role in a time of tumult — including 9/11, an anthrax attack that targeted him and killed two postal workers, and a Senate evenly divided between parties after the 2000 elections. "My proudest accomplishments are helping steer the country through some awfully difficult times — impeachment, Sept. 11, the anthrax attack."

He cited among his accomplishments expanded federal health care for children, seniors and veterans, and unfinished efforts to regulate managed care health plans.

As for future battles, he assailed Bush's plan to use a portion of Social Security taxes to finance personal savings accounts. "One of the worst ideas they have brought forth — and that's saying a lot."

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.

The Impact of Blogging

From today's Wall Street Journal:

How Daschle Got Blogged
And how online journalism is transforming politics.

Monday, December 13, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Bloggers received a lot of attention for helping to expose the fake documents backing up Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" story on President Bush the Texas Air National Guard. But that's only one of the interesting ways in which the Internet is empowering people and shaping political coverage.

Indeed, the real power of bloggers in politics is how they interact with their mainstream media counterparts. Online journalism gives critics of the media a way to talk back, a platform from which to point out bias, hypocrisy and factual errors. And if the criticisms are on target, old-media institutions can't help but take note. That's exactly what just happened in South Dakota's epic Senate race between Minority Leader Tom Daschle and his GOP challenger, John Thune.

South Dakota Republicans decided that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, which dominates the state's media since it's the only paper with a statewide circulation, was hopelessly biased in favor of Mr. Daschle. "The ability to use the Internet to circumvent concentrated media power became a 21st-century updating of 19th-century Dakota populism," says John Lauck, a history professor at the University of South Dakota who was allied with Mr. Thune. Mr. Lauck and several of his friends collaborated on blogs that constantly reminded voters of contradictions between Mr. Daschle's voting record and his statements in South Dakota, as well as the Argus Leader's refusal to acknowledge them.

"South Dakotas have for the first time been hearing a few things about 'ole Tom' that have surprised," reported The Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel from South Dakota last October. "Mr. Daschle has assured voters he supports a state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Yet in July he voted against a similar constitutional amendment that two-thirds of South Dakotans support. He was a free trader, but now he's not. He's for legal change, but blocked every tort bill. He beats up on drug companies, though his wife, Linda Daschle, lobbies for them."

Patrick Lalley, the Argus Leader's assistant managing editor, acknowledges that the blogs had an impact on how his paper covered the Senate race. They certainly got under the skin of some of the paper's executives. Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, called some of the bloggers work "crap" and said they represented an organized effort by conservatives to discredit his paper. In July, he explained to readers that "true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions, can now spew forth on their own blogs, thereby playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue. If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog."

The blogging of South Dakota began in late 2002, after Mr. Thune lost a Senate race to incumbent Tim Johnson, a Daschle protégé, by 524 votes. Republicans felt that both the campaign and subsequent allegations of voter fraud had been unfairly covered by the mainstream media. Jason Van Beek, a student at the University of South Dakota, launched a site called South Dakota Politics. Mr. Van Beek declared he would monitor the "biased coverage" he detected in the Argus Leader. Indeed, in the spring of 2004, Mr. Van Beek publicized memos he had discovered written in the 1970s that revealed the Democratic connections of David Kranz, the Argus Leader's chief political writer. In the memos, aides to Democratic former senator James Abourezk refer to Mr. Kranz as a "good Democrat" whom their office should use to push stories.

Supporters of the Argus Leader fired back a few weeks later with their own allegations of bias when the Thune campaign began paying Mr. Van Beek and Mr. Lauck to conduct research for the GOP campaign. Through October, Mr. Lauck received $27,000 and Mr. Van Beek received $8,000. Some of the work they did included analyzing a poll taken by the Thune campaign which found that 55% of the state's voters viewed the Argus Leader's coverage as biased. "The difference was that everyone was aware the bloggers were biased, while the Argus Leader pretended otherwise," says Paul Erickson, a Republican activist who helped publish and distribute an unfavorable paperback on Mr. Daschle that helped shape public opinion.

The blogs and other alternative media outlets became the tail wagging the media dog. "Argus Leader reporters said the pressure from the blogs increased until a 'siege mentality' took over at the paper, according to one source. Complaints flooded the paper's office," National Journal's John Stanton reported.

The paper's readers also began to take notice of the range of coverage available on the blogs that mysteriously didn't show up in their local paper. "The Argus Leader often doesn't present the whole picture in its political coverage," Wendy Otheim, a teacher from Hartford, S.D., wrote the paper in October. "A multitude of blog sites make for interesting reading. Don't be held a captive audience to the Argus Leader." To its credit, the paper ran Ms. Otheim's letter.

Blogs are likely to pop up in other races, especially in states where media coverage of politics tends to be dominated by only one or two major sources. "I know people in Minnesota noticed the Daschle-Thune blogs, " Steve Sviggum, Minnesota's Republican House speaker, told me. "I would hope bloggers will be all over the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2006," he added, referring to the state's largest daily paper.

Indeed, a blog called Dayton v, Kennedy has already started up, anticipating a face-off between Sen. Mark Dayton, a Democratic freshman, and Rep. Mark Kennedy, a Republican. Much of its early coverage has focused on Mr. Dayton's bizarre decision to close his Senate office for a month in October, allegedly because of an unspecified threat of terrorism. No other member of Congress took a similar step.

It's clear that political candidates will continue to cultivate bloggers and their readers. John Kerry sent the first word of his selection of John Edwards as his running mate to readers of his official campaign blog. President Bush's campaign responded with a campaign ad on its Web site featuring an endorsement by Sen. John McCain, whom Kerry had pitched to consider a spot on his ticket.

Technology is moving so fast that there are now a growing number of video bloggers, or "vloggers," who look toward the day when they can produce original programming, bypassing the usual broadcast networks and cable channels. Dan Rather may have done more than legitimize the blogging community with his scandal. He may have helped accelerate a radical decentralization of media power that will turn bloggers into future anchors of their own mini-news programs.

WaPo profiles defeated Daschle

The Washington Post has an article today headlined "After an Often-Tumultuous Tenure, Daschle Exits Quietly." Excerpt:

"One of the biggest ironies of the election result is that nobody fought harder for his state, thought more about the people of the state or spent more time in his state than Tom Daschle, despite the burdens of national leadership," said Joel Johnson, a lobbyist and former aide to Daschle and Clinton. "I think it's something South Dakotans are going to come to regret."

Daschle constantly reminded voters of his national leadership role, going so far as to run an ad in which a fellow declared that a small town in South Dakota would have died if hadn't been for Tom Daschle. I think many South Dakotans were turned off by this condescending attitude, and I think it was a factor in their voting behavior.

The following passage in the article will real ring particularly hollow in the ears of "progressive" true believers:

Despite the GOP's strong showing last month, Daschle said Democrats should not compromise principles or move to the right -- but instead should stick to their "progressive" principles. He added that the country is narrowly divided, and "it wouldn't take much for the progressive movement in this country to be the majority movement again."

This from someone who consistently moved to the right during this election year, on issues like taxes, abortion, and gun control.

Market Entry

Dan Gillmor:

I'll be leaving the San Jose Mercury Newsnext month to work on a citizen-journalism project.

I hope to pull together something useful that helps enable -- and demonstrates -- the emerging grassroots journalism that I wrote about in my recent book. Something powerful is happening, it's in the early stages and I have a chance to help figure this out.

I'm not ready to discuss the specifics yet, mainly because I have many more ideas than I could possibly try to put into practice at this point -- and we're early in the process of working out the venture's actual form.

One hears more and more about such projects unfolding, including in South Dakota, because there are so many complaints about the MSM.  I thoroughly enjoyed Gillmor's book, "We the Media," last summer. 

Daschle Interview

Reporter Jennifer Sanderson of the Argus Leader asks some interesting questions of Senator Daschle today.  Here are a few:

Q: Are modern Democrats too liberal for South Dakotans? Do South Dakota Democrats need to be more conservative to win?

A: "Not at all. South Dakotans are in many ways very progressive people. I think it would be a big mistake for our party to try to be more like conservatives. ... We are the party of progressive ideas and progressive policy. The Social Security system, the Medicare system, rural electrification, highway programs, public education, equal rights – these are all progressive ideas. I still believe we have an agenda and a role today. We don't need two conservative parties. We need a progressive party and a conservative party, and we need to find as much common ground as we can, to try to resolve the differences among us. The common ground of politics is not on the far left or far right. It's in the middle."

Q: What advice do you have for Thune in that respect?

A: "I'd want to think about that a while. One thing he will get is lots of advice from a lot of people. I'm not really in a position to be giving him advice."

Q: Rep. Stephanie Herseth launched a much more conservative race than you did. Did running at the same time make you appear too liberal in contrast?

A: "I don't think that had any affect whatsoever. I think on 95 or 98 percent of the issues, we find ourselves in agreement. She's a Democrat and I'm a Democrat."

Well, of course the national Democrats are too liberal for South Dakota.  That's why Daschle kept avoiding them and Herseth ran as Barry Goldwater light.  And it's simply not true that she didn't hurt Daschle.  Some Democrats are furious with her, as the blog has reported and as they've told me personally.  But hey, it's understandable that Daschle can't say that.  Here's one more, which is rather disturbing in its arrogance (read:  'I can't believe the idiot voters did this'):

Q: How much greater would have your odds been if you'd not been the minority leader?

A: "This position of leadership has had profound consequences for South Dakota, and I have been blessed to be able to use this leadership role to put our priorities at the highest level in the Senate and in the country. I don't know that a small state like ours can fully appreciate the magnitude of what that means because they're not connected with it and not fully aware of what it means. They probably never will be, and that's OK too."