We have given the story of Tom Daschle's new job some attention here at SDPolitics. The main reason is that it highlights what I suppose was the single issue that cost Senator Daschle reelection: the question whether he was still a resident of Aberdeen, or of Washington D.C. As I have indicated, I do not regard this as a moral question. Many national politicians do not return to their home states after they leave office. Bob Dole is one. Bill and Hillary are two more. The whole point of sending someone like Daschle to Washington is so he will involve himself in national affairs, hopefully with the interests of his home state in mind. On that score I have no quarrel with our former Senator.
But in a place like South Dakota, too much detachment from the home turf can cost such a politician as Daschle, and in this case it cost him dearly. I bid him godspeed. It cannot hurt to have a homeboy among the power brokers of the beltway.
I add what I have said elsewhere in print: that I liked and admired Daschle. He was a brilliant politician, and was scrupulous respectful to anyone, like me, who was willing to talk with him. I did not vote for him, for the simple reason that I am a conservative Republican and he did not represent my point of view.
I wonder what Daschle would think of the following lines tapped out in his honor:
South Dakota has shown its great capacity for plain old uncouth red-neck stupidity in the matter of Tom Daschle's future. Newspapers, blogs, and discussion boards are filled with observations and opinions. Few ask the question (although some almost have) of what there is for a person of Tom Daschle's experience, knowledge, connections, and progressive attitude to do in South Dakota. And after the electorate endorsed a particularly debased and intellectually perverted attack by John Thune against him and his family, why would South Dakota be even a remote consideration? Some go so far to suggest that if Tom Daschle had any real interest in South Dakota, he would return here. The only conclusion to be drawn from that attitude is that there is no reasoning with dementia.
Maybe our former Senator is sore about the way that the campaign was conducted, but I like to think he would chafe at the suggestion that he has left because he is just too big a man to stay in such a small place. I like to think that he has left us with some fondness in his heart, and not contempt for our "plain old uncouth red-neck stupidity." Daschle was short enough in physical stature. But I think he was a bigger man than that.
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