In contrast to what some leftist South Dakota bloggers are saying, Senator Thune has had a productive first 100 days:
"Because of the gridlock and acrimony that have existed here, it (Congress) has been hamstrung in terms of getting things done," he said, reviving a familiar theme that South Dakota voters heard throughout his 2004 campaign with Daschle, then Senate minority leader. "As a consequence, there have been issues that have been left on the cutting room floor that never got through the process. But in the first 60 days of the session, we've already taken a couple and moved them and gotten them off the books."
Among them:
* Class-Action Fairness Act. "It's a litigation reform measure that has been around for years," Thune said. It was signed into law in February.
* Bankruptcy legislation. "I first voted on that in 1998 when I was in the House," Thune said. "You might look at it and say it's not an issue on the top of a lot of people's minds, but it is a piece of legislation that needed to be done because a lot of folks figured out a way to abuse the current system." It has passed the Senate.
* Oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It has some hurdles to clear, but inclusion in a budget resolution was a first step. "I voted on that in 1999," Thune said.
* Ethanol. Thune's bill establishing a renewable fuels mandate requiring refineries to blend 6 billion gallons of ethanol into gasoline by 2012 and phasing out the use of MTBE was passed in mid-March by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
"I think we are off to a good start," Thune said. "There's a lot of heavy lifting ahead n- I don't have any delusions about that. I just feel like that's what my whole campaign was about - that there are things we need to get done, things that have been stalled out for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with the substance or merits of the issues but with the politics of Washington. I think we are now in a position to get some things passed and done."
That list omits committee passage of a bill that would increase South Dakota's highway dollars by $60 million from the House version secured by Rep. Herseth.
Sen. Thune also discussed balancing South Dakota interests with his national notoriety:
The national recognition "has added a dimension we didn't have to deal with so much before, and that's the scheduling requests we get to go to different places," Thune acknowledged in an interview with the Rapid City Journal in his Washington office last month. "But my priority, particularly early on, is to work on legislation and to keep the South Dakota focus first and foremost. To the degree that I have the time and energy, I am doing some of those requests, but very selectively," he said.
Sen. Thune has already moved into a leadership position as Deputy Whip:
Thune has also been named a deputy whip, part of the group that supports McConnell.
"The whips in the Senate are different from the House," Thune said. "The House is a more disciplined place and has more of a command structure. In the Senate, it's more like herding cats or nailing Jell-O to a tree," he said, chuckling. "The House leadership has more influence in terms of being able to hold your feet to the fire because they have more control through that gatekeeper called the Rules Committee. In the Senate, in my view, individual members have a higher level of leverage when it comes to votes. There isn't as much what I would call heavy pressure. It's more finding the right person to talk to the person who might be wavering on an issue."
Senator Thune's position is distinguishable from that of Daschle, to our benefit. Senator Thune is free to be a conservative, whether he's in South Dakota, Washington, or elsewhere. South Dakota is a conservative state and Senator Thune does not have to pretend to be likewise. The leftists criticize Sen. Thune's support of the President's agenda, apparently forgetting that Bush carried South Dakota with 60% of the vote. However, Sen. Thune is realistic about political life:
"This time, I was very pointed in the campaign about things I wanted to accomplish. I am going to do everything I can to follow through on that, and sometimes, it is not going to make everybody happy."
In contrast, Tom Daschle, as the liberal leader of the party of Kennedy, Kerry, Boxer, and Dean, only hoped that enough pork and ridiculous campaign commercials would be enough to fleece South Dakota voters into yet another term. Sen. Thune does not have to applaud Micheal Moore and hug President Bush. We now have a Senator with clout but without the baggage.
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