After the release of the new Mayo video featuring Tom Daschle attacking the DM&E railroad, it's worth remembering a few stories about Daschle and DM&E. I noted back in May that Daschle's appointment to the Mayo Clinic board of directors was directly motivated to oppose the DM&E railroad project, which is "the largest rail project in the U.S. in more than a century." Daschle consistently denied his involvement. In an Argus Leader story by David Kranz on February 26, 2006, he wrote:
Lee Aase, Mayo Clinic spokesman, says there is no motive.
“We ordinarily don’t comment on new members of the board of trustees, but people from government, public officials from both parties who have served in a distinguished way, like Vice President Cheney, Barbara Bush, Vice President Walter Mondale, have served on the board. … So it is a tradition that has been carried on a long time,” Aase said.
Steve Hildebrand, a Daschle spokesman, says it is a reach to think Mayo’s interest in Daschle is because of DM&E.
“The two things are absolutely unrelated in any way, shape or form,” Hildebrand said. “I would say it is overstating Mayo Clinic’s concern about the DM&E Railroad.”
The Rapid City Journal reported:
Former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle said Tuesday that his recent appointment to the board of directors of the Mayo Clinic would not put him at odds with a Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad project opposed by the clinic.
"I was just elected to the Mayo board about a week ago. I have never discussed this issue with the people of the Mayo Clinic," Daschle said of the railroad's proposed $2.5 billion project. "I am not working against it and have nothing to do with the DM&E project now."
Then the Associated Press reported this in May:
Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle said Wednesday he is backing efforts to prevent the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad from running more trains near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Daschle, who joined the Mayo Clinic's board of directors earlier this year, said the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based railroad should try harder to find a solution in a dispute with the clinic.
The railroad's expansion and renovation plan includes rebuilding its 600 miles of track through South Dakota and Minnesota and building 280 miles of new line into Wyoming's Powder River Basin coalfields.
The city of Rochester and the clinic said the expansion would mean more trains running through the city and near the hospital. Mayo officials have argued that the increased traffic and the possibility of accidents could put their patients in danger.
The railroad is being unreasonable, Daschle said.
"It just seems to me to be insensitive to the needs and concerns of arguably the finest hospital in the world to say there's only one route and, like it or not, this is the only option we can agree to," Daschle said. "I think there has to be more willingness to give and take and to find a win-win solution here."
The railroad could go around or under the city instead of through it, Daschle suggested. "I don't think the Mayo clinic is asking for too much."
Kevin Schieffer, DM&E president, disagrees. The idea of going around or under the city is "goofy" and would be difficult to pull off, Schieffer said. "You can't go around the city without going somewhere else."
Schieffer said the Mayo Clinic has not come to him with specific proposals for alternate routes.
"I would welcome an open dialogue with the Mayo Clinic or Senator Daschle, or anyone they want to designate, to explain what it is they are proposing," Schieffer said. "I don't think they have a clue what they want."
Schieffer said the railroad project will bring more jobs to South Dakota, boost crop prices and help small communities along the line.
Bill Janklow, a former congressman and governor, also is working with a group of consultants brought in by the city of Rochester to address local concerns about the railroad.
Sen. John Thune, the Republican who defeated Daschle in 2004, is on the other side of the debate.
He inserted language into a transportation bill last summer that expanded the amount of federal money available for small railroads to borrow, helping DM&E apply for a $2.5 billion government loan. Thune had lobbied for the railroad before he was elected.
Thune and the other two members of South Dakota's congressional delegation, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth, wrote the Federal Railroad Administration this week questioning a recent Mayo Clinic-commissioned analysis that asserted DM&E would not be able to repay the federal loan.
Daschle said he hasn't spoken with Schieffer but hopes to take a more active role in the dispute.
"I want to be helpful in finding some middle ground and to help mediate this problem to the extent anyone can," he said.
You can see how Daschle's former position of "having nothing to do with the railroad" quickly changed to supporting the Mayo Clinic's efforts to prevent DM&E plans.
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