South Dakota Politics

The Daschle mansion

Be sure to visit www.daschlemansion.com for the details on Senator Daschle's multi-million dollar D.C. mansion, purchased with cash from corporate interests with business before Daschle on Capitol Hill.

More from Quentin

Quentin asks: "Why is she voting here?"

Roll Call reports brouhaha surrounding Linda Daschle

Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, has a report today headlined "GOP Makes Issue of Daschle’s Wife." Excerpt:

The Thune campaign took out a full-page ad in Saturday’s Argus Leader, the newspaper of Sioux Falls, that excerpted a report filed with the Senate Office of Public Records showing Linda Daschle’s name on the form for her firm’s lobbying on behalf of Schering-Plough. At the time the company was seeking a patent extension on its anti-allergy drug, Claritin.

Noting that the company paid $470,000 to Daschle’s firm, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, the Thune ad ends with the line: “Only one candidate has personally profited from big drug companies. That candidate is Tom Daschle.”

The South Dakota Republican Party also sent out a four-page mailer that went after Linda Daschle’s lobbying for airlines that benefited from a post-Sept. 11, 2001, bailout supported by Sen. Daschle and all Congressional leaders as well as by Thune himself.

Thune’s aides stayed on the offensive Monday, suggesting their attacks were based on stories from mainstream or left-leaning publications such as The Washington Monthly, Slate and L.A. Weekly. Dick Wadhams, Thune’s campaign manager, said the “clear conflict of interest Linda Daschle” is involved in was first aired “long before this campaign started.”

“There is literally only one candidate in this race who has personally profited from pharmaceutical companies,” Wadhams reiterated.

It should be noted that Thune's print ad criticizing Daschle for personally profiting from pharmaceutical companies came AFTER Daschle began running television ads last Wednesday lying about Thune lobbying for "big drug companies." In reality, Thune only lobbies for South Dakota companies.

It's interesting to observe that the first candidate to bring up the issues of lobbying and abortion in television ads has been Daschle, not Thune.

The backyard of Daschle's mansion

The picture above is the backyard of Senator Daschle's multi-million dollar mansion in one of Washington, D.C's most exclusive neighborhoods. It's no wonder Daschle has signed a legal document describing himself as a resident of the District, and tells interviewers "I'm a D.C. resident."

What it means to have "gone Washington"

DVT obtained the picture above of the "loggia" of Senator Daschle's multi-million dollar home, which is in one of Washington's "most coveted" neighborhoods. No wonder Daschle looks so giddy when he tells people "I'm a DC resident."

Mail piece on Linda Daschle

DVT says he's received a mail piece today about some of Linda Daschle's controversial lobbying activities. I got it in the mail today too. It's a four page piece sent out by the South Dakota Republican Party. I took a picture of each page, and the pages are shown below:

The last page points to a piece written in the liberal Washington Monthly by Stephanie Mencimer headlined "Tom Daschle's Hillary problem" as well as to an article in the USA Today headlined "Daschle, lobbyist wife vow to keep careers separate."

The Hill: Linda Daschle "top lobbyist"

The Capitol Hill publication The Hill has highlighted Linda Daschle as a "top lobbyist" for the aviation industry based on "conversations with the major players on K Street, congressional staffers and other Washington insiders." Excerpt from The Hill:

Linda Hall Daschle, wife of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), is a veteran when it comes to aviation issues. During President Bill Clinton’s first term, she served as second-in-command at the Federal Aviation Administration. Before that, Daschle lobbied at the ATA and then the AAAE. So even though she voluntarily does not lobby the Senate, her contacts in the aviation world and her knowledge of the issues are as good as anyone’s in the industry.

Daschle mentions lobbyist friend at SD Tech Summit

I attended the annual South Dakota Technology Summit in Sioux Falls yesterday, an event sponsored by Tom Daschle. There were a couple of interesting items, one involving E-Trade CEO Mitch Caplan and the other involving FCC Commissioner Jonathon Adelstein.

Tom Daschle introduced Mitch Caplan, and while doing so mentioned Betsy Barclay, E-Trade's lobbyist, who Daschle said was a friend of his and his wife, Linda. Linda Daschle, of course, is a powerful DC lobbyist. Mitch Caplan praised Barclay's ability to "pull together" members of congress whenever a piece of legislation affecting E-Trade arises. Caplan even talked about treating congressional members to a Rolling Stones concert in DC (lamenting the fact that he was extremely late to a lobbying meeting with congressional members prefacing the Stones concert, which incensed Betsy, who had worked hard to "pull people together" in DC, presumably including Tom Daschle). It was remarkable how candid Daschle and Caplan were about these lobbying activities.

The picture below is of Caplan and Daschle during the "Q & A session," which strangely seemed to be questions written by Daschle staffers, as we in the audience were never offered the opportunity to ask questions, or write them down to give to someone.

During the "breakout sessions," the audience was allowed to ask questions at the conclusion of the speaker's remarks. I attended the session hosted by FCC Commissioner and South Dakota native Jonathon Adelstein. A remarkable comment made by Adelstein was his criticism of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which he said often "acts as a mini-FCC." "They're obsessed with telecommunications issues," said Adelstein. "They think they know better than us, but they're just judges." A questioner also asked Adelstein to talk about the hurdles to his appointment, giving Adelstein the opportunity to talk about how hard Tom Daschle is fighting to keep him on the FCC. Adelstein is a pawn in the battle over judicial nominations. Below is a photo of Adelstein taking questions from the audience yesterday.

Also, here's a picture of Daschle introducing Bill Gates, who made a speech by satellite from Redmond, Washington.

House whip criticized for having lobbyist family members

Gannett News Service had a story published yesterday headlined "Blunt denies conflict over lobbyist wife." Excerpt:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, who wed a tobacco lobbyist in October, has not stepped aside from voting on tobacco legislation and continues to accept campaign donations from the industry....

Blunt also is among the top recipients of campaign donations from the tobacco industry, including Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette company and one of the 10 biggest campaign contributors to members of Congress. Campaign contributions from the tobacco industry are likely to increase during this election year, particularly as the debate over tobacco heats up....

Blunt is not the only lawmaker who has a spouse who lobbies Congress or is employed in a business that has legislation before Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's wife, Linda Hall Daschle, lobbies on aviation issues and represents 11 clients on behalf of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, a law firm. Linda Daschle's spokeswoman, Julie Goldberg, said the senator's wife does not lobby the Senate and did not lobby the House when the senator from South Dakota was a House member.

American Airlines, one of Linda Daschle's clients, gave Tom Daschle $4000 this election cycle.

The American Association of Airport Executives, one of Linda Daschle's clients, gave Tom Daschle $3,500 this election cycle. Tom Daschle is the top recipient of campaign donations in the Senate from the AAAE for this cycle.

Boeing, one of Linda Daschle's clients, gave Tom Daschle $5000 this election cycle.

Northwest Airlines, one of Linda Daschle's clients, gave Tom Daschle $7,500 this election cycle. Tom Daschle is the top recipient of campaign donations in the Senate from Northwest Airlines this cycle.

Lockheed Martin, one of Linda Daschle's clients, gave Tom Daschle $10,000 this election cycle. Tom Daschle is tied with John McCain for the top recipient of campaign donations in the Senate from Lockheed Martin.

All told, Tom Daschle has received $89,200 in campaign donations from the air transport industry this cycle.

Linda Daschle counters all of this by saying that she doesn't lobby the Senate, as noted in the Gannett story cited above. But Stephanie Mencimer of the Washington Monthly responded to this assertion in a piece she wrote back when Tom Daschle was the majority leader:

[W]hen it comes to lobbying Congress, does it really matter whether a congressional spouse lobbies her husband? The House Democrats on whom Daschle focuses her attention aren't likely to ignore calls from the majority leader's wife. And given the soft currency of Washington's access business, it's awfully hard to separate influence in such concrete ways, especially when many of Daschle's clients are lobbying both her husband and the Senate as well.

Family member lobbying in Kentucky

A situation has arisen in Kentucky that bears a striking resemblance to the situation Tom Daschle finds himself in with regard to his lobbyist wife. The story, appearing in the Louisville Courier-Journal, is headlined "Senate leader's spouse is lobbyist."

Interestingly, Larry Sabato, an expert on politics who is frequently quoted by Argus Leader reporters, had some scathing comments about this situation. Excerpt:

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said, "I see conflicts galore in this relationship."

"When she speaks to the executive branch officials, surely these officials and the governor know she's married to the president of the Senate. And what she says to the president of the Senate really matters on their agencies' funding and other pending legislation," Sabato said. "It would be awfully difficult to say no to her I would think."

An AP report headlined "Watchdog Group Questions Senate President's Wife's Job" also mentions Saboto's comments.

David Kranz, the dean of South Dakota political reporters, most recently quoted Sabato in a story published February 9. Kranz quotes him frequently. As spousal lobbying will inevitably come up as an issue in the Senate race here in South Dakota, it's reasonable to expect Kranz to get a quote from Sabato regarding Linda Daschle's lobbying.

NYT on lobbying by congressional family members

The New York Times has an editorial in today's edition headlined "Kith & Kin Inc." Guess who doesn't get mentioned a single time.

Boeing's image problem

Reuters has a story today headlined "Boeing fights image as 'bunch of crooks.'" As most readers of this blog know, Boeing is one of lobbyist Linda Daschle's biggest clients. Excerpt from the Reuters story:

Chief Executive Harry Stonecipher, who took over for scandal-plagued Phil Condit last month, has been roaming the halls of the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill to buff up Boeing's tarnished image.

"Telling them fundamentally that if they have a problem with us, I want to know what it is and ... trying to deal with this perception that we're a bunch of crooks," Stonecipher told reporters on a teleconference on Thursday.

It is very likely that Harry Stonecipher met with the Senate leadership while "roaming the halls on Capitol Hill," and it would be interesting to know in particular whether he has met with Tom Daschle.

According to lobbying disclosure forms available on the U.S. Senate website, Linda Daschle earned $40,000 for her firm by lobbying for Boeing during the first half of 2003. Among the items she lobbied for on behalf of Boeing was H.R. 1559, The Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-11). This bill is laced with appropriations to the military, which contradicts the claim by Tom Daschle that his wife does not work on military-related issues. This bill also includes the $2.4 billion bailout of the airline industry last spring, a bailout that, according the LA Times, was "pushed by the Democratic leadership," which, of course, includes Tom Daschle.

Family lobbying

Roll Call has a report today headlined "Ban on Family Lobbying Eyed." As readers of this blog know, Tom Daschle's wife is one of the most powerful corporate lobbyists in Washington. The Roll Call piece is an indication that the practice of senators having family members as lobbyists is a legitimate issue for discussion, despite the fact that Tom Daschle labels it "an attack on his family." Excerpt from the Roll Call piece:

According to the 2003 edition of the Senate Ethics Manual, "The decision on whether a spouse may lobby the Senate is generally a decision for the Senator and his or her spouse, giving due regard to the potential reflection upon the Senate."

The manual also notes that any compensated lobbying employment by a spouse would be required to be reported on the Senator's annual financial disclosure form - although that amount would only have to indicate if the spouse earned $1,000 or more, not the specific salary for the given year.

"Given the heightened public interest in the professional activities of spouses of Members, the Committee hopes that spouses, as well as Members, will conduct their professional and business activities so as not to reflect adversely upon the Senate as an institution," the manual notes.

Even the Senate Ethics Manual infers the legitimacy of "heightened public interest in the professional activities of spouses of Members[.]" To view the Senate Ethics Manual's statements on the employment of spouses click HERE(pdf) and go to page 93. Someone has even written a book entitled "Politicians and Their Spouses' Careers," which is cited in the Ethics Manual, and is yet another indication that scrutiny of the lobbying activities of Tom Daschle's wife is legitimate.

The Daschle v. Thune blog has more excerpts from the Roll Call piece.

The Daschle v. Thune blog contains a piece published on OpinionJournal.com by John Fund about the lobbying activities of Linda Daschle and John Thune, which you can access HERE.