South Dakota Politics

Campaign Update

A new Gallup Poll shows Rudy and Hillary still leading their opponents.

Tancredo Announces Presidential Bid

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo has announced his decision to run for the Republican nomination for president:

Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he was running to be California's governor on "The Tonight Show" and back in 2004, John Edwards launched his presidential campaign on cable television's "The Daily Show." Today, a Republican candidate went on an Iowa radio station to announce he's running for president.

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said he chose "talk radio" to make his presidential campaign announcement because the medium had given voice to his call for immigration reform. "It's been about eight years that I've been in congress and I have done probably 1800 or more talk radio shows...on the issue of illegal immigration," Tancredo said this morning on WHO Radio. "...It's given me a megaphone that I never would have had. It's allows you to talk directly to the American people. There's no filter in between...and I'm convinced that it is talk radio that has allowed us to get where we are today."

The Pajamas Media poll to the right has already been updated to accommodate his announcement.

Power Line liveblogging tonight's debate

Be sure to visit Power Line during or after tonight's presidential debate. John Hinderaker will be liveblogging it.

Former POW and MOH recipient Leo Thorsness slams Kerry

Once again, there's a local flavor to the controversy over Senator John Kerry's anti-war record. Today, the documentary "Stolen Honor" was released, an effort by former Vietnam POW's to inform the American people that John Kerry's anti-war activities prolonged their stay and increased their torture. Appearing in the documentary is one Leo K. Thorsness. Thorsness was a POW in North Vietnam and is a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Leo Thorsness was the man Tom Daschle defeated by fourteen votes in 1978, marking the beginning of Daschle's rise to prominence. (Thorsness also ran against Senator McGovern in 1974 and was defeated.) Jon Lauck of DVT recently interviewed Thorsness for a piece published in National Review Online headlined "The Old Daschle Playbook." Excerpt:

In a recent interview, Daschle's first opponent Leo Thorsness noted that Daschle "absolutely ran as a conservative Democrat" in 1978 and embraced "conservative issues and positions." Thorsness noted, however, that Daschle is now "more liberal in what he's saying" and has "changed his views to climb the leadership."

(Emphasis added.) You can view the Thorsness clip from "Stolen Honor" by clicking HERE and scrolling down.

Daschle's "fifty-first Democratic senator"

The fellow pictured above is Ben Barnes, who, as Texas lieutenant governor in 1969, says he recommended George W. Bush to the Air National Guard as a favor to a Bush family friend, in order for Bush to avoid being drafted. 60 Minutes interviewed him about the story last night, and you can read a transcript of his interview with Dan Rather HERE.

Interestingly, in a September, 2001 Texas Monthly story headlined "So what if he never got to be governor or president? Thirty years after Sharpstown, Ben Barnes is more powerful than ever," Senator Tom Daschle was quoted calling Barnes "the fifty-first Democratic Senator" because Barnes was instrumental in elevating Daschle to majority leader in 2001. Relevent graf from the Texas Monthly story:

On a steamy summer afternoon in Washington, the kind of day when your clothes absorb the humidity from the sodden air, Ben Barnes is exactly where everybody in Texas politics knew he would be someday: in the private Senate dining room at the U.S. Capitol. The tall redhead is instantly recognizable, and even in this inner sanctum of power, he seems to know someone at every table. Here comes Thomas Carper of Delaware across the floor to shake hands. There goes Barnes to press the flesh with John Edwards of North Carolina. On the way out, he exchanges greetings with Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York. The moment is exactly as it should be, except for two things: It is three decades late, and Barnes is not a senator but a guest. P Life has landed some nasty punches on the onetime golden boy of Texas politics. In the sixties he became Speaker of the House at 26 and lieutenant governor at 30; in 1970 he was touted by Lyndon Johnson as a future president of the United States. But even as LBJ lavished praise on Barnes, forces were already at work that would sweep the prodigy out of office in a matter of months and stamp an indelible taint on his reputation. He turned to real estate development, but in the mid-eighties, the speculative empire that he had built with his onetime mentor, John Connally, came crashing down, throwing both men into personal bankruptcy. In the nineties the revelation of his sensationally lucrative dealings with GTECH, the company that won, with Barnes's help, the right to operate the Texas lottery, set off the shaking of heads and clucking of tongues once again. Yet here he is in the rarefied atmosphere of big power and big-time politics -- one of the chief financial and strategic architects of the Democratic resurgence to parity (and subsequently control) in the Senate. Majority leader Tom Daschle has called him "the fifty-first Democratic senator."

(Emphasis added.) This guy is hardly a dispassionate witness with no ax to grind against the Bush presidency. But 60 Minutes gives him more time than they will ever give the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth.

The Daschle v. Thune debate standard

A reader writes:

Just wondering if you will show equal outrage at Bush only debating twice as you show when discussing Daschle debating seven to eight times.

President Bush should debate Kerry more than twice. If anything, I think more debates are to Bush's advantage, because the more exposure John Kerry has on primetime television, the more people will dislike Kerry. The USA Today has more on this topic.

Local flavor added to Swiftboat vets controversy

Col. George E. "Bud" Day, the man pictured to the left, is the most decorated officer since Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and was Senator John McCain's cellmate in the Hanoi Hilton. In John McCain's book, "Faith of My Fathers," McCain credits Day with saving his life (pg. 200). Col. Day is also one of The University of South Dakota School of Law's most prominent alumni, and gave the keynote address to the law school's class of 2004, the class I graduated with. The tale behind his Medal of Honor decoration is awe-inspiring.

Today, Col. Day weighed in on the controversy surrounding John Kerry and the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, firmly on the side of the latter. You can read the letter in its entirety at the No Pundit Intended blog. Excerpt from Col. Day's letter:

The major issue in the Swiftboat stories is, and always has been, what John Kerry did in 1971 after he returned from Vietnam.

Kerry cast a long dark shadow over all Vietnam Veterans with his outright perjury before the Senate concerning atrocities in Vietnam. His stories to the Senate committee were absolute lies.. fabrications.. perjury.. fantasies, with NO substance. That dark shadow has defamed the entire Vietnam War veteran population, and gave "Aid and Comfort" to our enemies..the Vietnamese Communists. Kerry's stories were outright fabrications, and were intended for political gain with the radical left..McGovern, Teddy and Bobby Kennedy followers, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and the radical left who fantasized that George McGovern was going to be elected in 1972. Little wonder that returning soldiers from Vietnam were spit upon and castigated as "baby killers". A returned war hero said so....

My friend and room mate Senator John S. McCain denounced the Swiftboat video by John O'Neil. I have a different take on the Swiftboat tape and disagree with my good friend John.
John Kerry opened up his character as a war hero reporting for duty to the country with a hand salute...and his band of brothers..of which he was the chief hero. Most of his convention speech was about John Kerry..Vietnam hero, and his band of brothers. John Kerry's character is not only fair game, it is the primary issue. He wants to use Bill Clinton's "is", as an answer to his lack of character....

John Kerry for President? Ridiculous. Unthinkable. Unbelievable. Outrageous.

Grassley: "Daschle has served the nation poorly"

The Sioux City (IA) Journal published an article today headlined "Grassley: Bush needs to paint distinct picture for 10 percent undecideds" discussing President Bush's planned visit to Sioux City tomorrow. Excerpt:

Grassley added that Bush should recognize the geography of his visit and speak to the South Dakotans in attendance. U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota is locked in a re-election race with former Republican Congressman John Thune. Grassley said Daschle has served the nation poorly, bottling up key legislation and judicial appointments. Many good pieces of legislation, Grassley said, have been "essentially buried in a Daschle burial ground" through filibusters and other means.

In 2002, Senator Johnson used a Grassley quote in one of his television ads regarding livestock ownership by meatpackers. Grassley is known to be an independent-minded Republican. I don't think Daschle can easily shrug off this criticism by Grassley.

Grassley has also criticized Daschle for putting the interests of the Democratic Party before the interests of South Dakota corn farmers on ethanol, which can be read HERE and HERE.

John F. Kerry's book

Bill Hobbs has posted an interesting photo of the cover of a book written by John Kerry that was published in 1971. The photo shows protesters holding an American flag upside down. How nice.