Beware of Senator Daschle

I'm about a week behind on the insta-analysis of the Jim Jeffords defection.\nFor what it's worth, here's my view: Jeffords was a RiNO - Republican in Name Only - in a party full of elephants. If you openly profess to be a Republican these days, it automatically means you're a closet fascist or racist (boring and uptight, too), especially on large, public universities. Most Republicans (the elephants) stand strong through this mud throwing.\nRiNOs, on the other hand, let this sort of thing get to them.\nCongressman John Hostettler often speaks out against "gutless and spineless politicians." I think this aptly fits Jeffords: a weak man, and I don't shed a tear over him leaving the party.\nAlthough he's officially an independent, Jeffords aligns himself with the Democratic caucus for organizational purposes. He will fit in well under his new leader Tom Daschle, a top-rate whiner who might find himself lost when he's forced to actually lead and propose ideas instead of just criticize. Since we'll be seeing a lot of Daschle, from his policies to his "Saturday Night Live" impersonators, it's worth a deeper look into his ideology and politics.\nBorn in 1947, he successfully won a Senate seat in 1986. To his credit, he was quickly named the Democratic leader in 1994. In the history of the Senate, only Lyndon Johnson has served fewer years before being elected to lead the party. That alone should prove Daschle needs to be taken seriously.\nHe's shrewd, sharp and articulate. He's also partisan, weasel-like and very unrelenting. In politics, it often pays to whine, and Daschle learned the art quickly and well. Of course, one doesn't need to worry about being a hypocrite either.\nMost recently we've had to listen to Daschle whine about being "shut out" of the legislative process concerning Bush's tax relief package. From CNN to Fox News, Senator Daschle reported that his party wasn't "consulted" or couldn't offer enough amendments. In short, he demanded bipartisan governance.\nWhen the bill finally passed the Senate, Daschle was left kicking and screaming.\nWhat Daschle never said in his press conferences (and the liberal press never pressed him on), was the very bipartisan vote that passed Bush's tax cut. Four of 10 Finance Committee Democrats joined all 10 Republicans in passing the bill. A surprising 12 Senate Democrats voted for it when it went to the floor. The House saw similar bipartisanship and cooperation when as many as 58 Democrats voted on the plan in parts.\nDaschle's hypocrisy truly showed when he took out Democrat ads across America showing a small girl holding up a glass of water and asking, "May I please have some more arsenic in my water mommy?" Those ads never mentioned that in October 2000, Daschle was one of 18 Democratic senators who voted to delay stricter regulations on arsenic. This didn't stop him from hypocritically whining about Bush's similar delay to ensure that any decision would be based on sound science.\nWhining is easy when you're the opposition. Now Democrats, under Senator Tom Daschle, have a platform from which to advance a competing agenda. But are they prepared to fill that spotlight? More importantly, can they do it under the auspices of "bipartisanship" that they so desired?\nUnfortunately, all outward signs show that this rhetoric will just be hot air. Daschle already declared some of Bush's initiatives "dead." As time goes on, it becomes clear that a "bipartisan agenda," in Daschle's mind, is merely his agenda. White House chief of staff Andrew Card had this to say:\n"It sounds to me like he doesn't have an agenda other than an agenda of 'no.'" If I were a betting man, I'd bet on Daschle's deep partisanship to cast a long shadow over the Senate.