It was a day that produced endless sad narratives for Democrats. Still, watching Tom Daschle concede defeat had to be among the toughest moments.
Democrats, who'd watched their Senate leader stand up and poke his finger in the eye of the Bush White House time and time again, were suddenly forced to watch as he sank over the horizon. It was Daschle's willingness -- some would say belated willingness -- to confront the White House that had provided Democrats with their only real political leverage in Washington over the last four years. And it was Daschle who (with apologies to Howard Dean) began the broad critique of the president's handling of the Iraq War that dominated the presidential campaign. And that's why he was became the GOP's top target in this cycle of congressional elections.
Daschle will soon be gone, and Republicans will have padded their advantage by winning all five southern seats being vacated by Democrats in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida. With 55 Republican senators in the next Congress, the GOP edges closer to that 60-seat target that would allow them to end any threat of a filibuster, which Daschle used so artfully.
What lessons should Senate Democrats learn from the Daschle defeat?
They could either acknowledge the power of the White House to mobilize and take out anyone who gets in their way; so get out of their way, or they could continue in the spirit of Daschle, who had to know what he was up against and chose the fight anyway. He often won, and he drove the White House mad with frustration.
The first piece of business is choosing someone to replace Daschle. No one, apparently, can really challenge Nevada Senator Harry Reid's claim to the job. Yet the question remains: Is it wise to choose someone as your leader whose partisan duties make him vulnerable at home?
In 2000, South Dakota voted for George W. Bush by a bigger margin that Texas did. And by 2002, the Senate race in South Dakota was being billed as proxy fight between Daschle and Bush. Meanwhile, Daschle told anyone who would listen that his top priority in 2002 was to make sure that fellow Democrat Tim Johnson got re-elected. Daschle won that showdown when Johnson beat John Thune by 524 votes. But Daschle sowed the seeds of his own demise, for it was the same Thune who knocked Daschle this year off in what was one of the nastiest campaigns in the country.
Daschle watched a series of failures in 2002 -- Max Cleland in Georgia, Jean Carnahan in Missouri, and the Paul Wellstone seat in Minnesota -- and decided to stop playing nice.
In the spring of 2003, shortly before the United States invaded Iraq, Daschle went before a meeting of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and laid into Bush about his approach to the war and the world:
“I'm saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're forced to go to war,” Daschle said. “I'm saddened … because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was critical for our country."
Republicans were apoplectic.
“Those comments may not undermine the president as he leads us into war, and they may not give comfort to our adversaries, but they come mighty close,” House Speaker Dennis Hastert complained. “Senator Daschle has spent more time criticizing the leadership of President Bush than he has spent criticizing the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.”
Ohio's Deborah Pryce, chair of the GOP House Conference, chimed in. “The entire country,” she said, “should be saddened by such blatant political attacks at a time when America's sons and daughters are preparing for military action to rid the world of terrorism.”
At the time, pundits decreed that Daschle was committing political suicide: Presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, for example, said the minority leader would live to regret his remarks about the war. Hess was proved right this week.
So where does that leave Reid and his shrinking band of warriors? Do they play with the White House or off it? There are no obvious red-state targets among the 17 Democrats up for re-election in 2006; Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska are the two who come closest. So barring another round of retirements, Reid may not have anything to lose by playing Daschle ball when it comes to new cabinet confirmations, new judges, new tax cuts, and more spending for the war.
Terence Samuel is the chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. His column about politics appears each week in the Prospect's online edition.
