Is Tom Daschle's Intermittent Clumsiness Occurring More Frequently?

xzins | 11Feb02 | xzins

[xzins]

While having some small wins occasionally, Daschle's leadership is better characterized as a continuous string of clumsily hatched positions. That clumsiness seems to be coming now at an even faster pace.

1. Daschle as a leading Democrat participated in supporting a Warren Christopher strategy (four county recount) in Gore's recount battle in Florida. Publicly on record saying that going to court would ultimately end democratic hopes, Daschle didn't see the 4 county plan as ending in the courts.....clumsy thinking.

2. Daschle, while engineering Jim Jefford's jump from the Republican Party, promised an extension of dairy supports that backfired, depriving even his own state of those supports he had planned to expand.

3. Daschle led the battle against the enactment of the Bush Tax Reduction. Not only did Bush win but he absolutely cornered Daschle into continually raising the dollar amount of Daschle's own tax cut plan. This clumsiness was entirely evident on all media outlets.

4. As leader of the Senate, Daschle has not been able to prevail on junior partner Hillary Clinton to attend any funerals for those who died at WTC.

5. As leader of the Senate, Daschle proposed in the middle of a war WITH A POPULAR PRESIDENT that democrats support a tax increase. In fact he claimed that a tax reduction that had not yet even transpired was the cause of a minor recession. (That was easily demonstrated to have started under Clinton, but more importantly, that was clearly linked to the loss of MULTIPLE BILLIONS due to the attack on WTC.) (Is this not reminiscent of the Saturday Night Live skit where Mondale tries to explain why his platform for president included a pledge to raise everybody's taxes?)

6. Is Daschle not behind the whiney sounding special plea that the "Afghan War" is a "Democrat War, Too?" (Is that clumsily childish sounding, or what?)

7. Is Dachle not behind the hold up in appointments to every office to which a president can make appointments? Is this not clear justification for the president to use recess appointments and bypass any Senate influence in decisions from justices to ambassadors?

[xzins]

This is just an off-the-top-of-my-head list that shows some real political clumsiness on the part of Daschle. As it is, the list probably demonstrates ineptitude; but even democrats need to admit some frustration at Daschle's clumsiness.

[zshhh]

Puff Daschle is worse than clumsy, he's a card carrying socialist!

[xzins]

That's not what I mean. I'm not defending Daschle. I'm saying that even to the Rats he's got to be looking clumsy. You know he's part of the enron strategy that just did nothing more than bring to light how many democrats involved in the same thing. He doesn't think very deeply. It's just clumsy strategy, week in and week out.

[okiedust]

I think he's getting strategery from someone with a political tin ear. Now whooooo could that be?

regards

[Common Tator]

Almost every thing Daschle does is to keep from repeating a previous mistake made by Democrats.

Reagan got most of his court appointments approved. If Bush gets his judges approved, then the legislation from the bench that Reagan stopped will be even mor reduced.

Suporting LBJ in Vietnam cost the Democrats and even elected thr hated Richard Nixon. So the strategy was to hang back and jump on the developing quagmire. But 4 months into the war Daschle has his rump full of quagmire and no latrine in sight.

Tip O'Neil went along with Reagans economic plan and it hurt Mondale's Airdale when Reaganomics worked. This time Daschle is going to fight it every step of the way. Daschle does not understand that Tip O'Neil had been around when the fight em tactic was tried against FDR. It was a massive failure.. but Daschle doesn't understand that.

Daschles bigest problem is he needs 60 votes in the senate. He doesn't have them. Leading the senate with less than a 60 vote working majority is like herding cats. Trent Lott didn't do much better than Daschle.

Running the senate is indeed very much like herding cats. Everytime you need one there is Teddy or Fritz with their hind leg raised .... their tail askew .... licking their own rear ends. That doesn't look good on the evening news and the meowing can drive you batty.

[billorites]

I think we can all breath a sigh of relief that George Mitchell is not the Senate Majority leader today.

[xzins]

political tin ear.....could be his own wife who seems to not care that her public cash-based lobbying hurts Daschle...but I think the prime culprit of whom you speak is Bill's wife.

Maybe Mondale, Ferrarro, and Dukakis form his advisory council.

[xzins]

Running the senate is indeed very much like herding cats

All of which is to say that Daschle keeps stumbling into another mistake. It's just got to be discouraging to Democrats that the guy's been a clumsy leader from the beginning.....and there's no end in sight.

[xzins]

What follows is a statement made this evening by Daschle. He's coming down on the side of Europe against this president. That sounds to me like the beginnings of another clumsy misstep.

"I think that it's important for us to look at each of these countries as threats to this country clearly, as problems that we've got to address clearly," Daschle said. "But I think we've got to be very careful with the rhetoric of that kind. We've already seen the moderates in Iran scramble to draw distance between us and them, and I think we've got to be very careful with how we approach all three countries."

[Brett66]

Daschle isn't a leader. He is very clumsy as demonstrated with his tax-cuts-are-bad speech and today he's making statements about how Bush's "axis of evil" speech was wrong. Everything he does backfires, partly because Bush has him outmatched. He would do better to actually go along with Bush and try to take some of the credit for his successes, but he's too partisan and his strings are being pulled by some vicious partisans. (Klinton(s), McCauliffe, etc.)

[xzins]

but he's too partisan and his strings are being pulled

Even his soft manner comes across as clumsy to me. There's this thing in me that says, "if you're gonna be partisan" then you might as well put a little beef behind your disagreement. It worked for Harry Truman. But Daschle plays this creampuff, nicey-nice shtick when he's saying what are supposed to be "hard statements" and NOBODY picks up on it.

[okiedust]

All I can say, is well here it comes, and we knew it was coming. What he is trying to do, is play to the weak kneed and uninformed, again, for political advantage, not for the good of the country. Daschle is picking up the tune that is begining to be sung, "we're doing it all wrong." Just a note here and there, but soon it will be a full throated chorus. Daschle.(spit).

regards