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To: mountaineer; All
I think we need to do some homework on Mrs. Tom Daschle. No kidding. Tommie won't disclose his tax returns but jumps all over Bush for not turning out ancient documents on Harken so that Little Tommie can make something of nothing.

I love the lipstick gun. I'll take 5, please.
10 posted on 07/20/2002 7:53:05 AM PDT by Endeavor
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To: Endeavor; Hillary's Lovely Legs
I think we need to do some homework on Mrs. Tom Daschle.

Here's a bit of info on Linda from The Washington Monthly Online Link to a very long article. I think it might have a few tid-bits to work off of.

Blinded by Ethics

So here's a case where a senator's wife gets a high-ranking government job, which in turn boosts her earning power as a lobbyist. She then represents clients who have business with and give money to her husband. Those clients pay her big bucks to help fight safety regulations and to win government money---money which helps pay the senator's mortgage. Yet so far, the press and congressional ethics hawks have largely given the Daschles a pass. So why isn't this a bigger story?

Mostly because no one in Congress has the slightest interest in raising it. Democrats certainly don't want to attack one of their own, and as they point out in defending the Daschles, Republicans are married to lobbyists, too. In addition, both Republicans and Democrats are beneficiaries of Linda Daschle's clients. "This town is so bizarre that Linda Daschle may even deliver campaign contributions to Trent Lott," says the Heritage Foundation's Ron Utt. Indeed, she freely admits to giving campaign contributions to Republicans.

So who's left to scrutinize the relationship? The answer is the press. But Daschle has them covered too. [sure... the press will be a big help] Unlike Hillary a decade ago, Linda Daschle is a Beltway insider who understands the rules of the game. The main rule is that the effects of your actions, no matter how dubious---say, weakening airline safety---are never grounds for a scandal so long as you first, disclose your actions, and then, don't violate the ethics rules in the process. If Tom or Linda Daschle had secretly taken a free pair of Superbowl tickets from Northwest Airlines and then pushed the airline bailout plan, that would be a big story. But the fact that Tom Daschle takes thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Northwest and his wife's firm collects $200,000 a year to lobby for them is no problem at all.

Congress has no rules prohibiting members' spouses from lobbying. Notoriously porous, congressional ethics rules were written on the not so unreasonable theory that it's impossible to forbid each and every potential conflict of interest, and that in the end, the voters are the ultimate arbiters of congressional behavior.

Linda Daschle's reputation for scrupulously adhering to the ethics rules shows just how well she understands the rules. But when it comes to a presidential election, a different set of rules comes into play: Win at all costs. And at this game, the Republicans have proved themselves uncommonly adept and not just within the chamber of the Supreme Court. If Tom Daschle poses a legitimate threat to Bush, his wife's lobbying will attract more attention from partisan Republicans and investigative reporters.

These attacks on his wife may not hurt Tom Daschle in Washington, where politicos find very little unseemly. But the American voter is a different animal. Voters may not buy Linda Daschle's defense of keeping her career at all costs. Nor are they likely to swallow the claim that her work has absolutely no bearing on her husband's. If Linda Daschle lobbied one arm of Congress to weaken airline safety and give away billions of taxpayer dollars to corporate clients, the voters are likely to assume that her husband was in there, too. And they'll probably be right. After all, American voters may not understand the inner workings of Washington politics, but they do understand the inner workings of marriage.

Seems like if you've got nothing to hide and you're so ethical it wouldn't be a problem to release your tax return.

15 posted on 07/20/2002 8:53:21 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
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