Posted on 10/20/2004 6:20:50 AM PDT by Redbob
A small rodent could hold the key to the Senate
THE black-tailed prairie dog has never been a political animal. For centuries, on South Dakota’s vast and mysterious plains, it has played no part in the state’s momentous events. You will find no reference to it in accounts of how General George Custer’s troops were massacred at the Battle of Little Bighorn, or of the US Army’s bloody revenge on the Sioux at Wounded Knee.
But in a graphic demonstration of the axiom that all politics is local, South Dakota’s prairie dog, a fluffy, slightly gormless rodent, has suddenly landed an unwitting but potentially pivotal role in determining who will hold the balance of power in Washington after next month’s election.
Aides to President Bush now seriously believe that this fat, squirrel-like creature, which infests large parts of South Dakota’s weirdly beautiful and haunting Badlands, might not only seal the fate of the top Democrat in Washington, but also help Republicans to keep control of the Senate.
There is one man, besides John Kerry, whom the White House wants to destroy politically on November 2: Tom Daschle, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, who is hoping that next month enough of South Dakota’s 470,000 registered voters will give him a fourth successive term in the Senate. The questions dogging Mr Daschle in his re-election fight are: does he truly hate prairie dogs, and if so, just how long has he hated them?
Mr Daschle, 56, is loathed by Republicans. They accuse him of being the architect of the Democrats’ obstructionist tactics in the Senate, which have stalled much of Mr Bush’s agenda.
His defeat would all but extinguish Democrat hopes of overturning the Republicans’ three-seat majority in the Senate, and deal a huge psychological blow to Democrat ambitions in the next Congress. “It would be like picking up three extra seats,” one Republican strategist said.
South Dakota’s Senate race is second only to the battle for the White House in national significance, and after 26 years on Capitol Hill, Mr Daschle is suddenly in the fight of his political life, not least because of his stance on the hot-button local issue of prairie dogs.
Mr Daschle has managed to prosper politically in predominantly Republican South Dakota by persuading his constituents that he is a conservative prairie populist concerned about the needs of ranchers.
He also campaigns on a reputation for using his influence in Washington to bring home stacks of federal cash.
But in 1999, in a move that outraged South Dakota’s ranchers, a vocal minority that no politician dare offend, the US Government named the prairie dog, which destroys pastureland, as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
This was because prairie dogs are the prime food source of the federally protected black-footed ferret, the most endangered mammal in North America, which has been reintroduced on to the grasslands of the state’s south west.
For four years, unable to poison prairie dogs on federal land that borders their property, ranchers have watched the rodent’s population explode. Two years ago prairie dogs covered 13,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. They now dominate 23,000 acres, invading private ranch land, destroying cattle-grazing pasture and threatening the farmers’ existence.
Two years ago Mr Daschle’s Senate opponent, John Thune, then a congressman, invited government officials from Washington to South Dakota to argue that prairie dog poisoning should be restarted.
This year, it suddenly became clear to Mr Daschle that Mr Thune, 43, who came within 524 votes of winning South Dakota’s other Senate seat in 2002, was winning over the ranchers, not least with his prairie dog politics, and was now a serious electoral threat.
Since then, to cover his right flank, Mr Daschle has gone out of his way to voice his loathing for the rodent. Last week, after lobbying from both candidates, the Bush Administration agreed to remove the prairie dog’s protection, and allow poisoning in “buffer zones” next to ranch land. In a delicious piece of political knifing, Gale Norton, Mr Bush’s Interior Secretary, hailed Mr Thune’s “leadership” on the issue. She did not mention Mr Daschle.
Mr Thune, statistically tied in the polls with the incumbent, described Mr Daschle as a Johnny-come-lately to the prairie dog issue. He only became anti-prairie dog, he claimed, “after he was boxed into a political corner”. Mr Daschle, calling Mr Thune “silly”, responded: “This is something I’ve been working on for years.”
At another point he said: “I think they ought to be called prairie rats.”
Charles Kruse, a third-generation rancher and leader of South Dakota’s anti-prairie dog group, surveys with disgust the thousands of acres of his cattle-grazing land destroyed by prairie dogs.
“I begged Daschle to come down here and he wouldn’t. Now he’s jumped on the bandwagon.
“He’s forgot about the local people in South Dakota. All he cares about is Democrat politics in Washington. John Thune has been a better voice for us on this issue. He hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“These prairie dogs really could affect control of the Senate. We’ve exploited the Senate race every way we can. But John Thune is our man now,” Mr Kruse said.
DOG DAYS
Prairie dogs are members of the squirrel family and related to chipmunks and marmots
They can live for up to five years. Most have either a black or white tail, with yellowish fur and a white belly
Known by ranchers as “sod poodles” after their high-pitched bark, prairie dogs are found in most of the western US
Prairie dog families, made up of a male and several females, burrow close together to form towns. The biggest one, found in 1900, stretched 100 miles by 250 miles across the Texas high plains and housed 400 million dogs
They are susceptible to bubonic plague, caught from fleas. There is a small risk that the fleas could pass the disease to humans
And they're NOT referring to Tommy Daschle!
("Sod poodle" indeed!)
Good huntin' !
(What's your favorite weapon for dealing with sod poodles?
.220 Swift?
Voting booth?)
Montana.
Question of the day: How many more prairie dogs than non-existant Lakota will vote for Daschle this year?
Does anyone have that old prairie dog hunting game that people e-mailed in the early 1990's?
"sod poodle"
Growing up with them in West Texas (Lubbock still has "Prarie Dog Town"...right next to the public golf course, which makes for some interesting shots), I never heard them called that. "Sod poodle" must refer to Tom Daschle. (S-O-B poodle works, too.)
And you'll find no reference to it in the tales of the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor either.
I couldn't resist - it was hanging out there begging like a homeless person.
So, putting "*bang_list" on it doesn't work anymore, and it's too late to insert a "keyword" - now what?
LOL!
But whatcha goin' to do fer a tagline?
any reference to it contained within the tales of the great battles of Kerry in Cambodia[aka,the Christmas wars]....
The .220 Swift is great for all sorts of varmints - woodchuck for instance. Fast and flat...
"#$%^&*@( Prairie dogs!!!!.......didn't show up at the polls to vote for me."
"They promised they would if I put them on the "endangered" list.......What is the world coming to when dogs give you their word but then they don't carry out their promises?"
Ah, but I found exactly 47 mentions of "sod poodle" in Pierre LePhuque's definitive account of the defense of the Maginot Line!
Yer gonna love this!
Get the fishin' pole ready!
Psst, Mate. The Little Bighorn was in Montana.
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