Tom Daschle reminds me of the strawman in the Wizard of Oz, "if only I had a brain."
His latest nag must be whipping up howls of frenzied guffaws at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The conspiracy-minded among us may even start to wonder whether the unremitting Bush-bashing is just a clever ruse, a hoax: Is Daschle secretly on the White House payroll?
He isn't, of course, but given the staggering slew of clumsy, dopey goof-ups of late, just how would things be any different if he was?
The White House couldn't ask for a more inept, a more incompetent adversary than Sen. Daschle. His penchant for faux pas, gaffs and klutziness has left Beltway veterans dumbfounded.
Given his experience in Washington, pundits placed their bets early on Sen. Daschle, the 'seasoned', 'savvy', 'soft-spoken' protégé of Sen. Mitchell over the 'rookie' governor from Texas. Daschle would, in short order, make mince-meat out of "Dubya", or so they thought.
Stick a fork in that "smirking chimp", he's done.
What a difference a year can make. It would be an understatement to say these "geniuses" bet on the wrong horse, given Bush's winning track record thus far.
Daschle's latest imbecility -- he accuses Bush of going off half-cocked and of failing to produce any tangible results, such as nabbing Osama Bin Laden -- set off shock waves in Washington. Could Daschle be this stupid?
Republicans were pinching themselves -- they could scarcely believe Tommy was putting his foot in his mouth, yet again. Daschle's latest flub comes on the heels of a backlash sparked after quibbling with the President's 'axis of evil' label.
Daschle's recklessness is also a signal of panic. Conditioned by doomers and gloomers in think-tanks to expect stinging defeat in Afghanistan, beltway Democrats were stunned by the military campaign's smashing -- and early -- success. They were told the Taliban would fight to the death, that the blood of U.S. servicemen would flow like rivers through the streets in Kandahar. The number of American casualties would climb into the thousands, they were told.
Instead, Democrats had never imagined in their wildest nightmares the doomsday scenario currently unfurling. The Democrat party is a train wreck. Enron was a joke. Democrat "ideas" aren't resonating with voters. The President's still popular as ever, the country's still united.
With elections looming, Democrats are split by warring factions, with hardliners urging party leaders to go to war against the Bush administration, while pragmatists counsel a more middle-of-the-road approach: To wit, lip-service in "support" of the war, while crippling Bush's domestic agenda.
Compounding their political dilemma even further, the economy appears to be on the upswing.
Small wonder the hardliners -- Daschle et al -- are lashing out -- smoldering angry, tone-deaf as ever. Unless the political landscape changes dramatically, Democrats face an uphill struggle just to break-even in November.
I'm wagering they're in for a devastating blow.
But that's just...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001
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