Daschle: There's No 'Shadow Government'

NewsMax ^ | 3/5/02 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

For once the White House called Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle on one of his lies, and he admitted today there was no "shadow government."

"Senator Daschle was here at the White House earlier today, where White House aides and others reiterated to the senator information that had previously been provided to people who work for him," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Daschle had groused Sunday that he and other congressional leaders had not been consulted on the Bush administration's activation of the program. But then the truth got out, and the South Dakota Democrat had to reveal he wasn't quite as ignorant as he pretended.

Of course, the wee prince of partisan obstructionism didn't exactly make a graceful apology.

"I think there ought to be a cease-fire on who knew what," a red-faced Daschle stammered. "I'm satisfied a contingency plan is in place that takes into account a pretty dramatic need for succession."

"He's backpedaling because it's demonstrably untrue what he said," Washington Times star reporter Bill Sammon said this evening on Fox News Channel. With Americans growing sick of Daschle's carping during wartime about the U.S. campaign against terrorism, it's "a good time to kind of cut his losses."

As the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes noted on Fox News, the only reason this story got so much play was because the Washington press corps was hoping the White House screwed up. Now that it's clear Daschle and his fellow Dems were in the wrong, you won't see headlines saying "Daschle Wrong, White House Right," Barnes observed.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

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