Tuesday, the prized U.S. Senate seat wrested away from McGovern by Abdnor in 1980 and regained by Daschle in 1986 passed to Abdnor’s protégé, John Thune. There is some irony in all of this. Abdnor, a common and salt-of-the-earth man who made up in honesty and principle what he lacked in oratory skills, defeated the state’s best known politician and its most famous native son. Now Daschle, minority leader of the Senate and the Democrats’ most powerful member of Congress, has been retired by Abdnor’s disciple, Thune. If there is any poetic justice in this for Abdnor, he’s not admitting...
