Timing Entwined War Vote, Election(Daschle)

Timing Entwined War Vote, Election
By Ronald Brownstein and Emma Vaughn
Times Staff Writers

November 28, 2005

WASHINGTON — Tom Daschle, the former Democratic senator from South Dakota, remembers the exchange vividly. The time was September 2002. The place was the White House, at a meeting in which President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney pressed congressional leaders for a quick vote on a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

But Daschle, who as Senate majority leader controlled the chamber's schedule, recalled recently that he asked Bush to delay the vote until after the impending midterm election.

"I asked directly if we could delay this so we could depoliticize it. I said: 'Mr. President, I know this is urgent, but why the rush? Why do we have to do this now?' He looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: 'We just have to do this now.' "

Daschle's account, which White House officials said they could not confirm or deny, highlights a crucial factor that has drawn little attention amid rising controversy over the congressional vote that authorized the war in Iraq. The recent partisan dispute has focused almost entirely on the intelligence information legislators had as they cast their votes. But the debate may have been shaped as much by when Congress voted as by what it knew.

Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, did not call for a vote authorizing the Persian Gulf War until after the 1990 midterm election. But the vote paving the way for the second war with Iraq came in mid-October of 2002 — at the height of an election campaign in which Republicans were systematically portraying Democrats as weak on national security.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warvote28nov28,0,3304874,print.story

are completely without honor, and beyond redemption.

Nominated.

This maladministration has used the entire federal government as a political tool for the betterment of themselves, not the people or the country. They use the government as a weapon to punish critics and use it as a candy store to reward cronies. Every decision of importance is looked at through a Machiavellian lens.

He had the authority to do so. He could have refused to consider the IWR until after the election. I'm sure he acquiesed to protect his own seat, or to prevent the Republicans from winning a Senate majority. Oh, wait....

are not two things that belong comfortably in a sentence. Daschle was Bush's *Welcome Mat* in 2002 and he is JUST NOW (2005) speaking out. :eyes:

He was Senate Majority Leader and had control of the Senate at the time! He could have stopped the vote until after the election! We were begging the Dems to postpone the vote until after the election. They didn't listen to a word we said to them. We were so frustrated with them because they were so wimpy and afraid of the poll numbers that showed that Bush was higher than they. Tom Daschle may be running for Pres. in '08.

Another thing, remember, was that Jeff Gannon went out to S. Dakota and worked with Thune's manager to defeat Daschle. That whole episode must be investigated. Perhaps Tom is introducing all this history to get it brought to surface again and hopefully, investigated before he runs in '08.

"But Daschle, who as Senate majority leader controlled the chamber's schedule...
I am amazed that he would admit this. I guess his lobbying business must be doing pretty well, as he evidently has no future political ambitions.

But that would have required a set of balls, which he seems to lack.

But, I think we should recognize the courage it takes to come out of the closet on this.
He is in effect saying he blew it and opening himself up for the comments above to come flying in his direction in an effort to get the back of his fellow Democrats as Bush tries to smear them. He is trying to reveal the diabolical nature of this administration. I welcome this contribution.

and the 40-some-percent Iraq bloodshed approval

Thanks for sitting on this for three years, Tom.

especially after 9/11. Remember what was done to McCain, Cleland and Kerry. Look at how the malignancy in DC used the WMD/mushroom cloud rhetoric to sell perhaps the biggest scam in U.S. history. Daschle's from a red state; Look at what happened to Gore when he tried to tell the truth before and after.

Though the Dems were the majority party, Dem senators don't march in lockstep. "Obstructionist Tom" would have been outmaneuvered by public demand.

Not that I was or am a Daschle fan, but given that the MSM abandoned all pretense to fairness...