Battle on Daschle's Turf Underscores Partisanship

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., May 22 -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist broke protocol, and bruised some feelings, by campaigning here Saturday for a goal that has not been achieved in half a century: defeating a Democratic or Republican Senate leader seeking reelection.

Frist (R-Tenn.), who is heading a massive fundraising effort to deny Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) a fourth term, put his feet where his money is Saturday, traversing the state twice in 10 hours to stump for Republican John Thune. Historians say they know of no previous majority or minority leader who traveled to his counterpart's state to campaign for his ouster.

But Senate tradition and decorum are melting this year beneath the Senate's bitter partisanship, the GOP's zeal to keep its razor-thin majority, and the party's belief that it can knock off Daschle in a state that voted overwhelmingly for President Bush in 2000.

Republicans, who hold 51 of the Senate's 100 seats, are running hard to replace five retiring Democrats from the South, even as they struggle to hold GOP seats in Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois and Alaska. Although every seat is precious, nothing would delight Republicans more than gaining a South Dakota seat and ousting the man they blame for thwarting Bush's judicial nominees and other GOP goals.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48483-2004May22.html

if we lived in a REAL republic, every seat would be contested every time it came up for election. Instead, far too many offices are simply conceded to whoever is holding them, and the "opposition party" doesn't even run a candidate.

Case in point, in CO, Mike Miles has been campaigning for the senate seat currently held by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, but had, and continues to have no support from the party. Only when Campbell announced his retirement did the Dems decide it might be worth the effort to field a candidate; then opted not to back the only Dem candidate wh had been running.

Notwithstanding the fact that I have been unimpressed by Senator Daschle, I do hope he wins re-election.

And, say, the Democrats gain the majority?

I would hope the humiliations would be endless.

his next run. He is a despicable cat-killer and he arranged for Florida-type obstructions in Tenn in 2000. He bears the guilt for Gore's loss of the state.