Anyone still missing Daschle?

I was just having a conversation with a friend about the recent good news on the democratic party opposition front. They've so far been outspoken critics of the administration and the republican congress. They've taken full advantage of grassroots support to roll back rule changes to protect DeLay. Similarly they're at least in-the-lead in the fight to protect the minority party's right to filibuster the most radical conservative judicial nominations. They have reaped benefits from overreaching republicans in other situations such as the Schiavo incident. They're holding the line on Bolton. They've smashed Bush's social security propoganda tour to pieces.

They may not be successful in every situation (Gonzales, Rice, bankruptcy bill, etc,) but doesn't it seem a whole lot more clear "where they stand?" That was the question people asked about the democrats between 2000 and 2004. 'We know they oppose Bush and the republican congress, but it's not real clear why and what it is they favor.'

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean, Biden, and countless others have connected with the voting population in a way that seemed to be impossible under the previous democratic regime.

I recall around post-election time some DU'ers expressing their frustration with Daschle and the previous dem leadership only to be met with a flurry of replies defending his role as minority leader. So, I thought this might be a good time to pose this question to you all... Are you better off now than you were 6 months ago?

have really become more of an opposition party. it can probably be traced back to barbara boxer contesting the results of the election.

i'm happy about it, and it kind of proves my suspicions that terry mcauliffe and tom daschle were both really weak leaders, and not fit to lead an oppostion party.

Daschle and Mcauliffe were great guys. And good democrats. But poor leadership.

sadly. I like Harry Reid for the most part. Only thing I was sad about was the bankruptcy bill. :( But other wise he's been great.

Tom was a weak opposition spokesman. I don't espect to agree with my party 100% of the ime, nor do I expect them to win all the fights. But, damn it, I expect them to at least try.

the democrats lately have been doing great! They're short in numbers but putting up a hell of a fight against the SS plans and the judges. :) They still have a bit to go but they're doing well so far. It's still the beginning.

In February, the * WH started to withdraw and restrict subsidies to farmers, many of whom are in South Dakota, many of whom voted for the male model Thune. They'll miss Daschle. The people in economically stagnant SD who go bankrupt may miss him. The people whose jobs are outsourced will miss him.

Daschle delivered for his state. This is one of the two really stupid moves by a state in the last five years. 2000-Tennessee fails to back native son -- OMG, can you imagine what TN gave up by screwing Gore. He loves his state. 2004, South Dakota drops Daschle. What a stupid move, they're already playing.

deserves what they are getting. Too many people are just too stupid.

:rofl:

with Gore. :( He only lost though by four percent according to electoral-vote.org Not too bad. I wish I could've vote back then. :(

ever taking out Daschle. Maybe they're wondering what they can possibly have been thinking.

FWIW, I was never sorry to see him go, although it's always been kind of taboo to say that around here. I mean, he's a nice, well meaning guy, and it's too bad about losing a Senate seat, but he just was not providing the kind of leadership that was needed, and we seem to be doing much better with Reid in there.

Anybody is free to flame me if they want to.

Daschle got about a 3.

Daschle would have been an excellent Senate leader in days when more people were willing to play by the rules. The Republicans think that they speak for God and that playing by the rules is for mere mortals. They ate him and the Democrats alive.

Reid seems to have a better idea what he's up against.

:rofl:

Lori Price

we don't need Tom "let's give the president whatever power he wants" Daschle continuing to not win us elections.

First, he flipped Jeffords which gave the Democrats the Senate for over a year. Had Wellstone not died he might have kept it until 2004. That was impressive.

Second, those judges we have bottled up, he is how they got bottled up in the first place.

Third, during the time Daschle was Majority leader, other than the Patriot Act and Iraq, Bush passed no items of his agenda. Given that we were depending on the likes of Zell Miller to hold the line, that was impressive.

Or the estate tax phase-out? Or making contact with democratic senators to advise them not to sign onto house opposition to the certification of the 2000 election?

I think Bush passing no agenda items might be a stretch...

(the first ones) and ALL of the subsequent ones were after the Senate was retaken in 2002. The first cuts were in early June and were, as was widely reported at the time, the one thing Jeffords said had to be done before he would flip.

He was very good during the whole impeachment debacle. Apparently, several Senate Democrats were seriously toying with demanding for Clinton to resign, including Lieberman, Feinstein, and Feingold (plus several others). Daschle held them in line and made certain that they voted against impeachment. Had they decided to vote guilty, it may have embolded Republicans to vote party line and *might* have caused either intense embarassment or made it politically impossible for Clinton to continue as President.

Even then, it was unlikely, but Daschle did play a key role in keeping it from escalating.

That is what I remember reading at the time,anyway

...but our leadership is definitely better, I'll say that much!

...we needed strong leadership. He failed to be strong time and time again. I think he would have been best served by giving up the Majority Leader position, then maybe we could have had a strong leader and he wouldn't have lost his seat in the Senate.

in a nutshell he did not command the respect or loyalty that reid and dean have...a new team for new times.

into the democratic party came from the woman from CA, Barbara Boxer.

After '98 I made a list of our unlikely senate holds, based on the ideology of the state. One by one we've been losing those seats, including a ton of them last year. Those southern seats were retirees and older for the most part. Losing an incumbent is devastating. Thune was the only prominent challenger South Dakota could field against Johnson or Daschle. If Daschle could have turned him away, Thune might have turned to other ventures before either seat was up again. And Daschle is young enough to hold that seat for several more cycles, not just one.

and I still feel bad for him, that he had to "lose" thay way. And honestly, I think about his concession speech a lot. But--you know of my strange, newfound trust in Harry Reid. He's doing a good job.

out of his league for his position. Wish he was still a Senator but he was too much pink tutu to be minority leader. I have been pleasantly surprised by Harry Reid.