Sen. Tom Daschle took heat for his failure to
marshal any kind of opposition or reasonable push-back on the
Medicare reform drive of the Republicans. More troubling to
Democrats outside of the Senate was the party’s inability to
counter GOP legislation with any ideas beyond threats of a
filibuster. Either way, Daschle has to be looking at the situation
and wondering what he got himself into.
“He said he’s running for re-election, but probably just to lose
his leadership position when he comes back in 2005 after the
election,” says a DNC staffer. “Everyone wants to move
Hillary [Clinton] up the
leadership ladder, but they doubt she can step in as minority
leader. People are assuming someone like
[Christopher] Dodd will take the
top slot for at least some period of time, with Clinton as
assistant leader.”
No one is touting Daschle’s No. 2, Sen. Harry
Reid, given what some in the caucus believe was a
mishandling of the Iraq intelligence debate, in which Reid figured
front and center. Some caucus members also blame Reid for the
embarrassing memos that have been leaked out of the Senate
Intelligence and Senate Judiciary Committees. Both memos were
written by Democratic staffers at the behest of Democratic
Senators.
The Senate Intelligence Committee memo examined ways Democrats
could use the Iraq situation to their political advantage. The
Judiciary memo laid out Democratic options to continue to defeat
Bush nominees to the federal courts. Both memos were written after
Democratic Senators came out of caucus meetings in which Reid and
Daschle made a point of asking members for strategies to take the
fight to the Republicans.
“They didn’t ask for these memos explicitly, but they told us
they wanted us to put the Democratic committee staffers to work, to
begin mapping out strategies that would allow us to notch some
wins, or at least to appear to be doing something. They said that
it didn’t appear that they were going to have a bad economy to hang
around Bush and the Republicans. They said they needed other
issues,” says a Democratic Senator. “That they are shocked these
memos were made public is as embarrassing as the content of the
memos. I mean, this is Washington. This is politics.”
Daschle, according to leadership staffers, is committed to
running for re-election to the Senate. “I can’t see him stepping
aside now,” says a staffer. “That would just screw things up for
the party even more than things already are.” But he seems resigned
to losing his leadership post after the next election, which might
see Republicans actually gain two or three seats.
