Posted by: Billy Hollis on Thursday, August 09, 2007 I'm referring to Tom Daschle. You'll recall that he got knocked out in 2004 despite being the Democrats' leader in the Senate at the time. His co-senator, elected in 2002, was Tim Johnson, who suffered a serious stroke a while back. Johnson's seat is up for grabs in 2008. Now, look, I don't have anything against Johnson, even though there were some shennanigans in his very close election. (I don't think he was the one who ordered the shennanigans.) It's a terrible thing that he has to contend with a stroke, and I wish him a full and speedy recovery. But he's not currently able to fulfull his office, and likely won't be for months. Maybe never. So I don't even think he needs to be hanging onto his Senate seat as it is, though with the Democrats needing every last seat to maintain control, I guess I understand why that's happening. Now Daschle comes along and starts complaining about how mean and nasty the Republicans are because they intend to win that seat in 2008: Calling national Republicans “sad” and “desperate,” former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) decried their pledge to begin pursuing an aggressive campaign against his ill former South Dakota Senate colleague, Sen. Tim Johnson (D).As I said, Johnson's problems are most unfortunate. But they don't give him invulnerability against political efforts to unseat him. Daschle seems to be saying that a sick man should automatically be able to retain his seat, even if he can't campaign, or even carry out the duties of the office. And that he should be able to raise money (Johnson's organization has raised $1.2 millions so far, according to the article) while the opposing just sits there doing nothing. I'll agree with the "Tim's focus should be on his recovery" part of the quote, but the rest springs from that sense of entitlement that seems endemic among liberal politicians. Sorry, Tom, but you don't get to decide what happens to that Senate seat. The voters of South Dakota have that privilege. If the Republicans go over the line on what they say about Johnson, those voters can punish them for it. Or if the voters decide that Tim Johnson needs to "focus on his recovery" and let someone who's healthy represent their interests, that's their privilege too. (Found via Say Anything) |
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