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Smear Tom Daschle? By Bill Berkowitz
Ironically, while President Bush is still hovering at a nearly 80% favorability rating in the polls, public support for Democratic Party congressional candidates is surpassing, albeit by a slim margin, support for Republicans. These results have pundits questioning whether the president's coattails will be long enough to keep control of the House and win back the Senate for the GOP. Republicans are pinning their hopes on turning the election into a referendum on Daschle's leadership in the Senate. According to DaschleDemocrats.org, in early December, the Washington Times reported that White House officials were instructed "to take the gloves off and sharpen their rhetoric" against Daschle. Former Newt Gingrich Pollster Frank Luntz, in a memo to GOP leaders, instructed Republicans to make Tom Daschle the Newt Gingrich of 2002, stating 'It's time for Congressional Republicans to personalize the individual that is standing directly in the way... Remember what the Democrats did to Gingrich? We need to do exactly the same thing to Daschle.'" According to a late-April note in US News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" column, the hostility towards Daschle has taken on a life of its own. When Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert told House Republicans that Daschle "would die before letting the Senate vote on extending the Bush tax cuts," the chant of "Vote! Vote!" went up in the crowd. "Washington Whispers" reported that the GOP even attacked him for daring to take a four-day holiday in Acapulco. Daschle, who effects the persona of a mild-mannered "aw-shucks" kind of guy, continues to get under the skin of Republicans who want the president's agenda moved along posthaste.
"A GOP win in South Dakota would bolster its chances of retaking the Senate. It would also be a political bloody nose for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota native who may be considering a run for president. With only 750,000 residents, the sparsely populated state also has incredibly low TV and radio advertising rates. So conservatives have already launched withering attacks against Daschle and Johnson." Club For Growth
The Club For Growth was founded in 1999 by Wall Street stockbroker Richard Gilder and National Review magazine president Thomas "Dusty" Rhodes. According to the group's president, Stephen Moore, director of fiscal policy study at the libertarian Cato Institute, they followed the example of Emily's List, a liberal PAC supporting pro-abortion-rights Democratic female candidates. In a speech to potential supporters, Moore called Emily's List "the most ingenious political invention in the past 16 years." Emily's List takes contributions from its members nationwide and forwards the hard-money limited contributions to candidates the group supports. The group's founders committee includes Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, Newt Gingrich's GOPAC Executive Director Lisa Nelson, and philanthropist and school-voucher activist Virginia Gilder. Other committee members from Wall Street include Frank Baxter, chief executive officer of the Jeffries Group investment firm; Terry Considine, chairman of Apartment Investment and Management Co. and former Colorado candidate for the U.S. Senate; and Brian Wesbury, chief economist at the Griffin, Kubik, and Stephens investment firm, based in Chicago. According to Marianne Holt, a senior associate and Kathryn Wallace, a writer at the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), the Club For Growth "intends to spend $10 million to oust Republican and Democratic members of Congress who don't favor free-market policies strongly enough." Holt and Wallace's article in The Public I," a publication of CPI, argues that the Club For Growth is running "a two-pronged campaign. One is regulated by the Federal Election Commission and deals with limited contributions. The other campaign is stealth, receiving funds from undisclosed donors, and is totally unregulated." Holt and Wallace: "The club's main campaign activities include collecting $1,000 contributions from its members - a practice known as "bundling"…. Bundled contributions are reported to the FEC as coming from the individual member/donors. Thus it can be difficult for anyone other than the candidate or the bundling organization to find out just how much was given." (For more on the group's campaign financing strategies and a list of candidates it is supporting, see "Group to Spend $10 Million Against Candidates Not Hawkish On Free Market" - http://www.public-i.org/adwatch_01_041800.htm DumpDaschle.org In mid-January, another group of conservatives announced the launching of the dumpdaschle.org website. "We hope to make history on two fronts today," said Robert Moran President of dumpdaschle.org. It is the "beginning the process that defeats Tom Daschle in 2004, and fully demonstrating the grassroots power of the Internet in American politics," he added. "Conservatives and Republicans have stood idly by while Senator Tom Daschle has worked to block the entire Bush agenda. We hope this grassroots approach marks the end of this indecision." Becki Donatelli, Chairman of Hockaday Donatelli Campaign Solutions, an online fundraising firm said that she believed dumpdaschle.org would be successful for three reasons:
Even though he will not be up for re-election until 2004, the battle cry, "Dump Daschle," is driving GOP activists. The money is large and both parties understand what's at stake - the confirmation of Bush's conservative judicial nominees, a possible opening or two on the US Supreme Court, and legislation by the bushel, including such issues as tax cuts, energy policy, the environment, welfare reauthorization and the government's involvement with faith-based organizations. Who knows - and I'm not counting on it - but with the Democrats in charge, there might actually be a debate over whether the U.S. should invade Iraq! |
Sen. Tom Daschle: Target of the right 
Rep. John Thune: Taking on the Daschle legacy in South Dakota for the GOP 
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