The collapse of the 9/11 Commission into partisan warfare is a sad story. Like FDR's Pearl Harbor commission, the process should have waited until the war was largely over. DVT has noted how Daschle collaborated with the most partisan members of the commission, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Also note this story which was published in this morning's Charleston paper, which notes that Daschle appointed the most partisan members of the commission:
Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste, Commissioner Timothy Roemer and Commissioner Jamie Gorelick -- all appointed by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle -- have emerged as the spokesmen for a Democratic Party political attack charging the Bush administration was asleep at the switch. Commissioner Gorelick is accused of a much more serious conflict of interest because she apparently did not inform other commissioners about the existence of an important memorandum that, as deputy attorney general in 1995, she herself drafted.
Daschle blames the President for the increasing partisanship in DC, but Daschle's handling of the 9/11 commission belies that claim. The Senate, as this Reuters story notes, is now "largely paralyzed," in large part because of Daschle: "Democratic roadblocks are lined up against dozens of judicial nominations, and there is also gridlock on stacks of legislation on matters ranging from energy to tort reform." Again, how does paralyzing the Senate and politicizing the 9/11 commission help South Dakota? None of this has been reported in South Dakota, however, so it's not clear that it has any effect on the Senate race.
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