Here's what I think will probably stand out. First, Thune's line about the ethanol bill being on the "one yard line" and Daschle running off to "sign autographs" was rather devastating. As you may recall, the night before the vote in which the ethanol bill failed by 2 votes, Daschle was out at a book signing in Virginia. Also, as Congress Daily and others have reported, Daschle did NOT work to get the final two votes. All the details are here. It was a great line and what's striking about it is that Daschle had no response. Second, Thune's focus on obstructionism certainly stands out, especially the use of that devastating Wall Street Journal piece entitled "Daschle's Dead Zone" from a few weeks ago. Third, and this is probably the historian in me, but I thought it was interesting that Daschle invoked LBJ and Robert Byrd, who obviously brought/bring tons of federal dollars and major projects to their states. Try as I might, I can't think of Daschle's Big Project. Former Senators Mundt and Case could claim the interstate highways, for example. The last Senate leader to lose, Senator Ernest McFarland of Arizona, could claim to have passed the GI Bill after WWII. But Daschle doesn't have anything like that to point to. His failure to work to get the ethanol bill passed highlights this fact. Finally, and this could be my hobby horse, but Daschle said during his closing that the debate was "great" and was "democracy in action." Um, ok, so let's have more democracy! Accept the 25 outstanding debate offers from South Dakota organizations and we'll have lots of democracy!
UPDATE: Another item that caught my eye was that Daschle said that since the Repubicans control the Congress it's their fault the ethanol bill didn't pass. This is absurd to anyone who knows about the filibuster rule in the Senate that Daschle has used constantly. The process of blocking bills and then blaming Republicans was the subject of Senator Grassley's major Senate speech about Daschle and the ethanol issue in May entitled "The Block and Blame Game." Of course this speech wasn't reported in South Dakota.
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