Senator
Tom Daschle (D-S.D.)
For three weeks every summer, one cannot find the country's most
influential Democrat in Washington, D.C. or surrounded by a phalanx
of press and staff. Instead Tom Daschle is spending his time in
fire halls, diners, farm equipment stores or on the back roads of
rural South Dakota. Daschle says he uses the unscheduled and unhurried
tour to gauge what is on his constituents' minds.
 Those
who have followed Daschle's career say the tour exemplifies the
"prairie populist" ideals that first attracted the state's
senior senator to politics.
"Daschle's
low-key, low-profile appearances at cattle auctions, health clinics
and coffee shops are typical of his self-effacing approach to
politics, which this year has succeeded in uniting Senate Democrats
as a significant roadblock to the Bush administration's pursuit
of a massive tax cut and other legislative goals," John Lancaster
wrote in a 2001 Washington Post profile.
Despite
his apparently humble nature and modest roots, the minority leader
has used a mastery of the Senate procedure coupled with a fierce
belief in partisan politics to rise to the upper echelons of the
Democratic Party and to unify a fractured caucus.
"Soft-spoken
and self-effacing, Daschle is neither a stirring orator nor a
prodigious fundraiser," Nicholas Confessore wrote in an article
in the liberal American Prospect. "Although liberal for his
home state of South Dakota, Daschle is just left of center among
his fellow Democrats. He leads no ideological or geographic bloc,
isn't really closely associated with any particular wing of the
party, and, for that matter, is rather less well known than some
of his more boisterous, outsize colleagues."
But
when Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont bolted his party
in May 2001 and swung the balance of power to the Democrats, he
also handed Daschle the keys to Senate control.
Daschle's
ascent to political power found its beginnings in a tiny northeast
South Dakota farming community. The oldest of four boys, Daschle
was born in 1947 in the rural town of Aberdeen to a middle-income
family. His father was a decorated World War II veteran who worked
as a bookkeeper for a local auto parts store.
In
his early years, Daschle excelled in academics, flourishing at
Aberdeen's Central High School and feeding his growing interest
in political affairs at Boys State, a week-long leadership camp
sponsored by the American Legion.
In
1969, he became the first in his family to graduate from college,
earning a degree in political science from South Dakota State
University with the help of its ROTC program. He then entered
the service, working for three years as an intelligence officer
in the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command in Colorado.
During
his time away from South Dakota, Daschle's interest in politics
grew and when his term of service ended, he went to work in the
Washington office of Sen. James Abourezk. He worked there for
five years, learning the intricacies of Senate debate and fueling
his own desire to run for office. When Abourezk announced his
intention to resign in 1978, then-U.S. Congressman Larry Pressler
decided to mount a campaign, leaving one of the state's two House
seats open and giving Daschle his chance.
The
campaign that followed between the 30-year-old Daschle and Leo
Thorsness, a decorated Vietnam prisoner of war, was one of the
closest South Dakota had ever seen. In the end, Daschle's populist
message and tireless campaigning carried the day, barely. Daschle
won his first campaign by 14 votes, although a recount later bumped
up the margin of victory to 139 votes.
In
the House, he stuck to the party line, representing farming and
ranching interests and keeping a relatively low profile. But his
tenure in the House would be tested four years later. After the
1980 census, South Dakota lost one of its two House seats, pitting
Daschle against a fellow incumbent, Republican Cliff Roberts,
in the 1982 election. Again, the campaign was a close one, with
both candidates fighting for the middle ground. In the end, Daschle
edged Roberts with 52 percent of the ballots cast.
Daschle
won reelection easily in 1984, but it was a fratricidal Republican
primary for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1986 between Sen. James
Abdnor and Gov. Bill Janklow that gave Daschle his next opportunity.
Daschle entered the race and campaigned hard against Abdnor, who
had spent much of his money and had been badly bloodied in the
primary. Again it was a tight race and again Daschle managed a
52 percent to 48 percent victory.
In
the Senate, Daschle closely allied himself with Sen. George Mitchell
of Maine. Two years later, when Mitchell became the Senate majority
leader, he chose Daschle to head up the influential Senate Democratic
Policy Committee, essentially serving as Mitchell's main assistant.
But when Mitchell announced he was stepping down in 1994, Daschle
immediately organized a campaign to replace him. But to ascend
to the leader's position he would need to leap-frog over dozens
of more experienced senators and defeat Tennessee Sen. Jim Sasser,
who had also announced he would seek the position.
As
the November 1994 election approached, it appeared Sasser would
win the post. But it was the year of the Republican Revolution,
and although Sasser had the votes to become party leader, he did
not have the votes to stay in the Senate, and was defeated by
a little- known surgeon, future Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
The
field appeared clear for Daschle's ascendancy, although it would
now be as minority leader, until several senior Democrats intervened
and nearly derailed Daschle's efforts. Michael Barone described
the culmination of the leadership fight in the 2002 Almanac of
American Politics.
"Connecticut's
Christopher Dodd immediately entered the race, with encouragement
from some older committee chairmen; but Daschle relinquished his
seat on the Finance Committee to Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois,
whose vote gave him a 24-23 victory--one that brings to mind his
first election to the House," Barone wrote.
As
leader, Daschle kept his historically fractured caucus largely
unified for some of its most intense partisan fights: the 1995
government shutdown, the impeachment of President Clinton and
the passage of President Bush's tax cut.
With
Jeffords' defection, Daschle became Senate majority leader, working
to balance partisan differences with the president with the need
to get legislation done, but also serving as chief Democratic
spokesman in opposition to the president.
As
the 2002 campaign heated up, Republican ads sought to portray
Daschle as the personification of the obstructionist Senate, bent
on holding back a president in a time of war. In race after race,
Democrats were tarred with the connection of helping Daschle in
his fight against the president's agenda.
In
the end several Democrats did go down to defeat because of the
president's popularity and the perceived gridlock in the Senate,
but few blamed Daschle and no one mounted a serious leadership
challenge against him.
Now,
Daschle returns to the role of minority leader in a chamber where
the minority can exert more influence than in the House. After
the November 2002 defeats, Daschle sought to find the positive
aspects to returning to the minority.
"The
one consolation about being in the minority is that it's so liberating,"
the South Dakotan said. "It's easier to keep your caucus
together."
But
as the 108th Congress dawned, he also warned that the Democrats
would not serve as a rubber stamp for the president.
"There
will be those occasions when we think he is wrong, and in those
cases we will have no recourse but to stand up and argue our positions
and attempt to change the course of legislation he is proposing,"
Daschle said hours before the Senate cast its final vote of the
107th Congress.
Tom
Daschle is married to his second wife, Linda Hall Daschle, a former
Federal Aviation Administration official and now aviation lobbyist.
He has three children.
-- By Lee Banville, Online NewsHour
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