Demonize Daschle and You May Slip on Your Banana Republic

By: Bruce S. Ticker

Memo to President Bush:

Give it up. Cut your losses.

Quit pouncing on the boy scout. Otherwise known as Tom Daschle, Senate majority leader.

You and your minions are in top bully mode right now and with that you are risking much. Your current course of action could contribute to your political destruction.

Vice President Dick Cheney already dubbed Daschle an obstructionist. GOP Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania likened the top Senate Democrat's conduct to a rabid dog.

The Senate has failed to act, you said in your weekly address Saturday. And while the Senate has failed to do its work, more and more Americans have been thrown out of work.

You were referring to the economic stimulus bill in which right-wing Republicans want tax breaks for corporations while tossing a bone to the unemployed, and Democrats want a bill that mainly helps those who lost their jobs following the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer threatened to measure the Senate's progress. Does this mean annual assessment tests for Democratic senators? Maybe they could be tested in the same classrooms as the third-graders who might be tested.

What is your point? Are you trying to provoke Daschle into saying something stupid? Do you hope to pressure Democrats into supporting your plan? Shift the blame to Democrats for economic woes? Discredit Daschle as a challenger in the presidential election?

On that last possible goal you would really be playing with fire.

Let's face it. You are a bully, a liar and a coward. Don't even bother to dispute it. As a bully, you could be in the process of digging a deep hole for yourself.

The average bully is usually stumped when someone stands up to him with this combination: Right is on his side; he has a firm resolve; and he possesses the power and influence to back him up.

Every loss you have contended with centered on an individual who employed this combination - Sen. John McCain exposed you for the snake you are during the presidential primaries; former Vice President Al Gore exposed your wide-ranging manipulations during the Florida recount; Sen. James Jeffords denied you control of the Senate without benefit of an election; and Sens. Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter alerted Americans to your contempt for the Constitution.

These episodes produced desperate measures on your part and at times caused you to lose your composure. All those politicians are still standing and have a future for further public service.

Now you are trying to ruin Daschle. Perhaps you can, but chances are you will strengthen his status.

Do you think he'll take your bait? He knows you are trying to provoke him.

And you expect Americans to cast the Democrats as the villain with the economy and other issues?

They already must blame both Democrats and Republicans, and they may place the greater onus on you and your friends in Congress.

Your most incredible accomplishment has been to wake up many Americans to politics. The most effective way for a politician to draw the attention of your average spoiled, contented citizen is to disrupt his/her life. You did that somewhat when the Supreme Court gave you your job.

And the Sept. 11 attacks severely disrupted our lives with 6,000 deaths, the loss of nearly a half-million jobs, the desperate straits of widows and orphans and the anxiety of airline employees and passengers.

Probably many of these people have noticed how Republicans have been adament on cutting corporate taxes which will probably benefit stockholders and executives.

Current and former airline employees must notice how you colluded with House right-wingers to stall a thorough airport security bill. Perhaps pilots with military backgrounds and enviable salaries generally voted Republican before House Majority Leader Tom DeLay delayed federalization of airport security employees.

You really think none of these people have noticed?

That's in large part why your demonizing of Daschle might backfire.

The guy's a boy scout. Or such is the image that he projects. He offers a relaxed, reasonable and flexible presence that Americans can get comfortable with.

You are Clinton without the sex scandal. Daschle is you without the lies, the arrogance, the recession and the contempt for the Constitution.

That's why he is rattling you. Maybe enough to give you fits.

And that may give Democrats this idea: Daschle is not the candidate to challenge you in 2004. He is the only candidate.

There is no guarantee that he will beat you. But in the intensity of the weeks between Labor Day and the election, he could drive you batty. Perhaps enough to provoke you into doing something dumb enough to evict you from the White House.