Senate minority leader

[Cottonball]

With the republicans trashing Democrats with negative tv ads and the rnc promoting gw as some kind of patriotic war hero, I ask, how can Sen.Tom D. ride along with the republicans on the energy bill. I know that his state would benifit greatly from the bills passage, but at what expense to the enviroment and other rnc special interest. We need to unseat the current president and with Democratic leaders like Sen Tom D., How can it be done. The Democratic party should stand strong and undivided, to stop this display of voting for any bill gw want sent through. They should not waiver when they vote for the rights of the people they represent even if they are called un-American. If this current administration is not consciously ashamed to use dead American civilians and soldiers to hide their adgenda. Calling their action patriotic should be a crime and I hope this country is not as ignorant as it was in 2000, by letting gw and the rnc badger the Democrats publicly and not see through the charade. I have trouble with the Democratic leadership when there are incidents like this. I guess thats the end of this rant.:shrug:

[virtualobserver]

1. Daschle is not much of a leader.........

I had high hopes for him initially.

[w13rd0]

2. Daschle...

...is one of the reasons our leaders should be selected from safely democratic states, so they don't have to run counter to party interests all the damned time...

[PurityOfEssence]

14. Damn good point

I haven't heard that raised before, but it's a hell of a rule-of-thumb. Of course, it's difficult if it's going to be from a slanderable state like Massachussets or California, but we've been cowed too much into looking over our shoulder, so even logic like that should be dismissed.

How about Dick Durbin or Russ Feingold?

[Tatiana]

3. Daschle is dancing around in his pink tutu.

And we need to ask him to step down and clear the way for more competent, more passionate leadership.

Yes, he received anthrax. Yes, someone likely tried to kill him. But so did Leahy and look at how Leahy stood firm, held the caucus together, and continued the filibuster on Bush's reichwing judicial nominees.

We need Kennedy or Durbin as our party leader.

[BuelahWitch]

4. What about Harkin as Minority Leader?

I don't think he owns a pink tutu...

[Tatiana]

7. Or Harkin.

He's a good choice too. I'm not sure how safe his seat is.

I also think Reid - NV would be a decent choice.

[Cocoa]

10. makes no sense

if you are mad at Daschle about the energy bill, why wouldn't you also be mad at Harkin, who voted the same way as Daschle?

The pink tutu thing makes no sense either. Do you know any ballet dancers, are they especially cowardly? The ones I know are not, in fact they are quite tough.

[oasis]

13. Harkin, a good choice.

[Yupster]

15. Daschle beat Dodd

when he won the leader's post. Maybe Dodd still wants the spot?

[Adjoran]

5. Daschle has not been effective

either as majority or minority leader in the Senate.

IMO he was thinking of running for the Presidency at some later date from the very start, and acted to further his personal ambitions rather than to perform the task at hand well.

As a result, he failed miserably on both counts.

I agree that the congressional leadership should be drawn from safe seats, and also from those without obvious ambitions for higher offices, so that their actions would not be affected by either.

[Doomsayer13]

6. it would hurt him at home

I don't think that he should vote against the will of his constituents, but we should get a safe Democratic senator as leader. It makes us look divided and weak.

[Eloriel]

8. I want people in both Houses of Congress

who will do what's right for the country, even if that means "sacrificing" some pork and other benefits just for their home state.

I'm tired of this.

Eloriel

[burr]

9. true....

Compromise is necessary for a majority party when it does not have enough votes to pass legislation. But where is the benefit in compromising for the minority party?

In 1993, staying united and refusing to compromise is what led Repukes to winning the majority in 1994. But winning back power is not the only benefit of the filibuster. A filibuster also draws media attention to potentially unpopular legislation, and it can be used to force the majority party to make fundamental concessions on all legislation which they seek to pass.

If Democrats like Tom Daschle are unwilling to make our party a force to be reckoned with, it is doomed to become just another political relic of the past!

[newyawker99]

11. Hi Cottonball!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Cottonball]

12. thanks...

to all who see where I was trying to go with this. The other folks who voted with the republicans are not what I am irritated about. Its the leader of the party in the senate would should be holding these guys together, instead of looking the other way. I receive fund raiser e-mails from different democratic based groups and its hard for me to lay down any of my hard earned money to a party that's not going to have the strength to pull together. Its the leadership that the democratic party has now that will sink them in the end. I think the anthrax scare was just that. I find it weird that after the mailing of anthrax the story or investigation just died out. I know there were some postal workers who became really sick and some died, but were any of the senators really in danger, like they really open their own mail. Some of these events or conspiracies, did lead up to the push to give gw all the power he needed to do what ever he wanted to do in the name of the American public. I beleive this administration is dangerous to every working stiff in this country and I hope that by the time the primaries are over and we have one candidate, every democrat every where pulls together to unseat this dictator in the making.