Thune versus Daschle

The Argus Leader puts out a report that is pretty basic in political thought:

Almost five years after narrowly unseating then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Republican John Thune is the one wearing the bull's-eye.

Up for re-election in 2010 as a leader of his party, Thune must perform the same juggling act between national politics and state interests that Daschle bobbled in 2004 while campaigning for a fourth term. And, like Daschle five years ago, Thune is helping run a minority party coming off a tough election, putting greater weight on GOP leaders to oppose President Obama's agenda and shape a national message.

Political analysts say circumstances favor the incumbent this time around. No significant opponent has surfaced to challenge Thune and, they say, he knows well the perils of going against his constituents.

Thune is a smart guy who is not going to emulate the practices of his predecessor," said Jennifer Duffy, who studies Senate campaigns for the Cook Political Report. "He's not going to vote against South Dakota's interests. He saw what it did to Daschle."

Analysts say Thune should be a much safer bet for re-election than Daschle was for several reasons:

South Dakota remains a Republican state, and the conservative positions Thune will take on as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee - such as gun control and restraints on union organization and limited government spending, other than that for the military - generally are regarded as in sync with those of his constituents. As the fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate, Thune has a little more wiggle room to veer from party leadership and support farm subsidies, alternative energy development and other issues important to South Dakota.

What is not in this report are those South Dakota RINOs who were part of the "Republicans for Daschle" movement. They are gladly spending Obama’s pork. Remember Pat Power's friend, the South Dakota Blog Watch Man:

I've spent part of the day reading old, old, old posts by the lonely boys who make up the Apple Dumpling Gang. These are from the early days of blogging in South Dakota, when Jason Heppler was still wearing pull-ups and Steve Sibson was chasing Dave Kranz around political conventions trying to see if he wanted to be friends, or at least see his Rush Limbaugh pajamas. And the irony is that half the eunechs in the Dakota Blog Alliance posted anonymously. It wasn't until they all got together for their first circle jerk, commonly referred to as a blogging conference, that they decided to reveal their identities. Problem was, nobody knew who they were and even fewer people cared.

There's only one thing about these goons that pisses me off, and I've mentioned it a few other times: the Republican party was my party long before it was theres.

That was in 2005. Sounds a lot like some of the stuff Pat Powers has been saying. RINOs absolutely hate Rush Limbaugh.

Comments

[shaky jake]

Yes, Steve. RINOs absolutely hate Conservatives.