Sibby Online

Will Kranz remember?

Since Tim Giago changed the dynamics of the 2004 South Dakota Senate race by running as a third party candidate and not as a Democrat, will David Kranz remember how he argued Giago will also affect the special election for the South Dakota House seat in his 1/25/2004 column:

While paying attention to his own race, Diedrich may need to worry about a possible Democratic Party primary race between Sen. Tom Daschle and Tim Giago, a Native American journalist and activist.

Daschle will need a crushing victory over Giago in the primary to avoid a message that Democrats are softening on him.

That means Daschle will gear up for the primary and have a get-out-the-vote effort as if it were a general election. That benefits Herseth, too, in the special election that same day.

Will his column tomorrow argue that Giago’s third party campaign will benefit the Republicans in both races?

Tim Johnson’s hypocrisy...lie?

In an 4/2/2004 email to his supporters, Tim Johnson took credit for $6 billion ($18.1 million for South Dakota) in funding to child care programs over five years. What he did not disclose was his 4/1/2004 vote, along with Daschle, that obstructed the funding to become law. As I covered in a earlier post:

The Senate set aside a sweeping bill to reauthorize the nation's main welfare program on Thursday after Republicans failed to muster the 60-vote majority needed to limit debate on the legislation. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota acknowledged that the bill had "overwhelming bipartisan" support.

But he and other Democrats said they opposed ending debate because they had been denied an opportunity for a separate vote on a proposed amendment to increase the minimum wage.

Republicans complained that the Democrats had blocked a vote on the underlying welfare bill, even after the Senate agreed earlier this week to add $6 billion to provide child care to low-income families.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said:
"Democrats ought to be ashamed of themselves for making political hay on the backs of low-income people. In order to score political points, they are leaving children and their working single moms out in the cold. If Democrats kill welfare reform, they will also be killing additional money for child care."

Johnson should be doubly ashamed to take credit for funding that never happened…because he helped kill it.

UPDATE: If you look closely at the vote, the only Democrat to vote for the cloture was Zell Miller, the only non-Democrat to vote against it, was Independent Jim Jeffords. Both Daschle and Johnson put their support of the Senate Democrats above the $18.1 million funding for child care of low income South Dakotans.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Washington Times has a report on the Democrat’s obstruction regarding welfare reform:

The 1996 law, with its "work-first" approach and unprecedented five-year limit on federal welfare benefits, was enacted with bipartisan support.

It is widely credited with helping reduce welfare rolls by 60 percent, but despite the success, the Senate has been unable to pass a new reform bill since the law expired in September 2002. Instead, Congress has passed six extensions of the existing law, the latest of which expires June 30.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said yesterday that it was "disappointing that a minority of U.S. senators is preventing the Senate from voting to reauthorize the landmark welfare to work legislation."

Republicans said they hope that Democrats pay a price on Election Day.

"This Daschle graveyard will become an issue in the election," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

But only if South Dakotans find out about it.

Negative Campaigning

As I was about to write this blog, I see DVT has beat me to the punch. Jon was absolutely correct in questioning Dan Pfeiffer's statement. (I have noticed Pfeiffer has been speaking on behalf of the Daschle campaign lately. What is with Steve Hildebrand? Maybe they have him sitting on a block of ice after his negative attack at Stephanie Herseth in regard to the gay marriage issue.)

Her is my analysis of this AP report, which was used today by the Mitchell Daily Republic. Here is an excerpt:

After an anecdote about his family's decision to run against Daschle, Thune said: "We decided there was no bigger difference we could make in public life than sending Tom Daschle into retirement." The line received rousing cheers.

Thune also accused Daschle-led Senate Democrats of blocking Republican measures and judicial nominees.

Dan Pfeiffer, a Daschle campaign spokesman, said Thune was "dragged kicking and screaming" into the race by national Republicans who want to defeat Daschle.

"John Thune has been saying in South Dakota that he wants to run a positive campaign, and then runs out of state to launch negative attacks," Pfeiffer said.

Now what was so negative about John Thune’s statements? Since he is running against Tom Daschle and expects to win, that would in effect retire Daschle. Sounds truthful and positive to me. Daschle’s obstruction of judicial nominations has been covered by this blog and should be considered obvious by anyone informed on the issues…and this should be an important issue to pro-life South Dakotans…who are the majority. Again…a truthful and positive statement.

Dan Pfeiffer made this "dragged kicking and screaming" statement that is not substantiated. Isn’t it Pfeiffer who is being untruthful and negative with his false accusations? Yes he is...but far-left hypocrisy is the norm for the Daschle campaign.

South Dakota newspapers should be aware of this and need to be careful of simply reprinting AP stories. Instead of making something out of nothing, they should be handing a mirror to Pfeiffer. The Thune campaign has every right to discuss the issues without the Daschle campaign blowing smoke and deflecting the truth that is not kind to Tom Daschle.

Major blog news!

SDP made a post at 2:04AM this morning (does the guy ever sleep?), regarding the blog Daily Kos “screw them” statement. SDP also mentioned Stephanie Herseth’s connection to Daily Kos. SDP and DVT has a link to Instapundit where I found a link that discloses the backtracking that Daily Kos has attempted to pull of:

Normally, I would just link to those words so you could read them for yourself. Thing is, the words no longer exist. See, after Zuniga realized that he was getting a mighty wind of negativity about his post, he not only deleted it, he wrote some meek explanation of his words that only came off as belligerent and stomach churning as the first post, and then pulled a little bait-and-switch so that bloggers linking to the original post were now linking to the latter crapfest.

But it just wasn't enough for Zuniga to take the words off of his site. In the latter post, he freferred [SIC] to his original words this way: I wrote in some diary comments somewhere .

How stupid and gullible does he think we are? Not just the people who linked to him, but all of his readers. Did he really think his readers would look at that statement and not - even for a fleeting second - think of Zuniga as a bullshit artist?

Well let it be said, then. I'm calling Kos on his bullshit. Because not only did he whitewash everything he said, then delete it from his site, he actually went through the trouble of deleting the offending post from the Google cashe and the internet archive.

If that's not the sign of a man covering his ass, I don't know what is. And if Zuniga is covering his ass, that means he knows he did something wrong. If he had any balls, and if he was a man that stood by his convictions, he would have left the words where they stood. Instead, he's a mangy mutt with his tail between his legs.

This is the voice of the left? According to internet lore, Zuniga is the best and brightest of the left. He's their Most Important Blogger. And this is how he behaves?

This morning I sent the SDP post to David Kranz reminding him of his column referring to John Thune’s use of blogs. Will his column tomorrow cover Stephanie Herseth’s use of web blog Daily Kos, including the “screw them” comment? I am not holding my breath. I am sure he understands the amount of backtracking Herseth will also have to make regarding her association with Daily Kos. This is not something a partisan Democratic journalist would do.

Bad News for the Democrats

A major issue for Democrats has been placing blame on President Bush for the lost of jobs. Will they give him credit when we have a gain in jobs? Here is their opportunity:

Stocks rose Friday after the government's surprisingly strong report on the U.S. job market stunned Wall Street and gave investors long-awaited evidence of a job market recovery.

The gains put the major indexes on track for their biggest weekly gains since October, though they are still below long-time highs hit in the first two months of the year.

In early afternoon trading Friday, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average was up 103 points at 10,477 while the technology-packed Nasdaq Composite Indexwas up 36 points at 2,051. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 10 points at 1,142.

About 308,000 jobs were created in March, the fastest pace in nearly four years, according to the Labor Department, far outstripping economists' forecasts for a gain of about 103,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent from the 2-year low of 5.6 percent seen in January and February.

"It is a big positive surprise that provides more conviction that the economy will gain momentum in the second half," said Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at fund firm Oppenheimer & Co. "I think a good figure was in the market, but a great figure was not."

Daschle opposed low income South Dakotans

This time the Daschle lead Democrat obstruction in the Senate prevented $6 billion in funding on child care for low income families:

The Senate set aside a sweeping bill to reauthorize the nation's main welfare program on Thursday after Republicans failed to muster the 60-vote majority needed to limit debate on the legislation.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota acknowledged that the bill had "overwhelming bipartisan" support.

But he and other Democrats said they opposed ending debate because they had been denied an opportunity for a separate vote on a proposed amendment to increase the minimum wage.

Republicans complained that the Democrats had blocked a vote on the underlying welfare bill, even after the Senate agreed earlier this week to add $6 billion to provide child care to low-income families.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said:

"Democrats ought to be ashamed of themselves for making political hay on the backs of low-income people. In order to score political points, they are leaving children and their working single moms out in the cold. If Democrats kill welfare reform, they will also be killing additional money for child care."

Judicial obstruction

This time the Senate Democrats' judicial obstruction will be meant to preserve the far-left extremism of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals:

By a party line vote of 10-9, a Senate panel on Thursday approved the nomination of William G. Myers III to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Montana and eight other states.

In order for Myers to take a seat on the court, the full Senate must approve the nomination - Democrats and Republicans say the chances of that happening are slim.

Environmental and Indian groups fiercely oppose the nomination, and it has become ensnared in a larger partisan battle over President Bush's nominees.

Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is the top assistant to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Democrats would filibuster the nomination if it comes before the full Senate.

Daschles’ conflict of interest

SDP has a great post regarding spouses of congressmen who lobby and the conflict of interest that can lead to an abuse of power. SDP provides details on the Tom and Linda Daschle situation where Linda’s clients contribute to Tom’s campaigns.

There is another source of facts that detail the Daschles’ conflict of interest:

Linda Daschle is one of Washington's most influential lobbyists on behalf of Big Business. The Daschle family budget and campaign budget depend heavily on the success of their contributors.

Conflict of Interest and Facts

Fact- American Airlines -Linda Daschle's client, American Airlines has lobbied for years to water down safety and security that might have aided in foiling the World Trade Center Attacks. With the support of Tommy and Linda Daschle, American Airlines received a $583 million taxpayer bailout after the 9/11 attack.

Fact- FAA- CBS -60 Minutes - Tom Daschle charged with inappropriately intervening to reduce safety inspections of an air charter company owned by a "friend of the family" after one of the planes crashed and killed four in 1994. While Linda Daschle was at the FAA she acted to exempt their friends airline from intensified safety inspections.

Fact- Boeing- Another client of Linda Daschle is lobbying for a deal to lease 100 Boeing Aircraft to the U.S. Military at a cost of $37 Billion. If the planes were bought outright the cost would be $25 Billion ...or $12 Billion Less. Tom Daschle is responsible for scheduling a vote on the bill. Will it be mentioned on CNN or in The New York Times? Don't hold your breath!

Fact- L-3 International- According to the 2000 Transportation Budget, the FAA was forced to buy baggage scanners from another client of Linda Daschle's- L-3 International, despite the fact that the Department of Transportation found the equipment to be substandard, some even leaking radiation. The Inspector General told Congress that the FAA's requirement to buy the scanners is one reason airports will not be able to meet the new mandate to screen all luggage for bombs or guns... for many years. He added that Americans have been put further into serious risk.

Fact- Northwest Airlines- More than $100,000 was donated to Tom Daschle's campaign in the last election by the Air Transportation Industry. Northwest Airlines was the second largest contributor to Tommy's campaign in 1998. Northwest is a client of Linda's.

Fact- FAA- Linda Daschle was recently cited in an FAA report for failing to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy against violent airline passenger that she announced in 1996 while Deputy Director of the FAA. It was a pledge that some say could have prevented the 9/11 terrorist hijackings.

Let’s not forget my post that details Rush Limbaugh’s contribution to this issue:

Ms. Daschle was deputy manager of the FAA from 1993 to 1997, and her clients while a lobbyist include American and Northwest Airlines. Joe Farah of WorldNetDaily.com sums up how the airlines and their lobbyists jumped all over Algore after his preliminary report. Gore wrote to one lobbyist "promising that the commission's findings would not result in any loss of revenue," and the very next day the Democrat National Committee received a $40,000 donation from TWA. In the next two weeks, checks came raining in from Northwest, United and American airlines.

Over the next two months, the 1996 Clinton-Gore team slurped up $100K from United, and $300,000 total from Daschle's clients American and Northwestern. Once Clinton and Gore were safely re-inaugurated in January, guess what? Gore rewrote his report to eliminate all the recommended security measures! Three commission members, including CIA director John Deutsch, complained. This forced Gore to back off a bit. He restored the safety recommendations but rendered them meaningless by not putting any time requirement on when they had to start showing up at airports to protect us.

Daschle’s hypocrisy on fiscal responsibility

Recently Tom Daschle criticized President Bush on the size of the deficit:

"I think it's abundantly clear now that this administration is the most fiscally irresponsible we've had in our nation's history," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, noting the "landmark" projection this week by the Congressional Budget office that there will be a $477 billion deficit this year.

Now Daschle is promoting a nearly 50 % increase in highway spending:

A dispute between the administration and majority Republicans in Congress has complicated efforts to pass the highway bill. The White House issued a statement Tuesday saying the six-year measure would result in too much federal spending and that President Bush's senior advisers would recommend he veto it.

Other disputes also threaten the bill's prospects for passage, including a demand by some lawmakers for their states to receive a larger share of federal highway funds.

The old highway measure expired last Sept. 30, and Bush has signed two short-term extensions approved by Congress since then.

But in a sign of the deepening political maneuvering around the measure, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle served notice he will block any additional extensions. ``This legislation will reinvigorate the economy,'' said Daschle, D-S.D.

He accused Bush of ``rigid partisanship,'' and warned that Republicans would be to blame if the expiration of the current bill adversely impacts construction projects.

The Senate has approved a bipartisan $318 billion measure that Bush has also threatened to veto.
Bush, who has proposed a $256 billion bill - up from $218 billion in the last six-year period - has yet to veto a bill since taking office. His stand on fiscal discipline comes on a popular bill aimed at easing traffic congestion, making roads safer and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs around the country.

Analysis:

(1). Bush is at odds with Republicans in Congress, but Daschle accuses Bush of “rigid partisanship” on a $318 billion ‘bipartisan’ Senate measure.

(2). Daschle threatens to block additional extensions and then blame that on the Republicans.

(3). Daschle is promoting more deficit spending, but has blamed deficits on Bush’s tax cuts.

John Kerry…Watergate 2004?

John Fund as a long column regarding John Kerry’s activities in 1971 with the Vietnam Veterans Against War. Here is the short of it:

In fact, Mr. Kerry acts as if he can't remember much about the VVAW at all. This month his campaign several times said he "never, ever" attended a Kansas City meeting of antiwar leadership where members discussed and voted on an assassination plot against pro-war U.S. senators. Then, when confronted with FBI surveillance records of the meeting, the campaign acknowledged his presence as "an historical footnote." Mr. Kerry told a Boston radio station the whole story was "such ancient history." It was time to move on.

Not so fast. Mr. Kerry's campaign has done more than contradict itself. It has been in full coverup mode. John Musgrave, one of the six witnesses who placed Mr. Kerry at the Kansas City meeting, says the head of Veterans for Kerry, John Hurley, called him twice and pressured him to change the story he had already told a Kansas City Star reporter about the 1971 meeting.

Here is the smoking end to the column:

The story is unlikely to go away completely. Last week Gerald Nicosia, the historian who first uncovered evidence the FBI tailed Mr. Kerry back in 1971, reported to police that three of the 14 boxes of the FBI files he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act were stolen from his California home and that other individual files from the remaining 11 boxes were also swiped, including documents about Mr. Kerry that Mr. Nicosia hadn't yet reviewed. "Those revelations are lost now, at least to me," Mr. Nicosia told the Associated Press. Someone, either friend or foe of Mr. Kerry, apparently knew what he was looking for.

The ghost of Vietnam and the culture war it has engendered won't go away. Now the controversy over what Mr. Kerry knew and when did he know it has been spiced up by the whodunit of the third-rate burglary of his FBI files. Sounds like a story to me.