Seems like the New York Times got it wrong about Tom Daschle ⦠And it sounds like Ari Fleischer got it really, really wrong by trying to play Daschle in the press by quoting his alleged assurance to president Bush that Bush would get each of his nominees.
Of course, it’s also possible that Daschle did give Bush an assurance and is now just backpedaling like crazy.
But, hey, same difference.
In his press conference today he seemed pretty unhappy with the White House â¦
I would hope that the administration would not make it a habit of quoting me. And if they do, I would hope that we (sic) would get it right
He later said that the quote in the Times was “not my message to the president yesterday.”
Now, having said that, Daschle said that what he did say both privately and publicly was that “we will not filibuster any nomination.”
Now, obviously if the Dems are not going to filibuster any nomination then that really does amount to a guarantee that Ashcroft gets confirmed since no one thinks 51 senators are going to vote against him. So, if Daschle is serious about this, his statement against a filibuster is tantamount to an assurance.
But how locked in is Daschle to opposing a filibuster?
What it means is that I will discourage Democratic filibusters, but it doesn’t mean that any one of my colleagues may not still make the effort. It’s not my expectation that there will be one. I have indicated I will oppose one if one were to occur. But again, I would reiterate, that’s a matter left to each of my colleagues.
So what the hell is actually going on here? My assumption is that Daschle told Bush he wouldn’t lead a filibuster against Ashcroft – which is tantamount to an assurance, since he can only be defeated by a filibuster. Rove and Fleischer and Hughes (and maybe even Bush if they let him in the planning session) figured they’d interpret Daschle’s statement broadly and try to nudge him a bit or play him in the press to push things along.
That made Daschle, to put it mildly, look real bad in the eyes of his caucus and just about everyone else; and he flipped.
The real story? This was amateurish ball by the Bush crew. And it’ll hurt them.
