Copyright 2001 The Omaha World-Herald Company  
Omaha World-Herald
July 8, 2001, Sunday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A;

LENGTH: 1480 words

HEADLINE: Daschle Aims to Put Great Plains' Concerns on National Agenda Tom Daschle

BYLINE: C. DAVID KOTOK

SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: Sioux Falls, S.D.

BODY:
America's most powerful elected Democrat travels his home state in the cluttered back seat of a green, two-door Honda Civic.

Nearly everyone who sees the majority leader of the U.S. Senate serving beef on the annual Farmers Union chow line calls him "Tom."

At the Subway in Vermillion, S.D., he moves along the counter, specifying his own ingredients - wheat, roasted chicken, mustard and lots of hot peppers.

The unpretentious 5-foot-7 South Dakotan, who became majority leader when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont bolted the Republican Party, is the Democrat most feared by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

This man from the fifth-least-populated state leads the party most identified with urban America. But Daschle sees his new role as an opportunity for the northern Great Plains.

Advocates of agriculture, ethanol, the Missouri River, a Black Hills-to-Scottsbluff, Neb., tourism corridor and rural health care now have a friend running the U.S. Senate.

And while Daschle helps moderate the Democrats' image nationally, as majority leader he is charged with advancing the party's national agenda.

As a result, Bush and the Republicans were forced by Daschle to compromise on education reforms written by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and the Bush energy plan has been put on the back burner.

With the power to decide what issues come up in the Senate, Daschle won passage of a patients' bill of rights over the threat of a Bush veto. The Senate soon will take up the Democrats' call for a Medicare prescription-drug benefit.

Catholic schools in Aberdeen, S.D., shaped Daschle, along with a hard-working father and a mother who proudly sewed her children's clothes. He also was influenced by his two-year stint at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

From 1970 to 1972, Daschle lived at 7723 Burt St. in Omaha. His oldest child, Kelly, was born in Omaha.

An Air Force career gave way to home-state politics. For 23 years, Daschle has mastered the balancing act between his state's conservative values and the demands of an urban, pro-labor, left-of-center party.

"The way I like to say it is, 'I hope I can put South Dakota's agenda on the national agenda,'" Daschle said.

"But by saying South Dakota, I think you could be saying the Great Plains because there really isn't that much difference between South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

"We have a rare moment," he said. "I'm the majority leader. We have a core group of senators who have a similar philosophy... as it relates to rural issues."

Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Charles Grassley of Iowa are Republicans whom Daschle expects to enlist on common rural concerns.

When Daschle entered politics, low expectations greeted him.

Ted Muenster, a prominent South Dakota Democrat, recalls his reaction to Daschle's 1978 congressional bid.

"I thought he was nuts," Muenster said. "He looked 12 years old. ... I bought his lunch because I felt sorry for him."

U.S. Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., said few saw Daschle emerging from their 1978 U.S. House class that included Cheney and Newt Gingrich.

"I knew him as an ambitious and innovative legislator," said Bereuter, who worked with Daschle in the House on Indian alcoholism and farm legislation.

In 1986, Daschle rode farmer discontent to the U.S. Senate. His campaign brain trust transferred to Nebraska to run Bob Kerrey's 1988 Senate bid. Kerrey and Daschle bonded as allies.

Kerrey nominated Daschle as the Democrats' minority leader in 1995. Daschle repaid Kerrey by giving him control of the political arm of Senate Democrats.

"He understands the High Plains," Kerrey said. "That's his home. There is something different about the country between the Missouri River and the Rockies."

Daschle makes a special effort to keep in touch in his state, where, as in Nebraska, the Midwest meets the West. This August, as in the past 12 years, he will leave his staff and SUV in Washington to travel alone across South Dakota.

Over dinner in Sioux Falls with high school buddies Michael Breidenbach and Terry Gesinger, the conversation quickly reverted to "Glory Days" tales of long-ago pheasant hunts, girlfriends, walleyes and stick-shift Fords.

Gesinger and Breidenbach speculated that Daschle probably has shot more animals than actor Charlton Heston, the gun-rights leader of the National Rifle Association.

"Guns are part of the culture here," said Daschle, who has voted for gun-purchase restrictions such as the Brady bill.

The concept of fathers taking children hunting as a rite of passage is alien to many people from cities, Daschle said, where firearms are associated only with crime.

"It's almost impossible for people to understand that there is actually a positive value that can come from a hunt," Daschle said after his morning run along the Big Sioux River path through Sioux Falls.

"A gun is a connection to nature, sometimes - just like a fishing rod is a connection to nature or these running shoes," he said.

"It's being out and enjoying nature in a way we can't fully appreciate when you live in a city of high-rises."

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he gets along with Daschle because "he's a South Dakotan first and majority leader second."

The most recent demonstration of those priorities, Nelson said, came when Daschle called in Democratic members of the Agriculture Committee. Daschle told them he wants Democrats to write a farm bill this year instead of waiting for a Bush-GOP plan.

Democratic moderates and centrists are comfortable with Daschle, Nelson said, because he tolerates them when they stray from the party line. His deal with Daschle, he said, is "no surprise."

On major votes, Daschle has proven that he can hold Democrats together. As Senate minority leader, Daschle kept every Democrat in line at the impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1999. Not a single Democrat voted to convict Clinton.

This year, only Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., voted with Bush to keep the tax cut at $ 1.6 billion, and the Republicans were forced to compromise to a smaller amount.

Daschle returned to his home state last week flush from a solid victory on HMO reform.

"The patients' bill of rights showed what we could do," he said. "We had 50 Democrats and nine Republicans. I felt good about that."

Daschle relies on persuasion, not intimidation, to prevent Senate Democrats from breaking apart - to keep the Nelsons of the party from battling liberals such as Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I don't feel like I can put somebody down, twist their arm to the point of submission," Daschle said. "That isn't the way you do it."

His soft-spoken and easygoing style and discomfort with political theatrics make Daschle an elusive target for the GOP, said Hagel, the Nebraska Republican.

On a personal level, Hagel said, he likes Daschle. The two teamed up 20 years ago to champion programs for Vietnam veterans.

"He is very dangerous for Republicans," Hagel said. "He's smart, crafty and thinks strategically. He's very disciplined ... that run-silent, run-deep deadly Tom Daschle."

South Dakota Republicans give Daschle grudging respect and share in the statewide pride in his rise to majority leader.

Richard Gregerson, an active Sioux Falls Republican, said it's fun to see a South Dakota State graduate triumph over the Yale and Harvard crowd.

Local Republicans also monitor whether Daschle strays too far to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, as did former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern, Gregerson said.

Thus far, said Republican Gov. Bill Janklow, the new prominence of Daschle has paid dividends.

Recent announcements include a visit to South Dakota by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Pentagon's decision to keep part of its scaled-back B-1 bomber fleet stationed in Daschle's state.

The one-time rivalry between Daschle and Janklow has turned to friendship over the more than 20 years that they have dominated the state's politics.

"He and I don't play games," Janklow said before locking arms with Daschle as they went to a private meeting with tribal leaders. "He's got his politics, and I've got mine."

"It's just like a Protestant and a Catholic living next door to one another," Janklow said. "We work on everything together except religion."

Tom Daschle

Age: 53

Hometown: Aberdeen, S.D.

Family: Married, three children from previous marriage

Education: Bachelor's degree, South Dakota State University, 1969.

Political Career: U.S. House 1979-87; U.S. Senate, 1987-present. Elected Senate Democratic leader, 1995; became majority leader in June 2001.



GRAPHIC: Color Photo/1 HOPE FOR PLAINS: Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., views his role as the Senate's Democratic leader as an opportunity for the northern Great Plains. B&W Photos/2 CONSTITUENT: Daschle and Ernest Jensen of Beresford, S.D., at a gathering for Daschle last week. QUIET RESOLVE: Daschle on his morning jog along the Big Sioux River path through Sioux Falls, S.D. "He is very dangerous for Republicans," says Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. "He's smart, crafty and thinks strategically. He's very disciplined."; JEFF BUNDY/THE WORLD-HERALD/1sf/2

LOAD-DATE: July 13, 2001