By Denise Ross

Welcome back from Christmas festivities - those of you who are, in fact, back and not riding the happy train all the way to New Year’s. (Clearly I took a break. Wish the spammers had, too.)

Alas, there are a few columns to catch up on. First, we have a heart-warming tale about how two humble public servants moved from as bitter a public battle as might be imagined to friendship.

I write of South Dakota’s two U.S. senators, of course. And if you find yourself snarling instead of smiling at this prospect, then you are almost certainly a partisan first and a South Dakotan second. I’d like to say - not that there’s anything wrong with that - but, well, um, I wouldn’t mean it.  

In any case, we all remember 2002. (Think back. You do. It was the one before the Thune-Daschle race of 2004.) It seemed the gregarious John Thune would best the low-key Tim Johnson, but, gosh, most of us hated to have to choose.

And then things got meaner and meaner, and GWB came to Mount Rushmore in mid-August right after a bunch of ranchers had to sell off their cattle herds because of the big drought. Bush said, “Yes!” to a lovely photo op with the four granite faces. But to drought aid he said, “No, no, no.”

And then GWB came to Aberdeen, and the Thune team had to hand out the free tickets. By now it was watch-your-breath-freeze cold out and the Secret Service locked a bunch of ticket-holders out, literally in the cold. If you thought the shafted ranchers were unhappy back in August, well, at least they got to see the president. What the mercury lacked in achievement that day, the jilted ticket-holders made up for in rhetoric.

And everyone was accusing everyone else of voter / voter registration fraud while the Kabuki band played on and on and on.

When the dust finally settled, the low-key guy was ahead by a sliver, and it seemed the once limitless career of the gregarious guy had washed up on the rocky banks of the Muddy Missouri.

And then they lived happily ever after.

If you’re a grinch, you probably stopped reading long ago. For the rest, click “CLICK HERE” below to read a bit of how they got from a sliver and the rocky banks to happily ever after.

State’s senators form warm relationship

S.D. has bipartisan, grown-up Senate representation.

By Denise Ross

As South Dakotans settle in for the holidays, they can be thankful that two unlikely political allies are exchanging warm wishes. Our two U.S. senators, who beat each other bloody in the 2002 election cycle, now call themselves friends.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., share a storied history and an unexpected present. It began a dozen years ago.

In 1996, Thune replaced Johnson as the state’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives. After pledging to serve no more than three House terms, Thune faced a crossroads six years later. He decided to challenge Johnson, who was seeking a second Senate term after having won a 1996 squeaker over incumbent Republican Larry Pressler. The more gregarious Thune had enjoyed victories topping 70 percent and seemed the favorite. But South Dakota voters opted for the steady-as-you-go Johnson - barely. He held onto his seat by 524 votes.

During the campaign, however, a third-party group supporting Thune ran a TV ad calling Johnson soft on national security, comparing him to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. This while Johnson’s son Brooks served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army’s 101^st Airborne. At the time, Johnson was the only member of Congress with a child serving as an active duty enlisted member of the military. Sgt. Johnson had served in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, Korea and Germany and soon would serve in Iraq. While Thune didn’t “approve the message,” which did not come from his campaign, he also didn’t condemn it.

Fury moved palpably over the telephone lines from the Beltway. I covered the race as a newspaper reporter, and I could not say whether members of the Johnson team would slow down had they seen Thune crossing the street. Affections were no warmer from the Thune camp as the congressman took relentless heat over the lack of drought aid and took blame for the Bush administration’s environmental record.

How remarkable, then, when Thune defeated Johnson’s dear friend and Senate leader Tom Daschle two years later that Johnson extended the olive branch. Johnson admits it wasn’t easy. He consulted with colleagues who had dealt with similar situations.

“They said, ‘You just have to keep your game face on,’” he said. “That took a positive step to call John Thune and congratulate him.”

That call led to a meeting among the two senators and their chiefs of staff. “We came to an agreement that there is no need for this bickering, especially about South Dakota issues,” Johnson said. 

That grown-up decision to set aside past offenses to better serve their constituents led to what Thune describes as “friendship.”

“We first developed what I would describe as a very strong professional working relationship that benefits the people of South Dakota,” Thune said. “We then developed a more personal relationship and friendship driven by a decision by both of us that we were going to put the past behind us and work constructively for South Dakota.”

Like a newborn foal taking its first steps as storm clouds gather, the Johnson-Thune bipartisan working relationship soon got a serious test. Six months after Thune took his place in the Senate, Ellsworth Air Force Base had an official place on the chopping block.

Johnson counts keeping Ellsworth open as the most significant work the two have done together. Also on the list of legislative achievements for which the two take mutual credit include boosting the renewable fuels standard (read that required use of ethanol) in the 2005 energy bill, pulling the Lewis & Clark and Mni Wconi water projects out of the zero-funding zone in 2007, crafting the most recent farm bill and making sure South Dakota’s road projects had a place in the most recent transportation bill.

That work must have been made easier by an agreement the two have struck.

“We agreed that wherever we disagree, to respect each other and don’t say anything negative directly about the other,” Johnson said. “We never criticize each other.”

And when Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage in late 2006, Thune, his family and staff were nothing but supportive and helpful, by all accounts. While the two senators try not to gush too much about their friendship - their partisan supporters frown on too warm a bond — stories of kind gestures percolate through the grapevine, officially off the record.

Johnson does note that the two sometimes share car and airplane rides around the state. Oh, to be a fly on one of those walls.

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