By Denise Ross

Things to do in Denver when you’re a Democrat? Or to do in South Dakota when you’re a political junkie?

Try to catch Tom Daschle’s speech, sometime today (Wednesday).

The official schedule gives us only a clue as to when that might take place. VP pick Sen. Joe Biden is, of course, the “headline prime-time speaker.” Former President Bill Clinton is first on the list of featured speakers.

And Daschle is listed third behind Biden and Clinton, which leads the Hoghouse to believe Daschle is likely to speak shortly before Clinton.

The theme of the day is “Securing America’s Future,” and I’ll predict that Daschle will focus on his ideas on how to fix the health care system. Any other guesses?

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By Denise Ross

We all will know within a few days who Barack Obama will choose as his running mate. It could be South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle, even though he gets little mention in the constant speculation about who’s in the running. No matter. This from Politico:

Obama and his inner circle have held his intentions tightly, while a wider circle of aides in Chicago has been kept far enough out of the loop.

George McGovern called Obama’s pending VP pick ”the most closely held secret I’ve encountered in all my years in politics” Monday on SD Public Radio, adding that he has no idea who will emerge the much-anticipated choice.  

And one pundit I heard over the weekend put it this way: The people who know aren’t talking; and the people who are talking don’t know.

Here are a few clues about Daschle’s status on this front.

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By Denise Ross

Check your local listings for the Sunday talk shows. South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle will be a guest on ABC’s This Week with George Snuffalupagus.

Daschle will appear with GOP VP hopeful Mitt Romney and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. That’s a powerhouse line-up, but it looks like they’ve all got powerhouse line-ups this weekend. This Week might be the only show that Conde Rice is skipping.

While we’re waiting for the news to happen, see if you can spot the typo from the ABC News website as it appeared mid-day Saturday.

The headliners talk to George about the Russia-George conflict and election ‘08.

I really do wish that George could stay out of trouble.

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By Denise Ross

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, backed off his criticism of the FBI after he and others were briefed about the criminal case that the feds were building against the anthrax suspect, Bruce Ivins.

USA Today reports:

Daschle says the evidence against the government scientist accused of carrying out the 2001 anthrax attacks was “complete and persuasive.”

AND …

Daschle, who spoke during a meeting at the USA TODAY bureau in Washington, says he was “very dubious” about the government’s case before the briefing.

Here’s what changed his mind:

• the ability to identify the DNA of the anthrax: “It’s like a fingerprint,” Daschle said.
• the flask used to make the anthrax. “That’s as close to a smoking gun as I think you’re going to get,” Daschle said.
• the limited number of people who were authorized to enter the laboratory.

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By Denise Ross

Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-SD, has broken a long-running silence on his opinion of the federal investigation into the 2001 anthrax poisonings that struck his Senate office and several other places.

“From the very beginning I’ve had real concerns about the quality of the investigation,” Daschle said in a broadcast interview. “Given the fact that they already paid somebody else $5 million for the mistakes they must have made gives you some indication of the overall caliber and quality of the investigation.”

I recall accompanying Daschle on one of his drive-abouts in 2002 - it was the height of the Thune-Johnson Senate race, and the drums of war sounded on the horizon for Iraq - and somewhere near Kadoka we talked very briefly about the anthrax investigation. It seems it was about the time they had dredged up a pond somewhere near DC.

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By Denise Ross

SD’s former senator Tom Daschle, currently incommunicado somewhere in Africa?, is on the list of potential Obama VPs released late last week by CBS News.

TAD weighs in at No. 7:

Tom Daschle

An early and eager supporter for Obama, who appears to have forged a close relationship with the former Majority Leader. A consummate insider helps soothe concerns of inexperience but also brings a lot of insider baggage. And what happened to Obama in South Dakota?

What happened to Obama in South Dakota? Oh, yeah. That.

Daschle is listed behind, in order of ranking:

• Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
• Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (who’s been making the TV rounds this past week)
• Nebraska Sen. and Republican Chuck Hagel (the new John McCain)
• New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
• New York Sen. Hillary Clinton
• Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

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By Denise Ross

The Washington Post issued another list of VP contenders, and - as per usual - a South Dakota name made the list.

5. John Thune: The South Dakota senator is playing the tortoise in the veepstakes, content to hang in the back of the pack until the final decision days. In an interview with a South Dakota television station, Thune played that part to the hilt “I don’t have, as I said before, any intentions on that job. And I don’t expect to be asked.” We still think Thune will be a veepstakes finalist, however, because of his age (he’s 47), his strong support for McCain during the rollercoaster candidacy of the past year and his ability to appeal to social and fiscal conservatives. The biggest drawback for Thune? With no Senator having been directly elected to the White House in 48 years, does McCain really want to double down on his Washington ties given that Congress is as popular as used car salesman at the moment? (Previous ranking: 3)

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By Denise Ross

The Politico report that SD’s own John Thune has made it to the finals of the GOP veep-stakes - he’s in the top 3 - is getting plenty of play. (And with Obama making a big play for Evangelicals, that would seem to tip the scales away from the Mormon Mitt Romney towards the Baptist Thune as a way to shore that demographic up.)

What hasn’t gotten as much discussion is something Barack Obama said that was highlighted on the Chris Matthews Show .

This from the transcript:

Sen. OBAMA: (Wednesday) I want somebody who can be a good president if
anything happened to me. And I want somebody who can be a good adviser and counsel to me and tell me where he or she thinks I’m wrong, not just on
national security policy, but on domestic policy as well.

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By Denise Ross

A piece out today in The Hill offers a glimpse into the complicated relationship South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle has had with the Clinton power couple.

According to the article, Daschle rebuffed Hillary’s idea to set up a permanent campaign spin office within the US Senate, but the rebuffing did not outlast Daschle as Democratic leader.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was the original impetus behind the Senate Democratic “war room,” …

The war room has been credited for revolutionizing message strategy in the Senate but also criticized for creating a permanent campaign atmosphere in a chamber that has long prided itself on collegiality and across-the-aisle relationships. …

Clinton first proposed a Senate war room while Daschle was the Senate Democratic leader, but the soft-spoken South Dakotan declined to implement her idea …

Daschle did not respond to several requests for comment. …

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By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s junior US Senator, John Thune, is the Washington Post’s No. 2 pick in the current book-making on who GOP prez candidate John McCain will choose as his side-kick.

(Maybe if Thune steps up his Dwight Schrute game, he’ll move up to No. 1.)

Says The Post’s Chris Cillizza:

The phrase “central casting” can easily be applied to the senator from South Dakota. Thune is handsome, articulate and comes across as a moderate despite his very clear conservative voting record. Thune is also a hero in conservative circles thanks to his defeat of then Sen. Tom Daschle (S.D.) in 2004. The one knock on Thune is that he hails from a state that is already well in hand for Republicans. But, a look at recent veep picks (John Edwards, Dick Cheney, Joe Lieberman) shows that the traditional “geographic” consideration may be fading in importance when it comes to picking a number two.

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