By Denise Ross

The debate is on - or the knives are out, depending on your point of view - over Tom Daschle’s blueprint for health care reform, as outlined in his latest book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.

Yesterday, the New York Times editorial board weighed in, offering no real praise and wondering how best to carve up and discard his proposal for a Federal Health Board, patterned after the Federal Reserve.

Our own guess is that Mr. Daschle would be better advised to try to achieve his goals through existing agencies before creating a whole new health-care-reform entity.

They do say their opinion is merely a guess, and one worth debating. My take is that the howls going up are coming from the myriad of special interests that have coalesced around the nation’s mammoth and tentacled health care industry. Those howls are going up because these various groups know how to work the current system - Congress.

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By Denise Ross

Early voting has been a great convenience for voters (in many cases) and thus, an advancement for our democracy. However, Rapid City Weekly News columnist John Tsitrian gave voice to the dread I felt when I signed my name to my ballot after I had cast my votes.

In his Nov. 13 column - no longer available online - (yeah, I’m a bit behind in my reading; what else is new?) - Tsitrian put it this way:

The mini-euphoric environment was tampered a bit, though, when I was handed the ballot and envelope in which it was to be stuffed, because that envelope required my name, address and signature.

Somehow, I’d gotten it drummed into my head since I was a kid that one of the strengths of our democracy is the secret ballot. …

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By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s lone congresswoman won a landslide victory earlier this month, and no one should be surprised. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin is simply following a South Dakota’s pattern of popularity for its House member.

By the time they reach their third term, where she is, we simply love them. And that love leads to bigger things, but eventually the love fades - difficult as that is to imagine when it comes to Stephanie.

I wrote about this trend in a recent newspaper column: (Read the full column on the jump.)

As things wrapped up Nov. 4, I recalled how South Dakotans re-elected a young politician named John Thune with margins that reached into the mid-70s a decade ago. …

The at-large status of South Dakota’s U.S. House seat — that it covers the entire state rather than just a portion of it — makes for a nice launching pad to higher statewide office. And there are really only two offices that qualify as higher — the governorship and the U.S. Senate.

Of course she could stay in the House, but SHS has said she’s considering a run for gov in 2010, so that’s where the bulk of political chatter has centered post-Nov. 4. (Has anyone asked her if she’s considering a Senate bid? That question can’t be too long in coming.)

Republicans want to know because they’re scared, and they should be. I’d say - for all the Democratic talent that might exist elsewhere in SD - that Herseth Sandlin is the one Dem who could enter the race as a favorite and probably the only one who could enter the race without facing a significant hill to climb.

Democrats want to know because they want to get on with things. If Stephanie’s not going to run, there are others who want to. As I wrote in the column:

No matter what Herseth Sandlin decides to do in 2010, one thing is certain. She will be the most closely watched South Dakota pol for the next two years.

Or until she announces her intentions. The Hoghouse Blog wishes to thank the Congresswoman for keeping things lively for those of us who watch SD politics.

To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

If you haven’t yet read Tom Daschle’s latest book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, now is the time. Since Prez-elect Obama has tapped TAD to head up HHS, that book will likely serve as the road map for the coming health care reform the nation will undergo.

Here’s something I did not know about Daschle’s role within the Obama campaign:

He currently serves as the head of Obama’s health-care policy group as the president-elect prepares to take office on January 20.

I do see some storm clouds on the horizon, and I’m not talking about doctors who might whine about possibly taking pay cuts or the insurance robber barons who will put the biggest teenaged drama queens to shame (not to mention the auto industry execs) in trying to protect their profits. I’m talking about a pair of Daschle’s former charges in the US Senate, Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus and maybe even Hillary:

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By Denise Ross

If you haven’t yet read the lively discussion going on over at the SD War College in which my friend Pat Powers goes all Church Lady on weed (and I mean that in the best possible way, Pat), you must read it. Click here.

My favorite entry at the time of this writing is this comment from “Detroit L”:

You’d think a guy with 23 kids would be sucking on a J at least once a day.

Followed closely by this laugh-or-cry observation from “DPW”:

put it on the ballot,tax it big,, promise all the money will go to k-12,,it will pass big,,,then funnel all the money into the general fund,,,hahahaha

Meanwhile, Bob Newland has made some valid points in his Tuesday e-mail outlining plans to take another run at legalizing medical marijuana in South Dakota. (Read the full e-mail on the jump.)

Here are some facts:
1. We put medical cannabis on the ballot for the 2006 election in South Dakota.
2. We obtained 48% of the vote.

If they can turn out some of those young, new Obama voters, the pro-medical MJ crowd could cross that 50 % threshold.

I don’t agree with Newland’s analysis that the tide has turned so dramatically that a bill to legalize medical marijuana could pass in the Legislature. (That is, however, a great way to get a ton of free publicity - also known as “earned media” in the campaign world. And that would set up the public debate for a November vote.)

Pat makes a good point that, if we want to treat cannibis as a medicine, perhaps some pharmacology controls on consistency and cleanliness ought to be imposed. Why not get the MJ prescription down at Wal-Greens, Boyds or Lewis like the rest of it?

It seems that whether SD gets another crack at voting on medical marijuana depends on whether Newland can round up some money. Might not be the year for that, but who knows?

To read the full e-mail, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

As the nation’s financial crisis settles in as our collective ongoing saga and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, returns to his seat on the Banking Committee, take note that the 3-term senator did not suffer any financial crisis in his campaign treasury.

Johnson spent almost as much to beat Joel Dykstra as he did to beat John Thune - $5 million in 2008 vs. $6M in 2002.

And that, said Johnson campaign manager Steve Jarding, is just the way of the modern political world.

Every campaign should have a floor budget. You have to treat it like a business, which it really is, if you’re going to win. What do I have to invest to make this business successful?

That’s from my newspaper column of last week. Read more by clicking “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s own heavy-hitting campaign operative Steve Hildebrand - widely credited with solid field operations that led to Obama’s key victory in Iowa (and then beyond) - won’t be joining the Obama administration.

He tells Politico:

I would rather put a bullet through my head.

That might be a tad strident, but Mitchell native Hildebrand says he just wants to come home to South Dakota.

Steve Hildebrand, the deputy Obama campaign manager who ran its massive field program, and also one of the campaign’s blunter voices, isn’t joining the move to Washington, and doesn’t find a top Democratic Party job terribly attractive.

“I’m going home to South Dakota to be with my partner and my dog,” Hildebrand tells The Advocate, laughing off rumors that he’s in line to head the DNC.

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By Denise Ross

I am delinquent in posting this information, but a one-hour version of my documentary - Unplanned Democracy: America’s First Vote on Abortion - about South Dakota’s 2006 abortion ban vote airs tonight on SD Public TV.

Here’s the trailer:

The film airs at 9 pm Central / 8 pm Mountain. For more information and to order DVDs, visit www.unplanneddemocracy.com

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By Denise Ross

As the nation’s fiery financial crash continues to conflagrate, many are trying to position themselves to get in front of the fire hose.

As part of its plea to clients, the New York Times reports, the Alston & Bird lobbying firm is touting SD’s own Tom Daschle as a reason to let A&B guide clients into the water.

Alston & Bird, for example, highlights its two biggest stars - former Senator Bob Dole and former Senator Tom Daschle. Mr. Dole “knows Hank Paulson very well” and has been “very helpful” with the financial rescue groups, said David E. Brown, an Alston & Bird partner involved in its effort.

“And of course, Senator Daschle is national co-chair of the Obama campaign,” Mr. Brown added, noting that because Mr. Daschle is not a registered lobbyist, his involvement is limited to “high level advisory and strategic advice.”

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By Denise Ross

My newspaper column from last week focused on how GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s out-and-out disdain for ethanol was hurting him in traditionally red rural areas - South Dakota included. (Read the full column on the jump.)

Anyone in need of a sign of just how fully Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is on the ropes need look no further than South Dakota’s own farm fields.

… the Economist magazine cited McCain’s position on ethanol and farm subsidies as one of his primary campaign problems.

“He has made no attempt to hide his opposition to subsidies for ethanol and for the bloated farm bill in general; and he barely bothered to contest Iowa’s caucuses,” the magazine noted.

That has led to the nearly inconceivable political reality that many formerly solidly red rural states are turning, as the Economist put it, “a fetching shade of purple.”

I wrote the column before Election Day but after the Cook Political Report had moved South Dakota into the toss-up category.

As we know now, McCain won South Dakota, but his 53 % victory lagged behind President Bush’s by several points. And it’s not that Bush was ever an ethanol champion. Hardly. But he wasn’t out there bludgeoning it like a baby seal, either.

And it’s not even that McCain was wrong about ethanol. The corn-based version’s problems have been well-documented. But out here in the Heartland, thinking already has moved on to the cellulosic version, the version that even McCain grudgingly acknowledges makes sense.

The possiblities of the very near future are so much brighter than the pitfalls of the past are dark that full speed ahead seems the only prudent ethanol policy.

To read the full column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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