WASHINGTON — On the frigid January day when George W. Bush ascended to the presidency, another transition occurred without pomp on Capitol Hill: Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) ended a brief reign as Senate majority leader and Republicans resumed control of the upper house of Congress.
Or did they?
At the time, Daschle's 17-day stint at the helm was seen as a novelty caused by a quirk in the political calendar. In hindsight, however, it foretold a new dynamic in a Senate evenly split between the parties.
Even though his title is once again minority leader, Daschle frequently is heading majorities that thwart the goals of the Bush administration while advancing those of his own party. Time and again on crucial votes--from campaign finance to bankruptcy reform to the federal budget--Daschle has been able to hold his often-fractious troops in line while picking up enough breakaway Republicans to carry the day.
More tests await as the Senate, reconvening this week after its spring break, takes up an education reform bill and continues to haggle over tax and spending issues.
For now, however, Daschle's profile has risen so sharply that the 53-year-old onetime Catholic altar boy is widely seen as the Democratic spokesman of post-Clinton Washington.
"His role is larger than the Senate," said Thomas E. Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank based in Washington. "He has become the de facto leader of the Democratic Party--the leader of the opposition."
Daschle, who represents a state less populous than San Jose, has been thrust into this position more by circumstance than by design.
Perennially described as "soft-spoken," "low-key" and "unruffled," he would be viewed mainly as a loyal, influential and liberal-leaning legislator had Al Gore won the White House last year. But politics abhors a vacuum. And now, with Bill Clinton gone, Gore withdrawn and Democrats wondering who will carry their flag in 2004, Daschle's name has even been drawn into the presidential mix.
He neither encourages nor discourages this chatter. Still, the talk raises his stature.
To be sure, Daschle frequently shares the Capitol Hill spotlight with House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who is well-known around the country and ran for president himself (in 1988, supported by Daschle as a fellow "prairie populist"). The two coordinate the party's message and strategy with many other prominent Democrats, several of whom harbor their own presidential ambitions. But the Senate--largely because of its 50-50 partisan split--is this year's prime political battleground. And Daschle finds himself in the thick of every fight.
