December 10, 2001
Daschle's One-Word Lament
By Ben Pershing
He rose from a small town in South Dakota to become Majority Leader of the United States Senate. He wrested control of the chamber away from the GOP and regularly squares off with President Bush. He is the most powerful Democrat in the country. Still, Thomas Daschle is disappointed.
Amid all the ups and downs of politics and the rhetorical bombast of Washington, where lawmakers often verbally eviscerate their opponents for sport, Daschle has been consistent in his disappointment.
On Nov. 28, he said he was "disappointed" with the White House's "negative reaction" to his plans on supplemental spending.
At a press conference the next day, Daschle was "disappointed" that the stimulus issue had become so "partisan" - so much so that he used the term twice in the same answer.
Similarly saddening to Daschle was a statement by White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who suggested that Daschle was moving a railroad retirement bill at the behest of the AFL-CIO.
"I think that rhetoric is way off base, and I'm disappointed that people are using it," Daschle told NBC's Tim Russert on Dec. 2.
In the past year Daschle has also been "disappointed" by the appropriations schedule, the lack of progress on a patients' bill of rights ("and, frankly, saddened" as well as "dismayed, really"), the media's coverage of the stem-cell research debate, criticism of Democrats' stance on Mexican truck safety, the White House position on the Kyoto treaty, the report of the Social Security Commission, the scope of the tax rebate, and the "millionaires" amendment to campaign finance reform.
For someone who is consistently described as "cool" and "mild-mannered," disappointment is usually the strongest negative sentiment Daschle can muster publicly. His colleagues have noticed.
Quoted in National Journal's Oct. 20 issue, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) pointed out that Daschle had been "disappointed" by his efforts to block a Congressional pay raise and "very disappointed" by the Wisconsin lawmaker's vote against the terrorism bill.
"I am wondering when he will be Ôvery, very disappointed,'" Feingold mused.
He presumably missed Daschle's Oct. 15 press conference, when the Majority Leader admitted he was "very, very disappointed and angered" that anthrax had been mailed to his office.
Asked why Daschle was so fond of the word, spokeswoman Anita Dunn drolly took a page from her boss's thesaurus.
"We're disappointed that Roll Call has chosen to focus on one word rather than the broader rhetorical issues facing Congress," she offered.
Although Daschle's use of "disappointed" might be considered mild compared with the way some of his colleagues choose to express their frustration, experts say the word certainly has an element of head-shaking condescension.
"I've always been struck by his soft-spoken nature, and his use of Ôdisappointed' dovetails well with that," said George Washington University Professor Steven Keller, an expert on political oratory at the School of Media and Public Affairs. "It allows him to come off as parental, always wishing for something better. ... It's almost grandparent-like."
In some cases, Daschle will give a warning of his pending disappointment before he actually encounters it, as when he told reporters Nov. 8, "I would be disappointed, to say the least, if there were delaying tactics" on moving to an economic-stimulus conference.
In fact, that issue had already been a big let-down for the Majority Leader. On Oct. 12, Daschle said he was "disappointed that the House was going off on one of its tangents again" with its version of the stimulus bill.
That particular Friday was apparently one of Daschle's least satisfying days, as he shared his disappointment with reporters five times on four issues.
At other times, Daschle even expresses disappointment with himself, as when he told CBS News last month he was "disappointed" Congress didn't take more action before Sept. 11 to prevent terrorist attacks.
"And I'm part of the reason we didn't," he said.
When Senate Republicans were holding up the foreign operations spending bill, Daschle confessed he was "not surprised, just disappointed."
Yet disappointment isn't always a stand-alone emotion for South Dakota's most influential politician; sometimes it works in concert with other feelings.
When he believed there wasn't enough being done for laid-off airline workers, Daschle made it known on Oct. 11 that he was "troubled, disappointed, disillusioned."
On a lighter note, Daschle said on Nov. 30 that he was both "amused and disappointed" by some tort reform provisions in the House insurance bailout bill.
Although it could be argued that the deliberative nature of the chamber would frustrate anyone, Daschle's disappointment predates his Senate career.
Back in 1985, when he was a House Member, Daschle was "deeply disappointed" that the Reagan administration was continuing to train foreign police forces.
He was also disappointed ("frankly, very") in 1982 by GOP criticism of a farm subsidy bill.
Maybe it's just a South Dakota thing. In an Oct. 10 Associated Press story, Daschle's home-state colleague Sen. Tim Johnson (D) said he'd be "enormously disappointed" if the state didn't get a new underground science lab in the Black Hills.
"It's very South Dakota, isn't it?" said Elizabeth Smith, a professor of political science at the University of South Dakota. "People here are kind. We don't say bad things about each other. We don't browbeat people or make a lot of demands.
"[Daschle] really lets us know that he hopes for the best in people, but sometimes we disappoint him, don't we?"