Daschle on C-SPAN

If you remember from a few weekends ago, Senator Tom Daschle was in Iowa to speak at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner. Tonight, that speech was on C-SPAN and I decided to watch it following the John Kerry-Bob Baines rally that I decided to mute for other reasons. Hopefully, it will be done by 8:00 PM as there is a basketball game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and South Dakota State tonight. It looks like Kerry coverage is finished, now we can focus on Senator Tom Daschle. In case you missed it tonight as well, you can download the mp3 at the New Leadership for America PAC website.

Senator Tom Harkin introduces Senator Tom Daschle at the dinner. That was a nice and generous introduction of the Senator. He arrives with thunderous cheers and applause. This is the first speech that I've watched Daschle give since his farewell address.

Daschle says there is no one he would want to campaign with more since Senator Harkin. What would he say if he were here in Kentucky?

I remember Harkin's eulogy for the late Senator Paul Wellstone and it was a powerful one.

I could liveblog my experiences of watching the speech but I won't since the transcript is already online.

On the South Dakota citizens who attended: "I also want to thank so many South Dakotans who came long distances to be here tonight; some from my home town; some from all over South Dakota. Who knew they were that interested in the gubernatorial race in Iowa."

On Republicans: "This country is suffering from something that I call RFS. RFS is a malady that we’ve had before as a nation: Republican Fatigue Syndrome. You feel it as you go out all over and Tom and Tom talked about it tonight. The symptoms are clear, sleeplessness, anxiety, doubt. Every time that we’ve experienced this RFS, the American people have turned to the Democrats to find the cure. I’ll never forget in 1986 they did that. The year I got elected with Tom’s help. In 1986 we were going through the second term of the Regan Presidency and there was Iran Contra. There were indictments. The country was drifting, debts were soaring. And even though nobody could possibly have predicted it, we elected eight new democratic Senators and 253 members of the House and we took back the United States Senate in 1986."

Taking back the Senate: "So, I agree with Tom; in part because of RFS, in part because I feel the fatigue about what we are now seeing. I have absolutely no doubt that our chances of taking back the House and the Senate are growing by the day and it is very likely we will be calling this man Chairman Tom Harkin next year..."

Energy Independence: "And I’d like to say, I would for love all of us to be able to stand on this stage and say that by the year 2020 we’re going to be energy independent. We are gonna find a way in these next 15 years to do something we should have done a long time ago. They say that 20/20 is perfect vision. Well my vision for energy policy in this country, is to say in the year 2020 to all those countries shipping oil to the United States, keep it we don’t need it anymore, we are now energy independent for the first time in history."

On Iraq: "We need what I like to call strategic redeployment. After the December 15th elections, I’d like to see 80,000 American troops come home once and for all. I’d like to bring all the National Guard troops home so they can serve our country where they are needed most, in all those areas where we don’t have them today. We need our National Guard troops at home.

"I would like to deploy 20,000 troops to Afghanistan for three reasons. one: to find Osama Bin Laden, two: to stop the drug traffic, and three: to finish the job we should have finished a long time ago.

"I’d like to be able to re-double our efforts to train the Iraqis and by the end of 2007 I’d like every single American home on ground right here in the United States."