Tom Daschle appears to have

Tom Daschle appears to have been unhinged by last week’s defeat. Today he petulantly complained that “We can’t find bin Laden, we haven’t made real progress in finding key elements of al Qaeda. They continue to be as great a threat today as they were one and a half years ago. So by what measure can we claim to be successful so far?” I think most Americans understand that: 1) The reason why al Qaeda is a threat today is that for eight years the Clinton administration did nothing to combat the terrorist network; they even refused to take bin Laden prisoner when he was offered to us by the government of Sudan. 2) Tom Daschle has done absolutely nothing to help in the war against terrorism, either before or after Sept. 11, nor will he do anything in the future. On the contrary, he hopes the war will go poorly, which he believes will advance his own political career. 3) Great progress has been made by the U.S. Army and our security agencies in fighting al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in the U.S., Afghanistan, the Philippines and around the world. No thanks to Tom Daschle. The Democrats in general, and Daschle in particular, appear to be taking to heart the theory that they need to oppose President Bush more vigorously and distinguish themselves more clearly from the Republicans. We have expressed our views on this theory in a number of posts in recent days.