Bush Stumps On Daschle's Turf
In a double shot at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, President Bush came to the Democrat's home state Wednesday to demand Senate action on trade legislation and to raise money for a candidate who could help tilt the chamber back to Republican control.
Both Daschle and the senator Mr. Bush was working to oust, Democrat Tim Johnson of South Dakota, flew here to appear with the president at a farm event.
Mr. Bush went out of his way to welcome the two senators to his event in their home state.
"Tom, I'm honored you'd come," he said.
But what Mr. Bush really wants is to end Daschle's tenure as majority leader by returning the Senate to GOP control. To that end, the president came to raise $350,000 for the Senate campaign of his hand-picked candidate, Republican Rep. John Thune, who is seeking to unseat Johnson.
The Democrats currently hold a one-vote margin in the Senate.
Mr. Bush also pressed anew for Congress to grant him new powers to negotiate trade agreements that Congress could accept or reject but could not amend. That, he argues, would accelerate trade pacts by giving other nations more confidence that such deals wouldn't be tampered with by lawmakers. Early this month, Mr. Bush called on the Senate to pass the measure by Monday — a deadline that came and went with no action.
The legislation is vital to South Dakota, which could benefit from increased trade that would probably come with broadened presidential trade powers.
"The more markets that are open for U.S. farmers and ranchers, the better off our economy will be. It is important that this nation embrace free and fair trade," said Mr. Bush, who last month slapped tariffs on imported steel and Canadian lumber.
"It is important that we understand that when we're good at something, and we're the best farmers and ranchers in the world, we ought to work to open up markets to sell our products all across the world," he said.
The president met with farmers and area leaders to discuss a farm subsidy bill — also critical to South Dakota — stuck in a House-Senate negotiating committee, in a visit to a plant that makes ethanol, a gasoline additive, from corn.
Daschle and Johnson arrived at the dusty plant, surrounded by empty fields, well after Mr. Bush and Thune were already behind closed doors talking with local farmers. The two Democrats took front-row, stage-right seats in the audience for the president's speech.
Daschle was key to engineering an agreement in an energy bill now before the Senate that would triple the use of ethanol over the next decade. That bill, too, has bogged down in the Senate, to Mr. Bush's frustration. Votes on energy and trade are likely in the next few days.
The president stopped in South Dakota en route to a long weekend on his ranch, where he was to meet Thursday with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.