As if that's news to anyone![:D]

But [u]this[/u] is always good to read:

[size=4]DASCHLE SHOULD MIND HIS OWN BIG BIZ[/size=4]

By DEBORAH ORIN

July 11, 2002 -- THERE'S a distinct whiff of hypocrisy about the Democratic bid - with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle heading the charge - to paint Bush & Co. as too "cozy" with big business to really crack down on crooked CEOs.

It smells of hypocrisy because Daschle is pretty cozy with big business himself, since it's a major source of his family income. His wife, Linda, is one of Washington's premier lobbyists.

But you can [i][b]fuhgeddaboutit[/b][/i] if you want to know how much money the Daschles rake in from her lobbying as a co-chair of the "public policy group" at the law/lobbying firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell.

[b]Tom Daschle is demanding President Bush release every possible document about a 1990 stock sale to "just let everybody see what is there." [/b]

[b]But unlike lots of senators - not to mention presidents like Bush - Daschle refuses to release his own tax returns, which would "just let everybody see" what his wife makes as a big-business lobbyist.[/b]

Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Smelzer defended his refusal, saying: "Most Americans guard very closely this information [tax returns], and members of Congress should not be forced to release it."

Daschle's Senate financial-disclosure forms keep it secret, too - they just list Linda Daschle's lobbying income from some of America's biggest firms as "over $1,000." Make that a lot over $1,000.

Daschle and his wife insist she avoids conflicts of interest because she doesn't lobby the Senate - though she does lobby next door in the House, where lawmakers certainly know her hubby.

Among her clients: American Airlines, the American Trucking Assn., American Concrete and Pavement Association, Boeing, Loral Space and Communications, Northwest Airlines, L-3 Communications, Intelli-check, Schering-Plough, United Technologies Corp. and more than a dozen more.

Take Loral, which paid a $14 million fine last January to settle charges of illegally sending sensitive missile technology to China.

In 2001 alone - the latest data - Loral paid $460,000 to Linda Daschle's firm for lobbying by her and four colleagues.

The conflict-of-interest question gets even more delicate when it comes to L-3 because it involves potential risks to airline passenger safety.

L-3 hired Linda Daschle and her firm when airlines balked at buying L-3 bomb-detecting devices to screen airline baggage because they were inferior to a competitor, The Washington Post reported last fall.

But after Linda Daschle got on the case, Congress inserted an "unusually explicit directive" ordering the FAA to buy one device from L-3 for every rival model from InVision.

[b]"The connections apparently paid off . . . [u]but [last October] the Transportation Department's inspector general agreed with industry critics that L-3's machines were not performing[/u]," the newspaper reported.[/b]

See article at:[url]http://www.nypost.com/commentary/52305.htm[/url]

Hmmm, even more reason to doubt the sanity of everyone in South Dakota![:D]

George W. carried South Dakota by almost 62% in 2000 Election, but y'all continue to send back one of the biggest obstacles to moving this country in the direction it needs to go!

'Splain [u]that[/u], Lucy!

Eric The(IsLifeSoDear...)Hun[>]:)]

That's why I've re-named him Tom Dasschole.

That, Sir, is a riot![:D]

If we choose to use it, are there any royalties owed?

Eric The(OrDoYouHopeIt'sInThePublicDomainQuickly?)Hun[>]:)]

What about Tom Dassclown?

the_reject

Use it, even use it up - its fine with me.

Any royalties would belong to the Dasschole, as he is pretty much the dictionary defintion of the word.

I can't beleive America can't see thru that phony.

I can't believe South Dakotans can't see through his BS!

And if they do, they are not, well...

Nevermind!

I simply must try and figure out how I can get farm subsidies on the Hun Farm, they must be pretty damn lucrative!

[b]Ouch! What the...?[/b]

Sorry, that was my Great, Great Granddaddy Hun slapping me up side of the head for even thinking about taking them 'Yankee handouts'!

Jeepers, you'd think after all these years, he would either forgive or forget! But I guess not!

Eric The(MyGGGranddaddyDidn'tRaiseAnyFools,NorDidTheOtherHuns)Hun[>]:)]

IMHO, it's those damnable farm subsidies that would drive a state that, as stated, gave 62% of its vote to George W. in 2000, and yet continues to re-elect Sen. Dasschole!

My grandfather, who was a Doughboy in WWI, always used to say: 'Once the doors to the Treasury are opened, only blood will close them again!'

I have no idea where he got that line, whether it was a current phrase when FDR was busy destroying and socializing America with his New Deal, or a line from something he had read, or made up himself, but I know I never understood it while I was growing up and heard him say it.

But, mercy, I certainly understand what he meant by it nowadays!

Like a wino getting off the sauce, there is only one way it can be effectively done - by going 'cold turkey'!

Can anyone imagine that our citizenry could handle going 'cold turkey' today?

You might have to actually take in your own grandparents, a la The Waltons, in the event that such a revolution in our thinking ever took hold!

Oooooo, wouldn't [u]that[/u] be horrible!

You might have to actually pay for your parents' medicines, shudder the thought!

Let's face it, it [u]would[/u] take blood to close the doors to the Federal tax dollar giveway programs!

Eric The(AndPlentyOfIt!)Hun[>]:)]