Jon Lauck, whose blog is focused on the Daschle v. Thune South Dakota Senate race writes (some paragraph breaks added, links omitted):
To the left is a picture of Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, with Senator Daschle and Stephanie Herseth behind him, railing against the “Taliban wing of the Republican Party” at a Herseth rally yesterday in McKennan Park in Sioux Falls. [Johnson’s] statement has generated a firestorm — see here, here, and here — and calls for Johnson, Daschle, and Herseth to apologize for the remarks. The immediate context is the House special election next week that Herseth is competing in against Larry Deidrich . . . . The broader context is the major speech Senator Daschle gave earlier this month decrying the “startling meanness” in American politics and denouncing the tactic of “demonizing those with whom we disagree.” Instead of intervening after Johnson’s remarks, however, Daschle stood by and clapped.
Ironically, in his “meanness” speech, Daschle said Johnson was compared to Saddam Hussein during the 2002 election cycle and that was unfair. First, Johnson was not compared to Hussein. The ad said that Hussein and others posed a potential WMD threat and therefore a missile-defense system was needed and criticized Johnson for voting against the system. Daschle’s continued statements that Johnson was “compared” to Hussein are completely wrong . . . .
UPDATE: Senator Johnson says he’s not apologizing.
Go to the post itself for links.
I have to say that I find this whole stuff about “Taliban wing,” “Benedict Arnold CEOs,” and so on pretty appalling — much like calling people you dislike “Communists” or “terrorists” (as in Secretary Rod Paige condemning, apparently jocularly but still inappropriately, the NEA, or as in various people condemning the NRA).
(Claims that someone is inadvertently helping terrorists are a somewhat different matter; I blogged about that here.)
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