My Senator, Tom Daschle

Having recently moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I now am able to say that my senior senator is none other than the Majority Leader, Tom Daschle. Boy, am I excited! [about getting to vote against him in a couple of years, that is]

Senator Daschle is one of the few, the proud, the pro-choice Catholic legislators. And Citizen Magazine's latest cover story is all about him. I encourage you to read it. You can find out how he referred to his bishop (and mine), Bishop Robert Carlson, in this way, during the partial-birth abortion ban vote in 1997: "Their harsh rhetoric and vitriolic characterizations, usually more identified with the radical right than with thoughtful religious leadership, proved to be a consequential impediment to the decision I have made today." The article goes on to quote Bishop Carlson:

“I think it was the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League who said several years ago that Tom Daschle was their poster boy, because he talks pro-life but votes pro-abortion,” Bishop Carlson told Citizen. “I told him [after the 1997 vote], ‘Thank you for making me a footnote in history — the first bishop ever criticized from the Senate floor.’ ”

Like I said, good reading.