GOP Promotes Daschle ‘Bush Hug’ Ad
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s latest campaign video, promoting the senator’s ability to work with Republicans, includes a clip of the Democratic senator hugging President Bush – an image that was much ballyhooed yesterday on the Web site of cyber-gossip Matt Drudge.
“How bad has it gotten for Democrats at summer’s end?” the journalist wrote on the Drudge Report. “While Democrat party officials of all stripes descend on New York City to blast the president, Daschle has quietly purchased air time in his home state for the minute-long campaign commercial – a commercial insiders have dubbed: ‘Bush Hug.'”
Republican officials wasted little time yesterday picking up Mr. Drudge’s refrain.
“Today the Democrats in New York are accusing the president of the United States of failing to lead and win the war on terror,” a spokesman for the Republican National Convention, Jim Dyke, said in a statement. “Even Senator Daschle must find these attacks baseless, since his re-election campaign is running commercials embracing (literally hugging) President Bush’s leadership in the war on terror.”
The ad portrays Mr. Daschle’s response to Mr. Bush’s remarks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “Tonight, the president has called us again to greatness and tonight we answer that call,” he says in the ad.
Mr. Daschle, who has represented South Dakota since 1986, faces a touch race against former U.S. Rep. John Thune.
A spokesman for the Daschle campaign, Dan Pfeiffer, told The New York Sun the ad simply portrays the senator’s willingness to work with Republicans on issues of national security, and that it is being used as a “security blanket” by Republicans to bolster their chances in the South Dakota race.
“The RNC today tried to imply that it was some kind of endorsement of President Bush’s policies or conduct in the war on terror,” Mr. Pfeiffer said. “When the president is right, Senator Daschle will work with him, and when the president is wrong, Senator Daschle is going to fight for what he believes in.”
Mr. Pfeiffer said the ad started being played in the state’s two major TV markets last week and will continue playing “for the foreseeable future.”
