Alan Aker, 10-30: Republicans wimping out on Herseth challenge

By Alan Aker, Journal columnist | Sunday, October 30, 2005

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PIEDMONT - Every now and then I get in on the gossip among the faithful of the South Dakota Republican Party. I'm talking about elected officials, party leaders and people who donate and volunteer to help elect Republicans. When people like this gather together, they gossip about political stuff - who's feuding with whom, where the hot primaries will be, who's running and who's retiring.

Right after the last election, there was a lot of chatter about John Thune's victory over Tom Daschle. As you might expect, Republican insiders loved talking about that campaign. Almost everyone had their own theory on what won it for him, which tended to be the very things they thought he should do all along. It was fun to revel in the political shockwaves we sent through Washington's power structure and conventional wisdom.

Right after Thune's victory, insiders spoke as though anything were possible. Power, money and the East River press all tilted to Daschle's favor, but South Dakota voters shrugged their shoulders and voted for Thune anyway.

But as time has passed, that triumphal, optimistic tone has weakened to a whimper. Now insiders are talking more and more about the next campaign in 2006.

I've been in a few rooms where that subject has come up, and the mood changes quickly. People say, half-heartedly, that our next big job is to replace Stephanie Herseth with a Republican House member. They talk about the 2006 race like it's a chore rather than something they're looking forward to.

Many of them have already accepted defeat, and their pessimism is infectious. For them, anyone who would challenge Herseth is foolish. Even before we have a nominee, they're laughing at him or her.

Their attitude is cowardly and lazy.

I've heard all the conventional wisdom: Herseth has charisma and brains. Herseth has been careful in her voting record and public statements not to reveal the chasm between her philosophy and that of the majority of South Dakotans. Voters have a natural honeymoon period with newly-elected politicians. They picked her, so they'd prefer to believe they made the right choice.

Herseth has "taken the lead" on important things like Country-of-Origin-Labeling, saving Ellsworth, resisting whacko environmentalists and grubbing for pork barrel spending.

Not really. Republicans shouldn't be afraid of her. Like all smart Democrats from conservative states, she votes the way we'd like her to vote about one-fourth of the time and votes the way her party bosses want her to the rest of the time. Every time she casts a conservative vote, she crows about how independent she is and how well she works with Republicans. It's not true.

I looked at her campaign Web site, and it was full of ideas, proposals and statements that begin with "I am working to ..." and "I support ...." She's in favor of higher-quality, yet cheaper health care, better schools and prosperity. She likes teachers, veterans, hunters, ranchers, farmers, workers, senior citizens and Native Americans. She's analyzed the needs of all these groups, and by an amazing coincidence, every single one of them would benefit from a bigger, bossier and more costly federal government.

You might expect a candidate with so many ideas for new spending and new programs to balance it out a little by naming just a few things the government should quit messing with. Nope. Not one proposal to repeal a regulation, scrap a tax, or cut spending. Also notably missing were any actual Herseth accomplishments, and there won't be any by Election Day 2006 either.

Oh, there will be lots of press releases about Herseth "meeting" with bureaucrats who later do nice things for one constituency or another. All this means is that Herseth found out a little ahead of time about what the particular bureaucracy was planning to do, scheduled a quick "meeting" just before the favor was announced, then took credit for what was going to happen anyway. Congressional lightweights have done this for decades, and as long as the voters keep swinging at it, she'll keep pitching it.

So, I'm disgusted that so many of my fellow Republicans have turned into surrender-monkeys when it comes to Herseth.

We can win this one. We're the plurality of South Dakota voters, and we win the vast majority of all elections all over the state. Some of us are so star-struck with John Thune that we can't see the next good candidates right under our noses. Just when we should be capitalizing on the momentum from the Thune victory, we're giving up.

If leaders in the Republican party can't get excited about thumping Herseth, they should give the reins to someone who is. They have no right to ask for our money, our loyalty or our volunteer work if they can't imagine a way to win.

Alan Aker is a businessman and former state senator from Piedmont. Write to livefree@akerwoods.com.