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America has experienced tumultuous and chaotic times since November 2000. The presidential election of that year created ill political feelings and divisiveness across the land. On September 11, 2001, terrorists inflicted a wound on the American spirit from which we may never heal. We have gone to war in the Middle East, resulting in worry and wonder with each passing day about what the news holds for us. The events of the past three years remain far too fresh in our minds to consider the recollections of the participants as history. Indeed, to attempt to write of these years is like an artist attempting to paint on a moving canvas. LIKE NO OTHER TIME, by South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, is one man's account of the events of the two-year election cycle from 2000 to 2002. Because of the important role the author played, these recollections are an important contribution to understanding the swirling events that our nation continues to confront, even as the book is published.
During the time period of this narrative, Tom Daschle is initially the minority leader of the Senate, then the majority leader, and once again minority leader as power in the Senate shifts between Republicans and Democrats. Daschle is a political partisan but that designation should not have solely negative connotations. Politicians although partisan can still, when required, act in the best interests of their nation. Throughout American history, statesmen like Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln and Arthur Vandenberg, to mention only a few, rose above partisan politics when the nation was threatened. Senator Daschle makes clear in his narrative that the political parties in America are currently far from bipartisanship and deeply divided by a 21st century political system that is seriously deficient.
Daschle is not reluctant to accept responsibility for his own mistakes. LIKE NO OTHER TIME begins with the furor that arose over the remarks of Senator Trent Lott at the birthday party of Strom Thurmond. Lott's remarks seemed to endorse Thurmond's racist viewpoint of the 1940s. Daschle accepted Lott's apology only to see the remarks erupt into a firestorm of controversy that caused Lott's resignation as Republican leader of the Senate: "In my desire to be fair to Trent, I didn't fully appreciate the emotional anguish that his words caused for many people, especially members of the African-American community."
Senator Daschle recounts a series of events that commenced with the decision of Senator James Jeffords of Vermont to leave the Republican Senate majority and transform the Democrats into the controlling party in the U.S. Senate. While other Senators had been recruited to cross the aisle and join the Democrats, it was Jeffords's decision that moved Daschle into the majority leader's post. The behind-the-scenes negotiations and offers to Senator Jeffords from both political parties are an eye opening lesson in the democratic process behind the curtain. In many ways, it is a sobering lesson about how democracy functions differently in reality than in theory.
The tragic events of September 11th, the anthrax attack on his office, the debate leading up to the war in Iraq, and the congressional election of 2002 that cost Senator Daschle his majority leader post are all discussed in detail. LIKE NO OTHER TIME is a vivid lesson in the American political system for those drawn to the hurly burly of government. In many respects it shares common traits with Senator Daschle. It is somber, somewhat dispassionate and seemingly lacking political fire. Perhaps Senator Daschle's calm and placid account will stand the passage of time. On the other hand, history may well prove that a leader with more fire than Senator Daschle may have kept his party in power in the first decade of the 21st century.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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