Frist campaigns against Daschle

DELL RAPIDS, S.D. — They work together nearly every day in Washington, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spent Saturday in South Dakota, hoping to persuade voters to put his Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle, out of a job.

Daschle is locked in a tight contest with Republican John Thune as he seeks re-election to a fourth Senate term. Here in his home state, Daschle tries to cultivate an image as a powerful voice for South Dakota who brings home millions of dollars a year in federal largesse.

But to Frist, of Tennessee, and other Republican leaders in Washington, Daschle is a constant nuisance, using the Senate's parliamentary tricks to block President Bush's priorities from making it into law.

So for the first time in 50 years, one Senate party leader is campaigning against another. Frist joined Thune for a tour of the state and some fund-raising events that the GOP hopes will rid them of their chief Senate antagonist. Frist's activities are considered a breach of protocol in the tradition-bound Senate, where decorum is considered a virtue and members don't openly try to defeat a rival from another party.

"We have a vision of where we want to take America, and I think most people would agree with that vision," Frist said. "But when it's obstructed again and again and again on the floor of the United States Senate, it's frustrating to me, and it's disappointing to me."

Daschle has said he welcomes Frist's visit, but Democratic campaign operatives sent out furious e-mails to supporters not long after it was announced, asking for money in response to Frist's fund-raising plea for Thune.

In a statement Saturday, the Daschle campaign said Thune hadn't been able to persuade Frist to support mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat or a bill to increase ethanol use nationwide — two issues of vital interest in a state where agriculture is a key economic factor.

Daschle strategist Dan Pfeiffer said the national Republican Party doesn't care about South Dakota. "John Thune's campaign coffers may be richer because of this visit, but South Dakota has gained nothing," Pfeiffer said.

But Thune said South Dakotans should be as outraged as Frist over Daschle's leadership of Senate Democrats.

"When you've got a senator who is not listening to the voices of the people of South Dakota, but is listening to the Democratic caucus, the interests of the people of South Dakota are hurt," Thune said.