-Caveat Lector- <http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pgigot/?id=85000657> POTOMAC WATCH Why Daschle Is Getting Rolled Democrats are learning what it's like not to have the bully pulpit. BY PAUL A. GIGOT Friday, March 2, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST Politics is about to get more interesting, in the Chinese-curse sense of that word, for Georgia Sen. Max Cleland. He's a freshman Democrat running for re-election next year in a state President Bush carried by 12%. His more popular Georgia colleague, Democrat Zell Miller, has already co-sponsored Mr. Bush's tax cut and called his Tuesday night speech a "home run." Mr. Bush also just happened to choose Atlanta yesterday to stump for his plan. Yet Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle calls the Bush tax cut "irresponsible," a sop to the wealthy and "deeply unfair"--and that was in a speech pledging to find "common ground"! Poor Mr. Cleland is caught between Tom and Zell, between his liberal base and his own re-election chances. He can vote with Messrs. Bush and Miller, and take the tax issue off the table in 2002. Or he can sign on with the national Democrats and risk his seat. Guess who usually wins those calls? One hint is that Mr. Cleland has begun to advertise all of the tax cuts he's supported in the past. And about this year, he now says, "I think we can work something out." A handful of other Senate Democrats are moving the same way. Democrats are learning what it's like not to have the bully pulpit. The other team gets to use Air Force One to schmooze your troops and dominate the hometown media. And the other team leader sets the terms of debate. At least on taxes, where the Senate only requires 51 votes for passage, Mr. Daschle is getting rolled. You wouldn't know this from the national media, which is fixated on their usual darlings, the "moderate" Republicans. Mr. Daschle had hoped to beguile them with a "trigger" that would block tax cuts if federal budget surpluses don't materialize. Maine's Olympia Snowe remains mesmerized by this political ruse, which allows her to be both for and against tax cuts at the same time. But other Republicans are waking up to realize that what would really be "triggered" is a tax increase amid an economic slowdown, the worst possible moment. A tax-trigger is also an incentive for Congress to spend more so that tax cuts never happen. Mr. Daschle hasn't helped his case with his oddly shrill performance Tuesday. He's trying to give cover to his fellow Democrats. But his open partisanship is driving Republicans back toward Mr. Bush. Does Ms. Snowe, last seen air-kissing Mr. Bush on his way out of the House chamber, really want to be responsible for killing a new GOP president's first proposal? Democratic leaders also haven't figured out that Mr. Bush has changed the politics of tax-cutting. This isn't only their fault. The press corps has been reinforcing this view for two years. When Mr. Bush first proposed his tax plan back in 1999, the media consensus, led by the brilliant Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, was that it would cost him the election. But Mr. Bush, the supposed dunce, has learned from Newt Gingrich's failures better than the reporters have. His "across the board" tax cut trumped Al Gore's "targeted" cut by giving every taxpayer a stake in his proposal. It has also deflected the usual class-warfare attacks because voters don't care if the rich benefit as long as they figure they will too. Above all, Mr. Bush has learned that surpluses erase all of the old Democratic attack lines. They allowed him to propose a generous 4% spending increase this week that is best understood as a political bribe. Several advisers wanted a much smaller increase as an opening bid. But Mr. Bush agreed with those who argued for enough cash to blunt any repeat of the Democrats' "cutting school lunches" attack of 1995. His political logic is that in the long run the tax cut will help reduce spending far more than any mere budget proposal now. Surpluses also let him cut taxes without touching Social Security and Medicare. And that means he can also pay down the national debt (since the Social Security surplus automatically retires debt) enough to satisfy his party's debt fanatics. Democrats are left sounding like root-canal Republicans chanting, "his numbers don't add up" and it's all "too good to be true." Mr. Bush has managed to make Tom Daschle sound like Bob Dole. With so much political momentum, the disappointment is that Republicans are still playing defense. The income-tax-rate cut marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday is a pallid bill that has a first-year tax cut of only $5.6 billion--about a dollar a day per taxpayer. Worse, by delaying most rate cuts until next year, the bill undermines Mr. Bush's argument that a tax cut will stimulate the economy this year. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, a GOP supply-sider, admitted as much yesterday at the Ways and Means hearing. GOP tax writers reply that they had to craft a bill this way to make the income-distribution tables look better. Leave it to Republicans to bow to an argument their new president has already won. Republicans also need to adjust to having the advantages of the bully pulpit. The last thing they should want to do is let Max Cleland off the hook. Mr. Gigot is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. 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