Daschle gave another solid speech on the floor of the Senate. In it, he lists the attempts at “character assassination” by this administration. Excellent summary… I want to post it up in my cube (facing out).

This is not “politics as usual.” In nearly all of these cases, it’s not Democrats who are being attacked.

Senator McCain and Secretary O’Neill are prominent Republicans, and Richard Clarke, Larry Lindsay, Joe Wilson, and Eric Shinseki all worked for Republican Administrations.

The common denominator is that these government officials said things the White House didn’t want said.

The response from those around the President was retribution and character assassination — a 21st Century twist to the strategy of “shooting the messenger.”

If it takes intimidation to keep inconvenient facts from the American people, the people around the President don’t hesitate. Richard Foster, the chief actuary for Medicare, found that out. He was told he’d be fired if he told the truth about the cost of the Administration’s prescription drug plan.

If you have friends who are still planning on supporting Bush who voted against Clinton because of “dishonesty,” make sure they see this speech. Then, point them at other sources so they can see the evidence for themselves.

Update: More from the speech:

There also seems to be a double standard when it comes to investigations.

In recent days leading congressional Republicans are now calling for an investigation into Mr. Clarke. As I mentioned earlier, Secretary O’Neill was also subjected to an investigation. Clarke and O’Neill sought legal and classification review of any information in their books before they were published.

Nonetheless, our colleagues tell us these two should be investigated, at the same time there has been no Senate investigation into the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity as a deep cover CIA agent; no thorough investigation into whether leading Administration officials misrepresented the intelligence regarding threats posed by Iraq; no Senate hearings into the threat the chief Medicare Actuary faced for trying to do his job; and no Senate investigation into the reports of continued overcharging by Halliburton for its work in Iraq.

There is a clear double standard when it comes to investigating or releasing information, and that’s just is not right. The American people deserve more from their leaders.