A wild fantasy of mine

Our illustrious President Bush, in his victory speech last week, made the claim that he was "fully prepared to work with both Republican and Democratic leadership to advance an agenda."

Now I'm going to go ahead and trust him on this one -- for two reasons. One is that there's no real reason for him to resort to political token gestures anymore; he's already gotten his four more years, he doesn't really need the popularity. (Of course, the other reason is that Mr. Bush is a fine, upstanding, decent man, and I would never suspect him of misrepresenting the truth about anything, ever.)

That being said, if he's really serious about reaching out to Democrats, then I know a certain unemployed man in South Dakota who just might be willing to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former Commerce Secretary Don Evans.

Seriously... there would be no better choice for the job than Tom Daschle.

-He is one of the finest economic minds in Washington... he spent 18 years on the Senate Finance Committee.

-He is like Bush in that both are deeply concerned with improving Social Security and Medicare.

-He is also a proponent of cutting down the national deficit, an area in which Bush has shown... a bit of weakness.

-Bush is looking to prove himself to be a uniter, and not a divider, in his second term. Is there any better way to unite Americans than to take one of the Democrats' most outspoken figures and turn him into a key advisor in a bipartisan cabinet?

-Last but not least, somebody's got to hire the man... thanks to John Thune, he's out of a job for goodness' sake.

I admit that this idea is more of a fantasy than a prediction. It's unlikely that Bush is willing to reach this far across party lines this soon. But Daschle was a good senator for three terms, and at 56, he still has four solid years left in him. Don't count him out.

Mr. Bush... if you really weren't kidding about working together with the Democrats, here's your chance. I'd love to see you take it.