Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever

by Tom Daschle, Michael D'Orso

Tom Daschle, the Majority Leader of the historic 107th Senate, presents a candid insider’s account of the workings of the U.S. government during two of the most tumultuous years in the nation’s history.

The 107th Congress faced a time like no other in the life of the nation. This was the era of the first presidential election to be decided by the United States Supreme Court, the fifty-fifty Senate, the horror of September 11, the anthrax attacks on media and the government (including Daschle’s own office), the war on terrorism, corporate scandals that shook the economy, the inexorable move toward war with Iraq, and other dramatic events, all leading up to the historic midterm elections of 2002.

Through it all, Senator Tom Daschle had, with the exception of the President, the most privileged view of these unfolding developments, both in front of and behind the closed doors of government. In Like No Other Time , Daschle offers a riveting account of his singular perspective on a time when the nation faced deadly and elusive external enemies and a level of domestic political contention rarely seen in American history. Senator Daschle is un-flinching in his impressions of the key political figures of our time from both parties. The result is an acutely perceptive assessment of how our government met—and sometimes did not meet—the challenges of a remarkable era.

As it was during the years of the 107th Congress, the United States is once again at a critical and historic crossroads. Our choices, based on what we have learned from our recent past, will affect our future in profound ways. For Senator Daschle, the first and perhaps most important choice lies with what kind of representation and leadership we want in government. It is a choice between a political party with a core philosophical belief in the power of our collective will to confront these challenges through our government, and one dominated by a group of people who don’t like and don’t believe in government.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Autobiography, American History

292 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas Andrew Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently a Special Policy Advisor at the law firm Alston & Bird, visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany.

Reviews

[Bryan Bridges · Rating 2 out of 5]

A view of what went on in the halls of government circa 9/11. Only one side of the story, but a big part of it nonetheless.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary of 107th Congress. Extensive detailed discussion of the anthrax release in the senate office building in 2001.

[Douglas Graney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Daschle seems like a fair, objective fellow. This book goes from the 2000 election to war with Iraq. What I like about this book is that it reads like a history book (as it should) instead of a book by a politician with an axe to grind.

[Mason Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good political memoir to start off the year, I thought that this well-written memoir is the rare political memoir that is excellent, written shortly after the events detailed, and is better for having been a quick draft (though one does wonder if Daschle, as savvy a Washington operator as any was able to flip alot of material that he had worked on for the obligatory Presidential campaign memoir in the run-up to 2004 and then was able to flip a lot of it to something publishable despite his decision to pull out at the last minute). I thought that the way he structured his book to focus on the 107th Congress credibly used his narrative to support his thesis (which is not terribly original) that XYZ time was historical and changed America Forever. The book could have benefited from him adding on how exactly America changed forever, but I do think that he was smart with how he organized it around particular events that he did have a unique vantage point to as the leader of the Democratic Senate: The "flipping" of Jim Jeffords into being a member of the Democratic Caucus (which made Daschle a Majority Leader), September 11, the Anthrax Attacks in October 2001, the flurry of legislative activity regarding the War on Terror, and the 2002 midterm elections which foreshadowed Daschle's own (then unknown) loss in his 2004 re-elect. Daschle is an unfailingly decent man (he gave one of the more memorable pieces of advice at Georgetown early in my career that no matter how smart you are one of the best things you can do is be a parent), and a very apt analyst. If you want a role model for how to reflect on politics and observe what goes on in DC, this memoir is a gold standard written by a former Intelligence Briefer that shows you how to break down the mess of Washington during turbulent times into component parts that can be analyzed.

[Clay H · Rating 5 out of 5]

High recommend for lovers of politics, especially those who want to get sense of the back room dealings of Congress, in particular the United States Senate. Book followed the riveting-action packed 103rd Congress.