LAST NIGHT, Tom Daschle threw his campaign into the shredder. What is it that makes South Dakota politicians do this kind of thing? There must be something in that Missouri River water that makes even the best of political pros tuck their thumbs into their armpits and squawk like demented chickens.

Daschle’s new outbreak of ornithological lunacy started yesterday, when he requested from federal circuit-court judge a temporary restraining order banning Republican–and only Republican–poll watchers from all election sites on Indian reservations or majority Indian districts. This is way cooler than the decisions in Ohio to license voter fraud by outlawing both party’s poll watchers. Those were complete victories for the Democrats, of course, but with the prohibition of both parties’ watchers, the decisions at least made a token gesture toward evenhandedness–albeit, not enough of a one to keep the 6th circuit from overturning them on appeal.