The news is out that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle to be his Health Secretary, and one has to marvel that such a supporter of unhealthy practices should be chosen to shepherd the nation's health interest.

The South Dakota Left is predictably all aglow at the news.  Daschle remains one of the few icons of liberal salvation here, and liberals have lamented Daschle's fall from grace in 2004.  They have been in sackcloth and ashes on his behalf ever since.

However, traditional, God-fearing South Dakotans may be concerned that Daschle will yet again lead the nation to believe that people from the Rushmore State are far more liberal than we really are. In fact, many of us may just be embarrassed-in-advance for the dark path we suspect he will help take the nation down.

Tom Daschle had a nice ride from South Dakotans...until 2004 when an unprecedented campaign to inform voters about the real Tom Daschle swept the state.

You see, Daschle had for years operated as the typical federal Democrat does in South Dakota: legislate to the Left in Washington D.C., then come home for election and talk some reasonable "centrist" smack to the voters. 

But in 2004 a coalition of bloggers, pro-family groups and individuals worked tirelessly to ensure the people of South Dakota knew they weren't getting the representation they expected.  When South Dakotans found out about Daschle's D.C. residency (we thought he was a resident of our state, not the District of Columbia), his million dollar mansion in D.C. for which he was receiving a tax break, his Jaguar (that really went over well with the average Ford-or-Chevy driver in South Dakota), his criticism of the president on the eve of the Iraq invasion, and his liberal record, the voters gave him his walking papers and elected John Thune in his place. This was the first time a senate majority or minority leader had been put out to pasture by the voters in over 50 years.

One of the liberal positions South Dakotans got up to speed on that year was Daschle's strong support for abortion. 

In 2003 Daschle voted for a Senate resolution endorsing the Roe v. Wade decision.  He fought the partial birth abortion ban every step of the way until it was going to pass anyway, and he was finally forced to vote for it to provide cover for himself.  National Right to Life Committee gave him only a 27% approval rating his last year in office, 0% the year before that, 11% before that, and 20% before that.

In fact, Daschle's pro-abortion stance was so bad that the bishop in Sioux Falls sent Daschle a letter instructing him to stop referring to himself publicly as a Catholic. 

Abortion has been connected to increased risk of breast cancer, infertility, and mental health issues, and the evidence continues to mount.  Countless women have testified to the years of incredible mental and emotional suffering brought on by the "quick fix" of abortion.  Abortion is also fatal to the object of the procedure: the unborn child.

Daschle was also a strong supporter of the homosexual agenda.  In 2002 he gave a speech at a fundraiser for the pro-homosexual group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), pledging his support for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), a pro-homosexual "hate crimes" bill.  Daschle also strongly opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment to protect marriage from being hijacked by homosexual activists and forced on the states.  In 2005, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force gave Daschle an award and called him the "architect of the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment."

Homosexual behavior carries with it tremendous health risks, which include increased instances of AIDS transmission, HPV, various other STDs, hepatitis, anal cancer, depression, substance abuse, suicide and domestic violence.  It is also typified by astonishing rates of promiscuity.

Daschle was also a leader in the attempt to pass Bill and Hillary Clinton's socialistic health care behemoth in 1994.  HillaryCare went down in flames that year, but Daschle remains committed to socializing America's health care industry.  Within the last year he has called for a draconian oversight body for health care that would further cripple that over-regulated industry.   

How someone who radically supports such deadly and unhealthy practices like abortion and homosexuality ends up as the Secretary of Health for the United States...well, that could only happen in the Orwellian universe brought into fruition by a far-Left worldview.

In fact, with radical Leftists like Obama and Daschle leading the country, I have a sinking feeling our country will soon frequently feel like we've gone back in time to 1984.